I set out to see a part of the bike trail that I hadn't ridden on before as well as overcome the challenge of the tunnel below. This tunnel is like entering a cave. In fact before entering it I could feel the cold, chilling draft several feet from the opening of the entrance. Even with my bike LED light, the light was not strong enough to penetrate the overwhelming darkness, It took serveral moments inside to get my eyes adjusted to be able to see the reflectors on the ground.
Either there where icicles or very white tree roots hanging from the ceiling. This picture is looking back at the entrance. This tunnel is 3350'long and has a curve so you cannot see the other end till you are all most out of it therefore pretty much a ride in pitch black. Other cyclists have come to the tunnel with a wall of fog guarding the entrance. I lucked out.
Here is the sign giving information about the tunnel at the opposite end of the tunnel. Quite an invitation into the tunnel if you read the whole thing. Glad it was at this end or I might have chickened out!
After passing through the tunnel on the otherside I was rewarded by a sighting of some "leatherbacks". Actually there were quite a few more and larger in size, but they spotted me and they slid into the river before I could get focused in well enough.
On the way back I also stopped at this site which is on the National Registry. Of course I wasn't content with just snapping pics from the observation point, nope, I had to climb down to get some upclose and personal shots because I wanted to see the Indian etchings for myself.
And I also wanted to get the shots from the river side of the rock so out I went onto stepping stones ( my husband just shook his head).
Pretty cool huh! The next pic is one that I took just because of the texture of the twisted trunk of the tree against the rock strata. Kind of reminded me of some yarns in our LYS that I might want to try.
As I was going along, and as I was by myself, the song "me and my shadow" popped into my head...can't imagine why except that by this point I was really needing a distraction from the pain in my hips, but, thighs, knees and shoulder blades. Oh did I mention that at this point I had went 26 miles and had 6 more to go to get back to where I parked the car?
So I got my distraction! Take a look at this...
This eagle was using a narrow part of the river as his own personal bird bath! Unfortunately He was quite some distance so I had to use my zoom lenz to take the pictures and they are not the greatest besides which the shots of him throwing water over himself and splashing did not come out very clear.
And some beautiful country out here which will really be beautiful in the near future when the leaves turn.
Hope you enjoyed the pics!
