rholland1951

Took the LHT out on the Minuteman before dinner. The weather was stunning, and the trail was teeming with joyful MUPsters of all stripes (llama walkers excepted); kept a good pace nonetheless.




rod

rholland1951

Another 10 mile ride on the Minuteman on another beautiful Spring evening, on the Monster Trucker this time. I was far from alone: the crowds on the Minuteman were even denser than last night, call them thronging as opposed to teeming.


Jim Muller has on occasion reminded us of the danger of the haphazard behavior of Minuteman trail users. There was an object lesson tonight, an accident under one of the Arlington bridges involving a young woman on a fixie.


Continued on to Lexington Center as the sun set, turned around, and rode home.




Rumor has it we don't get to keep this nice weather. Too bad... a full day of it on a long Saturday ride would be just the ticket...

rod

mr_bill

Half a day so half a century.

Never laugh at a duck.

After flying off camera the duck pulled a Top Gun and beyond buzzed my head.

If you've ever wondered how ducks keep their wings dry? They don't.

Glad I was wearing a helmet.


-mr. bill

rickrob 

Working on my century training today and I rode 50 miles through Ashland, Holliston and Milford. It was an awesome day.

jimmuller 

Nope, not a good idea. (Maybe the duck was attracted to, or bothered by, the sound of you FW.)

Last year on the tandem we were targeted by a flock of dive-bomber geese. Bull's-eye for both of us. We had to stop and clean off our jerseys.

From a commute home earlier in the week, this is the bike which attracted the white duck:



From yesterday's glorious-weather ride:

rholland1951

Took the Rawland Nordavinden out Saturday afternoon for a 56-mile ride to Haystack Observatory, passing through parts of Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Chelmsford, Westford, Groton, and Tyngsborough, with 4654' of elevation gain. This ride has become an annual rite of Spring for me, long enough to test how far my legs have come back for the new season, and with a destination that is personally meaningful to my Sputnik-era brain. I left the house late for this (chores, errands, etc.), hitting the street at 2:30, so I took the simplest, most direct route: a NW vector out the Minuteman and Rt 225 as far as Forge Village, then a short N segment: Abbot Street, Town Farm Road, N. Main Street, West Street (which is renamed Graniteville Road for the 100 yards or so it runs in Groton), and finally Millstone Road.

Perhaps wishes are sometimes effective: the weather was beautiful. This crowd at the Mass. Ave./Mystic Street intersection in Arlington Center--an entire soccer team on bicycles--was a harbinger of conditions on the Minuteman.


Sure enough, the Minuteman was a whole lot like Woodstock with fewer guitars and more bicycles, everybody getting the same good idea at once. There were some benefits to this, for example, a jolly freakbike parade, tallbikes in the lead, choppers behind. The playful spirit of those things always make me smile.


In Lexington, I exchanged shouted greetings with a work colleague (Hi, Michele!), inbound as I was outbound. The crowds thinned a bit beyond Bedford Street, and after a pause at Depot Park, I picked up Route 225 in Bedford. I tend to think of Route 225 as the exburban extension of the Minuteman, since it continues its general NW direction, and sees enough bicycle traffic so that drivers are (mostly) well-behaved. I enjoyed the familiar pleasures it offers, and one bit of novelty: a Bantam, in good condition, parked at Nonset Farm in Westford. That little car had a face like my grandfather's.


Some determined pedaling through the hills brought me to Millstone Road and the Haystack Observatory. For me, this place is a kind of 20th Century Stonehenge, and returning by bike is an act of secular pilgrimage. The Observatory campus is well-supplied with hills: good riding, right up to the ultimate destination.








Paused at the turn-around point for a little fuel and water, and to contemplate both the hour (6:30) and return route alternatives. Decided to avoid complications, and to simply back-track on Route 225. This put the low sun at my back, right where I wanted it.


Along the way, I stopped to examine this little road-side hut in Westford, often seen and always assumed to be some sort of archaic bus shelter; a peep inside revealed it to be a pump-house or well head.


The outbound leg's headwind became the return's tailwind, and I made good time, reaching Depot Park with some light remaining, with only a bit of the Minuteman ride to be enjoyed in the dark, and in solitude: the day's crowds had all gone home to dinner.


rod

jimmuller 

Today's ride was on a solo bike, a quick 38.3 miles on the Masi. You see the strangest things in Lexington.

mr_bill

I suspect that the artist has also done a Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon, but I'm not positive.



