Banana Bikes and Forest Hikes

After a long winter, I think I can finally say that spring has officially arrived at Luther! For the past week or so we've had warm weather, lots of sun, and a few rain showers. The flowers are starting to bloom and students are 'studying' outside, playing frisbee on library lawn, and riding their bikes around again.

Speaking of bikes, Luther has 6 bright yellow bikes that they are allowing students to rent out for a day at no fee. It's a trial for the spring to see if lots of students are interested in a bigger bike rental program for the future. I tried one out over the weekend just to go into town real quick for an errand. It was definitely a nice option to have so that I didn't have to track down a friend who has a bike on campus and so I could save time riding instead of walking.

These bikes are pretty simple. They are very upright with huge handle bars so that your hands are almost at 9 and 3 on a clockface, the brakes are in the pedals when you push backward (reminding me of the bike I had when I was about 7, there are no gears, and I don't think you can change the height of the seat. So, like I said, very basic. You definitely wouldn't want one of these bikes to go up any big hills or for super long distances, but they are convenient for quick errands into town.

The bright yellow color makes it easy to identify a Luther student who has journeyed off campus. I think that's probably the point though, that if someone tried to take one of the bikes, it would be quite obvious that it belonged to Luther.

Besides running and my occasional bike ride, I've also been able to get out and enjoy the weather in my biology lab. For 3 weeks we are hiking in the Hickory Ridge Woods (right by Baker Village), learning to identify trees and then we are going to plot part of the woods to get an estimate of what types of trees are the most abundant in which parts of the woods. I've actually learned a lot about identifying trees based on their bark and their buds, and I have to say, it's a whole lot better than sitting in a lab room for 2 hours peering out the window and seeing kids outside playing, just wishing I could be out there too.

So with only 11 days of actual classes left, the weather warming up and classes winding down, I'm going to enjoy these last few weeks and make the most of the wonderful outdoors opportunities Decorah offers.