balto charlie

Thanks, it is a good thing that my wife bought a waterproof camera.

Catonsville has become very active in cycling. I remember 14 years ago, if I saw another commuter on a bike I would stop them just to talk. now they are everywhere. No Portland tho'.

maxine

A few pics from OC:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/maxine...57655790173362

greaterbrown

pics from the July 4th Ramble: https://www.flickr.com/photos/279768...57653414966754

balto charlie

Like the pics, especially the water crossing. He needs a mnt bike or kayak. Where was that skinny little trail?

balto charlie

The classic beer on ramble rides. I am gonna make one of them this year, I swear.

maxine

I kayak, and I've invited him several times, but "NoRacer" is firmly "NoKayaker" as well.

The water was surprisingly deep towards the middle, and the log was mildly precarious. I made it across, but I ended up putting my left foot into the water. I'm not sure exactly where the skinny part of the trail was. We were meandering all around -- Isaias had created a Ride With GPS route, and I was just following him. It was somewhere off that Gordons Pond trail network in Cape Henlopen. We started off on a wide trail of easily manageable gravel, and then ended up on the skinny trail, and then on a wider trail that was a thin layer of pine needles over deep sand. That was where Isaias had to actually PUT A FOOT DOWN at one point!! I wish I could have gotten a picture of THAT, but I was barely able to stay on the bike myself.

maxine

Great pics! Even if the cows *do* look distinctly unimpressed.

balto charlie

Lots going on in C-ville these days. Bike lanes on Edmondson.....finally connecting to the city bikes lanes eventually intersecting with the Gwynns Falls Trail.
Frederick rd will be getting lanes from River Rd(near Ellicott City) to Downtown Catonsville, sharrows through downtown then bike lanes in the Paradise section, again connecting to City bike lanes. Bike trails in Catonsville Park connecting the Edmondson lanes to the Senior center, playground and ball fields. Some folks might think they are in Oregon

derath

Holy smokes. It has been, wow forever since I even ventured onto bikeforums. And yet I see all the familiar names I remember from years past. Nice to see.

oh and hi everyone.

greaterbrown

Hey Derath. We're all growing old in here.
actually not true- I think Charlie is getting younger and stronger battling Balt Co. over bike facilities. He's been killin' it this year.

You must still be riding if you're looking for the MD Peeps again. I am still doing centuries every month. Last Sunday was 135 to chesapeake Beach.
On that one, Isaias was out in front (at the start anyway)- the two of us were Lantern rouges by the end of the day.

Harry, Barry & Maxine are all around the Balt region. We ride together occasionally, but not enough. I really wonder where Josh went to. last post here is 2009

Great to hear from you.

derath

Still? No. Back to is more accurate. I've had a bunch of years of turmoil, starting with the bright idea of becoming a small business owner at the end of 2008. It kicked my free time in the rear and I barely have ridden. But getting out of shape and gaining weight has gotten me to the point that I said ENOUGH and am getting back with a vengeance. I'm nowhere near a century a month yet but I need to be. I've got many pounds to lose again, but more importantly I just want to feel healthy again.

And with riding I dusted off my bikeforums account and decided to start reading it again. Honestly I had stayed away as I was getting depressed reading about cycling.

I have been riding this summer with my son (9) on our tandem. Last weekend we rode it to a nearby pond for some fishing. Total joy.

Once I can ride more than 20 miles without dying I'd love to get riding with people again, at least when possible.

greaterbrown

I can't remember the last time I went riding and brought back dinner.
Well done!

maxine

Hello, peoples.

NoRacer and I had 80 (almost) very nice miles on the Maryland Eastern Shore this weekend.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/866895824

We took the first 40 miles of the Six Pillars Century ride (usually held the first weekend in May) and did an out-and-back. I had woken up that morning with a headache, and I've been having some heat issues on rides lately so I wasn't at all sure about riding, and certainly not sure about riding 80 miles. I told NoRacer I would be happy to hang out with my Kindle at Great Marsh Park in my beach chair on the banks of the Choptank and await his return (or turn around early while he did the full ride.) He was having none of that, though and wanted us to ride together for as long as I felt like riding. And as it happened, I began feeling better and stronger as the ride went on, so we did end up doing the whole thing as planned. A happy circumstance!

