Today I got my bike out to fill the tires and take the first ride of the year. It was beautiful. I "discovered" a stretch of bike path that I had never noticed in the three years I've lived here. It took me through some very pretty terrain and it gave me a nice route to a part of the city that I haven't biked in forever and had missed.

I used to live in the Starkweather Creek and Schenks-Atwood neighborhoods, and the Capitol City Trail gave me a convenient ride all the way through the Williamson-Marquette area and on downtown. In my current neighborhood, I have to cross East Washington to get to that trail, and that is not a fun thing. I'd pretty much been limiting my rides to Warner Park and the paths that run along Lake Mendota.

The path I found is a section of the Starkweather Creek path that takes me up and around to MATC Truax, where I can then take Wright St. up to Fair Oaks and Fair Oaks to the Capital City path. I still have to cross East Wash, but it is at a narrow section with a decent traffic signal.It's definitely the long way around, but it is pretty safe, and I appreciate safety when I'm on my bike.

The smells outside are heavenly. The prevailing scent makes me think of apples and honey. It is a mixture of green growing things and blossoming things. Every now and then I came across smells of things being cooked on charcoal grills, or of freshly sawn wood from spring maintenance projects. Gardeners were out doing their thing, as were plenty of other bikers, bladers, and walkers.

This is the time of year when I fall in love with this city all over again.