Bonelli Green

If you have a favorite color and if, like me, that favorite color happens to be green then you have got to love riding at Bonelli Park this time of year. Some slow moving water, nitrates from the the upstream nursery, and rays from that ever-present Summer sun make the stream through the Jungle a green delight. Oh, and if you are there at the right time, right place, it is an actual stream; when i was there this past Friday water was flowing at the crossing. No pool of stinky swamp juice you hope won't touch your skin.

Further along, though, and in the Jungle proper, there is no movement to the water (as usual) which has allowed algae to prosper. From a distance it looks like a lawn over which someone has thrown far too much fertilizer, or maybe a neon green carpet ripped from the floor of a 1960s psychedelic dance club. The uniformity and sunlight give a smooth, flat appearance. Up close, though, texture becomes evident and the surface looks like a million tiny round seeds have been scattered from bank to bank. Would they hold weight? Was there even water beneath them? I almost thought that is what they were, a tight scatter, but as i dipped my wheels in to cool them off after a hot, dusty ride, and then rolled them back out, the thin tendrils connecting the pods on the surface became evident. They clung to the tread and wrapped around the spokes. If i were to walk out to the sauna disguised as a garage i am sure i would find some clinging there still.