rholland1951

Thanks! And thanks for the link!

rod

Bishbike

Nice!!!!!!!!

rholland1951

Thanks! I still find it a little weird that my phone is a better camera than my camera...

rod

sherbornpeddler

Rode 40 slow miles to a southwestern spur of Metro Boston, Diamond Hill, Cumberland, RI. Took back roads through Millis, Norfolk, Wrentham, Franklin, Cumberland and back through Franklin and Millis. Good news is Burnt Swamp Rd past Adams Farm and Diamond Hill and Arnold Mills reservoirs is as beautiful as ever. Great news is Rt 114 in Cumberland is repaved! Stocks will drop in the replacement bicycle rim industry. Melancholy news is new utility lines on Lincoln St in Franklin obviate any need for speed bumps, speed traps or worrying about a drop in the replacement bicycle rim market.

Bishbike

My usual out and back to Concord. 25.33 windy miles.

sherbornpeddler

My usual ride to Carlisle..........sort of.
I did ride this same route 8 times in 2012 but this is the first time since October, 2012. Not much as changed. The downhills are still fine rewards for uphills. In particular Sanderson Hill/Highland St out to Boston Post Rd/Rt 20 in Weston and in Lincoln the Baker Bridge/Carroll School/Gropius House swoop out past the farm fields towards Walden Pond. The fig newtons were in the same place at Ferns. The mailbox marked "Taxes" is still there on Lowell Rd but it might be a little higher up. The black walnut trees on Water Row in Sudbury is still a great place to eat a fig newton. I did notice a few changes.
1. The hill up to the Weston Observatory is steeper and longer.
2. The water fountain in the center of Concord has a water bottle spigot. If this is old news, I apologize. I was surprised.
3. The speed bumps on Glezen Lane and Plain Rd in Wayland are now speed humps and easier to ride over.
4. My brakes are dragging, bearings are shot or I've a flat tire.

rholland1951

Rode the usual 10 miles before dinner out to Lexington, this time setting out at just the moment when Ra blinds unbelievers (at least, westbound commuting unbelievers) and the Minuteman is paved with gold.


Kept a brisk (for me) pace, more proof that last Winter is finally wearing off. Traffic on the Minuteman was reminding me of driving in Italy (passers passing passers), when I saw an actual Lexington bicycle cop; this broke the glib symmetry, unless, of course, he takes bribes, in which case the order of the universe is restored; I didn't do the experiment. Saw the Mysterious Tourist for the first time in months, this time skating, as he sometimes does. I waved, and received the usual indifferent response. Still mysterious...

rod

sherbornpeddler

Your post is as brilliant as Ra.

rholland1951

Thank you, Sir.

rod

jimmuller 

Rod - Minutemanhenge
SBP - we noticed the spigot last weekend. Pretty cool.

Bishbike

Out and back to Concord.

jimmuller 

Out and back to Woburn and across 128. Which is to say, out and back to work. Took the Motobecane with its sew-up tires. The roads have been swept and patched or repaved in spots, so I didn't worry too much. Bike and tires behaved wonderfully.

sherbornpeddler

Looped 22 miles through mid day Millis, Norfolk and Medfield with Bill the speed demon. Ra was overhead on beautiful Metro Boston tree covered back roads. I like sun dappled roads but when the pace is fast, sun is bright and the shadows dark I don't always spot potholes. I switched from sunglasses to clear safety glasses (with 2 diopter reader bifocals to read maps....and large font odometers) a few years ago and it helped spot the potholes. Maybe my reflexes ain't what they used to be or maybe there are more potholes or I just haven't learned their new locations.

I'm excited to learn about Rod's next encounter with the Mysterious Tourist.
I wonder if I've seen a similar person who fits that criteria on my routes but I didn't notice. Plenty of cyclists wave, lift a few fingers from the brake levers, nod or smile and, when happenstance happens at stop lights, some will say, "nice day." I don't recall noticing a specific repeated encounter that did the poker face, aloof, mystery thing. It might be me and I should be more alert or patient. Just the other day I wondered if a friendly looking fellow going the other way was a fellow BF. I was curious but definitely not a mystery tourist.

