Up here in the Rockford area we had a lot of rain yesterday. A LOT of rain. There was a small lake in our backyard. There are several dirt road wash outs and a couple of parking lot driveways that had asphalt stripped away. I was going to ride yesterday, but decided to wait out the storms and ended up going out late this afternoon. My intended route was to head north on the White Pine Trail through Rockford and up to 15 mile. I was then going to do a country road loop and head home with a 20 miler under my wheels. Things didn't turn out that way.
About one mile north of the Belmont trail head there was a large washout that sent part of a hillside and several trees over the trail. A member of the Friends of the WPT was there taking pictures. He said there were two more washouts farther north, one of which had actually cut away part of the trail. He was concerned that there was too much work for the volunteer group to handle and that fixing the trail may be a state job. However considering the lack of money the state has right now he wasn't optimistic about the trail being repaired. I didn't see the other damaged areas. The first one makes road bike travel difficult. You have to slog across 30 feet of mud and water with several downed trees mixed in. The trail volunteer made the other problem areas sound worse. I'll take a ride around the damaged areas later in the week and make a report.
I did get my 20 miler in. I just went south on the WPT instead. I rode all the way to Riverside Park and back. A pretty interesting afternoon on the bike.
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