-mr. bill

Ghazmh

80 miles from Waltham to sandy Pond campground in Plymouth on Saturday on my loaded 520. 53 more on Sunday to Hyannis via Brewster. I rendezvoused with the wife and kids for a seafood dinner on the waterfront. A spectacular riding weekend indeed. I'm weary of the significantly reduced amount of parking at the CCRT trailhead parking lot in Dennis. Whenever I roll in after an early morning departure there is usually several cars waiting for someone to leave so they can get a parking spot.

I'll be back there this Friday for my first 100 mile ride of the season with my new Smoothie!

guidoStow

Knee crankiness has put the 300k effort on hold... Oh well... Off to rehab...

antimonysarah

Bummer! Heal fast!

I spent Saturday riding up to Portland on the shorter of two NE Randonneurs team options (and Sunday took the train back -- Amtrak is sadly screwing up again with the bike car so I wouldn't actually recommend this plan right now, as I had to find someone who could drive my bike back). Summer beach traffic has already gotten going pretty heavily, so there was more car-dodging than I'd hoped for, but the weather was beautiful, the ocean was picture-perfect (and if any of my photos came out I'll edit them in here, but I forgot to upload them last night). And hey, cars aren't so bad when you get stuck in traffic behind a gorgeous blue 70's Corvette Stingray that is just a pleasure to watch rumble up the road. (We were leapfrogging a pair of 'vettes for like 5 miles through Ogonquit, and there were a ton of classic cars of various eras out and about that morning, which was fun.)

Ghazmh

50 is the new 30! With enough daylight and my trusty Nightrider Lumina 650 handlebar light I have been doing 50 mile after work rides the past 2 weeks. My loop starts on 117 through Weston, left onto Church street then through Weston center, right onto Concord st and meander through some hilly side roads onto 126. From there take 126 west and then right onto 27 through Sudbury, branch off and ride through Stow back to 117. 62 through Maynard to Concord center. Refill water bottle then follow Monument st to 225, back towards Concord and eventually home after passing by Walden pond and then the Gropious house.

rholland1951

10 miles on the Minuteman before dinner, light and shadows.


Rode into Arlington Center after dinner for an ABAC meeting, then home.


rod

rholland1951

Took the LHT out for 10 miles before dinner, calm air, a little cool, rain falling elsewhere occasionally visible in the distance.


Noticed three dyads on the Minuteman: a man with his head cocked back, watching a woodpecker with its head cocked back in between pecks, laying down a drum track for the twilight bird song; a brace of placid Tibetan terriers being walked by a man who looked vaguely discontented; a man and a woman, on either side of the trail, each attending to their phone, oblivious of the other.

rod

Ghazmh

106 miles today including the CCRT and Old Colony trail.

jimmuller 

Wow. You must have ridden both of them twice!

guidoStow

Nice job!

Ghazmh

Well, sort of. For some reason I haven't been able to post pictures beginning last week, but any event I started in Dennis and rode out to the first beach after the trails end in Welfleet, backtracked to the rotary in Harwich and then rode out to Chatham on the Old Colony trail. Returning to the Dennis parking lot for lunch put me at 60-ish miles. Then I rode the CCRT again. I've done other 100 mile routes in the past and actually prefer it this way. The first few seasons I started doing 100 mile rides down there I was parking at the canal and riding the the end of the CCRT. That route is rather hilly at the inner Cape which means it's rather hilly at the last 85-100 miles. It's also a bit of a personal accomplishment for me to ride it twice. Going back 5 years ago I was lucky if I could ride the CCRT more than 2 times a summer with my hybrid bike. Now I can do an entire 2011 summers worth of riding in the same day.

sherbornpeddler

So nice to read all your rides. I've snuck out a few times; pulled out by this magnificent weather.
A few commute rides to downtown Sherborn and a some 15-25 mile regional loops have been my springtime riding except for mid April when my wife and I went on a car/bike trip tour of southwestern Ireland. We managed 7 days of rides including rail trail, national park path and off the beaten path, narrow country roads.
The rail trail was just like many here in Boston area (aka Ireland's western most county). Stone dust, good signage, interesting vestiges of the railroad with great stone bridges and gates between pastures. The best part was the folks we met along the way. We met a couple of serious riders training for the very hilly "Ring of Beara" century. They were happily training in the "blazing sun" between rain showers because they learned to keep things in perspective by carrying china cups and a thermos of expresso. Pubs were another way to dry out and warm up.

rholland1951

After a day composed of necessary chores and errands that seemed never to end, I took the Monster Trucker (Surly Trucker DeLuxe with 52mm Compass Rat Trap Pass Extralight tires) out at 5:30.


