Relative Something

Thursday evening, June 17; the last night of tenting on this year’s Jaunt with Jim bike camping adventure…

By the time we started walking to dinner, the first hints of big weather began to appear in the sky over the bluffs. I fretted a bit over having left my jacket in the tent, because it looked to me like it would be raining by the time we were ready to head home. Turned out, it wasn’t moving quite that fast. Well, the storm hadn’t moved in yet, but the threat seemed to be building significantly. With the storm looming, we were informed that it would be a better option to head back to our tents, and the shelter of the school, than to linger long in the restaurant.

During that walk back, I peeked into some of the buildings along the main drag and discovered that the town of Rushford still hadn’t completely recovered from devastating floods that had occurred 3 years ago. The people here had an understandable apprehension when the weather gets intense. Reports were coming in that Lanesboro had received 65 mph straight-line winds and 1 inch hail. We were advised to take down our tents and move into the shelter of the school building.

I asked Jim if the directions were mandatory. He admitted that they were not. I chose to stake down all the lines of my tent and snugged everything tight. A short time later, there came additional urgings from the town Mayor that we all leave the tents and move into the school. Thus far, all we had seen from the storm was lightning and thunder. Out of respect for Jim, the local authorities, and the rest of our concerned bikers, I and the others in the tents around me agreed to step into the school, to wait for the worst.

It was all rather anti-climatic. After about 30 minutes of waiting through bouts of wind, rain showers, and lightning, all of it less than threatening, we went back to our tents. I did hear moments of intense pressure on the rainfly from wind-blown rain, but my shelter performed as it was designed and I was lulled to a pleasant night’s sleep.

In the morning, as per usual, Jim’s wake-up whistle appeared at 30 minutes past 5:00. When Jim reached our vicinity, he asked for Rich, who was in the tent directly next to mine, and I heard Jim ask a favor. He was desperately interested to learn if the trail ahead would be littered with downed trees and the bridges dangerously slippery, before sending the group off after breakfast. He was hoping Rich could make the ride to Lanesboro before 7:00, and then phone in a report.

It was a lot to ask, as it meant leaving as soon as possible and without breakfast, and riding at significant pace to cover the full distance in that constrained amount of time. Sounded like good adventure to me. I volunteered to go with him.

I don’t know if it was a good thing or not that we had just ridden this same route the day before in our quest for additional miles. The morning clouds were touching the ground and we collected moisture of the prevailing mist as we rode. That combined with the significant sweat we generated by striving to work hard enough to cover the distance in the allotted time. With our vision diminished by the conditions we raced along to judge the acceptability of the trail.

How do you test a wet bridge deck for risk when you are in a rush to check for fallen tree limbs on the miles ahead? Beats me. We finally gave up on the plan of reaching the destination of Lanesboro in time and stopped to call in our findings. There were a fair number of sticks and small debris to contend with, but nothing stopping our progress. Rich specifically detailed the two bunnies and deer in two different locations, but word is they didn’t make Jim’s announcement to the group when he finally gave them the go ahead to proceed down the trail.

About a mile later we came upon the first downed tree across the trail. Luckily, it was mostly dead and we were able to snap the wrist-sized limbs off. That done, we combined our strength to lift and roll the remaining portion enough to clear the path. All that was left while we waited for the group to arrive behind us was to find breakfast in Lanesboro. We were directed to the only place with cars parked in front of it. Of course! (As in D’oh!)