rholland1951

Time travellers, hurrah!

rod

rholland1951

Monday was one last benign Spring-Summer day, and I knocked off for a couple of hours in the afternoon to enjoy a vigorous sprint out to Depot Park and back in the green coolness of the shadier precincts of the Minuteman.


I took the Rivendell Rambouillet on this ride, and was pleased to observe no lasting damage from the ride in Friday's flood.


Perhaps I'll dare a ramble in the heat, especially if I can organize myself to fly with the larks rather than with the owls. Could happen...


rod

autonomy

Haven't posted in a while, but I'm still around, riding in the area and various trips like a bikepacking overnighter in the Whites, where I had to chase a bear out of my campsite, and a lovely ride up & down the Burlington Island Line Trail, including a 45min-long wait at the ferry to get back.

Didn't see anyone post this, so: I went out for a short ride on the Battle Road Trail in Minuteman NP to find out that NPS, without finishing the work on the western part with the boardwalk, started resurfacing the eastern end, with rolling closures into mid-July. I'm glad NPS is finally doing something about the erosion, though I'm not happy about them closing the trail through the busiest season. https://www.nps.gov/mima/mima-gaoa.htm

This is the start in the east - you know that extremely bumpy "green tunnel" section that I personally used to avoid... yup, part of it is paved now!





We're getting a drainage ditch here!




At the bottom of Old Mass Ave/Fiske Hill


Across the Visitor Center




Visitor Center lot is still open but you can only reach the Visitor Center from it




Bonus: chased off a turkey and a deer

rholland1951

autonomy , good to hear from you! Thanks for the NPS report. Glad to hear about the good experience with the Island Line, that one's a quiet treasure. Glad the frank exchange of views with the bear ended well.

rod

rholland1951

Today the forecast called for a hot (mid-90s) afternoon, so I took the Rambouillet out and rode in the mid-80s morning. As far as I can tell, I'm approximately the last person in the world who's had and acted on this particular insight, but better late than never.


Some of the numerous others who got there before me:


Another day in the swamp (conveniently located behind Lexington Center).


Seems I put in my fastest time on this route (Depot Park) this year. That early-to-rise stuff may bear further study.


rod

rholland1951

Spent a bit of time on the Minuteman today, Spy Pond to Depot Park. Some things get to take their turn at novelty: the Fairy & Elf Animal Shelter, for example.


It had been a while since I photographed the Pumping Station, so I did.


A sky full of cirrus clouds and a wide-angle lens can evoke Out Yonder from the most familiar scenes.


Stopping at the Lexington Visitors Center, I had occasion to reflect on the importance of good, well-maintained toilets for bike trails. There are some things a friendly tree just isn't suited for.


Bedford: the Lost Scripture of the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway can still be found by those who seek it.

-
"WARNING: Cyclists move silently at 10-25 MPH"

The rest is commentary.

rod

rholland1951

Saturday, I noted the rain predicted for later in the afternoon, so I put a very light Gore-Tex shell in the front bag of the Sam Hillborne and rode East.


The hills, the traffic; the traffic, the hills. All of the above. I had a good workout, and didn't get squashed. And the Sam provided good, controllable fun as usual.


Oh yes, and it did begin to rain, more or less as predicted. Out came the shell, on went the shell, and that was that. Kept me warm and dry, to spec. Many thanks to Ghazmh for originally recommending it.


Last photo in the deck is a pair of jets d'eau on the Fellsmere Pond. They're cooling, and appear to be proliferating. They serve as a gentle reminder that the ride is winding down. Extra points if you can see the green dinosaur looking fierce along the right edge of the animation.


rod

rholland1951

Towards the end of Monday afternoon, I took the Nobilette for a quick sprint along the Eastern shore of the Mystic Lakes. Lots of folks were enjoying the water at the Tufts Bacow Sailing Pavilion, which exemplifies William Gibson's saying, "The street finds its own uses for things." Those outrigger canoes cut right along.


There's always a fisherman.


This paddleboard seemed never to quite get launched.


rod

rholland1951

A few heat waves and some vacation travel later, I was back on the bike. The vacation had low bicycle priorities, but I did get to observe some informal French bicycle culture in the surfing town of Hossegor.


Back yesterday, and after a good night's sleep, I took the Seven out for a morning spin, before the heat got too nasty.


There was a sparse complement of trail users out for a ride, a walk, a run, the sweating few.




And dogs gotta walk...


Peepers Pond: actually toxic, or just unsightly? Waterfowl want to know.


How are you riding in this heat and humidity?

rod

bike_tom

Hey Rod. Good to see you posting again. As for myself, I've been riding but lax about sharing.
Like you did yesterday, I've been riding early in the day, aiming to get back by noon. Been doing the usual routes: Minuteman, Reformatory Branch, Narrow Gauge Trail. I can report that the last two have been dry and very good riding. I have had a hankering to complement RBT outbound with Battle Road on the way back, but haven't done so because of the trail closures.

