The City of Madison held an event today called Ride the Drive. They closed almost six miles of downtown streets to all vehicular traffic, and let the bicyclists have free reign for six hours.

It was a beautiful day for biking, and there were a lot of other bicyclists out there, enjoying the unusual route. I even saw a couple riders on antique bikes.

You have to admire the city for promoting a healthy and active lifestyle with events like this. I hope they do it again.

When I was house shopping, one of the reasons I chose the neighborhood I did was the close access to the many bike trails in the area. Where I used to live, there were just too many very busy streets between decent bike trails and my condo. I would often throw my bicycle in the back of the truck and drive a ways to get to some decent bike riding. No longer. My house is just blocks away from a great trail (which can also take me to other trails).

Today I biked my longest ride of the season so far. Around Lake Monona, a side trip along the Capital City State Trail for a while, and then through the side streets of Monona, back toward home. I took no camera, no ipod — I wanted to concentrate on biking and experience the world around me on such a nice day. Even though there were a lot of other bikers on the trails, it was great to be out there, just biking.

Anytime I was able to see the shallow part of the ocean (like the beach below), it was a remarkable shade of blue-green.

Whenever I stopped riding to look and take pictures, I felt like I could have sat there for hours, just watching the waves crash over the rocks.

The below scene was a small bluff which continues down to the beach (behind me). Doesn’t it look like I took that in the desert?

And finally back to Monterey. What a great bike ride!

My favorite day off was when I rented a bicycle, and rode all day long on the Monterey Bay Coastal Bike Trail.

This was one of the best bike rides I’ve been on in a long time. Just gorgeous scenery to look at while riding along the trail.

Tsunami hazard zone? Yikes!

The drier coastal climate has very different vegetation, compared to what I know in Wisconsin.

The weather that day was perfect for biking — mostly sunny and a high of about 65 (F).

You know you’re in California when you see people surfing the waves.

I took a LOT of pictures on this bike ride. I’ll post some more in a few days.

While on vacation last week, I was biking the trail along Trout Lake, hoping to get some photos of loons. That portion of the trail runs along the lake shore, with a buffer of trees of about 10 feet. The trees make for a decent blind, so the birds don’t get scared away. I had seen loons (fairly close by) along that section of trail in the past and I was hoping for a good shot. I had my camera setup with its telephoto zoom lens, ready to go in my bike’s saddle bag. At one point I did see some loons off in the distance a bit. I took a few photos, but they were a little too far away. Back on the bike I went, continuing to scan the nearby shore. Suddenly, a shadow overhead caused me to look up. There was a bald eagle swooping by, about 20 feet above me.

My thoughts turned to the camera in my saddle bag as the eagle continued away from me, along the shore. The eagle must have been searching the shallows for a fish to eat. I quickly stopped pedaling and got out my camera, in case the eagle would grant me another photo opportunity. Just as I got my hands on the camera, the eagle swooped back toward my direction. She was going to take another look at that section of beach! I excitedly raised the camera to my eye, followed the eagle as it approached, lined it up nicely in the frame, waited for the right moment, and pressed the shutter. Nothing. In my haste to take the picture, I had neglected to turn the camera on. As I lowered the dormant Nikon to flip the switch, the eagle move out of site along the trees.

So, I didn’t get the shot. But I did get a pretty good tale to tell, about the one that got away.

I came upon these gorgeous tiger lilies while biking Madison’s southwest bike trail yesterday.

As you can see, many of the people who live along the trail do a great job with their flower gardens.

Smokies update:
Thanks to Dad, I’ve added one more picture to the photos of our trip.

As I’ve probably mentioned before, the beauty of this area makes it one of my favorite places to visit.

There is virtually an endless supply of gorgeous scenery there.

The below two photos were taken along the Lumberjack Hiking Trail. You come upon these scenes of the Manitowish River after about a 15-20 minute hike through the woods.

When you emerge from the woods and see this, it’s one of those “oh wow” moments.

I spent a lot of time biking the very nice trails in the area, including the Plum Lake Bike Trail above.

The last two pictures (of Plum Lake) were taken along the trail as the sun was going down.

It was another gorgeous summer day today, so I returned to Mendota, and went for a long bike ride along the lake. One of my favorite places to ride in Madison is where the bike path runs along the lake shore in the middle of the U.W. campus.

I ended up biking for most of the afternoon. I stuck to the shore as best I could, riding through where the rich people live, and made it up to the northern side of the city.

After I got home, I decided it had to be one of the best rides I’ve done this year.

While biking to the refuge along the Great River State Trail, I came upon this turtle (which was probably about a foot and a half long), digging a hole with her back legs, to bury her eggs.

There weren’t that many wildflowers blooming, but I did see a few around.

With my small camera, it was tough getting good shots of the birds I saw.

Toward the end of the week, I took a day trip to the Minnesota side of the Mississippi River. Below is a shot of the wildlife refuge from across the river.

I spend the most time riding the Crystal Lake trail, which runs from Boulder Junction to the Crystal Lake campground near Sayner.

What a great trail. It runs through the woods and along several lakes.

Riding on this gorgeous trail, it’s easy to miss beautiful scenes like the one below.

It is about 30 yards off the bike path, along a small hiking trail. I got into the habit of checking out any little offshoot from the bike trail.

My favorite time to bike the trail was just before sunset.