telkanuru

I did that run up and down the MM this morning. It was a really nice day, though the path was still soaking. It looked like some dudes at/from the Bedford bike shop were leading a bunch of school kids on a day trip down the trail, which was cool, although I made sure to start back to Boston before they did!

Now to sit down and write a paper (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

sherbornpeddler

MWRA and MAPC are working with the towns to open some of the aqueducts up for trail use. The Sudbury is not yet open but portions are used by locals. I easily rode several sections with 35c (aka 28" outside diameter by 1 3/8" wide) tires. 23's might be a little unsteady as it is grass and dirt.

sherbornpeddler

Excellent call and a well deserved association. I guess anyone involved enough to be reading Bike Forums could step out of a phone booth wearing coveralls and carrying a toolbox. Jim (Clark Kent) well done and Bishbike, good call, just be careful not to disclose secret identities to anyone outside of Bike Forums.

rholland1951

Sunset ride to Depot Park, Bedford, 20 miles. Lots of company of all sorts on the Minuteman in the beautiful weather. This week's CREATIVE TRAIL USE award goes to the young man coasting down the hill in Arlington, seated on a long board in lotus position, a big smile on his face. After sunset, the brighter leaves, reds and yellows, glowed in the dusk, as did the duckweed on Peeper's Pond.

rod

jimmuller 

The word for today is "dappled". The Blackstone Bikeway was dappled with both fallen leaves and sunlight slanting through the still-green unfallen leaves. If I hadn't been going 15mph I would have stopped and taken a picture. However I did take these:

Waiting for the train this foggy morning:


Crossing under I95 on the way in to work this morning, a picture I've been wanting to take for a year:


Of course there is always a cosmic payback. As I was riding the train this morning I noticed a bulge in my rear tire. Closer inspection showed that the sidewall threads in one direction had been cut for about 3/4th of an inch, but the threads in the other direction were intact. Fortunately it did not blow out on the ride in or the ride out. I wonder how long it's been that way? I guess I'll be heading off to the bike shop this weekend.

Bishbike

Mum's the word...

pocky

Yet another brilliant Halloween Bike Ride costume that I will have to use one of these days if I can ever manage to be free the night of the ride. (Have an opera gig at Oberon in Harvard Square on Halloween night.)

Bishbike

Wonderful ride out to Harvard with some friends this morning. What a spectacular day to be out on the bike. Saw lots of folks out cycling with big grins on their faces. I only wish I had brought a camera to capture some of the beautiful fall scenery.

sherbornpeddler

Today was my scenic road start, stop, pictures and notes ride to review the Sherborn Tree Warden's recommendations. This 60" Ash is still alive but rotted and going the way of many ash trees. Some thoughtful folks I met on route suggested saving a slice of the trunk and note what was happening at the time the tree was growing different rings.

rholland1951

Given the forecast for the weekend, I knew I couldn't use up all of the good weather on the kind of ride of uncertain duration that visits new-to-me territory and gets me home after dark, so I stitched together some segments from prior rides I'd enjoyed into a 34-mile route that lay mostly between Route 128 and the Concord River, through Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Billerica, Concord, and Lincoln. This included the Grove Street/Page Road hill, the Dudley Road time machine, the Narrow-Gauge Rail Trail, Hartwell Road, the Reformatory Branch Trail, Virginia Road, Mill Street, and Marrett Road. With just shy of 2000' of elevation gain, it had enough climbing to wake the legs up, and enough speed on the way back down to wake the rest of me up.

After the Page Road roller coaster, entered Dudley Road from the Bedford end, at the horsey, new-money Huckins Farm development (some years ago, with a full moon, I heard coyotes howl there one night).


Rode through that to the place where the road narrows, and tries to convince you it isn't a road at all. Gets bumpy, too.


This marks the threshold of the old-money Dudley Road, a discreet gem with history back to the earliest days of the Commonwealth. There are some beautiful old houses and farms hidden away here.


This is followed by Greenwood Farm, a going concern with 17th-Century antecedents.



Then comes Saint Thecla's Retreat House, operated by the Daughters of Saint Paul, the "haunted convent" of local high-school lore.



Followed Dudley Road across Route 4 to Concord Road, on asphalt whose origin myth no doubt involves a crocodile.



Rode South to Springs Road, and picked up the unofficial, unmaintained Billerica section of the Narrow-Gauge Rail Trail. It is, indeed, narrow.


The Bedford section of the Narrow-Gauge Rail Trail is wider, and well-maintained, with a stone dust surface where it's needed, for the most part.



After following the NGRT to the end, had a quick lunch break (hot dog) at the Depot Park Freight House, and continued down South Road to Hartwell Road. After the discussion of Hartwell Road on this list the other day, I realized it had been a couple of years since I'd ridden it, and was curious about its current condition. It was mostly as I remembered, some of the pavement actually seems to have been improved (and there was some road work in progress that I was flagged around), but the conspicuous rough spot--a six-foot-wide, 200-yard-long strip of nasty asphalt on the westbound lane immediately after the skating rink--is still there. I was able to take the lane and avoid that. Also, some of the Cold War architecture is a little harder to see, due to changes in fencing, and an old parking lot that used to be a great place to take your kids to watch planes take off and land has been barricaded; it's enough to make me nostalgic for the Cold War, and simpler times. The sight of a little helicopter that looked like it was being used to practice touch-and-go landings was partial compensation for this, however, and I still like the route.


