Flying Objects

Not much going on outdoors recently due to the oppressive heat so I just have a few pictures. Hopefully it will cool off heading into this weekend. 

Random bird picture.

We had a hot air balloon event at lake Red-Rock this past weekend. I think there were 21 balloons total. 

We saw a Leave No Trace Subaru at a local hotel, which was cool. 

Riding High

Corrine and I snagged a great day on Saturday to check out the new High-Trestle Trail. We ate lunch at a cafe in downtown Woodward, then headed a whole block to the trail-head. Things started out a little overcast, but the sun was soon blazing down. We did about 18 miles as an out and back with 1,300ft. of accent. It's possible to do 50 miles on this trail if you start from one end.

The bridge. I assumed it would be built on/over the 1902 rail bridge, but it appears to be about 50-75ft. over to the side of where the original bridge was. You can still see the original concrete abutment on one end and I'm standing over it to take this photo.

Good views from the middle of the bridge, this is the tail end of Saylorville lake. Looking at a map, I'm guessing the river at this point would normally be about half this wide if there wasn't so much flood flow.

One of several old looking bridges we went under along the way. 

A neat little restaurant/bar right along the trail in Madrid.

One of the creek crossing bridges had a nice little rapid nearby. This would be a great pack-raft run with a nice sandy put-in and take-out. 

Waiting for ice cream at the Filling Station in downtown Madrid. 

I don't know what this grass is, but it looks like something that would work great for a landscaping hedge. It's about 6' high and looks fairly robust.

There were cars driving on top of this one. From the ground, it looked like the concrete on top is only about 1' thick. 

The valley is much more noticeable from this side. I didn't even realize what we were riding up to until the last minute when coming from Woodward.

Arriving at the train station in Woodward.

We went for a walk at Red-Rock on Sunday. This whole area would normally be a high overlook with a big drop-off to the water. It's just barely out of the water now. There were a bunch of the small blue butterflies that always seem to be on the sand near the lake. I'm sure they'll be happy that the water is on its way down.

July 4th "Vacation"

Friday was the big day - waiting and watching turned into final product. This is the first of three batches that we will be bottling over the next few weeks. I didn't plan very well for the amount of water that boiled off so this batch is a little low on total volume. It came out to 46 bottles total rather than the expected 50-52. One shattered while Corrine was capping it and thankfully didn't cause any injuries. It was far less messy than when I shattered two full wine bottles across the floor while corking them a couple weeks ago (note: cheap bottles are dangerous). It made the kitchen smell nice if nothing else.

Here I've got about 60 sanitized bottles on the tree waiting to be filled.

Tasty (presumably) beer waiting to be put in its final containers and carbonated.

Sanitized caps soaking in their One-Step solution.

Priming sugar mixture cooking. This is what will give the yeast their last short meal which allows them to produce the pressure and carbonation in the bottles.

All capped and finished. I then moved them to the basement floor which is exactly 70° this time of year. They will need to stay between 65-70° for about two weeks to fully carbonate and condition out the unwanted flavors.

Corrine and I ate lunch at Cordova-Tower park today and we walked some of the trail to check out the extent of the flooding. To my surprise, it appears most of the trail is usable but the water is right up next to it. 

There were several soft-shelled turtles in this newly formed tail-water. We also saw a large-mouth bass and a garr. The turtles were incredibly easy to spook so I never got any pictures of those. 

A couple feet of lake-level increase, and this bridge would be under water. According to Rock-Island, the level is on its way down and we're currently four feet lower than this time last year.

Went for a ride around town later since traffic was almost non-existent. Everyone else seemed to be occupied with the parade - I'll take that.

A small herd of Shriner Isetta cars either starting, or finishing the parade route, I'm not sure which.

Topped off the ride with some ice-cream and headed home. Yes, it does work to eat ice-cream with a spoon while riding a bike.