I'm not excited to learn about my next encounter with the Mysterious Time Marches On Tourist.
Aloof clue giver. clear lenses instead of sunglasses, reader lenses so I can read a map, odometer or pretty much anything within 3 feet, more "luxury rides." I wonder if I'll notice a picking larger granny sprocket, when I start thinking Carlisle is too far or when I think Bill is a speed demon?

wait a minute....

jimmuller 

I usually get a wave and a smile from the traffic cop in Woburn Center on my way home. I figure that's a good thing.

Earlier this week while bombing along either Lexington St or Pleasant St in the morning I came up to a road-repair situation with only one lane open. The policeman was waving the cars through, with me at the tail end. So I was hammering. As I went by one woman watching the repair from the sidewalk she yelled out "Be careful!" I yelled back "Thank you!" That's all I could think of at the time.

Jim from Boston

My first long training ride this season, on May 3 was to Cumberland, RI; indeed that was the first time I had ridden south of Wrentham and first time in Rhode Island. I started in Norwood on Rte 1A to North Attleboro, then Rte 120 to Rte 114/121 back into Massachusetts to Norwood.

Rte 120 was a very nice road as an introduction to RI. On the way back on Rte 121 I passed the bucolic Mercymount School and nearby Mount St. Rita Heath Center. I decided to adopt the Angel standing watch at St. Rita’s as my Guardian Angel of the Road.

One of the joys of cycling is my reputation as a “Road Warrior” and I have an endless source of conversation with my deep, as well as casual acquaintances. A few days after the RI ride, as I pulled up to work, I encountered the Chairman of the Board. We got to chatting, and wouldn’t you know he lived on that route, and I knew the name of his neighborhood (Wampum Corner), and learned that his children went to Mercymount.

[

Jim from Boston

Millis, Norfolk and Medfield are frequent venues, as well as Dover for my daily rides. My own particular greeting to other cyclists besides a hand or finger wave, or a nod, is a hearty, “Yo.” I never feel rebuffed if I receive no reply.

I recently posted my distinguishing characteristics:

sherbornpeddler

Yo James de Boston!

Gosh then our paths have crossed and you certainly don't qualify as a Mystery Tourist. I might be "aloof" on the rare occasion when I'm in deep thought but most folks will say that is pretty rare. I respond to "Yos" but with my cow-like reflexes it might be 50 meters after the yo. I respond to potholes much faster but even then they have to wait 5-10 meters.

The clothes I usually wear.....are what ever is in the front of the bureau drawer..... I do usually wear a blue and white helmet, white socks, clear safety glasses and a mustache. If I see a white recumbent with kevlar wind screen and blue saddlebags I know it were me. If it is a green single speed or blue racing bike that ought to be cleaned more often, it might be me but I wouldn't be too sure without checking at least for the socks and mustache. If you hear something other than "yo" and there is a pothole 10 meters back, it were me. Moo.

sherbornpeddler

42 even slower miles on the bent up Rt 126 north of Natick Center. Rt 126 will be nice when they replace the pavement they ground off just north of Rt. 9; just not yet. Good ole Heard Pond is a beautiful as ever and the is pavement in between the potholes. No one bikes that road twice and claims they forgot about their first ride. Further north after crossing Rt 20 on to River Rd I stopped to admire the training field marker and further north after re-crossing Rt 27 I past the Haynes Garrison on Water Row.

East to Oxbow Rd, back across Rt 126 to Waltham Rd, Rt 117, south on Tower Rd, Weston Observatory, back into Weston past Regis College and the Spellman Stamp Museum, Wellesley and home.

The photo I wish I took was a squirrel in heaven eating from a coconut that either fell from a grocery bag or climate change is faster that I thought.

jimmuller 

As fine a bike road as you could imagine with a great, mostly unknown historical site too.

We were near there today. 43.45 miles, Bedford, Concord, Sudbury, Stow, Hudson. Turned around on Main St. in Hudson for two reasons. We wanted to go back to the Assabet Wildlife Sanctuary for lunch, and we didn't want to go up this hill with is 10% grade and shoulder seemingly narrowing to nothing. It looked steeper than it looks. DeLorme TopoNA says it is steep.


Had a nice lunch at the Visitors Center.


Stopped for a photo op passing the Sudbury River and bumped (not literally, for he was on the opposite side of the road) into Rod Holland, had a nice conversation.


