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Observation and Perspective
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| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
12.35 miles
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Time: 01:08:00
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Max Speed:
0.00 mph
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Avg Speed:
10.90 mph
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Temp:
Min: 58
Max: 60
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Category: general: leisure -
solo
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Route:
untitled
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Weight:
232
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Altitude Gain:
0 ft
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Avg Power: 144 W
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Calories Burned: 563
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Avg HR: 0 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Flat
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Bike: Bianchi 32lb-Castro Valley Road
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Club: USA Towpath and Trail Riders association |
| Weather Conditions: Overcast and a little misty; Variable wind directions 5-10mph; |
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-during which I did some bike maintenance. Did tire rotation as well as installation of self-healing tubes. Ready for next weekend...The rain tapered off after noon, so I took a spin.
The sign stating "No through Traffic" piqued my curiosity!
Planning a short ride along the canal, I thought the towpath might be a bit tentative judging the amount of rain we had over the last 24 hours. Turned out there were a few puddles on the path, so I detoured onto E.Canal Road. Logic seemed it would be a faster ride on the roadway.
Heading West, I Exited the towpath at Sweden Walker Road. Crossing over the canal, I turned onto East Canal Road on the way to Brockport. At the start of East Canal Road there was a Barricade with a sign stating "No through Traffic". I pedaled past the barricade, with only minimal curiosity. Maybe there was some culvert work going on, or who knows? Canal Road is partly the paved bank of the South side of the canal. The road deviates off the berm/bank near the entrance to the Mount Olivet Cemetery road. The low point on Canal Road is a tenth mile further West of that point. At the point where the road drops off, just East of the Mt. Olivet entrance there was ponding. Ahead the road was flooded for a distance of about 1000 feet!
Here is a link to the image of the low spot of E. Canal Road: click here
Note: the "Brockport Creek" to the left of the map was flooded from the rain run-off.
another image perspective
-from where the ponding started;
I could not determine exactly how deep the water was, it did not look too deep. I didn't want to back track. It was only flooded for a distance of about 1000 feet, so I pedaled on!
Within the first 50 feet my pedals were under water. Mom Duck and 8 ducklings were startled as I plied the waters cycling through. Mom duck started Quacking and her brood took off swimming fast. Mom duck stayed behind them, criss-crossing my path as a diversion. One of her ducklings was falling back, not quite as robust a paddler as I was a cycling. Mom duck seemed to be getting more agitated at me, getting closer to my front wheel zig-zagging and quacking.
The Water got deeper, over the top of my fender. No exaggeration, my water bottle was underwater and the drops of my handlebars were wet from the wave action. The water was about 30 inches deep. The pedaling got harder. I was moving at about 4 mph and panicking about the situation. I shifted into a lower gear and started to consider jumping off, and climbing the berm -not a good option with my knee frailty. Seeing that there was another 250 feet or so to go, I knew it had to start getting shallower soon and it did. As I emerged out of the flooded area, a couple in a pick-up truck stopped at the western edge of the flooded roadway had just witnessed my "event". The driver asked me about the depth and said it was his driveway I had just passed. He said I must be some kind of "Iron Man... I liked the comment!
In retrospect it was a foolish move for me to proceed through the flooded spot. Especially in light of the fact that if I had drifted off the roadway I could have become trapped and perhaps drowned at the Brockport Creek culvert!!
149 consecutive cycling days...
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