skip to main |
skip to sidebar
090516
I just finished a glorious 22 mile ride from downtown Philly to "Walnut Lane" (or some other little markers said "NW Ave") a 5-ish mile crushed gravel road with no motorized traffic that follows some wonderful little river in a big wilderness area to the east of Manayunk.
I just sort of had a vague notion of riding down to Manayunk and back, so I headed out Kelly Drive, which follows the Schuykill River out of downtown. There was a big rowing competition just wrapping up so some chunks of the road were closed to through traffic, which made for some nice road riding for a couple of miles. Eventually I got onto a bike path and after one wacky detour that looked like it was going to put me onto some little mini freeway up against a cliff wall with nothing resembling a bike lane, I backtracked about 50 yards and found the trail again which ended up in this little woodsy paradise. I couldn't even hear traffic at all out there, just birds and the occasional plane overhead. There were lots of walkers, a few bikers, a few fishermen, quite a few dogs, waterfalls, old retaining walls, it was a really nice scene!
After going about 12 miles out, I turned back and made some pretty smoking time coming back. I got up to 26 mph or so on this gravel path in a few places. This "Walnut Lane" gravel road was as wide as a city road and was really pretty smooth and nice. Eventually, I got back to Kelly Drive, which was still closed down and I got to pretend I was on a solo breakaway on a grand tour stage or something, just blasting along at 22-ish mph on a closed 4 lane super smooth road. The street I came in and out of the city on, Spring Garden, also had a nice marked bike lane and deposited me back a block away from the venue, the super poopy and depressing Electric Factory.
Anyway, the ride definitely cleansed my palate from the rather depressing day I'd had going at the venue today. Electric Factory, get your shit together, sheesh!!
Here are some pics:
Here is my route from Map My Ride:
090515
We had a quick stop in Sandy Eggo (San Diego for the rest of you). I managed to leave the club and ride down to Ocean Beach. There are some decent bike paths around there, I was just sort of stumbling my way around with the help of my trusty iPhone, which certainly kept me from getting lost on this relatively short (4 miles each way) journey. There are lots of confusing overpasses and winding viaduct type roads around where I was riding.
The following day our whole entourage flew to Richmond, VA. There I reassembled my bike and got in a short ride to Cary Bicycle Works for a little chain lube and seatpost grease. All that rainy NW riding had taken a toll on my trusty steed. Pretty nice place Richmond. It had been some years since my last visit. Thanks to the nice folks at the shop for some free quickie maintenance.
Yesterday morning we arrived in our nation's capital. After a quick breakfast and shower, I went off for a morning ride to Rock Creek Park. This little wooded oasis is really one of the gems of Washington DC. You can really forget you are in a major metropolitan area when you are in the thick of this place. Just loads and loads of trees, rolling hills, a beautiful creek, lots of little rocky cliffs and whatnot. I ended up finding my way to the path with a little trial and error and rode north about 10 miles. It's about half not-that-great bike path and half lightly trafficked roadway. I read one web page that advised to stay off the roadway part of it, but I found that to be the most relaxing part of the ride. The cars that did come past were few and far between and did a pretty good job of courteously waiting until a nice open section to pass me wide in the other lane. The bike path on the other hand was not great. It wasn't totally awful, but it did have a lot of cracks that had swollen to big wrinkles and was pretty bone-jarring at times.
Overall, no big complaints though on a pretty great warm overcast morning in a gorgeous park. I ended up with a nice 20 mile ride before 11am. Here are a couple of shots of the park. The first is the bike path and the second is the portion on Beach Drive, which is the shared roadway on the north part of the trail.
Finally here is my route. The mapmyride application choked partways on the trip out, but tracked the trip back and gives a good sense of the whole thing.
On a final note, I also got a nice feeling riding around and thinking that the Obama administration was pretty much firmly running things all over this town. After so many years of coming through here during the Bush adminstration, where there seemed to me to be an almost physically palpable sense of how incongrous this city's heterogenous population was with the hostlie posturing of Bush and company towards large urban areas in general and particularly OVERWHELMINGLY Democratic populaces such as the District, there was a feeling of things being much more right around town. I saw a number of unsanctioned paintings of Obama on the alley sides of buildings that were already looking rather weathered and comfortable. One day they'll just be barely decipherable pieces of ephemera marking a time in the life of this city. I don't think there are any lovingly handpainted Bush portraits on the walls of DC buildings that will be making the same journey into the future.
090513
Of sorts at least. I just spent a nice three days in California doing some pretty fun riding here and there. We finally left the great northwest after doing 2 shows in Portland. In spite of a late arrival in San Francisco, I was able to make a pretty nice day out of it. We pulled into town at about 2:30 and I just checked in, changed clothes and headed out towards the Golden Gate! Went up to Lombard Street and just headed in the general direction. Once I had the bridge in sight, I just sort of meandered around a bit (after almost committing to the highway!) until I saw cyclists and used the force a little bit to get over to the bay where there was a bike path heading toward the bridge followed by a steep and occasionally confusing climb (I am pretty slow). Here is the view from the approach:
Going over the bridge was pretty neat. It was a bit weird to think of all the people that have jumped off of it. It almost creates this sort of magnetism towards the water, just looking, looking, looking. Really beautiful up there though. Lots of people out on this sunny and windy Friday afternoon.