It was a nice day on the bike!

hubcyclist

Went for a family ride from Arlington to Lexington on the minuteman, with my 3 year old on board my bike. 11mph average, def not my usual pace!

rholland1951

It was a beautiful day. Everything else flowed from that. And it was the Summer Solstice, of course.


My car needed servicing, so mid-morning I strapped my venerable first-generation Allen rack on the rear and brought my LHT, plus the requisite ancillary gear down to Lexington Toyota (Mass. Ave, near Fottler Ave.). After turning over the key, took down the bike and headed off up the crowded Minuteman at a very brisk clip to Depot Park, for an initial (and unrecorded) 6.2 mile segment; the bell saw frequent use for this.

Once I got to Depot Park, I stopped for a hot dog and to ponder what route I was actually going to ride. The garage closes at 5. A run out to Haystack seemed possible, but a little risky. Water Row suggested itself. Then I remembered a diagonal route to the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge that strings together four Sudbury Scenic Roads (Concord Road, Pantry Road, Haynes Road, and Marlboro Road) pleasantly and efficiently. That still didn't settle which of three or four routes I was going to take to Concord Center, but when I rolled out Railroad Ave. (what most of the routes had in common), I turned into the Reformatory Branch trailhead, curious about whether this little dry spell we've had would dry up the mud that plagues some of the Concord segments of the trail (it did), and also curious about how the Barlow Pass tires would handle the mostly unimproved trail conditions (very nicely, thank you!). Had a jolly ride through the Bedford and Concord sections of the trail, and stopped for a bit at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge to avail myself of their bike rack and public toilets, my current baseline for civilization (the bogs at Depot Park had been mobbed by the same throngs that I was ringing my bell at, and had something like a 20-minute wait). I also climbed their observation tower, and got a nice view of the dike and ponds. While I was up there, I did a few experiments with the newly-noticed panorama setting on my phone's camera, with mixed results.




Met one of the wildlife refugees on the way out.


The Reformatory Branch Trail is pretty, passing through a range of environments, and tends to be rail-trail flat. The surface features roots, rocks, sand. In wet weather, it also features mud, with two sections in Concord sometimes attaining Sucking Mire status. Fortunately, they were too dry to suck on this ride. Much of the trail has little hummocks, almost sinusoidal, along its length: I found myself getting into a pedaling rhythm with these, often one turn of the crank per hummock. One of these days, Bedford is going to pave their section of the trail, and some of this fun will be lost, but it will open it up for other users. Concord seems to be too fond of their mud to want asphalt, although they do seem to be doing some drainage work to try to mitigate the worst of it.












Emerged from the Reformatory Branch onto Monument Street, and rode through Concord Center to pick up Sudbury Road.

To be continued...

rod

rholland1951

(Continued)

Rolling out Sudbury Road across Route 2A, I paused on the bridge to pay my respects to the Sudbury River. There were folks out fishing on the West bank, water lilies blooming near the East Bank, and benign cumulus clouds marching out to the horizon.


Continued on Sudbury Road, Concord, and across Route 117; at the town line, this became Concord Road, Sudbury, and skirts the Pantry Brook Wildlife Management Area, a first-rate swamp, and a bit of a hazardous environment in hunting season. I stopped to admire that, and a few hundred yards down the road, met Jim Mueller and Sharon, out on the tandem. As usual, they were inbound, I was outbound. We chatted for a bit, then rolled on.




Had a pleasant ride through Sudbury on Concord Road, Pantry Road, Haynes Road, and Marlboro Road all designated Scenic Roads with good pavement, low traffic, and interesting sights. Picked up Maynard Road, and found a little unmarked dirt road, just at the Maynard line, possibly an extension of Taylor Road, that was a pleasure in itself and served as a back-door to the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge.






To be continued...

rod

mr_bill

-mr. bill

sherbornpeddler

A magician never tells how he does his tricks but could you give us a few hints? Wow!

Panza

Was trying to find harvard square and a guy said to follow him because he was going towards there. Probably rode too closely. He went on his brakes and I hit his rear wheel and got launched off my bike. My front wheel was out of true, we were both okay though. My LBS International Bike Shop noticed and fixed it for me. I ended up getting a flat later, someone who read "The Rules" or "The Book" let me have a new tube and he said that some day he will be in need and someone will help him too. Thank you fellow riders.