rumrunn6

finally got on a bike again, after a cpl months of doing other stuff. got home just before dark. I guess it's Fall, huh?

bike_tom

Good to hear from you again!
Where was that picture taken?
Looks like a great trail.

rumrunn6

thank you. Assabet in Stow

rumrunn6

love Fall rides w/ the Wife. haven't been yet tho ;-(. we have a getaway next weekend, out in Western MA, but won't be bringing the bikes. sounds like a peaceful & healthy day. get anything good at the bakery?

bike_tom

We had delicious sandwiches for lunch. Also brought home a loaf of their seven grain bread. We resisted the urge to get anything more decadent...

rholland1951

Flew back from Arizona late Monday night. After all the still-hot (105°) weather in Phoenix, it was a pleasure to get out on the 1987 GT Karakoram rigid mtb in the 65° breezes on the Minuteman.


Just now, the old GT is wearing fancy new(ish) Rene Herse 2.3" x 26" Humptulip Ridge Extralight dual-purpose knobbies, noise-cancelling to boot. By sometime in December, the studded Nokian W240s replace them, and it becomes my icebike. Different kind of fun, that. In the meantime, the HTRs roll fast on pavement and climb around avidly off-pavement. Whee!

Meanwhile, the Mile 4.0 Cairn Builders have given us another dyad, which I think of as the Philosopher and his Frog (or, perhaps, the Philosopher and his Stone).


Or perhaps it's his Monkey...

I spent a certain amount of time looking for some sunset colors, came to the conclusion that tonight would simply go dark without fanfare, but then a nice little sunset display appeared over Arlington Center. I'll take it!


rod

rumrunn6

welcome home!

rholland1951

Thanks! It's good to be back.

rod

bike_tom

On Wednesday I rode the MM out to Depot Park. Today I had more time and energy, so I continued on the Reformatory Branch to Lowell Rd Concord.
It was a beautiful Fall day, with not a lot of traffic on the trails..

I really enjoy riding the RBT at this time of year. Trees mostly still green, but already a lot of leaves on the ground:



In many ways, I am glad the plan to pave Bedford's portion of the RBT was shelved, though I do wish some improvement could be made to the Concord Rd (Rt 62) crossing. That seems to get more problematic every year, as driver's are more and more distracted (and territorial...) Lately I've been dismounting and walking across, so that as a pedestrian I (theoretically) have the right of way, yet many drivers still refuse to stop. Sigh.

Further west, this is one of those locations where you have to decide "Left or Right?":



At Lowell Rd, looking East, back up the RBT:



I stopped at Great Meadows on the way back:



BTW, although they have taken down the caution tape, the new bathrooms are still locked. The entrance road is also still a mess, although new pavement markings provide some hope it will be resurfaced soon. Notice also in the photo above the hay berm surrounding the parking area. That usually indicates planned disruption of the local surface.

The brown surface of the ponds was complemented by blue skies and cottony clouds:



I continued home via Depot Park and the MM to Lexington Center and ultimately Arlington.

A pleasant 28 miles.

Tom

rholland1951

Spent a little time on Thursday changing the saddle pitch on the 1982 Sequoia. Tried riding that on Friday, didn't like it, and spent a fair bit of time iteratively changing saddle pitch and saddle height, only to realize the real source of my discontent was how low the handlebars were set up: extreme, by my standards. I put the bike away, and had a look at my threaded stem collection Time for a visit to Battle Road Bikes.


rod

rholland1951

Saturday, I left the Sequoia in the garage and instead took the Rivendell Sam Hillborne and rode East.


This was the familiar hills-and-traffic drill. The hill climbs were warming and welcome in the cool weather. The Sam Hillborne was a pleasure to ride, as usual. The early afternoon featured a partial eclipse of the sun, which I tried several times to photograph in the half-light.




rod

rholland1951

Monday afternoon I rolled out on the Rivendell Atlantis, into, out of, and mostly in-between rain showers.


Perhaps this exact manifestation of the Barbie memento mori wasn't inevitable, but there was a certain air of inevitability about the scene, nonetheless. I look forward to returning after dark.


