Fifty Plus (50+) - Where do you ride?

What kind of area do you live in and where does everyone ride for a good workout on a regular basis?

I live in the country in an area of rolling hills. I just leave my driveway and pick a direction. There are miles and miles of country roads all over the place. This morning before breakfast I did what I call the Tour de Potato Creek. It is a 13 mile circuit around the state park near my farm. I saw only one whitetail doe and one rabbit. Usually there is more wildlife than that on this short little trip. That's it. I ride solo on country roads every day.

I'm pretty lucky. I live in the inner city area of Lansing, MI. My bike is my only transportation, so I ride a lot on the city streets. But I can easily ride on country roads, located in the farmland owned by Michigan State University. This beautiful countryside is only about 3 miles from my ghetto apartment. Also, we have a very nice multi-user path along the Red Cedar River and the Grand River, about 15 miles long, with access points only a few blocks from my house.

I know this isn't much compared to places out west, or in Europe. I do think that almost every community has great rides, as long as you are willing to explore and find them. That really is half the fun of riding a bike. You see places you never would have seen otherwise.

I live in Pasadena CA (just praised as one of "America's Best Towns" in Outside Magazine). Year-round cycling, obviously. I live near the Rose Bowl, around which is a well-known training loop. Lots of hills, which in my aged newbie state is a hindrance to the "go anywhere you want" freedom of cycling. But I'm getting there.

I live in southern Wisconsin and within two miles of my condo I'm in the country. I can do flat or rolling hills. Very low traffic and what traffic there is the drivers are great!

We live in the western suburbs of the twin cities area in Minnesota. The bulk of our riding takes place on mainly low traffic (during non-rush hour) roads. Beautiful area really. Lots of rolling hills, lakes, marsh, parks and wildlife to see. The roads vary from county highways with nice shoulders and bike lanes to backroads w/o any shoulders, but little or no traffic. The drivers have been very courteous.

We also have a paved trail that we used to frequent that takes us past a couple of city lakes, but I find that to be more dangerous than the highway due to kids on bikes w/training wheels, dog-walkers on cell-phones and pedestrians with headphones.

The road is where it's at!

Steve

Southern Maine. Off-road I can hit a trail out my back door and be gone as long as I want and not hit the same trail twice. I can commute to work off road if I want. Road - same deal. Country raods covered by the shade of forest growth make the hot summer days easier to take. Or I can head towards the coast if I want that farmland atmosphere. Severe hills, rollers and everything in between.

yes.
MAdison wisc here
lots of lovely and challenging county roads nearby
the city has some good bike paths that cross the city, and one, the SW trail, that easily gets you out of town

Northwestern Washington. My usual is a 20 mile ride through rolling hills and farmland.

Here in Columbia, SC, I ride at a local military reservation which is virtually deserted
on the weekends, and for shorter rides I go to a local cemetary that is hilly......but
I can't say deserted. But the residents are very quiet and don't drive, and if they
every get noisy I'm getting the heck out of there.

lastPlace

Geographical location - southern israel
Topography - highly variable, extensive flats, rolling hills and mountainous.
Climate - Warm to hot with about 150 mm (ca 7 inches) annual precipitation
Flora - some planted forests in the hills but mostly shrub and desert type vegetation. Agriculture in the northern section of the region, barren in the southern part.

Riding routes are fantastic - we could choose flat agricultural lands, barren mountain passes, rolling desert scenery, green forests and even mediterranean coast within a fairly short range. Saturday rides average 70 miles. Two major problems:
1) have to get out early before the heat and on saturdays before the drivers
2) drivers are totally inconsiderate making riding a dangerous proposition on weekdays (saturday is our only weekend since sunday is a normal workday here).
I commute about 40 miles twice a week through rolling desert topography with a 200 m pass toward the end, it's great but I count my blessings every time i make it.
I envy all you like dnvrfox and the like who could just ride out their door into those serene country roads.

happy riding

I live in a far northern suburb of Detroit and ride every morning around the Stony Creek metropark. If I take all the side roads into picnic areas and beaches I can get about 15 miles for one circle around the lake. Then I reverse the route and do it again, sometimes cutting off the side jaunts to give me 25 miles a day. It's like a huge open air gym, with cyclists, road riders and MTN bikers, runner, rollerbladers, power walkers. I see a flock of wild turkeys every day and usually several whitetail deer. Its a great ride with water, woods and lots of open space.

