Time to Start Acting Like a Thirty-Seven Year Old

First - December 1st is Giving Tuesday.  Consider the Center for Latino Progress and their new project, BiCi Co. when you give back.  Hartford has been without a bike shop since 2014.  Our city needs BiCi Co. to support safe, sustainable, and economic transportation for both existing and newly arriving Hartford residents.  BiCi Co. will help transform Hartford into a cycling friendly city, a city where teens can get brakes for their bikes, bike lights, and locks.  Bicycles don't just connect us to destinations, they connect us to new friends and opportunities.  It won't be Heaven, but we'll get closer to it.  Thanks for your support.  Please donate now.

Second - The last Slow Roll of 2015.  Sunday, December 6th.  Meet at 3pm at Majorca (2074 Park Street, near Prospect).  We will ride to BiCi Co., get a short tour, and then back to Majorca for happy hour and appetizers.  If you aren't one for December rides, you can still meet us at Majorca at 4:30pm.  FB event invite - share and invite others.  Did you know that the building that Majorca is in was a Columbia Bicycle factory?  Hartford's bicycle history runs deep.

Third - I had a ridiculous adventure on Friday.  One day after my 37th birthday, Ken K and Brian joined me for an impromptu mixed terrain ride.  Global weirdness put us in the 60's, and it was just too nice to stay indoors.  I lied to Brian and told him we were going to be road riding.  After taking the secret MDC road and jumping the gate that's always closed, we rode toward the Wethersfield meadows.  We may or may not have crossed on the closed Route 3 bridge pedestrian path.  There seem to be gates at both ends with signs saying that, "None shall pass."  

Leaving the secret MDC road.  

Transported to the Glastonbury side of the river, as if by magic, we continued our 'not a road ride' on the dirt roads and double track around Keeney Cove.  Ken K found a large, huge really, slab of Styrofoam and I immediately thought, "That would make a swell raft."  After a test float, I suggested that I would put my bike on the foam raft and see where it would take me.  Ken and Brian thought that was an obvious course of action and helped me shove off.  

This is a great idea!  

Plenty of room for the touring bike and myself. 

Remarkably stable.  Even in the windy chop at the center of the river.

Not the stupidest thing I've ever done.

Closing in on Brainard airfield.  The planes come in low.

The raft was very buoyant, and comfortable to boot.  Plenty of room for both me and the bike.  Rather than floating down river as I had expected, the strong wind pushed me upriver back towards Hartford.  I had a short stick and a longer tree trunk for poling.  The wind took me across the river towards Brainard air field.  I pushed the block up on shore and gathered up a long poly rope that I found tied to a tree.  It seemed like something I might want to have with me on a rafting trip.  I shoved off again.  With my long beard, I didn't want to hazard riding my bike in an airport.  Confusing airport security isn't prudent.  I relaxed on the raft (you can't hurry a raft) and kept going north.  The bend in the river and the wind took me back across towards East Hartford.  A couple of boats zipped by, but neither came over to see what I was up to or if perhaps I needed assistance.  "Oh, just another bike on a Styrofoam block."

The weather was stellar.

I picked up a rope.  Might be useful for a guy on a raft.

 The foam block is now resting on a dock in East Hartford.  I tipped off a couple of artists, as this could be really fun to work with. Imagine carving a sled out of that block.  Or building a giant puppet head.  Or formalizing the raft setup and taking it for a much longer trip next time.  So many possibilities.  If I wasn't neck deep in starting up a community bike shop, I'd be going back tomorrow myself to pick it up.  I consider this a first dibs opportunity to claim the block for a future project.  Not saying exactly where this is, but you can probably figure it out.

That looks like a good place to land.

Another photo for scale.

After landing, I kept riding.  There is a concrete flood wall behind the East Hartford water treatment plant that I only have the guts to ride every tenth time.  This was that time.  I was feeling pretty good about the foam block ride, so I rode the wall.  The Hockanum River Trail was pretty empty, as per usual.  An under used gem of a trail that starts behind East Hartford town hall.  A quick stop at the top of Wickham Park, and one of my favorite fast descents down the sledding hill.  Some coffee and a muffin at the Riverfront rounded out what may have been the best ride of the year.  It's hard to compare rides, but this was by far the most unique.  I feel closer to Mark Twain today.  It's time I start acting like a thirty-seven year old.

A new spot for graffiti.  I hadn't looked under this bridge before.

Riding the wall makes my tummy feel funny.

One of the better views of Hartford, and a nice ride to get here.

Amazing that the weather was so pleasant today.  Soaked up all the Vitamin D.

Nothing to see here.  The article is done, but since you're so thorough, you should go over to the BiCi Co. membership and fundraising page and make a sizable donation.  Wink.

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A wall in East Hartford

Hockanum River, a few miles upstream from the below mentioned wall. 

I generally try to keep non-bike related aspects of my life off of the beat bike blog, because that's not the purpose of this thing. However, Tony took it upon himself to air some of my clean laundry with respect to my recent experience with signing up on AccessHealthCT and subsequent criticism from the nation's conservatives. I'm annoyed, but hey what are you going to do? James Taranto wrote a whole column about me, rife with quotes that were recycled from an interview in the Courant and never called me. (If you want to read my thoughts about my experience, here's a link to an op-ed I wrote.)