I had a long chat with a man on an e-bike, another retiree, who claimed to be the oldest guy on the Minuteman. While there's reason to doubt that, he definitely had more stories than I did; some of them were about UFOs. Seemed to go with the Barbie tableau.


Blow ye winds... And so they did, blew me home again.


rod

bike_tom

Rode the Fuji out to Depot Park this morning. The weather was very pleasant. The MM was dry in Arlington, but got progressively damper through Lexington and on into Bedford. There must have been some showers further west that we missed in Arlington.

Here's an example of the conditions on the MM in Bedford:



BTW, that gizmo along the left side of the trail is a "Stream Gauging Station" at Hartwell Brook. Here's a close-up I took of it last week:



I had Depot Park to myself:



On the way back I saw several chain gangs of apparently incarcerated youth:



Maybe they'll be eligible for parole soon?

Anyway, I cranked on home, glad not to be lashed to anyone else. A pleasant ride overall.

Tom

rholland1951

Rolled out on the Atlantis Thursday afternoon. Where'd this beautiful weather come from?


... and where will it go?


Don't know about the weather, but I stopped off at Battle Road Bikes, to talk with Pete about a couple of cold-weather-bike-tinkering projects (the Sequoia and the Appaloosa both require transmogrification).


Not the Atlantis, though. It just rolls along imperturbably.

rod

rholland1951

Rumors of Saturday's deluge preceded it (cf. Chicken Little), so I made a point of taking the Sam Hillborne out for a spin early Friday afternoon, starting with a Colloquy of the Two Sams. They enjoyed themselves, as usual.


Went looking for seasonal color, and found a little.




But, oh, the wind was watching.


Barbie, too.


Also, the Primate of East Lexington.


Had a pleasant ride, all in all, even if I couldn't resist chanting rain, rain, go away...

rod

rholland1951

I took the Atlantis on the ride I had time for Sunday afternoon, a little spin up the E shore of the Mystic Lakes on the Mystic Valley Parkway, to see what was what. I turned around at the mouth of the Aberjona River.


I doubled back to Shannon Beach. The new bath house is closed for the season, but looks promising.


I rode down the trail that most closely parallels the track of the Old Middlesex Canal, stopping at the strait on the Upper Mystic Lake that used to be the site of an aqueduct, carrying the canal towards Horn Pond.


I had one of those moments when a former world seems almost perceptible: the hooves of the draft horse, the gentle splash of the canal boat, the chatter of the boatmen. All gone now, of course.


Acorns cracked beneath the bike's tires as I rode back to the Mystic Valley Parkway.


I rode down to the parking lot serving the dam, the boat clubs, and the Tufts Bacow Sailing Pavilion. Not a lot of people around, and none of them were in or on the water. A cyclist passed here and there, though.


A few of the powerboats were still tied up at the wharf on the Lower Mystic Lake, not yet taken up for the season. There's still time for someone to motor across the Lake, down the Mystic River, through the locks at the Amelia Earhart Dam, into Boston Harbor, and out to sea.




Meanwhile the bike was calling me to take it for longer rides. I've gotten the hang of both smooth acceleration and minimum-effort cruising, and can see how this could work seriously well as a touring bike. I'd like to test that with a ride out to Haystack Observatory. But do I need to put that off until the days grow longer again?

rod

bharrisonb

This morning from Gloucester to Independence Park in Beverly ... starting temp : 46 deg F, ending temp 51 deg F. A delightful mid fall ride.


Independence Park - Beverly, Massachusetts

Round trip Gloucester / Beverly mostly Rt. 127

bike_tom

I periodically search the web for news about local bike paths. This weekend I found two bits of information about the Somerville Community Path.
The first relates to final construction of Somerville Junction Park, which is just east of where the Path extension begins at Lowell St: https://voice.somervillema.gov/somerville-junction

The second is an announcement that the Path detour at Somerville High School is now cleared: https://www.somervillema.gov/news/fi...pen-public-use

Curious to check out both of these developments, I decided to ride over to Charlestown via Cambridge and Somerville. I started out by heading east on the Minuteman to Alewife, then on to Somerville Community Path via Alewife Linear Park and Davis Square.


