rholland1951

After all the yard-work, chores, puttering, projects, and a companionable walk were completed, it was 6pm when I got on the bike and rode out to Depot Park, Bedford, 20 miles round-trip. The weather was splendid, and the Minuteman's rail-trail trajectory took me through the fragrant smoke of numerous back-yard barbeques. The new tires continue to surprise and delight me, this time with their ability to support (encourage) rapid acceleration in high gear at high speed down in the drops. Wheee! Made good time.

rod

Jim from Boston

I've been quite remiss in posting to Metro Boston: Good ride today?, but I have a time-sensitive message for subscribers of this thread:

Busy as I am, I'm going to make every effort to attend, not for the fashions, but to meet like-minded area cyclists. If any other metro Bostonians are going, let us know. (I'll try to wear an as yet-undecided distinctive if not fashionable attire.)

And another thing…The Fifty Plus Forum on Bike Forums has had an annual Ride in conjunction with various organized rides around the country, including Colorado, New York State, Michigan, and Tennessee. I have proposed a Fifth Annual Ride here in Metro Boston under the auspices of the Mass Bike Summer Century and Family Summer Ride on Saturday, July 27. In the past years they have ridden out of Lexington, but a new venue is being planned for this year. Here’s the description for 2012:

https://massbike.org/summer-century-family-ride/

I’m aware of at least one other metro Bostonian (on this thread) who posts to Fifty-Plus, and there are several others who also post to Fifty-Plus.

phulin

Commuted to my summer job in Lexington for the first time today. 15 miles each way normally, except I missed the turn this morning and ended up at Depot Park - oh well! Even though my legs were hurting a little (boy am I out of shape), it was still a beautiful ride on a beautiful day. And once I managed to find the showers, I got cleaned up and got to my desk - over two hours after leaving my house. Hopefully I can cut that down next time. The Minuteman is truly incredible right now, despite the construction.

rholland1951

After making an appropriate sacrifice to the God of Flex-time, got on the road a little after 3pm for a 34-mile ramble East of the Concord River, through Arlingon, Lexington, Bedford, Billerica, Concord, and Lincoln, with enough hills to be interesting, a bit over 2000' of climbing. Took the Minuteman as far as Revere Street, Lexington, then jumped off and crossed Route 128 on Grove Street. After winching myself up the hill with the small ring of my touring triple (and getting passed by a beautiful female roadie in the process, par for the course), I crossed the Bedford line, noting as I did that the "Please Don't Squish My Chickens" farmer has plenty of new doggies in her Schipperke Rescue operation, then charged down the Page Road hill, topping 30 mph in the process. Continued out Page Road to Pine Hill Road, picked up Route 4 as far as Dudley Road, with its various beauties and scabby pavement.




Wound around Dudley Road to its end, then took Concord Road to Springs Road, and picked up the un-organized Billerica end of the Narrow Gauge Rail Trail, paved with rocks, roots, and sand.


This became the well-maintained, stone-dust surfaced Bedford segment of the NGRT.


Followed that past Fawn Lake...

... and on to Depot Park. After a pit stop at the Freight House, rode down Railroad Ave. to the trailhead of the Reformatory Branch Trail. Rode the Bedford segments of that, more rocks, more roots, more sand, and a little mud, then picked up Route 62 and followed to Old Bedford Road, as far as Virginia Road. Took that across the South end of Hanscom Field, noting that the construction to replace an old R&D compound is proceeding apace.


Up the hill at the end of Virginia Road, down the hill on Old Bedford Road (Lincoln), and out Hanscom Drive to a brief and busy segment of North Great Road, then up and down the hills of Mill Street, Lincoln, a green and sequestered roller coaster whose woods conceal at least one substantial modernist gem of a house.




Rode along the North edge of the Cambridge Reservoir. A really big fish jumped here twice, I swear, but declined to jump a third time. Mosquitoes are starting to show themselves, as I learned whenever I stopped to take a picture near standing water. Bon appetit, M. Bass.


Up Lincoln Street, Lexington to Middle Street, Marret Road, Maple Street, the Minuteman, and home. This ride, in addition to simply being pleasant, was meant to throw a variety of conditions at the new tires: hill climbs, fast descents, crappy pavement, various off-road surfaces. The 32mm Grand Bois Cypres Extra Legers (sounds like a show-dog pedigree-name) came through in every case. Good news. Now to take some longer rides on them.


rod

jimmuller 

MetroBoston, DownEast Division. We're in Acadia Natl Park. Rode the Park Loop Road today, 16 miles, 1200 ft of climbing. It was supposed to shower a little. Instead it rained hard most of the route. It's still raining. We still had a great time.



The typical view of everything:

sherbornpeddler

High society bike events, new tires, new mosquitos, a couple of newly returned riders and a tandem returned to Downeast; what a week!

