Mercer County Park, Flooded

13 December

Too cold and windy for the road once again, Chris and I headed for the woods of Mercer County Park. We'd had a lot (like, several inches) of rain a few days before, so we decided to stick to the dry side, the western side, of the park.

You know you've got a lot of water on a trail when even Chris says it's time to turn around. This trail abuts the lake, so it wasn't much of a surprise when we saw how much of it was under water:




I've mentioned the stuffed animal shrine in the park by Hughes Drive. Well, it's gone. Only a few scattered logs remain. We did find a lone tree bunny, though:



Deep into the woods, far from the lake, we had to turn back again:



On our way back to the parking lot we swung by the boathouse. At the edge of the lake is a path to a gazebo.



We got ourselves a good, and necessary, tire washing:



For those of you keeping score at home, I didn't fall this time. I'm getting some confidence back. We did a lot of Hall Of Mirrors (*) riding. I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible to ride any of the three Halls without grinding to a halt somewhere. I can't tell if I'm getting better at it, but it almost doesn't matter. The impossibility of it makes it all the more fun.


(* Mercer County Park has three Halls of Mirrors on the west side and one old one on the east. These are stands of young trees, very close together, into which sinuous paths have been created. They twist tightly and often, with trees so close together there's barely room for a set of handlebars to pass. Some turns are almost 180 degrees. The trails double back on themselves so that a person can be minutes ahead of you and three feet away at the same time. Chris and the Johns can fly through these things. Me, not so much. But it's a heck of a lot of fun trying.)