Biking and Kayaking the Little Miami

I managed to work out my bike/kayak personal biathlon on Sunday. I dropped the kayak at a little park (Rahe) near Foster, Ohio, and left it cabled and locked to a tree there. I really just had to hope no one would steal my lunch or my paddle, as there wasn't much I could do to protect them. It turns out Rahe is a good spot to do this though, as the Loveland Canoe/Kayak Livery also uses this park as a put-in point and on the weekends they have one or two people hanging out there to watch their own boats, which tends to discourage thieves. After leaving the kayak, I drove down to Lake Isabella and parked my car, then rode my bike the nine or so miles up the bike trail to where I'd left the kayak. Goodness, there was a lot of traffic in the Loveland area of the bike trail that day! Once I arrived back at Rahe park, I chained my bike and my helmet to a tree, then paddled eight miles back down to Lake Isabella. The bike ride took about an hour and the kayaking bit took about three, given that it was the last day of August and we've had little rain in the last few weeks. There were plenty of very shallow spots and I had to pick my way through a couple of rock gardens, but I only had to get out of my boat once. That was when I took the wrong way around an island and came across a strainer with only a little room to maneuver, so I decided discretion was the better part of valor and portaged around.

I had lunch with the green heron pictured; I was no more than twenty feet from the bird while it fished and I ate cheese and crackers. It's one of the many things I love about kayaking - you can get really close to wildlife at times. I also had an osprey fly right over my head (twice!) with a fish in its talons, a breathtaking sight! Ospreys have this way of holding a fish, once caught, so that the fish's head points in the direction the bird is traveling so as to reduce drag. It's always a treat to see an osprey, especially in Ohio as they aren't all that common here.

Once I got back to Lake Isabella, it was just a matter of loading the kayak onto the car and driving back to pick up my bike. It took a bit of planning but now that I know what I'm doing, I'll surely be doing it again.

Cyling on the cheap

As I was out for an early morning run on Saturday, I happened by some people setting up for a garage sale. I noticed a purple bike amidst their things so I asked how much they wanted for it - when the young man answered fifteen, I had to stop. I rode the bike around the street a couple of times and it seemed good to me, so I asked them to hold onto it for me while I ran home and got some money to pay them. I walked back to pick it up and the people were nice enough to throw in a used helmet so I could ride the bike back home.

Once I got the bicycle home, I realized there was no way to fit it into my car and I knew I'd be wanting to take it places. Ohio has a lovely bike trail running alongside the Little Miami River, but that's on the other side of town from me. That lead me on a quest to get a trunk mounted bike rack; I found one at Play it Again Sports for twenty bucks. Then I needed some chain lube, that set me back another nine. Of course I needed a bike lock - in my neighborhood I can't see an unchained bike, even a used off-brand like mine, lasting long. And I needed a new helmet, since the freebie one was just not cool enough. So with all the extras, my fifteen dollar bike ended up costing me around seventy-five bucks. It's still a bargain really and I've had it out on the Lunken Airport loop a couple of times already and it's been great so far. All I've had to do was put some air in the tires and oil the chain and other moving parts.

My ultimate goal is to figure out a couple of put-in and take-out places along the Little Miami so I can take bike/kayak trips. I'd leave the kayak at the put-in, drive out to the take-out, leave the car and pedal back to the boat, then leave the bike locked up while I float down the river, then come back for the bike after the kayaking, once I've put the kayak back onto the car. Biathlon!

Summer is here....

The Nighthawks, Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds and Chimney Swifts have all arrived on the scene and the seventeen-year cicadas are starting to emerge out on the east side of town, so as far as I'm concerned, summer has officially arrived.

One of the highlights of the long weekend was a fourteen mile kayak trip down the Little Miami. I arrived on the river at eight in the morning, well before the "cabrewers" showed up. There were simply scads of birds about, including Spotted Sandpipers, Cedar Waxwings, Waterthrush and Black Vultures. I floated past a Great Blue Heron rookery, in which I counted twenty nests, though I'm sure there were more that I couldn't see. In fact, I floated past it three times, since I kept paddling back upstream to take in the sight. I apologize for the poor picture quality, but I'm nervous about taking my good camera out on the river, so I had to settle for my cheap, water-resistant digital with a mere 4X zoom. There are some nice photos and descriptions of heron courtship, breeding and nesting behavior at the Great Blue Heron Rookery website.

Around town

I found trillium blooming for the first time this spring during my quick walk around the Caldwell Nature Preserve yesterday after work. Digital cameras are terrible at photographing white objects; the nuances tend to get lost. Trying to photograph a white flower is difficult for this reason and I was crawling (carefully, so as not to smush other wildflowers) all over the hillside trying to find a trillium in just the right amount of shade. I think I'll start carrying a sheet of paper with me for creating my own dappled sunlight in the future.

Early this morning I went down to Findlay Market and blew my grocery budget for the week. I brought home a few things I've not cooked with before, including rhubarb, ramps ($18 a pound!) and the spice Grains of Paradise. The afternoon was spent in the company of friends down at the Earth Day celebration at Sawyer Point. Somehow the rain held off and we managed to score a few good freebies, including CFL light bulbs. Here's a tiny handful of useful links I picked up today:

• Get a bin, find out what items can be recyled and find information on hazardous household waste drop-offs - Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services
• Soil fertility testing kits are available for a nominal fee from the Hamilton County Soil & Water Conservation District
• The Ohio River Sweep will be held this year on Saturday, June 21st
• Enright Ridge is an Urban Eco-Village is a community fostering a sustainable urban neighborhood, located on the west side of Cincinnati
• Although I didn't see them at the Sawyer Point Earth Day celebration I'm posting a link to Little Miami, Inc. - dedicated to preserving my favorite local river

There were many, many more and I certainly don't mean to exclude any worthy organizations. It's beyond the scope of my tired fingers to list them all.