godshammgod

The house we're buying is actually about a half-mile or so from Salem End Rd.; I've driven down it many times, but I'm really looking forward to finally riding it.

Jim from Boston

Hi jmm,

Thank you for your cartographic reply. “This segment” to which I refer is the length of “Jim’s Road,’” from Pleasant St in Woburn to the end of Woburn St in Pleasantville (Lexington) as described in your previous post. When I get a chance, I’ll sit down with Mapquest and trace your commuting routes for further explorations in that sector; I pretty much know only Rte 3, and Mass Ave in that vicinity.

That “thoroughfare-ish” Waltham St was my return route to Waltham on the jaunt.

Often when I tell people I cycle commute, a frequent reply is "How do you go?." For my standard commute from Kenmore Square to Norwood I have four parallel routes in a relatively straight direction, all defined by a hill. In order of difficulty of the hills, I describe them as “gritty (but safe) urban, “pleasant suburban, “pleasant urban, and “ritzy suburban.” The routes are from 13.5 to 14 miles.

They are all in the reverse (auto) commute direction, and I ride early in the AM. I take the Commuter Rail home, at about 1/8th mile from work and about two miles from home. Since my accident, I had to promise a lot of people I would not ride at night. I can extend my commute through some really nice roads to the east or west of Rte 1; I think of them as the Neponset River or Charles River watersheds. I have previously posted:

The downside is that most of this summer, my work has been so busy that not infrequently I stay over to save on total commuting time, and rarely eke out an afternoon ride. Posting is a pleasant intermittent break though.

BTW, FYA, I recently replied to this thread on the Living Car Free Forum, ”What streets do you like to ride on?.” with reference to Metro Boston.

JfB

Jim from Boston

Just last week, I came home with my bike, and our babysitter and I started chatting about bicycling, and I asked her where she lived. It came out that her family’s home was just off of Salem End Rd.

jimmuller 

My sweetie and I took the tandem out today and set our longest day ever, 75.8 miles. Started directly from home but didn't get the early start we were hoping for. It didn't matter, we still rode all day, made it home about 6:30. Traffic was light and the weather was spectacular. Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge, Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Concord, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Westford, and Lowell, and a slightly different route home through the same towns. Now for some pics.

A long ride is impossible, and pointless, without snacks. First snacks of the day, with only 60 miles to go:


A sun-dappled, tree-lined road somewhere in I forget where:


Possibly the most unusual sign we've ever seen is one I've posted before, "Tattooed Poultry". (My avatar is an extraction from that original photo.) For the last few months the barn where this sign hung has been undergoing restoration, and we wondered if the gorgeous old red shingles and the sign were going back up. Well, we don't know about the shingles and the answer to that is probably no, but the sign is back up! Rejoice!


The bike rack at Ferns had both extremes, large and small:


The Carlisle Cranberry Bog is turning red. In another month or so they'll start harvesting berries.


On the way home we spotted this sign, had to take a pic for posting:


End of the the day and the bike is tired. So are we. I started my recovery with some Dogfish Head 90 Minute Recovery Fluid. Sharon wanted a long day so we rode...


The payback is I get to do a solo ride tomorrow on the Masi. Yeah, right, like I'll have any legs left. Tomorrow doesn't matter. Today was good for the soul.

otg 

Sounds like a great day!

jimmuller 

I just got back in from a solo ride on the Masi. 42.0 miles, 15.1mph moving avg. After yesterday's miles on the tandem the Masi feels like a figher jet, all go, go, go, where you point it, and go. Cloudy skies, damp air, but not hot. Light traffic, probably due to everybody being away for the long weekend. I explored a few new-to-me roads in West Concord. As I cruised gently into Concord Center a policeman hiding behind a cruiser held up a radar ***, gave me a big smile and said "14". I gave him a thumbs up and "Good."

sherbornpeddler

Great rides all! I particularly related to your posts about crossing the Charles by Bunker Hill, exploring Bavarian's Rumford in Woburn and the Oregon Club in Ashland.
I'm not riding for the moment so have nothing to report but I've just got to blurt out all of these Metro Boston posts paint real pictures of cycling these parts and are both fun and informative to read. Sharing them is a gift. Thanks!

Oh, I'll post a car trip to Charlestown Susan and I took a couple of days ago to watch Old Ironsides sail back from giving Castle Island a 21 *** salute. Looking from Charlestown southwest as the oldest commissioned navy ship just off the bow (and to the right of the new Boston Garden) we could see the iron Charlestown Bridge and Freedom Trail route we biked across earlier in the year. Then we biked through Paul Revere Park and under the Zakim.
Thanks again cycling friends and keep up the great rides and community sharing.