Western St. Louis county, Missouri, about 35 mi west of the Mississippi River. Terrain is hilly and in my immediate area there are lots of low traffic rural type roads; drivers on these roads are patient and usually courteous. In the greater area there are lots of flat routes as well as the hills. Katy Trail is close if a person wants 250+ mi of flat, continuous Rails to Trails crushed limestone.

You just have to get used to that mid-west summer heat. The heat wouldn't be such an issue for me but I came from coastal California (cycling paradise in Santa Cruz county) about a year ago.

I live in north coastal San Diego County, in what used to be the "Flower Capital of the World." For recreation, I head north on Pacific Coast Highway 101 to Oceanside Harbor, south on the same road to the Torrey Pines / UCSD area, or east to Lake Hodges and/or through Rancho Santa Fe. If I head west, I get wet and salty. I really should not expect sympathy from anyone. :)

I envy all you like dnvrfox and the like who could just ride out their door into those serene country roads.

True, I am one of those who can ride literally out my back door onto a 400 mile trail system with a variety of terrain with just a few road crossings.

I led a senior ride last week from a local nature center to the heart of Denver and back (29 miles total) and only had one totally unbusy street crossing.

I am extremely careful where I ride, as any serious type of accident would be pretty critical to me since I am on warfarin therapy, and could bleed real easily, especially an internal head bleed.

I have come to the conclusion that while there are more accidents un MUP's, there are far more serious and critical accidents when you mix bicycles with cars. Others can disagree all they want - but that is my conclusion, and I think I have the stats to back it up. But I don't have them right now, I did my research about two years ago. So don't ask me for them! :D

I have the extreme good fortune to live 2 blocks from a paved creek trail that goes to the edge of San Francisco bay. No cars and a beautiful destination. A round trip is 15 miles. I love it.

I have the extreme good fortune to live 2 blocks from a paved creek trail that goes to the edge of San Francisco bay. No cars and a beautiful destination. A round trip is 15 miles. I love it.

I am suddenly and insanely envious. :p

I live in one the of most densly populated areas of the country - east central New Jersey. Almost every Saturday and Sunday morning, I get up early and drive 40 min. to an hour out to western NJ to participate in club rides. I've traveled all over the US, and Hunterdon County, in western NJ, is one of the best road biking areas there is. For a "local" ride after work, I drive over to Rutgers Piscataway campus. I, too, envy those of you who don't have to drive to ride. NJ is a great place for road, mtn and multi-use path riding. Unfortunately, I don't live close to the goods.

I live in far south Arlington, Texas, which is on the southern edge of the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex. I'm 2 miles from Joe Pool Lake, which is one of the most popular cycling areas in this part of Texas. I take off from my driveway, 5 days a week, for a 22 mile loop if I'm riding my tandem with my wife, or a 25 mile loop if it's just me on my bike.

Directly above the center of the earth, and anywhere the wheels will touch.

I ride on rural subdivision roads and two-lane semi-rural roads to work. It's the Texas Hill Country so the flat sections are few and far between. Traffic is light, there are very few businesses, and there's only one stoplight on my 34-mile roundtrip commute. I have to enter a four-lane U.S. highway with narrow shoulders for about 0.2 mile.

I haven't ridden "just for fun" for awhile but when I was starting out, I rode at the Veloway, a 3.1-mile, one-way, two-lane, closed loop exclusively for cyclists and rollerbladers.

I ride directly from my home. It is located in an historic overlay neighborhood, small local streets. From there I move through the nice older section of the city, big older houses, nice yards, lots of built in sprinkler systems running between 5:30-6:00 am. Again small local streets I think there are even a couple of stop signs, but my sightlines of the intersecting streets usually allow me to proceed. return past Wake Forest University and some very old estates with huge mist filled meadows before returning through railway underpass to my home. Terrain is mixed hills and drops, long inclines and one long decline. Very little really level riding I love it! Total distance a liitle of 10.5 miles. It's my excersize ride. Other great local rides include the New River Trail in nearby Virginia.

I live in New Jersey about 10 miles east of Philly. For a workout there's a road with bike lanes about a 1/4 mile from my house. West loop is about 14 miles. East loop about 11 miles. Continue east about 5 miles and the scenery goes from suburban to country. Another 5 miles puts me in the western part of the Pinelands National Reserve, the largest undeveloped area between Boston and Nags Head. From there, great cycing roads all the way to the Jersey shore 50 miles east of my home.

I live in Tallahassee, Florida which is not at all what most people envision when thinking about Florida. It is more like South Georgia than South Beach.

I have the option of riding south of town where it is dead flat or north of town and into South Georgia where it is a little hilly. From my suburban house I can be on lightly traveled country roads in about ten minutes by bike.

