Small Ring Reconnaissance in the Rain

The spillway, 25 miles upriver from home. The road on the other side was open, so no flooding there.   

The decision came early Friday morning.  The weekend's races would be cancelled because of the continuing heavy rain and flooding in southern Louisiana. I posted the news to FB and updated the LAMBRA website while the Race Director sent out an email to the various groups. It was the right decision. Although New Orleans itself somehow missed the worst of it, it wasn't by much.  North of the lake the rivers were already overflowing and flooding roadways and houses. Over the course of the day the flooding just got worse and worse, affecting everything from Covington to Baton Rouge. I-55 was completely closed because of flooding for a while.

Northshore Flooding

Here in New Orleans, though, it was mostly just steady light to moderate rain. I went to sleep Friday night wondering if we'd get away with the Giro Ride in the morning.  Around 4 am I got my answer as a rainstorm came by of sufficient intensity to wake me up. By 6 am the rain had essentially stopped, but with the roads soaking wet and the forecast in considerable doubt, I didn't think it was be worth getting out of bed. Instead, I set my sights on mid-morning and a ride on the river levee. I knew the weather would be gradually improving, so the only constraint for my solo ride would be getting back home in time to watch the women's team pursuit at 2 pm.

Wet roads, but minimal rain

I rolled out from the house around 10:30, by which time the roads were damp but not terribly wet, and headed for the river levee.  I was planning on riding all the way out to the Spillway, and I figured I'd use the ride to do some reconnaissance on the bike path status.  The latest guesstimate from the Corps of Engineers is calling for completion some time in October, which is a long way away from the original date that was supposed to be last April or May.

By the time I got to the bike path there was already a very light kind of misty rain falling. It wasn't quite enough to soak my socks or anything, and the temperature was probably in the upper 70s, so I figured I'd be fine for the duration.

The Green Pipes.  No hint of replacing the bike path here, so you have to battle it out with the trucks on River Road.

The first obstacle on what used to be an unbroken 25 mile bike path and is now more like an obstacle course is the "green pipes" obstacle. This is where Jefferson Parish put pipes over the levee for stormwater drainage.  There is absolutely no hint of any effort to construct a bike path around the pipes.  Instead, you have to ride down to River Road and then back up on the other side, crossing traffic, of course, each time.

Same old, same old. Not even worth
taking a new photo.

The next obstacle is the closure just past Moss Lane in River Ridge. The bike path has been closed here for at least a year now, way, way past multiple projected opening dates.  Here, you have to ride down the grass to Moss and from there to Jefferson Highway. The bike path is closed from there all the way to the upriver end of Jefferson Parish, so you're stuck on Jefferson Highway for a long time.  There's a shoulder for most of it, but the mile or so past Williams Blvd. is 2-lane highway with no shoulder, so it can be a little uncomfortable if there's any significant traffic.

So this was new. Permanent or Temporary??

Once past that road closure you get a few good miles until you hit one of the grain elevators where they are building something over the levee and have made a little kind of sidewalk width path through there.  At least you can stay on the bike for that one.

From there it's a more or less clear shot all the way to the spillway, with just the pre-existing bypasses underneath pipes and stuff for the various petrochemical plants along the river there.

So, despite the wetness and obstacles, I got in a nice easy solo ride of 50 miles or so without a flat, which under the circumstances seemed pretty good.  I got home, gave the bike a quick hose down, slapped a little lube onto the chain, and went upstairs with just enough time to take a shower and catch the live video from Rio.

Heading downriver at the Jefferson Parish line. Still closed.

I was sorry to see that the US women couldn't pull off the win in the team pursuit, but I guess they're not too disappointed to walk away with the silver medals.

Here in New Orleans the rain seems to have stopped for now, but the forecast for the next ten days can be summed up pretty simply as "Scattered thunderstorms, 60-80% chance of rain every single day."  I'm guessing the rain bike may get a little road time next week.