No photos but my wife and I rode a loop with a stop at Honey's in Medfield for an ice coffee to celebrate returning to the roads this morning and this afternoon I rode 24 miles to Hopkinton, Medway and Holliston. I can say Rt 16 and Rt 109 seem busier and the side roads are shadier. Nice day for easy paced, not pushing too hard recreational loops.

sherbornpeddler

Phulin, Bravo!
and a place of work with showers!

jimmuller 

SBP, have some ice coffee for me please! It sounds like a delightful ride.

Today Sharon hiked up Cadillac Mountain and I rode the Park Loop Road on the Bianchi, then rode up Cadillac to meet her, then did another loop around the PLR. That's 38 miles and 3400ft of climbing. We carried some walkie-talkies to try and coordinate our arrivals, and managed to reach the top within minutes of each other. When I finally got back to the car and drove to the trailhead we arrived within 30 seconds. Talk about cosmic convergence!

More pics from the ride will have to wait until I get home, but here are some from Sharon's camera, at the top of Cadillac.

rholland1951

Sunset ride on the Minuteman, ambling up to Lexington Center in what felt like the first Summer evening of the year, then making good time on the return in the cool and dark, 10 miles. Looks like the Lexington DPW has finished rebuilding the culvert, and the barricade is down.


rod

Bishbike

Another Metro Boston rider reporting from Maine. Up at the Ogunquit Playhouse playing a show for a few weeks. Got out for 38 miles today. Some beautiful roads up here! Climbed up Mt. Agamenticus.

rholland1951

Jim, Bishbike, Maine is sounding pretty good just now...

rod

jimmuller 

phulin, tell us more about your commute and how it's going.

Bishbike, now I'm going to have to look up Mt. Agamenticus. It sounds like it ought to be in Greece.

Rod, I hear you. Wednesday was wet and cold. Today was warm and summery. We did the PLR twice on the tandem, the second circuit always harder than the first! Every so often we'd turn a fast downhill corner into shade and a sea breeze, and then it would be downright cold. But only for 10 second at a time, alas.

rholland1951

Evening ride on the Minuteman, 10 miles. Left late enough to miss the worst of the heat and the chaos attendant on the Great Arlington Oil Spill, today's local civic calamity. The heat, or the fumes, seemed to have addled the teenagers migrating on the Minuteman, I had to confuse them further with my bell. A dog behind Arlington Center was barking like a sea lion: too much excitement. Bourzouki music from the festival at Saint Athanasius the Great drifted across the valley.

rod

antimonysarah

So that's what I passed! Crossing the Mystic on my commute (Harvard St., one bridge downstream from High Street), there were firetrucks and a big truck with bales of something absorbent, which looked like oil-spill mitigation stuff, but I didn't stop to ask. And by the time I got home I'd entirely forgotten about it.

sherbornpeddler

A Maine Native American chief, a greek mandolin, mountain assents and addled teenagers all are way more interesting than my afternoon 21 mile ride.

I guess I can contribute something about our region. I was cruising along, phone rang and reminded I forgot to post a public meeting notice with our town clerk before she left for the day. The meeting will be a small town, steering committee public meeting of volunteers next week. I raced home maybe as much as 1/2 mph faster (for sure I had my head down and didn't dawdle) then called our town clerk at her home. She went back to her office and posted the meeting with 10 minutes to spare. I do like this soup of bike related sights, events and all things that go into this recipe.

rholland1951

The booms are still in the river and a parade of tank trucks are sucking up the sludge (as of 5pm). It's been a pretty impressive response. The water lillies look somewhat the worse for wear.

rod

rholland1951

Rode the North Bridge loop late morning/early afternoon, 31 breezy, sweaty, familiar miles, through Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Carlisle, Concord, and Lincoln. The temperatures were in the low 90's and got me through three bottles of water.






Shade, when it happened, was wonderful.


rod

sherbornpeddler

Pleasant breeze during another warm ride.
I stopped to admire the Norfolk Hunt fine tradition of an equestrian chase of well trained dogs chasing a fox scent. These folks are masters of keeping long country trails open through their own land and agreeable property owners. It is a fine tradition requiring a huge amount of effort to result in a wonderful combination of horse, rider, dogs, trainers, property owners and the great outdoors.

The scale is different but I think riding a bike or any outdoor activity includes expertise and an appreciation of the environment. My bike is like a Morgan.

jimmuller 

After Wednesday's tandem run through a cold rain, Thursday dawned bright and warm. The plan was I'd drop my sweetie off at the Cadillac South Ridge Trail and I'd ride the Park Loop Road, climb Cadillac and meet her at the top, then do another circuit and finally meet her again at the trailhead.

Carl Sandberg wrote that fog comes on little cat's feet. I'm not sure whether he meant the feet of little cats or little feet of a cat. In this case the arrival of warm air over a cold sea meant lots of feet, some not so little. Somewhere under that lump lies an island.



The fog crept inland in spots until finally dissipating over the warmer land.



More of the Maine coast, a Bianchi and a lobster boat.



