Biking the Hoosier Uplands, Fall 2008

Sunday, October 7. 2007
The temperature was predicted to be 90 degrees, so Jojo and I headed out at 9 am for Lake Monroe. We decided to test our luck at the point near the Moore’s Creek Boat Ramp, although we have been kicked out of the water here by the Conservation Officers. (They were right, high speed boats were whipping around the corner close to the point. So since then we have found spots that are in the no wake zones of the lake, the CO’s don’t seem to patrol there.)

But this was the 2nd week of October, and we figured they would not be out, and we were right. (Guess which departments the governor has decided to cut to save money? IDEM and DNR are good guesses.)

We found the log we had dove from in early June and it was now 2 feet above the water, so I swam around it, the water was deeper in one direction than another, but bottom at the end of the log was 7-8 feet. There was an underwater branch between the fork, Jojo shot a picture of me standing on it. We dove and swam for more than an hour, diving deep, flipping, cannon balling, the whole nine yards.

The first picture here is a familiar sight to many riders doing the down and back on Handy Rd. This is where the water from Lake Monroe is treated and pumped to the water towers that dot the county. The site is only 740 feet amsl, so water must be pumped uphill to the various towers. For instance, the water tower at SR 45 and Leonard Springs is at 943 feet amsl. I’d like to know the name of the small shells that I find all around Lake Monroe. This one looked normal on the outside, but had an unusual blue-green color inside.