I can actually get a pretty good hill workout without leaving my subdivision which was developed on an old plantation. As many of the old live oaks as possible were left when the subdivision was developed so it is a surprisingly nice place to ride.

I ride the roads of Wilkes-Barre PA and vicinity. I have been here for about 7 months, and have not been as good about cycling as I had been. What they call flat around here, I call rolling hills. They are getting easier. :)

Suburban/rural mostly

I have also enjoyed a few rides along the levy on the banks of the Susqhehanna river.

I sometimes like to ride a section of the Lehigh Gorge Trail on the weekends, I drive about 45 minutes to the Glen Onoko entrance near Jim Thorpe.

http://www.traillink.com/TL_Active_Pages/TrailSearch/default.asp?Action=DisplayDetails&ID=465

Okay - I have enjoyed reading where everyone rides, but not everyone mentioned if they moved to where they lived specifically so they would have a great place to ride.

I did.

Having great riding trails nearby was one of the requirements of our recent (3 years ago) move. We would consider no house that didn't have that.

Anyone else have that in mind when they relocated?

Okay - I have enjoyed reading where everyone rides, but not everyone mentioned if they moved to where they lived specifically so they would have a great place to ride.
I did.
Anyone else have that in mind when they relocated?

sortta...
about the mid 80s I played the mind game of "Where would I want to Live (in the US) if I had my druthers"
Having traveled a lot of the US for work and/or play That game ended with "somewhere between Ventura and Santa Cruz CA". And a major consideration of that was mountains and ocean, biking, hiking and surfin.
About 4 years after that, it came to pass, as I was offered a position here in SantaB. And "She Who must be Obeyed" also went along with the plan. The Kids luv'd growin up out here, and pester us still, relentlessly, in spite of their progression into 'dolt'hood.

Sooo, if there are any forum riders in the Carp/SantaB/Goleta valley, who wish to do a 'list' ride - do ping me, any excuse to turn a pedal is always accepted.

I live in rural Northern California, in the Mountains. I can ride from my house in any direction and get flat valley, rolling hills, hard climbs and/or a couple of killer 15% grades. I can go 10 to 65 miles without hitting the highway, and they highway ain't bad. We do get snow in the winter, so it can be a challenge to get out, but it's still a great place to ride.

Okay - I have enjoyed reading where everyone rides, but not everyone mentioned if they moved to where they lived specifically so they would have a great place to ride.

I did.



Next move will be for my leisure activities. Biking will figure heavily in that. When I read your original post where you live sounds so good I looked at your signature to see where you live. I've never been there but will put it on a short list of places to check out.

Actually where I live, Southern New Jersey, isn't bad for leisure activities. The weather is bike friendly from about mid march to mid November. Mostly, winters aren't too harsh because of the ocean's effect. It can be snowing like crazy 50 miles west and all we get is rain, usually. Philly is 20 minutes away and NYC is 90 minutes. In 30 minutes I can be on an airplane to anywhere in the world. The Jersey shore is an hour away by car or I can make a day of it and ride my bike there in about 5 hours on highly bikable roads. The pocono mountains are two hours away, Chesapeake bay one hour and I can be on the winding roads of WVa in under 4 hours. One of the largest areas of preserved land in the east is 15 minutes from my front door. It takes up about 1/3 of the state's land area. As hard as it may be to believe about New Jersey this area is pristine(as are NJ beaches). It sits atop one of largest underground water supplies in the world. Water bubbles up and forms clean rivers. Being a coastal plain, it's flat, so no rocky mountain vistas. No hard climbs either. It ain't Colorado, but one could do a lot worse in finding a nice place to live.

Next move will be for my leisure activities. Biking will figure heavily in that. When I read your original post where you live sounds so good I looked at your signature to see where you live. I've never been there but will put it on a short list of places to check out.

Well, actually, we only moved 10 miles and the last house was directly on a trail system, also.

We needed a single story "ranch style" home for my wife's knee problems and I wanted it so that I had to cross no major streets or travel any distance before entering a trail system. And, voila, we got a home we loved plus the trail is literally in the open space my house sits on.

See in picture:

Back Porch, tree, a little open space, trail which connects with the Parker Trail System (I can go 30 miles) and the large Denver Metro Area Trail System

Okay - I have enjoyed reading where everyone rides, but not everyone mentioned if they moved to where they lived specifically so they would have a great place to ride.

I did.

Having great riding trails nearby was one of the requirements of our recent (3 years ago) move. We would consider no house that didn't have that.

Anyone else have that in mind when they relocated?

