May 17 Ride
From my home in Torbert Village north to Dry Run Comfort Station 2 miles above Waterville, I enjoyed the current proliferation of purple and white Dame’s rockets, yellow rockets and the five-petaled, white flowers of the rasberry plant, all along the rail trail. The smaller, white flowers of another invasive species of plant, the garlic mustard, which dominated the trailside in late April and early May, are now just about gone. I came across some “suicidal” chipmunks darting across in front of me, always quite a sight this time of year. I’ve seen them without tails at times in the past, apparently the result of their dashes through bicyclists’ spokes, a kamikaze adventure that sometimes results in their untimely deaths. No snakes shared the trail with me this day. The temperature only reached into the upper 50s, enough for me to shed my windbreaker by the turnaround point. Few others were enjoying the trail with me—just a couple lone male riders like myself, one couple from Reading on their tandem, and a few walkers. Of course, I had my usual “baby” twist ice cream cone at McConnell’s Country Store in Waterville. |