After riding by Chip-In Farm, I hopped off Hartwell Road a bit before it gets to Route 62, and hopped on the second Bedford segment of the Reformatory Branch Trail. This is a nice ride, with lots of little hummocks in the dirt path, and one major obstruction; even though somebody has carefully created little dirt ramps for a section of it, it's something you really don't want to hit at speed.


From there, it was Old Bedford Road, Virginia Road (the little helicopter was still at it when I skirted Hanscom Field the second time), Mill Street, Lexington Street/Lincoln Street, Middle Street, Marrett Road, and home. Good weather, and the ride I had time for in it.

rod

jimmuller 

Nice report, Rod. Believe it or not, Sharon and I have ridden the tandem over much of your route. We discovered Dudley Rd earlier this year just wondering where it went. (Nowhere except back to rt4, of course.) In a fit of exploration when I convinced Sharon that the tandem could tolerate a gravel surface we even rode parts of the NGRT, which I believe is labeled Bedford-Billerica RT or perhaps Bedford-Billerica Narrow Gauge RT in Bedford. It would be nice to see that trail developed a bit more.

rholland1951

Jim, I remember your account of that; twice the fun on a tandem! Dudley Road is a great spot, and the NGRT connects it conveniently to the Minuteman, running on the roadbed of the old Billerica & Bedford Railroad. Friends of Depot Park propaganda about that can be found at https://www.bedforddepot.org/railtrails/NGRT_guide.pdf.



rod

jimmuller 

We managed 42.27 miles on the tandem today. Mostly our usual haunts, starting in Bedford, over to Carlisle, up to Chelmsford, back to Concord, and eventually back to Bedford of course. The Bruce Freeman was quite pretty, coverd with leaves in places so that it looked like a woods trail rather than paved. Had a nice picnic at Heart Pond (which was re-opened for swimming a few weeks ago). Got sprinkled on lightly as we were heading home, which means we timed the ride with the weather as closely as we possibly could. Considering this morning's weather prediction it worked out great!

Running out rt225 to Carlisle in the morning I noticed a blue-lighted motorcycle coming up behind us. The policeman pulled up besides us and Sharon and I were both thinking "What did we do wrong? Speeding?" ) Then he yelled at us about a motorcycle caravan coming. Lots more blue lights, with another policeman giving us the same warning, then about 50 motorcycles, followed by another police car. We pulled over and just waited for the whole shebang to pass. Well that was exciting, I guess. I don't know what the event was but it sure had plenty of official coverage. It was comforting to be given a nice warning, but probably unnecessary.

You can smell the turkey and dressing from here:


It was a good day.

Bishbike

Rod, thanks for posing NGRT info. I will have to check it out.

sherbornpeddler

OK, I'm sold. I'll go ride it.
Wow! Great report!
Wow!

sherbornpeddler

Jim,
I read your report quickly; so you had a motorcycle escort.
Proper recognition.

sherbornpeddler

I rode the 110 mile Great River Ride out of Westfield, MA. This is a thoughtful, beautiful tour of small town western MA, well marked and nice folks, all. I was glad the rain held off. Although there are only a few miles in Westfield, I was also impressed with the renovations of bridges and downtown section of their downtown.

Jim and Sharon, it was a little hilly.

rholland1951

SBP, sounds splendid! Is that an organized ride?

rod

(seconds pass, smacks forehead, Googles it...)

jimmuller 

I'm not sure who was escorting whom. The motorcycles sans plice outnumbered the police motorcycles by 10 to 1 maybe, and those riders looked like they didn't need an escort, let alone protection. On the other hand, they were all V-twins; we were the only ones riding a 4-cylinder. I figure it must have been some sort of in memorium event or fund raiser.

If you say it was hilly, it have been hilly. I hope they were all gradual hills.

rholland1951

10-mile mental health ride on the Minuteman in the late afternoon, cool and breezy with a high ceiling and silver-grey clouds that reminded me of what I saw when I cleaned out my clothes dryer's lint trap over the weekend. The actual mental health benefit derived chiefly from watching a border collie and an Australian sheep dog romping and barking joyously on Hurd field. Woof!

rod

jimmuller 

Cool and lovely commute today. Very light traffic. Couldn't ask for a better ride, except not have it broken up by a workday in the middle.

sherbornpeddler

Ayup, they were gradual*
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/1786392
This is a RUSA 170K "Populaire" run by a bike shop in Westfield, MA.


*It is the hilliest ride I recall, about 9000 ft of climbing is what they claim. I can say the hill they call "The Wall" on East River Road in Chester after mile 66 looked long and steep; 10 minutes later looked the same; another 10 or maybe 100 minutes later looked the same and then.....,well, then I figured it was better to not look at my watch or the hill. I'm pretty certain time passed and eventually it stopped looking the same although maybe I'm still climbing that hill. The folks at the water-fig newton-banana stop a couple of miles later rewarded riders with a foil wrapped, hot baked potato as very effective incentive/reward to ride up The Wall. I'll take a baked potato over a powergooenergy stick any day but the chill in the air made it an even more effective carrot.

Today wife and I rode a very pleasant ride through Millis, Medfield and Dover.

jimmuller 

SBP, I have no doubt that if anyone could ride those gradual hills, it would be you. I've seen you go uphill. Ain't no uphill you can't go up.

sherbornpeddler

Outside our MetroWest focus but I'll be exploring from Watch Hill, Rhode Island this weekend with some cycling cronies. The forecast is good weather, good food, good riding and good stories. Narragansett Bay Wheelmen publish several rides.

Bishbike

Breezy 40 miles form Waverly Square to Fern's in Carlisle before work. Great day for a ride!