Last night, as I entered in months worth of bike rides and swimming to MapMyFitness.com, I remembered to check the trails and see what was available to get me across to the other side of town to my Jewelry Class on Friday. With all this entering, I still have a few weeks of entering to do...I REALLY need to keep up with that - gah.
Lo and behold...the trail that goes in that direction just happens to go *almost* right past the school where my Jewelry Class is!!! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to see that. Now I don't have to leave uber early to get there and then sit and wait for 45 min after class to catch the bus home. Stupid bus schedules totally suck when it comes to being convenient for anyone but the bus company. grrr.
Today I packed up Ms Cow and the bag of supplies I will be taking, along with my locks and cables and headed out to try out the route. Was mostly looking for how hilly it would be, as it goes round the foothills and even a part way up into them. I was also looking for a travel time.
I am happy to say that the trail is totally doable for me, some slight hills, but nothing I can't handle. The trail pops out at a main street that has a marked bike lane - one block later, I'm in the parking lot. Time? 25 minutes. Only 5 min longer than my trip to Drawing Class. This is indeed good news as I don't do well with hills - altho it would technically help me get better if I had to ride up one at least once a week. Oh darn. Another good thing about this route is that it's not all windy. Only the first part is windy, the rest is nice and calm. Heaven.
No bus! Hardly any wind! *Almost* door-to-door trail. YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!
I'm all set...just need to give Sgt Puff a mini-checkup and make sure she's all set. I've been riding her a lot lately. Think Spence and I should probably go back to the Bike Kitchen on Saturday and give her a really good look-see.
Ooh, the wind has been kicking our biking butts here in Indiana! I'm glad you found a trail that's fairly non-hilly and not much wind at the destination.
ReplyDeleteAre trails door to door pretty common in your area? I've been trying to get used to riding on the wider roads here, but I still get freaked out sometimes.
(If I could balance enough to hand signal properly, it would probably help!)
You are super lucky to live pretty near the trail. I live near the start of the IronHorse trail and someday my wrists will be in good enough shape to finally ride out your way.
ReplyDeleteI just love that you ride your bike every where.
I've been fitness walking a bunch (don't quite need to get up to a jog to get my heart rate in the zone still), and the other day I actually drove to the post office with a letter, drove home and then went for my 6 mile fitness walk... which took me RIGHT BY THE POST OFFICE. How wasteful am I?
Keep it up!
BTW - need to figure out a time/place to get you those curve templates :)
Like Cherry says, I am very lucky in that I live off a main trail. I'm in the San Francisco, CA area btw RDK. The trail I live by connects up with other trails and together they criss-cross the area. Some of the trails act like wind tunnels and take the slightest breeze and just kick the hell out of whoever is on the trail. I think I got lucky with this branch as it goes along the side of the foothills and maybe they block the breeze. Dunno, but I'll take it!
ReplyDeleteAs for everything being door to door, I think I can chalk that up to luck once again. There are lots of places that are not right off the path, but CA is very bike friendly and most roads here either have marked bike lanes or enough room for bikes. If they don't, I ride the sidewalk or take an alternate route. Most of the time I can get 90% of the way there on the trail! :)
I can't imagine riding a bike in anyplace known for as steep of hills as San Francisco! I'm intensely impressed =) Next time I @#$* about the one huge hill between me and downtown yarn shipping, I'll think of your hills and try to just shut up. =D
ReplyDeleteRDK - I live in SF *area* not SF itself. Like I said in my post...I *don't* do hills. I live on the edge of a valley of sorts, nestled up against some rolling foothills that eventually make their way to a local Mountain - which I will NEVER be riding on thank you very much! That said, I do ride in SF every so often, but avoid the hills at all costs! There are actually quite a few flat areas in SF. :)
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