As usual, I took way too many pictures.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/maxine...57656953987868

greaterbrown

one word: Tandem



BTW, love that shot of Isaias leading the ducklings.

maxine

Yeeeeaaaah, I'm thinking we would *not* be a very good tandem team -- we're both a little too fond of doing our own things. We tend to yo-yo on our rides: he may decide to go haring off up ahead for a while; I may decide to *try* to keep up with him (or at least keep him in sight ), or not; he'll eventually slow down enough so that I can get closer or catch up with him.

Perfect case in point on this ride -- I was in rather dire need of a, ahem, bio-break and we were in one of the many middle-of-nowhere portions of the route. I spied some solid ground, and some useful trees, and decided to stop and sneak off into the woods a ways . . . Isaias was up ahead a fair bit; I yelled, several times, but he couldn't hear me. I shrugged, stopped, hit the woods, and returned a few minutes later to my lonely bike to resume my ride. I knew he'd eventually realize I wasn't behind him anymore; and sure enough, a few minutes later, there he was, rolling back towards me.

Besides, as much as I could feast my eyes on him all day long I won't even ride in pacelines because I don't want to be staring at somebody's butt the entire ride -- I like to look around at stuff while I'm riding. Maybe if I could be the captain on the tandem . . .

balto charlie

Greetings all: Derath hath returned!! wow, welcome back. I love riding a bike with a purpose. Biking to fish is a great reason to ride. I have thought often of riding the NCR trail to trout fish in the spring. I am cranking harder in advocacy these days vs. bike riding. I'm still riding lots but have really fallen off the old pace.
Max, great pics. My friend is headed down to the Eastern shore today, but I have relatives in town so can't ride w/ him. I did ride near Chestertown while picking up a bushel of #1 crabs a few weeks back. Best crabs in a long time. Chester River Crab House near Rock Hall. I believe "to go only". I also drove/camped/rode to see the meteor showers last week near Fort Frederick, awesome show and excellent riding. No pics tho' Kinda dark

Nice to see this thread in revival. Keep riding.

derath

Well just came back from the family vacation to ocean city. the good news is i took my bike and rode almost every day. the bad news is i wasn't able to get my ride in this morning before we left because someone stole my bike last night...

greaterbrown

Aaaaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!!!

All I can think of for a silver lining comment is that you can start working on your dream bike replacement.

Very sorry

hybriduser

Hi all! slow lady biker in Montgomery County here.

Can you recommend a good fitter to tweak my setup? I'm recreational; not really into spending $$$$ on it!

maxine

That's awful!! Where were you staying? Where was the bike?

I don't usually get too attached to things, but Airborne (the company) is no more, so my bike is now a collector's item! I'd be more-than-the-usual-level bummed if it were stolen or wrecked.

balto charlie

Sucks. If memory serves(and often is does not) you had a nice ride. I too would be bummed if someone stole mine; however, she's very old.

balto charlie

Hi hybrid: The folks at Proteus have a great reputation as bike as fitters. Jill, previous owner was really good. Her shop was bought by Ben and another. I have ridden with Ben and can attest to his biking skills, great personality,and he is an excellent mechanic. He is bike fit certified. Good luck.
https://www.proteusbicycles.com/

derath

50th Street, ocean side. Parked right in front of the Condo. I had loaded up the car friday night, so the bike was in my locking roof rack (the kind with a bar that locks to the downtube) and a chain style lock wrapped around the bike to the roof rack.

Luckily I had taken my old beater. Still a nice old Trek mountain bike, but I had it many years. Honestly the damage they did to my rack was probably worth more than the bike.

maxine

NoRacer and I had a very nice ride on the W&OD trail this Saturday. He's been on parts of the trail -- with DC Randonneurs, and also I believe on one of the Rando Rambles -- but it was my first visit. We started at the eastern end . . . with about 3 miles' worth of 1 mph meandering, back and forth, trying to find the trailhead from where we had parked on the street. The Garmin track looked like some psychotic toddler had gotten hold of a crayon and started scribbling all over the map! We also did a bit of backtracking to find the Old Ox brewery, whose sign we had passed outbound and decided would be a stop on the return trip. Lovely day, good beer, 50 miles. We're thinking of sometime doing it all the way out and back, a near-century.

balto charlie

Hey Max: I have ridden it before and have been wanting to ride it along with the C&O and the Custis Trail using Whites Ferry and DC bridges to cross the Potomac. It is about 75 miles. I also included a beer stop @ mile 60, only 15 miles shy of the end. Totally flat and mostly trail riding. The brewery is Mad Fox Brewing in Falls Church.