Trail Rambles 

text 

text 

text 

text 

text 

I set out from the apartment around 2:00 in the afternoon, having made a half decent burrito, considering I forgot to include avocado or rice. Nonetheless, I had also forgotten to drop my friend’s headphones off at his house, so headed towards West Davis to start the ride. After that short detour, I headed out Russell Boulevard towards Stevenson Bridge, passing a lonely goat in a little pen as town faded behind me. It seemed especially green for early February, the almond trees seemed to be joining in too, blooming a week or 2 earlier than I remember last year. After turning onto Stevenson Bridge Road, I passed over its namesake bridge, and Putah Creek was flowing to put it mildly. 

Last week’s storms had the banks swollen a good 5 feet higher than normal this time of year. Leaving behind the dragonflies and frogs of Putah Creek, I went down Campbell Road before taking a left onto Sparks Ranch Road. I had scoped this stretch of road out on Google Street View before starting my ride, but was a bit weary of the condition of its gravel surface after all the rain we’ve gotten. To my surprise, Sparks Ranch ended up being the highlight of my ride, with mature almond trees blooming on each side, and a pleasant tailwind pushing me south. It hadn’t rained in something like 4 days, but big puddles sat between the rows of cruciferous vegetables being grown near the southernmost section of the road. I wasn’t sure whether to go once I got to the end of the gravel road but decided to head west towards Winters on Sievers Road. The shoulder on this road was not ideal, with the canal on my right significantly wider than the skinny lane I was balancing in. The crane and heron meditating in the canal largely made up for the shoulder though. As I trudged down the road, I decided to take Garnett Road, another (supposedly) gravel road that connected back to Campbell, only to be turned around by a “no outlet” sign, and washboarding that must have been half a foot deep at spots. 

Anyways, I ended up continuing down Sievers until I made an abrupt turn north up Halley Road. The next 3 roads blended together in my mind, Halley, Wolfskill and Boyce respectively. Quant farm houses, a few mobile homes, and a surprising amount of flowers dotted the side of the road in front of me, but nothing too noteworthy. Eventually I reached familiar territory (Putah Creek Road), just outside of Winters, deciding to head back towards Davis as the temperature started to drop a few degrees. A normally scenic road, today was especially beautiful with the creek being so animated to my left. I took my hands off the handlebars for a minute to grab a sip of water and pull a cookie from my jersey pocket. My roommate's grandma of sorts, makes these Greek, flattened-oval shaped cookies that are just sweet enough to provide a bit of energy, without leaving your mouth sticky like you just took a shot of syrup. I continued down Putah Creek Road until I met back up with Stevenson Bridge Road, retracing my pedal strokes back towards town. Nearing 4 p.m now, the sun was at that weird place in the sky where it didn’t spread shadows to their extremes, but just enough to cover most of the road back in the shape of roadside oaks. By the time I got back into the Davis city limits, I decided to just round the ride up to 40 miles by riding through campus and out towards The Cannery before heading home. I’m not sure if it was the chilly breeze, or just that most students had already headed back to their dorms for the day, but campus was surprisingly quiet for a sunny Monday. Riding through downtown, I felt like my previous meal was haunting me, the smells of Taqueria Davis’ asada and fried tortillas filling my noise. 

Resisting the urge to try a new burrito place near the tailend of my ride, I kept going, heading left up Pole Line Road before turning left again onto West Covell. Halfway up Pole Line, I was temporarily interrupted by a flock of turkeys protesting (car-centric city planning perhaps?) in the middle of the road. Eventually, I turned north onto the Cannery Loop. This new neighborhood that replaced the abandoned tomato cannery of the same name, has a nice U shaped path around it, with some nice views of a reed lined agricultural ditch on the edges of the trail. By the time I had reached the end of the path, I was ready for a snack (a spoonful of peanut butter sounded delightful) so I headed over the train tracks and down the longest downhill in town, the other side of the overpass I had just went up. At this point, I was half a mile from home, but I still took full advantage of the tailwind that had shifted, now coming from the west. I pulled up to the bottom of my apartment's stairs around 4:30ish, leaving me just enough time to grab a few groceries and enjoy my spoonful of peanut butter, at long last!