Reconnaissance

Today was a ride with purpose.   Kathleen and her friend Leslie Miller are leading women's group rides  on the second Sunday of each month.   So today we met up at Twenty20 to recon the novice ride that Leslie will be leading (Kathleen is leading the intermediate ride that happens at the same time).   It's based on the Coffee Shop ride route that I have done a bunch of times.   So at any rate, we rode up to Hampden to meet up and headed out.  Here we are rolling down Keswick.

We went down the switchbacks to Falls Road, and passed by the Mill Number One Project there.   It's a great older mill building, it's good to see it being brought back to life.

Then we headed up through Clipper Mill, and up the mini Alpe d'Huez into Druid Lake Park.   A quick lap around the lake yielded Baltimore's downtown in basking in the sun.   Did I mention that it was about 85 degrees out at 9AM?   I believe that spring is over.

We rode through Hopkins, then out 33rd to Lake Montebello before heading back to Twenty20.   We kibitzed at the shop for a bit, then Kathleen and I headed for home.  Heading back down towards the switchbacks to get to Falls Road, we took a little detour and stopped on the bridge to check out the Blue Heron that have nests in the trees on the banks of the Jones Falls river.   Here is the Northern Blue Heron with her (his?) chicks, this is visible on the north side of the bridge.

And here are the Southern Blue Heron(s?).   There are several other nests that aren't as visible there, about 6 in all.

Then it was down Falls Road towards home, the Streetcar museum is back up and operating for the summer, here is a group of people going for a ride on their little loop of track there.

We scooted on home then out to get some breakfast. Kathleen did a bunch of studying, and I did some errands including new (hopefully slightly more durable) tires for the road bike.