Cinco de Mayo ride

After two solid weeks of keeping a close watch on little Quinn, I thought I (David) would take an opportunity today to go for a short ride. For the last month or so I've been increasingly attentive to all of the parks and other green spaces in nearby areas. Quinn currently does not have the luxury of a grandparent who lives on a wooded lake in northern Minnesota like I did. So finding the local outdoor adventure areas will probably be beneficial. I used to know the ins and outs of quite a few local wilderness areas that dad would take us to. But a large portion of those are now vast wastelands of suburban housing. Fortunately, the old East Sider's standby is still here; and better that ever.

While exploring the neighborhood through Google's satellite maps a month or two ago, I had made a mental note that I should spend more time in Battle Creek Park because it appeared that its borders have expanded since dad used to take us there. So on today's outing, I decided to do just that. As a kid, I never had much interest in exploring the plateau area of the park. The caves and ski-jump ruins were usually enough to entertain me for an afternoon. If I did ever inquire about those areas, I'm sure dad dismissed them as ventures on private land because my old maps all show the park to be a fraction of its current size.

But today's maps paint a better picture. Still though, satellites, maps, and other images can't do justice to today's outing. I was so impressed by the park that I felt inspired to buy cross country skis (the park is ideal for “telemarketing” as we used to call it as kids), obtain a mountain bike (or add gears to my BMX), and to dust off my old cartographer's hobby hat. I'm not sure which, if any of these I'll do, but needless to say, the park has potential for learners and thrill seekers (not to mention that it'd be a great destination for one of those group night rides).

Here are a couple more photos from the trip.