“Did you have a nice bicycle ride?” says my beloved wife, Marsha.

“Hot and muggy,” I say.

“How far did you ride?” she asks.

“Only 10 miles. But I pruned.”

We usually ride our bikes together, but she had other plans today. I rode alone. When that happens, I prune, using a clipper I carry in my bike bag.

We have a handful of miles of paved trails near our home. Most of our rides start or end on the scenic, traffic-free trails.

Without pruning, tree limbs and vines grow down from above, slapping riders in the face. Sumac and other brush leans in from the sides, squeezing people to the middle of the trails.

Normally, I try to curb my enthusiasm for snipping and clipping when Marsha is with me so she doesn’t have to put up with frequent stops.

When alone, as I ride along and see vegetation invading the path, I stop, pull out my pruning shears and mercilessly chop off the alien invaders.

Last fall, 75 townspeople showed up for a work bee on the trails. We really made great improvements. Chainsaws buzzed, loppers clicked, weed whackers roared.

As the growing season progressed this year, I decided I’d try to keep up with the new growth as much as I could using my small pruning shears.

I pull over, sit on my bike with one foot on the ground and chop away. This means I have to drop all the clippings on the edge of the trail in the hopes that people who walk there will kick the stuff off the edge.

A couple of weeks ago, we spent a delightful few days with our family in a rented house outside of Saugatuck. A nice, paved trail led into town, going one way from where we stayed and another trail led to Holland, heading the other way. Every day, Marsha and I headed out for a ride.

It was very clear that the people who live around Holland and Saugatuck do not believe in pruning. They prefer to rely on tourists to do the work.

Do they not realize that if tourists didn’t spend time cutting weeds, they’d spend more money on T-shirts, souvenirs and ice cream?

In some places, the way was almost totally blocked by dangling and protruding vegetation, including thorny stuff like wild roses and locusts. We saw some people using these paths to walk or run, but most of the bicyclists just held to the roads next to the overgrown trails.

By the end of our stay, I had cleared miles of trail of most of the dingle dangles and thorny stuff. Other riders got out of the traffic and back on the trails.

This made me happy. It is lots more fun and safer to ride without being gouged by bushes, conked on the head by tree limbs or strangled by vines.

What, you may ask, about poor Marsha? She is an immensely patient woman, but there are limits. I would streak ahead of her, start pruning a bad area, and then have to chase her down from behind after she passed me. All that sprinting gave me a good workout while she rode at a steady speed.

One good thing about the Saugatuck/Holland Pruning Fest is that I now know what I’m going to buy Marsha for Christmas.

Jim Whitehouse lives in Albion.