It was sunny and 13'C today with just a little wind. Riding on the
old Santa Cruz Superlight on the dry trails so early in the season, was
very surprising and easy riding.
The lack of snow this winter does not look good for this summer.
Since there had been very strong winds a couple of days, small branches lay everywhere.
TIP Be careful how you ride over small sticks so that they do not flip into your rear dérailleur. This happened many years ago to my son while out riding, and we had to take off the chain(6inches were twisted), undo the rear brake and true the wheel well enough to have it go around in the frame. By walking the uphills, me pushing him on the flats, and him riding downhill with just a front brake, we got home.
Every so many kilometres there are wash-rooms and or a rest area. There are also a couple of cabins out and about if need be.
The dry brown grass is very much in evident and there were very few mud puddles.
The beaver have been very busy this winter because there is so little
water for them to live in. There must also be a lot of them because one
beaver home was at least 3.5 meters (12 feet) high or so.
Waskehegan Trail is almost 400km long and crosses part of Blackfoot Area, if you want to follow it all the way along the Battle River Creek.
There were a lot of birds like ducks, crows, geese, blue-jays, and some
ruffled grouse that were noisy from the beating of their wings.
Beaver have built 3 layers dams over the years.
Two Canada geese can be seen standing on top of the beginning of a beaver house through the trees.
There were lots of coyote scat, both fresh and dried out on the
trail. I reckon the rabbits took a beating this winter, because there
was not much snow for them to escape on. Some squished garter snakes were on the road as well, which is uncommon for the middle of April.
I kept my eyes open for moose, but today I did not see any. Did not see any elk or deer, not even tracks, but that is because I did not ride to an area where I know they are more plentiful. I will ride a lot further as I get fitter and see at least tracks.