Yesterday I did a quick trip to Charlestown via the Somerville Community Path:



Tom

rholland1951

Tuesday I took the Ocean Air Cycles Rambler out for a heat-dodging morning spin along the Mystic Valley Parkway and the Mystic Lakes.


Ostensibly, the ride was to check out a newly installed Brooks C-17 saddle.


But like all these little rides to the Mystic Lakes, the real motive is a desire to check out the several interlocking scenes that change with the weather and the season.


The swimmers at Shannon Beach were mostly elsewhere, having received OFFICIAL DISCOURAGEMENT. This didn't work for quite everyone, of course. Hope they didn't get too sick.


I got into a conversation with two old guys (read, my age or a little younger), one of whom was riding an old Redline hardtail that had been rebuilt to please him, and the three of us talked bikes, with an emphasis on 1990s hardware. No pictures of that, but this conversation about boats, photographed at the Tufts Bacow Sailing Pavilion, seemed to me to have been in the same spirit.


Rolled home on the Rambler, enjoying the thoughtful integration of the bike, and passed the Everett Street Spray Park. Nobody was telling the kids to stay out of this water.


rod

rholland1951

Wednesday morning I took the Seven out for another little ride on the Minuteman to outrun the encroaching heat. I was feeling somewhat time-constrained, and rode with concentration. When I stopped to take this photograph, a woman riding a nice old Miyata who had been following me closely in what I thought was an informal game of Drop the Pursuer stopped to thank me for pacing her. Something new... I thought about it, and realized she had been pacing me.


As the heat ramped up, the shady green tunnel of the Minuteman was nearly empty, somewhat to my surprise. I cranked along, making my own windchill and riding from tree-shadow to tree-shadow.


rod

rholland1951

Thursday I didn't ride until the afternoon, taking advantage of temperatures in the 80s but lower humidity and a pleasant breeze to ride out to Depot Park and back in the afternoon.


It was, indeed, a beautiful day.


One cyclist thought it was a fine day for a nap at Peepers Pond.


In Bedford, Elm Brook was carrying plenty of Water, with a bit of Earth and Sky mixed in.


I rode through the cool, green tunnel, enjoying the breeze.


At the Bike Stop, the Bad Boys have been experimenting with a Persistence of Memory wheelset, under license from the Salvador Dali estate. Looks like we have a vandal problem.


Seeing defunct bike shops makes me appreciate the ones still at work, so I stopped in at Battle Road Bikes and bought a water bottle. "Revolt, Repair, Respect".


rod

bike_tom

I rode out to Concord this morning via the Minuteman and Reformatory Branch Trail. Beautiful weather after the heat and humidity we've been having.

A few observations...

Lexington is going to be paving the MM in Lexington Center starting next week:



Plan accordingly. Lexington has some info here: https://www.lexingtonma.gov/2008/Cur...uction-Project

Bedford has recently applied some fresh gravel to the typically muddy sections of the RBT between Railroad Ave and Hartwell Rd. Here's an example:



This should help make the trail rideable sooner after a rain.

No battle was raging at the North Bridge:




I decided to visit the lower end of Estabrook woods. Lot of signs at the entrance I had not seen before:



Bottom line: we can still ride through there (see https://estabrookcouncil.org/)

Today I only rode up to the first junction:



I'm leaving riding the full length of Estabrook to Carlisle for a cool day in the fall when I won't be eaten alive by mosquitos if I stop for a moment.

I did some exploring along Barnes Hill Rd, reaching the junction of Lowell Rd and Barrett's Mill Rd. Next time I head over to the BFRT via Strawberry Hill Rd I am going to use Barnes Hill instead of Lowell Rd to pick up Barrett's Mill.

I came back via the RBT and MM, pausing at Great Meadows. FYI: the new bathrooms there are still locked.

A nice ride that came to a bit over 31 miles.

Tom

rholland1951

I took advantage of the beautiful Friday weather by taking the air on the Rivendell Rambouillet on a quick little ride out to Lexington Center. As I was riding out, I came upon a man sitting within arm's reach of a swan, both of them behaving quite calmly. I don't believe this is normal behavior for swans, who are somewhat territorial and can be aggressive towards humans. But perhaps they make an exception for calm ones. I rode off, and passed the swan again in a few minutes, this time in solitude: the man had moved on. This animation stitches both scenes together.


The Rambouillet has a peculiarly gaudy color scheme ("colorway", depending on who you're talking to) that sometimes picks up sunlight and throws it around. Here it is doing its thing parked under an overpass (I forget which) over the Minuteman.


As I rode back towards Arlington, I was passed by a man riding a Toyo-era Rivendell Atlantis. The Atlantis is painted a particularly calming shade of green, said to have been used in the manned decks of Soviet Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarines: a sort of end-of-the-world green. The bike's design has changed significantly over the years, but not the hue of the paint. "Nice bike!" I said. He waved, and pedaled on. No missiles were launched.

rod

rholland1951

Nice weather Saturday, warm but nothing too much, so I took the Rambouillet out for a ride East.


