Do you care about the world? If you do, come down to the CT River tomorrow at 10am and help us clean up. We meet, as we have for the last two years, at the confluence of the Park and Connecticut Rivers. It's a tradition now!
It began with what was meant as a short detour on the way home from Colt Park -- a jaunt along the paved Riverside path.
But Saturday was the first time this summer that we were not faced with disgusting humidity, 85+ temperatures, or some crazy hail-tornado-thunderstorm-Armageddon warning. Instead of turning back when the pavement ended, we kept going on the path between the Connecticut River and the flood barrier.
Every single time I have ridden past the paved part of the path, I have encountered less than optimum riding conditions -- ice, mud, and most recently, sand. Starry Starry Bike would be awesome for these rides, but for some reason, I am always finding myself here on a bike that lacks awesome knobby tires.
Still, it's quiet. As Interstatement reminded me while I was kvetching about the precarious ride, we had not seen any pesky baby carriages in some time. Nothing makes me happier than being away from screaming babies and their often smug, entitled parents, as one is wont to be subjected to in the disputed territories.
A deer jumped across the trail. We did not encounter anyone once we reached the sandy part of the path, though we could hear the whining of dirt bikes across the Connecticut River.
The path dumped us out somewhere near the highway, a dike, and a giant billboard advertising pizza, which is basically torture when there are no decent pizza joints in that neighborhood. We rode alongside the tracks for a bit before finally finding ourselves back on the pavement, cutting through Keney Park, and then heading home.
*Somewhere along this route, I believe, is where I picked up a case of poisonivy. I won't post pictures of that.
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Johanna was in need of a sturdy-ish bike for a secret thing involving a bike in a couple of weeks. Looking around on the craigslist and the ebay, there were some things, like a pretty sweet long haul trucker build and some old mountain bikes. There was also a Kona Jake the Snake for sale in Waterford (which at first I thought was Watertown and almost drove down 84). We went there and got a good deal from a nice guy.
It was set up more like a hybrid, but I changed that stuff and swapped out the tires. Now it's a flat bar 'cross bike. I've seen people riding them sometimes. I've thought 'cross bikes needed drop bars, but that required some effort with cables and stuff, and I wasn't in the mood.
Johanna wasn't feeling well, so I took it on that "shakedown" ride or whatever the cool people call the first time you ride something. I rode down to Cromwell along the river and the bike worked pretty well. Flat barred 'cross bikes work ok despite their aesthetic disadvantage.
I've also decided that while limited, the Blow Hole State Park trails are pretty good.
And I saw this guy get attacked by a swan.
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Is it right to say that I missed the boat? Maybe if it's a hybrid boat-bicycle the idiom would make more sense.
Really, I do not know how it happened. I read Let's Go Ride a Bike religiously, which for me is more often than sporadic, sometimes with vodka involved, and no dread of hellfire. Then again, I'm not getting younger and certain pieces of information go in one eye and out the other. What makes my neglect in this instance particularly odd is that prizes (that I would want) are involved.
I noticed that the LGRAB Summer Games existed sometime in mid-June, yet did not figure out until a few days ago -- conveniently during a heat wave -- that I could still participate. Just in time for the third part (new territory), I was able to go on a little adventure that incorporated three of the challenges, and provided for a possible new one that they might include in future competitions. I promise that I'm doing this for all the right reasons, but the possibility of winning a Queen Bee pannier sweetens the deal.
On Sunday, I met the following challenges:
1. Explore new part of town by bike
2. Ride a greenway
3. Have a bicycle picnic
That's the short version.
The recent heatwave kept me inside for days on end and before that the Jenny was making some unhappy sounds (still bitter about being strapped to the front of a bus I think) as well as automatically shifting through several gears, so I had not ridden in awhile. I took the LGRAB Summer Games as the incentive to make time on Sunday to go for a picnic just off the East Coast Greenway, and to get to the ECG, Interstatement and I would travel through a section of Hartford that I'm not too familiar with. This loop would take us through Hartford, Windsor, South Windsor, Manchester, East Hartford, and then back into Hartford.
Before fun and games, I agreed to accompany Interstatement to his church in the North End of the city, as it was on the way. To be more precise, it's in the North East neighborhood, which is terribly stricken with violence. This is where Hartford gets its reputation from. I was not thrilled to be going through here, but it was early on a Sunday morning, which meant that most of the troublemakers were probably still sleeping after causing problems all night. I had not biked in this area before, so this fulfilled one challenge.
I have also never evaded a cop before.
I did not mean to, exactly. As we were traveling past the site where a police officer was shot a few nights before, a cruiser rolled up. The cop rolled down his window and began talking. I had just gotten into a good rhythm and did not feel like breaking it. About a block ahead it occurred to me that maybe I ought to stop. By the time I did and turned around, I saw that Interstatement had satisfied the officer with some answer that caused him to go on his way. In my own neighborhood, I'm not exactly among the racial/ethnic majority, but I spend a bit of time outdoors and must look like I fit in more. The experience yesterday annoyed me, but I guess it is not horribly offensive. White people, traveling in that neighborhood, are most likely there to buy drugs. (Side note: the data is a few years old now, but only 1.1% of people living in the North East neighborhood are white.) And yesterday, before my day of riding, I was definitely white. Now, I'm more of a red hue.