I started out on the Minuteman, not really sure what I was going to do with the limited time available, but enjoying the benign weather.


I decided to take advantage of the big Compass tires to explore the trail network surrounding Arlington's Great Meadow. It had been a couple of decades since I had poked around in there. Turns out the trails have been much improved over the years, and provided rooty, rocky, dirt and gravel fun, with steep climbs and descents, along with stretches of boardwalk through wetland areas. This was a short ride with unexpected novelty that had been hiding right under my nose, 11 miles in Arlington and Lexington.
















rod

dmort

I'm visiting my brother in East Boston over memorial day weekend (I live in NYC, the bronx). Can anyone suggest a decent ride starting in East Boston? From looking at the map it seems like it makes sense to head north up towards Salem or Marblehead but I don't know those roads. What is 107 like? What about 1a? I'm a fairly experienced road rider and my bro is new to road cycling but he's pretty fit.

rickrob 

Another nice day yesterday-- I continued with my Century training, riding through Milford, Holliston, Hopkinton and Ashland. 25 miles or so back and forth on the Upper Charles bike trail and the remainder on the roads. I had a goal of 60 miles and met that with 60.2 miles in approximately 4 hours and 40 minutes.

rholland1951

Depends on how long a ride you want, and under what conditions. There is a good, relatively short, relatively local ride to be had out to Deer Island, with a side excursion up to Revere Beach. Deer Island is the site of a major sewerage treatment plant, a sort of engineering marvel in its own right, with a history of other uses including Suffolk County Jail (circa 1985 t-shirt bore the legend: "Deer Island: getting there is half the fun"), and 17th century concentration camp for "praying Indians" during King Phillip's War. Revere Beach is the oldest public beach in the US, and has a certain charm.

If you want to get up to the North Shore, there's water in the way. The highway engineers and city planners haven't made things easy for us over the last many decades. Neither Route 107 (the Salem Turnpike) nor 1A (called the Lynnway, once you cross the bridge) are welcoming environments for even skilled cyclists. I rode the Lynnway from Lynn to Revere once, and count myself lucky that both myself and my tires survived; I don't anticipate repeating the experience, but you never know. I haven't tried riding the Salem Turnpike, but what I've seen of it doesn't seem to recommend it. Perhaps others on this list have direct personal experience with that road, and can chime in.

If you want to ride North, best approach is to ride inland on Revere Street and Malden Street, then turn north on Lynn Street, or if the bikes you're on are running 28mm or fatter tires, try the Northern Strand Community Path. Either route will get you into Lynn, and once you've ridden through that (avoiding the Lynnway), you get to Swampscott and points beyond. You have a choice to make: Marblehead and Nahant are near destinations. For a longer trip, you can ride through Salem and Beverly, and then take your pick of Cape Ann and North Shore destinations.

The Google Maps bicycle view is your friend here, just take what it shows you about the Lynnway with several grains of salt.

If you have access to a car and a bike rack, another approach is to drive to Beverly, and start from there. Another approach is to ride from East Boston to Chelsea (crossing at the Chelsea Street Bridge? I haven't tried that on a bicycle, anyone have relevant experience?) and follow on to the Chelsea commuter rail station, on the Newbury and Rockport line. Take that North as far as you are interested, and either ride back to E Boston (with all the caveats above), or take a train back to the Chelsea station. There are some nuances about when and how you can take bikes on the train, but it is one of the traditional ways folks from Boston get to the North Shore riding areas.

Sorry for all the hedges in the above. This part of town is somewhat fenced off from other areas by geography, history, and civil engineering, and my personal experience with it is partial. There are definitely parts of any ride in this area where your Bronx-honed cycling skills will stand you in good stead.

rod

dmort

Hey rod, thanks for all that info. I'm going to sebd it off to my bro and see what he makes of it. He rides sub ten mile rides partly because he has 6 month old twins and partly because I think he's not sure where to go from east Boston. I was hoping to push us out to around 25ish miles - partly because I ant to ride for more than 45-60 minutes and partly because I want to help him get a moderate and reasonable reprieve from parenting. My guys are 3.5 and 5 now so longer rides are more possible for me than for him. I really appreciate the insights.

jimmuller 

We got out on the tandem for 46.6 miles yesterday.

You gotta' have a good picnic!


Today I took the Motobecane out for about 35 miles. Had an interesting conversation with a fellow vintage bike enthusiast. Pic? How's about deCordova?



How did I end up on the set of Star Wars?