Bike Ride 16, Exploring area Creek Sides

I went on a lovely ride last week, and then forgot to blog about it.  I'll do it now.

 I started out on my normal neighborhood route, but when I came out onto Wallace Terrace near Brookfield, I followed alongside the creek instead of taking Wallace Terrace.  It was a rutted, hard packed dirt trail through the grass, very bumpy but lovely, with the creek on one side and trees on the other.

 Then the hard packed earth trail ended and it was just grass, much easier to ride on.

 Huge grey clouds were following me and I thought about turning back, but decided to keep going.  It was warm but not hot; a nice day for riding.

 Toward the bride, a dirt path appeared again, and goldenrod lied the path and the creek bed.

 One section reminded me so much of a scene from the show Little House on the Prairie (above) that I could almost hear the theme song playing in my mind.

 The Bridge was part of Allen Side Road.

The creek side path continued on the other side of the Allen Side Road bridge, but I decided to ride to it's other end via the street, then follow the path back to this point.

 I rested for awhile and then rode down Allen Side Road, to where it turns into Base Line, and followed along side base line until I came to the other end of the creek, seen below.

 The creek was much wider here, and so were the paths on either side.  On the left side of the creek, there was a rutted dirt path, but on the right side, it was all mown grass, so I chose that side to ride on.

 The photo above was taken from the bridge on Base Line.

 The grass was nice and flat except for one area that had a very deep dip going down, and then up again.  I had to get off my bike and walk both down and up, and when I was at the bottom of the dip, I could almost kiss the top of the dip as it was almost parallel with my face. It's hard to see in the photo, below.

 There were several round  cement pools of water to the left of the trail, behind a fence. I googled to see what it is, and it is a Water Pollution Control Plant, where they divert the creek water and test it for pollution, and clean it before putting it back in the creek and sending it to the St. Mary's River.

Water Pollution Control Plant

 The grey clouds were now both in front and behind me and I was sure I'd get rained on, but managed to miss the rain, somehow.

 The creek was lovely but hard to see at this point because of all of the tall grass, taller than me, growing along both sides of the creek.

 I got off my bike toward the end od the trail and took one last photo before I emerged onto Allen Side Road.  I was worried about the clouds so I didn't follow the creek side trail back to Wallace Terrace; I used the roads instead.

When I emerged onto Wallace Terrace, there was a rainbow, but by the time I pulled my camera out of my bag, it had disappeared.

I rode home, tired but happy.  I loved the feeling of being in the country, so close to home.  There are other portions of the creek that I haven't tried yet, that I hope to try soon.