We did the church thing and then fielded questions from churchgoers who were surprised to see bicycles (instead of cars) being used as going-to-church-transportation. (Hey, if you want to show respect for God, stop crapping all over the planet with your SUV.) From here, we traveled through more sections of Hartford that I am not too familiar with, but which felt far less blighted and dangerous than those we passed through to arrive at the church. We went through a section of Keney Park, which I had not been through before. Keney Park is one of the largest parks in New England and I had previously only seen about one-third of it.
Eventually we landed on Windsor Avenue and started searching for the side streets that would get us to the Bissell Bridge, which would take us over the Connecticut River and along I-291.
While I have traveled over I-291 numerous times by car, I have never done this on a bicycle, nor have I seen the part of South Windsor that is still farmland. This is exactly where the bike path took us. South Windsor, a town I grew up near, is a place I associate with the worst ills of suburban culture -- strip malls and cheaply-built McMansions. Despite what the graffiti on the bridge might want us to believe, it's not threatening enough to "run this shit."
After a pleasant ride through corn fields, we cycled through an industrial section, finally winding up at where I-291 begins/ends in Manchester.
We arrived at Wickham Park dripping sweat and more than ready for our picnic lunch of wine and cheese.
A lot of parks in Connecticut do not permit alcohol, a fact I had forgotten until we arrived. Not sure on Wickham Park's policy, we planned to do a quick photo shoot, pour the wine, and then put the bottle back in one of Interstatement's cargo bike panniers.
I took photos, poured wine, set out the crackers, and was just about the open the cheese when a ranger came over. I had already evaded a cop that morning, but I have the utmost respect for park rangers, so I took a deep breath and waited for it. We learned the area we were using was actually reserved, but that there were other non-reserved areas in the park we could go to. He suggested we "chug" the wine and find another table. What? No trouble?
Since the church group of 150 or so people were supposed to show up for their tables any moment, we quickly packed the crackers and smartly chugged the wine. Just following orders.
The new picnic area actually worked out well, if not better. There was a lot of shade from trees and it was closer to the side we would be exiting from anyway. After lunch we visited the park's Aviary (or "birdiary" if, like me, you can't ever remember the word "aviary"). My photos are not as awesome as they could be since the fence was in the way.
The last stretch of the adventure would involve riding on a greenway. The East Coast Greenway is described by its website:The East Coast Greenway is the nation's most ambitious long-distance urban trail project. By connecting existing and planned shared-use trails, a continuous, traffic-free route is being formed, serving self-powered users of all abilities and ages. 3,000 miles long, the Greenway links Calais, Maine at the Canadian border with Key West, Florida. Alternate routes will add another 2,000 miles to the ECG trail system.
This green city-to-city travel corridor was launched in 1991 when the East Coast Greenway Alliance formed to make this vision a reality. The East Coast Greenway will be entirely on public right-of-way, incorporating waterfront esplanades, park paths, abandoned railroad corridors, canal towpaths, and pathways along highway corridors.
I had previously ridden on most of the section planned for that day, but it was when I rode less frequently; thus, I was looking forward to conquering the hills that used to be awful for me. No such luck. I rode it, but due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act the pavement was all dug up! Almost the entire section was dirt. Not hardpacked dirt, or even gravel, but loose dirt which made riding even on flat surfaces a challenge I was not expecting. We had to keep stopping because my thighs were burning. Little did I know, I was also getting wicked sunburn in spite of having diligently applied SPF45 sunblock that morning.
By the time we hit the street section of the ECG, I was happy to ride in traffic because it meant a hard surface. Next time, I am bringing more water and the bottle of sunblock.
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Today, April 26, is Fredrick Law Olmsted's birthday. He's responsible for making Hartford's parks awesome. At Keney Park today was the CT Olmsted Heritage Alliance's celebration & conference. The guy who wrote the Hartford parks book, John Alexopolos, spoke and then there was a bus tour of Keney. I went on a one man bicycle tour.
I hadn't been on any of the Keney trails since the bizarre call I got from an ATV owner complaining that the police were enforcing Hartford ordinances and confiscating his ATV. They're really ripping up the trails north and west and of the golf course. It's a shame, because they'd never really been that bad.
From there, I took the very long way back to City Hall.
my thumb shifting diamond back in all its glory.
Weirdos.
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I've been sort of derelict in my blogulatory duties lately. Perhaps my interest in blogging waning. Perhaps I'm a crappy writer. Perhaps I've got writer's block. That would be funny, because I'm not a writer. Some stuff:
1. Riding a bike in a Hartford park is now legal, even if you do it off road. This allows you to ride a bike in Bushnell Park... not that anyone was being prevented before. In fact, bicycles were technically not allowed on the bike path along the CT River. However, this is also opens up the opportunity for riding on dirt. So, Keney Park "mountain biking" is now legal. As you can imagine, I had a little bit to do with this ordinance.
2. I'm not very good at riding a rigid bike.
I thought that I was, so I rode my rigid stumpjumper at the Winding Trails race. I came in 11th (14 seconds out of points). Fun & fast race, though.
this isn't winding trails. 
this is fungus soup in a bowl
that gel thing + the giant saddle weigh as much as the rest of the bike
