antimonysarah

Oh, cool! Nashoba Winery was, in fact, my lunch stop -- the festival sounds really neat. Hopefully the weather will behave tomorrow as well.

rholland1951

Beautiful day, somewhat hedged about with chores and commitments, but managed to get a sunset ride to Lexington in at the end of it. The Minuteman was blessed with its full complement of walkers/runners/riders/dogs, including some of the late afternoon regulars: the blind woman, the reading-walking woman, the cyclist with the motorcycle helmet, etc. I was fending off a migraine, so the low sun and occasional on-coming cyclist unaccountably running his headlight in blink'n'blind mode had a special relationship with my optic nerve (for that matter, the olfactory hyperacuity had kicked in, so one or two of the dogs were noteworthy for their contributions). Here and there along the way, the foliage was striking.


By the end of the ride, the sunset was painting the clouds on the eastern horizon, the sky still bright. It was one of those last, best days that New Englanders are avid for this time of year.

rod

welshTerrier2

What a beautiful day to ride! I rode from Ashland to Natick (Maple St in Sherborn to Route 27) to pick up a friend and then we rode to Concord (27 to 126) and then on to Medford (MM to Route 60) for a party at a friend's house. Concord Ctr was abuzz with cyclists. Gotta love the camaraderie there.

We were surprised that the MM was not as crowded as we expected it to be. My friend almost fell when he hit a patch of wet leaves. His front wheel skidded but he was able to stay upright.

Not sure I'll keep cycling once the weather gets colder. Today was really a treat.

JayBlurr

Had a nice ride for the first time in 2 months after an accident, road only from aquarium to Alston but fell along the way lol. My dt shifter was loose and my chain popped out. Lost my balance but it was a slow accident so I had minimal damage but problem solve, I'm ok and my new UO9 rides like a dream. The Mavic CP4's are perfect, never owned tubulars but I'm in love at with the handling and response.

sherbornpeddler

JB,
Welcome back to the roads and glad you are OK. Post a picture of your new Peugeot.
What route did you take? Around the North End or through the Boston Common? Paul Dudley White or Commonwealth, past that New Yorker Hamilton and the fellow who found Newfoundland? Today will be another good day to get around town if you are not rowing.

sherbornpeddler

Rod, You hit the nail on the head again. I did notice the colors of the leaves in the afternoon sky. I didn't contemplate the sunset and eastern clouds. Thank you. "Juxtaposition" comes to mind and I'll have to look it up only after I'm done reflecting on your observation. Nice photo and thanks again for capturing and sharing so many bits of bicycling in these parts.

sherbornpeddler

WT2,
Wow, I just realized that was quite a ride!
Warm days make me wonder if I'll ride in cold weather. Some years I seem to be further back in the herd moving towards winter riding. I dropped off the back despite last year's mild winter. I figure I'm just slow to transition to seasons and OK once I relearn. All these MetroBoston sights, sounds and smells encourage me to ride on.

rholland1951

SP, thanks for the kind words, and thank you for fostering the community that's grown up around this thread.

rod

JayBlurr

Thanks brother, I took State to Beacon, then Commonwealth to Cambridge st to a friends house. 42x14 was my gear of choice must of the time.

rholland1951

Put the bikes on the Allen rack and took my sweetie for a ride on the Nashua River Rail Trail, Ayer to Pepperell and back, 16 miles, cool and breezy. The idea was a foliage ride, but the NRRT was past peak and windblown.


Even so, this is a beautiful trail, and a lovely ride. Lots of company today, including little clusters of equestrians (equestrian n., person querying an Internet search engine) who seemed genuinely unclear about lane-use protocols; fun to ride with centaurs. Back in time for the Pats kick-off.

rod

JayBlurr

Storrow Drive was clear today only a few joggers and 3 rodies. Love being bike on to wheels. Took this shoot of Boston Harbor.

telkanuru

Did the up and down the MM run again today, with beautiful weather, to break my two weeks of no-ride laziness. Well, no long rides, anyway.

JayBlurr

I have to get on MM again, especially with this fall foliage.

jimmuller 

I got out for about 1hr15min this afternoon as an extended lunchtime run. Waltham, Belmont, Arlington, Alewife, back out to Lexington, back home. I can't tell you how far it was because the bikes doesn't have a computer and I haven't had time to work it out on a map.