Jim from Boston

I happened to read this post early this Sunday morning, about 6:00 AM, and at about 11:00 AM I met two acquaintances who are avid tandem riders and they were impressed with that mileage. She said "I could never do that!." They do rides of about 30 miles. They live in Belmont and a couple of weeks ago I gave him the directions to this Metro Boston thread, since it is so heavily weighted torwards their preferred sector of the Metroverse, particularly the Minute Man. This morning he opened the conversation telling me he visited and bookmarked "Metro Boston." So I said check your above post.

They told me about going to visit family with the tandem, and some rides in Virginia and Philadelphia, saying "The tandem always travels with us; it's a member of the family." They apparently take the tandem on a rear rack as I recall. One rack apparently was able to handle the weight of the tandem, but the extra length of the bike applied a torque force and broke the support bar.

That street looks very pleasant to me. jmm, with a nice shoulder. Where is it? I feel a Quest coming on to find it. You may think you just happened to take that picture, but as Kurt Vonnegut would say in his novel Cat's Cradle,

Jim from Boston

Hi sbp,

Thanks for this post and your comments about my ride descriptions. I totally agree that ”Metro Boston" posts paint real pictures of cycling these parts and are both fun and informative to read.” I link this thread to various posts on other Forums I read to promote Metroverse cycling, and I tout it as the “de facto” Metro Boston sub-forum.”

I now remember that you did write that you would be off the bike for a ccouple weeks, as I recall. Yesterday (Saturday 8/30) I passed through Sherborn and always hope I might be able to recognize you from your avatar (ride report to follow).

I thought that the Constitution turnaround cruise happened by tradition on July 4. A friend who was a WWII veteran, and his wife, was on the ship one year for the cruise (I thought it was a July 4).

I took my fellow Fifty-Plus subscriber, rtool to see it when he came in July, and also told him the tale of the naming of the Zakim Bridge.

[

JfB

hubcyclist

Interesting encounters in Lexington center this weekend. On sat I was in the left lane to turn to continue on mass ave to concord, and I hear a honk and someone say "use the bike path". I then look to my right and see a minivan in the right lane going up to Hancock st with a guy flipping me off. That was a first for me. So I was in no way affecting his driving but he went out of his way to flip me off. Today was more benign, I saw Donald berwick giving a stump speech on the sidewalk. For a lot of reasons I have a lot of respect for him so it was nice to see him.

jimmuller 

Thanks for the plug! There was a time I never figured we'd ride mileages like that either.

About that sign and Kurt Vonnegut, I confess to not liking Mr. Vonnegut. Sorry. I have not become unstuck in time. Maybe that's the problem, mine not his. But back to that sign...

The corner of Brighton St and Oliver in Belmont. Belmont seems to have taken the idea of bike travel seriously! Okay, so why would we be riding Brighton St?

When we (or I commuting) want to get from the Mass Ave corridor to Waltham, there are only a few pleasant ways. One is Pleasant St/Rts 4/225 southward past Wilson Farm but that carries a lot of traffic by late afternoon and in a few spots narrows down while going uphill, not so pleasant on the unwieldy tandem. Another option is Rt 60 south from Arlington Center, but the southbound shoulder is pretty rough until it crosses Rt 2. Another option is to ride the MM to Lake St, turn right to Rt 60, then left on Rt 60. Lake St is nice but has a busy ramp for Rt 2 and some "interesting" potholes in that section. (I flat-spotted a nice Mavic MA2 rim there without getting a pinch flat!) Yet another option is to ride the MM into Alewife. From there a newly completed section of bikeway goes westward to Brighton St. I don't know its name, maybe part of the Alewife Greenway? DeLorme Street Atlas lists it as MM. A right on Brighton takes us to Rt 60 which is pretty decent from there all the way to Waverley Square. It's not the most direct route from Alewife to Waltham but it is pleasant, and we were looking for mileage anyway.

There are other ways to make that connection. This morning I came into Lexington on Rt 2A/Marrett Rd, turned right on Spring St, then left on Concord. If I'd stayed on Marrett until Waltham St it would have saved me some hills on Concord.

rholland1951

That's the Fitchburg Cutoff Path, an embryonic segment of the Mass Central Rail Trail. Insofar as the news reports I've read have made sense to me, it looks like the Town of Belmont is currently squabbling with some abutters as to how to extend it into Belmont Center.

rod

rholland1951

So, we went to the Thomas Point Beach bluegrass festival, in Brunswick, Maine, this Labor Day weekend, a low-key, end-of-the-summer ritual that features camping among friends, as much field picking as stamina allows, and a diverse and solid line-up of bands.


