I'm back in Kalamazoo again today for a class in Industrial Fluid Power. The drive down was a foggy one. In and out of the dense fog made for a surreal ride in the little Echo. I am always amazed at those that think the headlights on their vehicle are for their benefit only. Once its light enough for them to remain on the road without them they could care less if you can see them coming out of a, I mean the, fog.
Its been an interesting couple of weeks here at the Kalamazoo Valley Community College. I have learned several interesting things so far: I am now a Cougar, long hand division will yield different results then the calculator, and the traffic getting into the parking lot is amazing.
The KVCC mascot is a cougar. This struck me as kind of humorous considering all the comedy based on this on SNL and even a TV show now.
Mathematics or in this case simple algebra has always intrigued me. At times I have beaten myself up because I could not solve a specific problem but as a general rule I have not had much trouble with math. Both of the classes I am now taking involve some simple algebra to solve some pretty straightforward problems. Electricity is constantly using Ohm's Law which relies on E=IR (Voltage = Current times Resistance), and fluid power is F=PA (Force = Pressure times Area). In one of our Electricity problems we were doing some problems that involved dividing some figures with positive and negative exponents. One suggestion that was arrived at by long hand division was not what the rest of the class got by calculator. It was then stated that sometimes the "manual" method yields different results then the calculator. I loved it.
The parking situation here at KVCC seems to be a direct demonstration of the theory that as the economy turns bad people return to school. I am telling you, getting off the highway and turning south to drive the last half mile to the campus is a total traffic jam every time I come here. As a rule, I have been driving by in the right lane, instead of trying to make the immediate left turn into the parking lot, and proceeding to the west side of campus to get in the lot at that almost unused entrance. I park in the southwest corner of the lot mere moments from the door to the Student Commons area. Amazing!
Otherwise, the experience so far has been great! The two professors I have are interesting and engaging. I have been able to ride on the Kal-Haven Trail one day, and the drive down is pleasant as I can listen to NPR coming and going. The Echo has proven very capable and has been averaging about 42 mpg for the trips.
My one day ride on the Kal-Haven Trail was quite interesting. The overall impression is that the trail is quite flat. That was proven wrong! My ride began at the eastern terminus parking lot on the west side of US131 in the NW corner of Kalamazoo. Another connector trail proceeds down into Kalamazoo. I do mean down! I was on my mountain bike with large flat tread tires pumped up to about 50 psi. This was to accommodate the slag gravel that is used as the riding surface on the Kal-Haven Trail. the Trali down into Kalamazoo is paved and for the most part is separated from the regular road way. From the parking lot to the end of the trail near the center of Kalamazoo is approximately 7 miles, I covered this fairly quickly. I thought I was doing really well until I turned around and started back west. My heart rate was up a bit more then I thought it should be for the speed I was going, especially considering the first part of the trip. I have been using a Garmin Edge GPS bike computer so I took a minute to check the elevation chart. Holy Crap! I turns out that the trail is downhill almost the entire way from the parking lot to the end in Kalamazoo. The grade, since it was an old railway, was quite gentle, usually around 2%, so not really noticeable unless you were really paying attention. It got my attention on the way back, up hill all the way. It really more psychological then anything, because there does not appear to be a real grade just an unrelenting drag on your effort.
I made it back to the parking lot and proceeded west, past the old caboose that is used a kiosk. I was now riding on the slag surface of the old railway. The riding is quite delightful as you are usually enclosed under a canopy of trees and quite sheltered from the sun and wind. The conditions were nice in that the day before we got some rain which wetted down the usually very dusty surface. I have ridden this trail from the west end before, where the entire bottom half of the bike is gray from the dust that accumulates from the trail.
I encountered the same issue as riding into Kalamazoo! After riding almost to Bloomingdale, I turned around and started heading back. The last three miles of the trail are exactly like the trail on the east side of the parking lot. I managed to find the highest spot on the trail to start, which requires that you go up hill back to the beginning. The grade that is the usual engineering requirement for the railroads is kind of disguised when you are on a bike in the tunnel of trees cruising along.
It is a great ride though for an afternoon cruise and for camping along the trail. The trail is actually a Michigan State Park and has several campsites that can be used along its length.
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