My sweetie said "Take the Masi out for a spin. Have fun and be careful." That's like saying "Eat all you want and save room for dinner." Okay, so maybe being careful really is a good idea.

rholland1951

Night ride on the Minuteman to Lexington center, 10 miles. After two days in management meetings, the brisk ride in the cool and dark was transporting in more than one sense. By the middle of the ride, I was getting that seven-league boots feeling I usually associate with much longer rides. Not so many folks out tonight, had the dark trail to myself for minutes at a time between encounters with other lanternfish.

rod

rholland1951

Another night ride on the Minuteman, a little colder and more noticeably moon-lit. A half-dozen INVISIBLE PEDESTRIANS slinking about, missed 'em all. Sampled 90 seconds of crowd noise from an uproarious soccer game on the AHS athletic field.

rod

jimmuller 

Another evening ride on the Blackstone. I didn't see half a dozen people. Which is to say that I saw the half dozen people who weren't there, not that I didn't see the half dozen people who were, if you take my meaning.

sherbornpeddler

Jim and Rod are stretching my brain. Between E question ing and seeing the invisible half I'm spinning my wheels trying to keep up. I didn't see me riding the last couple of days but I can see me riding at lunchtime today. I think this will be a future perfect.

Note to self: insert one of those smiley face icons.

jimmuller 

The other day upon the stair I saw a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today, I wish to h*ll he'd go away

Not to be confused with
I'm nobody, who are you?
Are you nobody too?
- by IIRC, Emily Dickenson, though it's been many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea since I read any of that

The point being, we were there today, on the tandem. 20.27 miles (not justifiably claimed to be 20.271334672 miles though it might have been, plus or minus 0.01 miles). Waltham through Belmont over to the MM, west to Lexington, back home by a slightly different route.

sherbornpeddler

Slightly less existential, more like Jim's last post but far less precise, I rode up Pegan Hill in Dover. Its not that steep but it was towards the end of the ride and seemed steep. The water line in the bottle isn't clear or impressive. It is a beautiful view on a fine day.

Other fine news was the formal opening of another path for non-motorized travel; the Alewife Brook Greenway, #4 on this map. So which ones do you want to see next?
I was at the Fall Council meeting of MAPC yesterday and by my biased view, 1/4 of the discussions were about bicycling. We are entering a golden era moving our herd towards non-motorized transportation and recreation away from the Eisenhower era of cars.

stedanrac

Hello Boston riders,

My riding is mostly my commute from Carlisle to Waltham. Some days I head through Concord (Monument or Lowell St), up past Walden pond and through Lincoln to Trapelo Rd. Other days (more frequently as the winter approaches) I head down 225 and take the MM to Lexington, then cut over to Waltham on Spring St. (which is a huge dug up mess this week). I try for 4 days a week, but October has been so nice I've been riding almost every day this month.

I love the MM; it is a great break from the constant din of traffic. I have one pet peeve with the trail at night... blinding lights. Too many people have too many lumens, mounted high (on handlebars) and adjusted very badly (i.e. in my eyes).

Happy riding

jimmuller 

Excellent! When I rode into Alewife there was a lot of construction going on, a new section of some bike path (so far to nowhere because it was blocked off after a few hundred yards), and a few official-looking people walking out of a new bike path looking like they were up to something and carrying clipboards. Good to hear that progress is making progress!

Stedanrac, welcome to the metro Boston forum! Carlisle is one of my favorite towns to bike through.

telkanuru

The creature laughed scornfully.
"I," it said, "am frightened of nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing," it said.
Charlie said "Are you extremely frightened of nothing?"
"Absolutely terrified of it," admitted the Dragon.
"You know," said Charlie "I have nothing in my pockets. Would you like to see it?"
"No," said the dragon uncomfortably, "I most definitely would not."
There was a flapping of wings like sails, and Charlie was alone on the beach. "That," he said "was much too easy."
-Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys


Commuting weather was be-u-ti-ful. Can't wait to do it in a hurricane!

sherbornpeddler

Another very dedicated commuter! I'm impressed and welcome you.
You've got both suburban and semi-urban night riding to deal with. MetroBoston night riding has different challenges than inside Boston itself. In Boston I use lights to be seen. On suburban roads I'm blinded when an on coming car approaches and for several seconds afterwards while my eyes readjust. If I use a trail friendly, lower lumen light sometimes I just pull over and wait for the car to pass because I can no longer see the edge of the road. Bright lights compete with oncoming glare and I gain a few seconds by brightening up the road. I guess low mounted trail light and a asphalt melting, as-needed bar light would be a better set up.

jimmuller 

Today I took a vacation day and we rode the Nashua River Rail Trail and some roads in Dunstable and Pepperell. 52.8 miles, not a bad day. It started under white skies but eventually the blue came out.

We passed one field in Dunstable that had 10ft high cornstalks the last time we went through, but this time it had been planted with winter rye to restore the ground nitrogen. At the far end of the field we found preparations for Thanksgiving Day dinner:


Saw lots of bright color. For example, at the northern end, just into New Hampshire:


And of course we had the obligatory lunch:




For those interested in the area, we've found great biking in Dunstable on Hollis St at the last exit off the NNRT in Massachusetts down to rt113, also left on Fletcher St to Main to Oak to Depot to rt113. The run from rt113 back north on East St (which becomes River St) is great and newly paved.