I just sort of lucked out I guess. The trails were here long before my parents moved here in the 60's. We have added quite a few, but I am now riding the same trails I used to hike and hunt on as a kid.

ctyler,

I like your Avatar.

I actually had done something similar for my web site, but never thought of shrinking it down to avatar size.

http://www.cycle-nepa.com

Now I have an objective for the weekend besides riding.

Well, actually, we only moved 10 miles and the last house was directly on a trail system, also.

We needed a single story "ranch style" home for my wife's knee problems and I wanted it so that I had to cross no major streets or travel any distance before entering a trail system. And, voila, we got a home we loved plus the trail is literally in the open space my house sits on.

See in picture:

Back Porch, tree, a little open space, trail which connects with the Parker Trail System (I can go 30 miles) and the large Denver Metro Area Trail System


Nice! Doesn't get better than that.

Click my signature.

I used to travel to the South Downs, which is a chalk ridge that stretches for 100miles along the south coast of the U.K. purely for the scenery and peace and quiet it gave me. Well 18 years ago I moved to within 5 miles of the Eastern end of the Downs and managed to get up on them more often. Then 15 years ago I took up cycling and realised how vicious them hills can be. They are not very high, 250 metres maximum height, but they start at around Sea level and all the hills are steep. There is no easy way to climb them on a bike and the underlying chalk mixed with clay does not make for a smooth clean route to the top either. Within 5 minutes of leaving home, I can be offroad and rarely see a road for the next 30, 40 , 50 or even the full 100 miles of the South Downs Way. The attachment shows one of the more spectacular "Views" of the severity of the Downs but the trails are not all this steep. ( unless you have left your brain at home for a downhill run)

Every direction away from my house involves a 4 lane 45MPH semi-urban road... I ride these, at least until I can get somewhere nicer... usually in less than 10 miles. At that point, I can hit the same 101 that John E mentions.... I am the southern end of his ride at UCSD/Torrey Pines.

The weather here is almost perfect for year round riding. The area is somewhat hilly, so one must be comfortable climbing hills.

Some 20 miles due east of me is a network of country roads in foothills that are very nice to ride.

I live just east of Mission Bay in San Diego CA.

My regular circuit is a round trip on Morena Blvd (a lightly traveled relatively level 4 lane roadway w/bike lane in one direction) then I'll cross over to Mission Bay where I'll do a loop around the eastern part of the bay. If I want to add more miles I'll cut out onto Fiesta Island and do a lap or two around it .

If I can get out by 8am traffic is usually very light, the ocean onshore breeze hasn't come up, the OAT is still around 70 or less and I miss all the Sea World traffic. This makes for a nice route. I can usually pedal the whole route without unclipping (15-25 miles) because its mostly done clockwise with little traffic or bike lanes. I only have four left turns across intersections that are usually uninhabited in the morning.

I don't ride this route on weekends as tourists infest the bay and the air becomes intermitantly polluted with bbq smoke that isn't fun breathing while trying to keep a 17-20mph pace. Weekends are saved for enjoying other parts of the city or county.

I sure enjoyed reading about everyone's routes. I'm glad this thread got started.

..rickko..

I live just east of Mission Bay in San Diego CA.

My regular circuit is a round trip on Morena Blvd (a lightly traveled relatively level 4 lane roadway w/bike lane in one direction) then I'll cross over to Mission Bay where I'll do a loop around the eastern part of the bay. If I want to add more miles I'll cut out onto Fiesta Island and do a lap or two around it .

If I can get out by 8am traffic is usually very light, the ocean onshore breeze hasn't come up, the OAT is still around 70 or less and I miss all the Sea World traffic. This makes for a nice route. I can usually pedal the whole route without unclipping (15-25 miles) because its mostly done clockwise with little traffic or bike lanes. I only have four left turns across intersections that are usually uninhabited in the morning.

I don't ride this route on weekends as tourists infest the bay and the air becomes intermitantly polluted with bbq smoke that isn't fun breathing while trying to keep a 17-20mph pace. Weekends are saved for enjoying other parts of the city or county.

I sure enjoyed reading about everyone's routes. I'm glad this thread got started.

..rickko..


You're in the Bay Ho area... I am right up the hill in Clairemont Mesa... "where every freeway goes through... " LOL. Morena is nice... I love going up and down that road to other areas... Especially as there is nothing on the west side, no breaks, no driveways... nothing. You can just fly. :D

I live near in the Piedmont area of NC and have some terrific loops on rural roads to choose from. Also, I can be up in the NC mountains for some excellent climbing routes within 90 mins - 2 hours.