Ellen brought her guitar and had a musical time of it. I brought my ears and put them to good use, but also brought the LHT, and took that for a 31-mile ride on Saturday, down Maine Route 24 through a series of islands in Casco Bay--Sabascodegan, Orr's, and Bailey. I had tried this once before, about 10 years ago, on the old GT, and was surprised then by the hills and the wind, eventually throwing in the towel before seeing what lay beyond some next hill on Orr's Island that was just a little too hilly for my then-rail-trail-habituated self. This time, I had fun with the ride, played tourist a bit, enjoyed the hills and made do with the headwind on the outbound leg, took some pictures, got to the end of the road and the end of land at Bailey Island, then turned around and sailed up and down those hills with a brisk tailwind back to Thomas Point Beach. The hills added up to 2440' elevation gain, not bad for a relatively short ride, and were often quick and steep; finding the right gear quickly enough was sometimes a challenge, and my legs know they've been worked; some of the most beautiful scenery lay at the bottom of a gravity well, and remains unphotographed in the interests of conserving the momentum gained descending for the stiff ascent to follow. If you think about Worcester County hills combined with Essex County scenery, it's a reasonable first approximation, although the Maine geology in the highway cuts and the road-kill porcupine keep one from mistaking Maine 24 for either of those places.









The town of Harpswell is in the grip of a controversy about a traditional right-of-way, Cedar Beach Road, which provides beach access but is under threat of closure by two families from away, echoing the Enclosures strife of 18th-Century Britain. A grassroots campaign to preserve access is evinced by numerous signs on Bailey Island and Orr's Island, with variations on the theme "Save Cedar Beach Road", of which this is the most pithy:










rod

Jim from Boston

Hey jmm

I was intrigued by the road and neighborhood in the background. The sign merely showed you where to take the picture. I will trace out your detailed directions for this future Quest.

To demonstrate my point, see this post, and this one:

Though I don’t normally read the thread on Fifty-Plus, ”Did you ride today”, as it happened — as it was supposed to happen — I read the précis of your ride yesterday:

JfB

jimmuller 

I took my Masi out again this morning. Yucky weather, steamy like riding through a steam room, very different from yesterday. Did only 22.6 miles.

The roads were quiet though, even if still wet from the morning's rain. Yesterday I went west on Rt117 but returned through Lexington. Today I decided to return on Rt 117 through Lincoln and Waltham. It was, um, okay but not as nice as the run west. The eastbound shoulder is rougher, and coming east through Waltham presents some interesting stoplight/which-lane choices that the westbound run doesn't. Fortunately the traffic was light and no one seemed to mind when I had to take the middle of a lane at a stoplight. Out in the more rural nether regions though what few drivers there were seemed to be driven by pressing reasons to get where they were going immediately.

Lots of green everywhere.


Concord Center was empty.




Empty roads too, mostly.

sherbornpeddler

Gosh that is a beautiful bike!

sherbornpeddler

Did you look behind you? Maybe everyone was following you.

jimmuller 

Thank you, sir! That is the bike about which a few years ago I commented that I didn't run a computer because I didn't want to cover up the Cinelli logos and you commented on the Cinelli logos comment. It is indeed spectacular to ride, and to look at thanks to Toby Stanton at Hottubes. It has picked up a few minor blemishes however, the inevitable result of being ridden!

Ah, no I didn't. When I'm on that bike no one on a bike passes me. Well, almost no one. At least not as often as when I'm riding something else. Well, if they do I don't remember it. I wouldn't have minded if a few of those cars had passed me a bit more judiciously, but what the heck, they were in cars and so weren't thinking terribly well anyway.

jimmuller 

Rod H., thanks for the clarification on the Fitchburg Extension. Wow, Fitchburg and Northampton a loooong ways away from that embryonic bikeway, nowhere near Belmont at all.

Nice pics from Thomas Point Beach and the Maine coast. It's good to see Mac and Hazel on stage too. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

rholland1951

Took the old GT Karakoram with the 55mm balloon tires out for a 10-mile night ride on the Minuteman in air like tepid bathwater, the Night Chorus raucous and varied, definitely Late Summer. A little green frog went hopping across the path, successfully playing Minuteman Frogger. A bit later, a bunny did the same trick. A cop with a flashlight searched for something, or someone, in the little trailside park near Drake Village.

rod

welshTerrier2

Hi All.

My bike club is taking a spin on the Minuteman tomorrow (i.e. Wednesday) and I'm hoping someone can recommend a place to eat anywhere between Bedford and Alewife. We're just looking for something (lunch) quick and easy but maybe something a little more interesting than the standard pizza, subs or burgers kind of place.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

- wT2

rholland1951

How many do you want to feed.at once,.and how much time do you have? Lots of choices in Arlington Center. If you have a big grup, you could disperse there, then rendez-vous after lunch. Two likely suggestions are The Madrona Tree (localvore, low key) or Acitron (Mexican that's a step up from the usual burritos. Many other choices.

rod

welshTerrier2

Thanks, Rod. The two you named sound great!

We'll probably only have about 6 to 8 people on this ride. Time isn't much of an issue. We usually spend lots of time socializing and eating. Our Wednesday rides are mostly retired folks.

Any recommended ice cream places?

rholland1951

There's a pretty good ice cream place on the corner of Mass Ave and Medford Street. The ice cream is good but the name escapes me...

welshTerrier2

A little research turned up a place called the Chilly Cow at that location. Thanks so much for your responses.