Early in the ride, I watched a paddle board and a kayak salute each other on the Mystic River. Why do paddle boarders remind me of Charon?


On the Northern Strand Community Path, the Malden Bike Kitchen was open for business, and business was good.


The hills don't move around much, so it can be easy to forget to photograph them. You move around on them, instead. Then you're moving too fast to take photos.


The Fellsmere jets d'eau have been popular during the recent hot periods. They cool you off just looking at them.


Transportation, everybody's got some. In West Medford, things got interesting when several different transportation modalities started doing macrame with each other, in a riot of mutual dependency.


Earlier in the day the drivers were much given to honking at each other. Nobody honked at the train. One or two who looked like they were tempted to honk at the train, honked at the bikes instead.

rod

rholland1951

Sunday afternoon I took the Rambouillet up the Minuteman to Lexington Center for a quick sprint, getting to the highest gear ratio early and staying there for most of the ride, passed only by e-bikes. I took only one photograph and concentrated on the ride.


For all that I kept a quick pace, I paid attention to safety, using the bell on a few occasions when it was needed.

rod

bike_tom

My wife joined me for a ride out the Minuteman to Bedford Depot Park today. The weather was great,

We had a nice picnic lunch at the benches by the old passenger depot, then we headed over to the freight depot to use the restrooms. While there, I noticed that the Bedford DPW was repainting the crosswalks at the South Rd, Loomis St, Railroad Ave intersection:



That's great! However, if you've bike through that intersection, you may have noticed the signs that say "TO REQUEST GREEN, WAIT ON ". You can see such a sign just above the hood of the larger white van. (The bike symbol is not animated on the actual sign...) Well, at least to my eyes, there haven't been such symbols on the pavement at least since they repaved that intersection a year or two ago. I chatted with the worker about that, and he said "I've never painted one of those, but I do paint sharrows." So, the sensors to detect bikes and trigger the light may or may not be under the pavement, and if they are, we don't know where they are.

On the way back I spotted this insectoid like creature riding a powered unicycle:




Maybe I should add a flit gun to my bike tool kit?

Overall, a very nice ride.

Tom

rholland1951

A flit gun might also do for the Winter Moths...

rod

rholland1951

Monday, I took the Rambouillet up the Minuteman to Depot Park for a peaceful, warm ride that felt like the True Summer.


It's getting on to the season for longer rides. Which means scheduling them, and making them stick. Haystack Observatory, maybe? Who'd have thunk that retirement could keep you so busy?

rod

rholland1951

Tuesday afternoon, another ride on the Rambouillet, another ride on the Minuteman, another ride to keep the moving parts moving.


A number of true things can be said about the Minuteman. One such is that there are an awful lot of kids there.


Ipso facto, that means that when we go there, we share an obligation to help keep them safe.

rod

rholland1951

Another brisk sprint out to Lexington and back on the Rambouillet, which lends itself to that activity. I stopped at Mal's yard to contemplate a number of object lessons, including one that invoked divine intervention (the blue Hyndai, below). Good luck with that.


rod

rholland1951

Thursday I took the Rambouillet and struck out on the Minuteman between a hail storm and a thunder storm without getting touched by either. The ride marked the 1000th mile I've ridden on the old bike since I found it in the Bikes Not Bombs shop, on top of godnose how many miles ridden by previous owners. With the miles come a sense of familiarity, and a growing understanding of what the bike is, and how to approach it to get desired results. It's a pleasure to ride, often a speedy pleasure, at that.


This was one of the days when the Minuteman manifested its mesh of user communities, whether in motion or at rest.




The Persistence of Memory bike at the Bike Stop As Was is getting a little more surreal with each passing day. E-STOP? E-GO? EEEEEE...


And now we come to my favorite tree along the path. Hail, Catalpa!


rod

bike_tom

I rode out to Concord this morning via the Minuteman and the Reformatory Branch Trail.
The weather was super, the paths weren't too busy (I was out and back before noon), and the RBT was in good shape.

I decided to document all the dogs I saw. Here's a montage showing our furry friends out on the trails:



In other news, Lexington has been making good progress on pavement repairs to the Minuteman in the center of town. Here's a section behind the new police station, just west of Fletcher Ave:



They have also already repaved the really bad section between Woburn St and Fletcher, near the Dunkin Donuts. They were actively working on the section from Merriam to Hancock St, requiring a detour.

I never get tired of this view of Great Meadows:




End of the RBT in Concord:



The Checkpoint continues to be a joy to ride on this kind of mixed surface ride, especially with the Gravelking SS tires I fitted over the winter.

Another nice ride!

Tom

rholland1951

Thanks for the report on the RBT. With the very localized storms we've been having lately, it's hard to judge what's wet in one place from what's dry in another.

If the Lexington DPW stays true to form, they'll tend to get their day's work done early, and if they can leave the trail rideable in the afternoon, they will.

Thanks for the dogs!

rod