Too Hot to Ride, Plenty to Look Forward To

It has been a while since I've written one of these newsletters. Apparently, I decided the best way to deal with another brutally hot Louisiana summer was simply to stop writing about it.

But before we get into bikes, heat and what's coming up this fall, I want to start somewhere much more important.

Thinking of Colombia

Last week, a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia, with its epicenter in Chocó. The damage has been devastating. As of this week, at least 280 people have been killed, more than 4,000 injured and more than 140 remain missing. Homes, schools, health facilities and infrastructure across the region have been damaged or destroyed.

This one hits particularly close to home for our little group.

Our dear friend and longtime rider Fercho Rengifo is from Colombia. He still has family there, as well as a home he maintains, and he travels back frequently to visit.

Thankfully, Fercho was not in Colombia when the earthquake struck, and his family is safe.

Still, when something like this happens in a place that is home to someone you care about, it doesn't feel quite so far away.

The Colombian Red Cross has mobilized search-and-rescue teams and emergency personnel, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has launched a major appeal to support the response and recovery. If you'd like to help, you can learn more about the response through the Red Cross Colombia earthquake response.

We're thinking about Fercho, his family and everyone in Colombia facing what will be a long recovery.

Okay, About This Heat...

If you've been wondering where we've been this summer, you probably haven't been outside much.

It's hot.

Really hot.

And unfortunately, this isn't our first summer of looking at the forecast on Monday afternoon and deciding that maybe riding bicycles around downtown for fun isn't the smartest thing we could be doing.

Back in 2023, I wrote an entire newsletter called “Records broken, rides unridden: The endless summer heat wave burns on”. That summer was extraordinary even by Louisiana standards. By Aug. 28, Baton Rouge had already recorded 29 days at or above 100 degrees (an all-time record) while drought and wildfires were creating problems across Louisiana.

This summer hasn't quite been a repeat of 2023's record-breaking insanity, but it has certainly made riding difficult.

For some perspective, Baton Rouge's normal high is about 90.5 degrees in June, 91.9 in July and 92.2 in August. By early August this year, the National Weather Service was still forecasting temperatures in the low-to-mid 90s with heat index values climbing into the 100–105 degree range as the humidity increased.

That's the problem with our rides. Six o'clock may technically be the evening, but in Louisiana in August, the sun has not received that memo.

We've always said the point of Downtown East is to get outside, explore Baton Rouge, meet people and have fun. There isn't much fun in pushing ourselves through dangerous heat just so we can say we rode.

So, we've taken it easy.

The good news is that the heat wave will end. It always does. We will be back to normal soon enough.

And there are some things I'm really looking forward to.

Hummingbirds, History and Cooler Rides

September means the return of one of my favorite things: hummingbirds!

As fall migration begins, we'll start seeing more of them moving through Louisiana, and hopefully we'll have an opportunity to slow down on one of our rides and look for them.

We also have a very special visit coming up.

The Baton Rouge African American Museum officially reopened at its new home at 805 St. Louis Street on Juneteenth. The nearly 8,000-square-foot location is a major expansion from the museum's original home in the small shotgun house on South Boulevard.

That museum has a special connection to Downtown East.

Just about a month after we started the ride in 2019, we visited the original museum. We were met there by its founder, Sadie Roberts-Joseph, who took the time to welcome this brand-new little bicycle group and share the museum with us.

A short time later, on July 12, 2019, Sadie was murdered. She was 75 years old. Her death stunned Baton Rouge and left the future of the museum she founded in 2001 uncertain.

But her work didn't end there.

Her children, Angela Machen and Jason Roberts, carried their mother's legacy forward. Over the years, they worked to preserve the museum and eventually move it into a much larger home just down the street from the original location. This June, seven years after Sadie's death, the Baton Rouge African American Museum officially reopened.

I can't think of a better place for us to return.

We'll be planning a ride to visit the new museum, and I'll make sure to announce the date ahead of time. Keep an eye on social media for details.

Meanwhile, Baton Rouge Keeps Building Trails

While we haven't been doing much riding this summer, there has been plenty happening with bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure around Baton Rouge.

In June, the Freedom Heritage Trail officially opened with a ribbon cutting at Memorial Stadium. The new multimodal trail connects Memorial Stadium on Foss Street to Scotlandville Parkway via Monte Sano Avenue, while also following a corridor deeply connected to Baton Rouge's civil rights history.

It's an especially interesting project because it isn't just another recreational trail. It connects neighborhoods and destinations in North Baton Rouge while telling the story of Southern University students who participated in the 1960 sit-ins and subsequent march toward the Louisiana State Capitol. It's also part of the larger effort to eventually connect North Baton Rouge with Downtown, the Downtown Greenway, the levee and other pieces of Baton Rouge's growing trail network.

I wrote much more about the trail, its history and how it fits into the larger bicycle network here: Read: Freedom Heritage Trail

And there's more trail construction happening on the other side of town.

A groundbreaking was held in July for the long-awaited improvements beneath the Perkins Road Overpass. The $2.5 million project includes a multi-use trail, lighting, signs, parking and other improvements intended to make the area safer and easier to navigate on foot or by bike.

Construction is now underway, which means the area beneath the bridge is blocked off. So, unfortunately, this is one trail we'll have to wait a little longer to explore.

That's okay. We've gotten pretty good at waiting this summer.

The temperatures will come down. The construction fences will eventually come down. And before long, we'll be back on our bikes exploring Baton Rouge again.

After all, there's still plenty out there we haven't seen yet.