Everytime I go out onto the beltway in my car during, well, pretty much anytime, I'm amazed that people do it every day. I just got back from an hours run, half the time I was shaking my head and giving the hairy eyeball to all the motorists flying by me. It's a circus out there. I told my wife that they probably see pedestrians running or cycling up Lake Ave as crazy, it's so dangerous. I for one think they are the crazies, they just can't see it from their point of view. And the exhaust fumes!!! cough-gagh-coueeeh!!:mad:

Yeah, especially the buses and trucks with under-chassis exhaust systems. :twitchy:

Welcome back NR. You missed a bunch of bizarre commuting days, huge temp swings, lots and lots of rain, a couple of spring like days, lots and lots of rains....or did I mention that

Thieves in the night:(

[QUOTE=joshandlauri;8023997]The area I was talking about is in the park. When you cross over the swinging bridge from the HoCo side to the Balto side make a left. Take it all the way to the Grist Mill bridge. Newish bridge that allows you to exit the park and ride UP Illchester or ride River rd to Ellicott City. It is a very pretty area.
I hear you on the kids. You can still ride with them. Put one on your back(in a backpack) and one on the back of your bike in one of those bike frame seats. I use to ride the C&O with mine like this. Ride only rail trails.

Thanks, Charlie. I guess I'm catching up with the rain riding. So far, it seems like many of my commutes since I've come back have been wet.

Speaking of up River Rd to Ellicott City, this came in from SHA:

[QUOTE=balto charlie;8046617]help me with this
the baltimore county side has the bathroom right?
the hoco has no bathroom
so if I cross the bridge from the baltimore county side to the hoco side I can go right and that takes me to the pond, go left and it used to become rocks and lead to a damn/waterfall. is the the way to illchester? that would be awesome!

if I start on the hoco side and cross the bridge to baco, the bathroom is in from of me make a left takes me up the road to the avalon area w/pavilions, making a right is paved trail which I'm not sure where it goes.

I really want to figure this illchester trail thing out.

On the kids thing, the wife won't let me put the baby in the back pack and hike let alone ride, When it warms up we are getting a trail-a-bike and making a train, My old MTB, trail a bike for the boy and then the trailer for the baby.

So, this section, right?

I think the Grist Mill bridge is approximately where I have it marked on this map:

[QUOTE=joshandlauri;8047663]Both sides have bathrooms. I think you have it backwards. The pond is on the Balto Co. side. Ride "up-river", pass the pond on your left. Just after the pond, cars can no longer drive as there are posts in the middle of the path. Ride this side, pass(don't cross) the swinging bridge. The river and bridge are on your left. The trail is very flat(unlike the HoCo side). The trail eventually begins an slight uphill, the dam is on your left. Soon you will come to the new Grist Mill trail bridge. Cross the bridge to Illchester/River Rds.

Really. I knew they were putting in sidewalks so kids can walk to the swimming pool. This good news though I never found it a problem to ride on the HUGE shoulder. It was so huge cars could park and there would still be plenty of room to ride.
NR: I think you mapped out the route as the pool is in that direction from River rd. I hope there is a good connecting path down to EC as well. There's a rock that juts out into Frederick rd just below River rd. Forces you to take the lane as cars come speeding downhill from Catonsville. It's not a problem if you anticipate it but for the first time it kinda sucks.

I read it as River Rd to other Oella Ave but heck you are right, not clear, I'll ask.

Wow, quick response, see attached (I was right.)

Is this what you are talking about: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=3...78589178807665

Thanks guys for helping me figure it out, I'll have to get back out there with the wife and get her to do illchester, she already realized the new low 30-25 is a lot different than the old MTB low 22-32

Ahh, dude, you're not looking to be single again are you? That gear change + Illchester does not sound like its going to lead to martial bliss. Just saying, :innocent:

That's it.

she'll work her way up to it.

maybe I should have her start at the top first to see how she likes that gear hange 52-11? figure 52-11 @ 120rpm is what 44mph? thats a good safe speed to desend the hill, right? :lol:

then you figure if the car's parks at the church she'll have to ride back up (or walk)

Man, don't even. Not a good idea to have a semi-new rider go down Illchester's 18% grade at 44 mph, especially when she hits that little curve in the road before Bonnie Branch--unless you're trying to collect life insurance. :eek:

now ya got me thinking ;), I'll have to call aflac in the AM and perhaps go for a ride.

After I get in some sort of ride tomm, depends on the amount of motivation I feel at 6am, anyone else find more motivation when you have to meet someone? if I have to meet someone the alarm goes off and
i'm on an instant high getting ready, when it just me going out I so give in and sleep in.

anyway, she'll probably head out to Loch Raven, she really liked that last time we were out there, of course she's not as brave as me riding up rossville/putty hill/harford to get there. She'll drive to bottom of the hill and park the car.

I did the DC Rand ride today (Middleburg "If You're Not Rich, You're Not Welcome", Virginia Century). I got 101 miles registered on the iBike, but I think I lost a mile after the last rest break, because I forgot to turn the computer back on. Oh well. At least I have exceeded last years mileage. Everything from here on out goes towards a new personal record.

Oh... I tried to record the ride, but my cell phone battery died. Grrrrr! :mad:

@Harry - guess who was on the ride today--your friend, Bennet.

Congrats on the miles, if I'm lucky I might be close to half that.

I got in 15 local milles @ 630pm, 30 degee, windchill 22, not bad out and nothing got to cold. Wife got in about 10 miles about 5pm. I got back in time for the ravens game, BTW if you missed it, it was one hell of a game. GO RAVENS!

Also did you see mon night/tues morn 16 degrees, yikes.

Also one more thing if anyone cares,@ dicks tommorow all reebok cold weather (like under armour coldgear) is 50% off, $22 each, I have it and it is good stuff, I have worn it top and bottom down to 25 degrees and still been warm. Going to get 2 more shirts and a pair of pants.

^^^^^^
Thanks, Josh. And, no, I didn't see the Ravens game. Sounds like it was a great one.

Sorry about posting this so late. I decided to be lazy--napping and eating. :) I didn't get out of bed completely until ~11:30am. That's when I started repairing the flats from century ride and replacing my front brake pads in preparation for a ride from BWI to Annapolis. I tried to do that ride, today, but got another rear wheel flat--IN A BRAND SPANKING NEW TIRE! :mad: It was a really big cut that wouldn't seal, so I had to install my trusty spare...again. At that point, I called it quits and headed back to the airport only getting 25 miles worth of riding in--fighting a 10-15 mph headwind all of the way back, too!

So, anyway, here's the data recorded by my GPS for the century ride--missing the last 2 miles of the ride. The cue sheet showed 102 miles for the ride:

http://bimactive.com/ba/journal/post/10783/19528 <---Description of the ride is here.

MAP
http://bimactive.com/ba/ui/map_get.p...mapType=street

ELEVATION (FT)
http://bimactive.com/ba/ui/chart_get..._route&units=1

SPEED (MPH)
http://bimactive.com/ba/ui/chart_get...tivity&units=1

Nice looking ride NoRacer. Are you still running the Tufo's?

Thanks, -D. Yes, I'm still running the Tufo tubular clinchers. It is very uncharacteristic of the Tufos. It had to have been all of the gravel that was on the road, perhaps mixed with some glass and making it hard to see where the sharp stuff lies.