As the news article indicates, there's a detour at Junction Park:




Just past there, where the High School detour used to begin at School St, once can now continue on the path:




There's still a somewhat tricky road crossing at Medford St:




Reaching North Point Park, the North Bank Bridge brought me to Paul Revere Park, with a nice framing of the Zakim on the way:




At the Navy Yard, Old Ironsides waits patiently:




I believe this was once one of the Navy Yard's dry docks:




On the way back through Paul Revere Park, I walked the bike partway across the Gridley Locks foot path. I decided to leave going all the way to the Boston side for another day.
I grabbed many pictures of the Zakim from various spots. This one, I believe taken from North Point Park shows it most completely:




I retraced my ride back to Arlington, stopping briefly to take in the familiar view of Spy Pond:




As you can see, the sky was moody most of the time, but it was a fun little ride.
Only about 15 miles, but hit a lot of local landmarks.

Tom

EVlove

Great to see so many varied rides and locations. We are set for another stretch of warm weather so rholland1951 , I hope you can go on that ride to Haystack!

I've been out riding but not in a mood to post lately, or even take more than a few pictures. This includes a 42 mile excursion a couple of weekends ago on those trails in NH (Salem to Londonderry), with snacks and longing looks at "my" track (Northeast Velodrome), and then home to Chelmsford via Mammoth Rd. A new personal distance record, actually. Not really Metro Boston, and at any rate a longer account than I was willing to write.



Today saw me venture south of West Concord for the first time on the BFRT. Obligatory "I was here" shot at Powder Mill Rd, and I finally remembered the mural, too.





Not pictured, a friendly jogger who saw me at that fence with my phone out and assumed I was trying to figure out if the trail continued. Likewise, I suddenly found myself in a middle school road race (walk was more like it, for the part of the field that I saw) that included much of that BFRT spur to the fence. Running both ways, with a teacher posted at the turnaround spot (yeah, they thought of that).

29.1 miles and 800 vertical feet. One of my longer rides of the year.

rholland1951

For scoping purposes, Metro Boston is where the ride finds it, I think. Has included California and Italy at times, among many others. And you have long since installed the Velodrome in many a mental map here.

Nice mural!

rod

rholland1951

I made time for a midday ride out to Depot Park on the Rivendell Atlantis. The first sight to be seen was the seasonal removal of the Blue Bikes stand at Broadway and Grafton Street. In Arlington, at least, these facilities are not left in place over the Winter if they're situated on a public road, so this one had to go. It'll be back in the
Spring, I expect.


Soon enough I was cranking out the Minuteman, in the splendid warmth..


Foliage ride? At least part of the time.


Depot Park: did somebody say "wayfinding"?


Depot Park: railroad days.


Bedford: the missing nostrils are returned, briefly, only to roll away again, leaving their claimant entity unable even to snort his dissatisfaction. Life is so unfair at times.


Lexington Depot: lantern festival?


And we get more of this nice weather? Hurrah!

rod

rholland1951

In the late afternoon I took the Atlantis out for a spin on the Minuteman. Fall foliage colors and sunset colors harmonized, more or less.


The warm weather drew crowds.






Sunset came in on tip-toes...


And at the end of the day, there was Barbie.


rod

rholland1951

Friday was also shockingly beautiful. I didn't have much time for it, but I took the Atlantis out for a brief reconnoitering ride along the E bank of the Mystic Lakes, up the Mystic Valley Parkway. A few people were quietly enjoying the warmth, light, and peaceful conditions. Anyone who didn't show up, wasn't missed.






No shortage of cyclists, on the road and on the trails.

rod

Ghazmh

Lots of nice pics and recaps per usual. Although I don’t post much I still enjoy reading what the usual suspects are up to!

I’ve been driving by Franks Spoke and Wheel on Main St in Waltham and it looks like it’s closed. Does anyone know the backstory? I’ve been in and out of there since 1998, less so in recent years.

rholland1951

Looks like the Waltham store is closed, Sudbury and Westboro remain open. Questions about the Waltham store are being directed to the Sudbury store.
https://www.spoke-n-wheel.com/

rod