I got across and figured out how to go under the first exit off the 101 and get over to the marin headlands side.
I then did about 2.5 miles of pretty steep climbing, at least for a tourist riding a loaded, 31 pound (including lock and spares bag) steel bike with a 53/39 crank. According to my mapmyride phone application, I hit some 6% grade for a decent part of this ride. It felt like it too! I'm getting pretty obsessed with climbing, perhaps it because of the complete lack of anything resembling hills or mountains in Chicago, but anytime I go to Austin or anywhere else with hills, I just get drawn to them. Of course, the descent is always a big payoff too.
I ended up at a little peak with a spectacular view of all of San Fran, Oakland and Berkeley, Yerba Buena, Alcatraz, everything! It was some seriously beautiful stuff. Here is a sampling:
Don't know what to say about this car I saw on the way down from the headlands. Only in San Francisco! (?)
The descent was pretty fun though I didn't get much above 30 mph as there was relatively a lot of traffic. Once back on the south side of the bridge, I sent a text asking where all my peoples were and then I rode along the bay for awhile until finding out that they were at Hog Island Oyster Company over at the Embarcadero. With the help of the trusty iPhone, I got there in about 10 minutes and had some incredible local oysters and other delights. I ended up doing a 19 mile ride and climbing a good 600-ish feet over the course of the afternoon.
Here's my route:
More on a fun little ride in Hollywood to follow!
090507
Seems like this tour hasn't even started, though we are doing the 5th show tonight. We have just been kicking around Oregon and Washington for days and days. This is good for biking though.
I did a 32 mile ride all by my lonesome today. Rode about 16 miles east on the Springwater Corridor in Portland. Ended up out with some sheep and horses and a really busy shooting range (?!). Sorry to the residents of Powell Butte Parkway! Sheesh, it sounds like (sub)urban warfare out there!
Anyhoo, that ended up being a beautiful ride. Almost all off-street, starting with the really nice downtown riverfront esplanade. See pic below. Once out of the trail, there were all sorts of beautiful Blue Jays and songbirds, ducks and geese. Once I got around to Powell Butte park, the bike path was closed for some work and I lost track of the detour. I went into the little suburban neighborhood there and climbed the not-inconsiderate hill it was built on. I think it was a maybe 300 foot climb in about 5 blocks, I dunno how to make that into a grade. I should learn! I averaged something like 12mph, but most of the trip out was pretty slow, with lots of stops for pics and ditching the rain pants, tinkering with my rear wheel, etc. Most of the way back I was moving at a pretty good 17mph clip. I still felt reasonable when I got back downtown. I think I could've done another 15 miles or so. Those hills are making me really long for a compact crankset though! 39-25 just ain't enough for my old man knees sometimes.
I was having some problems over the last few days with my rear derailleur popping up a gear when I pedaled hard, but I finally sorted it out with a quick adjustment. All seems pretty good now. Can't complain about the Surly Pacer. With all my crap on it (lock, seat bag, frame pump, spares, rear fender) it probably weighs in around 30 lbs, but it still feels really sprightly! I attribute most of that to low rolling resistance. I can't say much bad about Continental Gator Skins. They hold pressure for many, many days, they are so thick and hard that they shoot rocks out from under them like a gun and (knock wood) I haven't gotten a flat on these tires yet (in at least several hundred miles or riding them). Well worth the hundred-ish bucks.
Here's my route. Can I take a moment to plug the iPhone/MapMyRide combination. I finally took the full bourgeois plunge and got an iPhone last month. I didn't know how I felt about it until I went on this trip and found out how it can A: keep you from getting lost and B: map your ride! Super fun to see where you went and then it uploads to your MapMyRide account and you can keep them all around, with elevations and everything.
Here are some pics from today's ride:
090502
More biking! Did a 10-ish mile ride a couple of days ago in Bellingham, WA. Just tooled around the bay around sundown with my pal Joe. Finished up with a nice dinner at Boundary Bay Brewing Co. Also, speaking of Bellingham, try Mallard's Ice Cream! I have been to this town maybe 7 or 8 times and never knew about this place. Serious gourmet ice cream. Flavors tried: Cardamom (yum!!!!!), Chocolate w/Cayenne (YUM!!!!), Avocado (pretty good, interesting at any rate). They've got it going on and I'm not even really an ice cream freak.
Today, Joe and I went on a 27-mile ride around Mercer Island in Seattle. We started by dropping by Elliott Bay Cycles for a new taillight as well as a little courtesy chain lube and tire pressure check. Thanks guys!
What a great, great ride! Many bikers out on this gorgeous little island (posh real estate only out there!). It has great little winding, hilly roads with very little auto traffic. After going counterclockwise around the island we stopped shortly before going back across the I-90 bridge at the Roanoke Tavern and had some delicious salmon burgers and a pitcher of local pale ale. We did not finish the pitcher as we had another pretty brutal 5-ish miles to finish, but it hit the spot. There was some good hill climbing going on all over this ride, you really get your exercise. I may go do it again on Tuesday.
Here are some pics. Highlights include the view from Seattle across the I-90 bridge, some rolling roads on the island, some pale ale, and our route.
