Ride to Akron Falls (But Where is the Water?)

As usual, I met up with a friend at Cafe Taza for coffee before today's ride. It's not so much the coffee but the no-frills, no wi-fi, tiny room that I love because it forces people to socialize there.

This route was about 40 km each way. The first third of the route was the same way I go to get to my sister's house. The last third is a bike path. The middle of the ride was unfamiliar and parts of it kind of sucked. There were a lot of sections with heavy traffic, one lane in each direction and a narrow shoulder that wasn't well maintained. I had heard the ride there wasn't great but I thought I had discovered a better route. It wasn't all bad. I just generally hate riding on suburban streets. There are lots of cars and hardly anybody seems to ride a bike out there, which means drivers are unfamiliar with how to share the road with cyclists. The bike paths are awesome except that they often seem to be the only place anyone rides a bike in the suburbs.

I had only been to Akron Falls twice before, and once was in winter. I went during the summer once 20 years ago and jumped off the cliff into the water. My back hurt for a week. I wasn't planning on jumping from the high cliff again but was at least hoping to swim and jump from the low falls. We were in for a little disappointment as the whole creek bed was dried up. We were also welcomed by these signs.

Oh don't worry, we ignored the signs. No swimming signs are the scourge of almost every body of water around here but threatening to prosecute for using water as nature intended is a little much. They have this little viewing ledge and it's kind of ridiculous to travel all the way there just to look at the falls from a distance. We got right up close, but with no water feeding it, this swimming hole was looking a bit stagnant and gross.

The falls were just a trickle but they still looked kind of cool. We didn't get to swim but we were able to get under the water to cool off a little.

We returned to our bikes, which were locked up to a fence because there are no bike racks anywhere. They installed this fence to prevent people from going out on the high rocks and jumping into the water. But it looks like some of that fencing was pulled down.

Well, I had to get a photo. This is the spot I jumped off 20 years ago. No, I'm not doing that again, especially in this low level dirty water.

Here is some video I found on YouTube of Akron Falls when the water is flowing. Obviously I did not shoot this. I assume the YouTube uploader did.

We still had to ride home. I noticed the bike path forks at one point. This might be worth coming back to someday to explore further.

We were hungry and thirsty so we stopped at 12 Gates Brewing which was about halfway home. I had the West Coast IPA and the Tria Prima Pale. Both had awesome hop flavors. The Korean tacos and tarragon chicken salad sandwich were delicious.

Riding home we were still thirsty, so we stopped at another brewery. Community Beer Works is only a couple kilometers away, so we were almost home at this point. They're opening a new location soon just about 1 kilometer from my house! Although, I think I might be taking a break from drinking again. I just can't afford it if I'm not going to look for a full time job until fall. I had the Frank Pale Ale, which is one of my favorites from them. I love how they have growlers from all the other local breweries. It's nice to see they can work together and not treat it like a competition to be the only brewery in town.

Well, I was exhausted and went home for a nap before writing this post. I think I'm still tired enough to go back to sleep soon.