A little mid-day gravel grinder

I got an early start this morning, with much computer work accomplished, and this afternoon was 19C (66F) so that meant one thing. Gravel!

I road a few access roads out of town, and then hit up the canal path. Over the winter the county has been installing a new liner in the canal. It'll make it more efficient with less water loss, but it also means that a lot of the path has been closed while the heavy equipment is doing their thing.
As I approached the canal I didn't see any dust in the distance, or hear the machines working, so I figured it'd be a safe bet to ride down for a few miles and see what was going on.
They are really tearing it up, and the path along the canal is incredibly rough in places. Almost unridable. No work was being done today, so I ignored the road closed signs and kept the cranks spinning.

While they're installing the new liner, they're also upgrading the pedestrian bridges over the canal. This will be nice when they're done, but in the mean time, it means that my route was cut off half way, and I ended up just doubling back and retracing my path.
This was the first decent gravel ride I've had this year in shorts and a t-shirt, and man was it nice. Birds are back singing, gofers running all over and we're even starting to get bugs back! It's weird to be excited about the bugs, but after riding today, I'm so glad for the changing of seasons. It's more than welcome after the winter that we've had.