Another busy Saturday, yard work and errands, didn't get on the bike until almost 5. Rode the
GT Karakoram with its 55mm balloon tires down to Harvard Square on
Mass. Ave., and followed the
Charles River path out to Watertown Square on
Greenough Blvd. and
Charles River Road, then
crossed the river and returned on the path along
Nonantum Road and
Soldiers Field Road, recrossing at the
Lars Anderson Bridge and back to
Brattle Square, where an electric blues guitarist and a Gypsy accordion player were holding forth, and home by a leafier route,
Brattle Street, Aberdeen Street, Huron Ave., etc., passing
Mount Auburn Cemetery, Fresh Pond, Little Pond, and Spy Pond along the way. At one point,
my path was strewn with cherry blossoms...
For whatever reason, I haven't been riding into town since getting back on the bicycle in earnest five years ago, even though I know there are some great rides there; today's ride was really a bid for a little novelty in a shorter route, since time was scarce; it was also an opportunity to exercise the newly-mounted balloon tires on some varied terrain (got that). But once begun, I was startled to realize that it's been something like 40 years since I last rode the Charles paths, on my old Raleigh (then my new Raleigh); seems like just last week, of course... The paths have changed a bit in my absence,
for the better. Sometimes, the bicycle is a time machine: most often transporting us into the past of the places ridden through, in this case, rolling from my own past, circa 1974, to a beautiful Spring afternoon in 2014.
18 miles through Arlington, Cambridge, Watertown, Newton, Brighton, Allston, and Belmont.
rod