Now for the climb up Cadillac. A photo op above the town of Bar Harbor:



And a food break near the top:



Acadia's Park Loop Road is almost a cyclist's Paradise. The loop proper is 16.2 miles, with 1200ft of climbing. The pavement is perfect because as a parkway it carries no heavy vehicle traffic and (presumably) is not plowed during winter. The speed limit is 35mph except for a few places where it is only 25mph. All but a few miles is one-way, two lanes, with parking allowed in the right lane so drivers expect right lane obstructions. In fact the only drawbacks are that it is so short, and it has so danged many steep hill sections, some with 10% grade, or even higher for short stretches. On the other hand, if you like going fast this is one place to do it. No one ever passes a bike coming down Cadillac. Or on the descent from the Eagle Lake overlook down to the Bubble Pond parking area. Picture a green tunnel over smooth flowing blacktop, and a thin canopy of sky overhead, warm air and pockets of cold sea breeze in deep shade. Then do it all a second time.

godshammgod

In hindsight, riding 104 miles in 90+ degree heat may not have been the smartest thing I've ever done on a bike.

A friend and I did the Essex County Velo Tour D' Essex County on Saturday. Great route (see Strava file here: https://app.strava.com/activities/57580684), but it was scorching and headwindy. I think only 4 of the 40 or so starters ended up doing the full 100 miles. Many turned back early, so we basically ended up riding it alone. Additionally, my friend was really struggling so I did a lot of pulling/solo riding. In the end it was a really great experience and I'm proud that I persevered through to the finish. I think I probably drank 7 or 8 full bottles during the day, in addition to chugging a 20 oz. Coke and a few glasses of fruit smoothie at the rest stop.

By comparison, our 130 mile Boston to PTown ride in two weeks should be a (relative) breeze...

rholland1951

Sounds like an epic ride!

rod

rholland1951

Rode 20 miles to Depot Park, Bedford, after work and after the line storms that broke our first little heat wave of the Summer had blown out to sea, leaving balmy temperatures and big, cuddly cumulus clouds floating along in herds like so many milk cows out to pasture. Coming and going, saw and heard groups of young people practicing fife and drum music on the Battle Green. Nipped right along at a brisk pace. At one point a young bunny broke cover right in my path, my front tire coming within a hair's breadth of taking away the hare's breath; no harm done, by millimeters and milliseconds. Guess the bunny's lucky rabbit foot was working better than its little rabbit brain.

rod

rholland1951

10 miles on the Minuteman to Lexington Center and back in the benign late-afternoon air, what would have been early evening even a few weeks ago. Made good time, but got passed by a dude on a pedelec while running down hill (tsk!). Stopped to admire some folk art rendered on the chimney of The Bike Stops Here, and was reminded of the extravagant mural of their glory days, now covered with dull gray.


Nearing home, encountered a roadie riding no-handed up Broadway with a pizza box cradled in one arm.

rod

jimmuller 

Today's commute was one for retrospection. Every day as I leave home I fight off a wish that traffic would delay me so much that I miss the train and have to just drive in. Then I tell myself no, that's not what you really want. But sometimes overcoming the inertia is a chore. And I'm always afraid that in the rush to grab everything from the car at the train station I'll forget something critical, like my helmet or gloves or wallet or lunch. Once I step aboard the train I am committed, and once I climb aboard the bike I have no regrets.

Today's ride in was wonderful. Fresh, cool, dry September air. A mild headwind. Light traffic. Courteous drivers, as usual. Roads that have been largely swept clean of the winter's sanding. I had a critical meeting this morning and made it with time to spare.

The run home was different. To bypass an always tense intersection I took the hilly Wilbur Rd route I discovered a few weeks ago, rural (see JJScaliger's pics!), quiet. But it is a mile or so longer, and I left the office a bit later than usual thanks to some work stuff. So I pushed pretty hard and felt fatigued. On the Blackstone Bikeway I was confronted by an adult Canada goose protecting half a dozen goslings, a sort of wake-up call. The air was cool but damp. Between the cool air and my pushing I sort of zoned out. By the time I reached the train station I was finally feeling loose, warmed up yet cool, and I realized I had just ridden 13 miles and probably noticed less than 5 of them.

As the train was approaching the platform an Amtrak train swooshed by on the inside track. It could have been the regional or the Acela express, both of which come through ahead of the commuter train. Then as we were approaching our first stop the train slowed, slowed, slowed and stopped just short of the station. We sat. An announcement said the Amtrak ahead of us had hit something, apparently an ATV. Eventually they let us creep into the next station but all trains on that line were stopped while officials examined the train for damage and searched the track, presumably for a body or other debris.

While we waited a number of people struck up conversations. One guy asked about my helmet (a Giro Transfer), said the newer ones didn't fit him as well. One gentleman from England commented that the bike was "old school" because it was steel and had DT shifters. He said cycling was really popular in Britain partly through the success of Sky. All this helped to pass the time.

I finally made it home about an hour later than normal.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

rholland1951

10 miles to Lexington Center and back before sunset and before the rain in the gray daylight, temperature in the high 60's. Saw a couple of the Minuteman sunset regulars, including the Mysterious Tourist.

rod