Anyhow, to close the loop regarding my healthcare decisions and cycling, I will tell you a trifling story about a wall in east Hartford that probably describes my tempered recklessness. Behind the sewage treatment plant in East Hartford, the flood control levee dips down it's supplemented by this cement wall. The wall maintains the height of the earthen levee. The Hockanum River Trail goes through there atop the levee. The wall is about 18" wide and at its maximum height above the ground, it's about 5'. I discovered it awhile ago, such a while ago, that I was actually still on my parents' insurance, because I had just graduated from college. Then, I wasn't on their insurance anymore, because the wall is high. Then, I got a job working for the City and I had insurance again, so I rode the wall. After I started law school, I had the school's high premium insurance and the coverage was still pretty good, so I rode the wall. However, I can't afford the premium anymore, so I have not so good insurance and I don't ride the wall. Due to Connecticut's expansion of Medicaid, I will have good insurance starting in January. However, so as not to unduly burden the system with my dangerous lifestyle, I will continue not to ride the wall.


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Ride it. Love it. Respect it. Pick up the Trash.

Just saw an announcement of a trail cleanup day along the East Hartford section of the Hockanum River Trail this Saturday, June 1st.  9AM-noon.  Meeting behind the East Hartford Town Hall on Main Street.  It seems they are also having a competition as to who can make the best Gorp.  I'm going to skip the trail mix challenge and try to weird out the AMC hikers with my trash bag toting bike trailer.

Huge fan of this trail and if you don't know about it yet, you're totally missing out.  As one astute fellow and very occasional Beat Bike Blogger notes, the East Hartford section near Main Street is "like road bike single track."  Also pretty nice for walking and running.  Hidden gem.  The Hockanum Trail (and associated linear park) is much longer than you would expect.  Hopscotching its way along the Hockanum River valley all the way through Manchester.  

June is a busy month.  Just check out the Real Hartford list of fun stuff to do.  Didn't purposefully post over Brendan's most entertaining video of a bicycle towing a load of tin cans.  He likes river cleanups, so will likely approve.

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Workbench from Heaven.

Just a short errand ride this morning.  My route was prescribed by the unnoticed ejection of my cable lock the night before while riding home from Hartford along the slippery Hockanum River boardwalk.  Heading back along the boardwalk just past the transfer station I found Salem, his bike rubber side up changing a flat.  We bs'd shortly about how bikes are great because you can jerry-rig just about anything.  Salem's rim strip had snapped during the repair, so he tied a knot in it and was cutting a piece of plastic candy wrapper to cover the gap.  On to the post office, I changed my address to downtown Hartford and if I'm lucky the closing will come off on Tuesday.  Bike move will follow on Saturday (2/4) and I hope to find one or two friends that think this will be a fun adventure.

My next stop was the Glastonbury Home Depot, but I decided to detour along the path that starts behind Kahoots.  Passing under the bridge I noticed that the hut was being rebuilt.  You may remember that Brendan bemoaned the burned camp in a recent post.  I stopped and started up a brief chat with the fellow who has been living at this industrious camp.  Carl (name changed) said that he'd gotten out of the hut before getting crispy himself, meaning he must have been inside when it started.  So far no one seems to bother him, and it looks like he's up-sizing his accommodations.  My initial impression was that Carl is a friendly sort.

While rolling along Main Street doubled up for a while with a fellow from Portland on a short road ride.  I kicked it up a notch to ride even and show that even with knobby studs, jeans, and panniers his pace wasn't that impressive.  Can't seem to kill the competitive bug, although I've been able to hide it mostly.  Being slow helps.  At Home Depot I reviewed their appliance selection and decided to pick up a couple of Rubbermaid bins and miscellaneous home goods.   As you can see, they fit nicely onto a rear bike rack - hint to those that might want to help me move stuff to Hartford.

Just a block from home (in East Hartford for now) there was a curbed home made work bench, complete with a functional bench vise. No shit.  From heaven.  I walked back and lugged the awkward and surprisingly heavy load home.  How did the universe know that I needed a workbench?  I can't wait to install my TS-2 and true some badly neglected wheels.   

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Briefly noted

If you've traveled the hockanum river trail in east hartford from the mouth to kahoots, you've probably noticed the little cabin under the bridge. It was neatly kept and was developing a lot of lawn furniture as of late. I regret to inform you that it has burned. I hope everyone is OK. I had on occasion seen guys huddled around a fire in a barrel there and there were always friendly. I assume it happened during the cold snap, because Tony and I rode passed a few weeks ago and it was fine. It's really too bad.

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It's January? Riding in a t-shirt.

Global warming has its upside in Connecticut.  Was riding in a t-shirt today and got a full winter dose of vitamin D.  Meandered over to the Heublein Tower in Simsbury, via the Hockanum River path.  I picked up the path just off of Roberts Street by Rogo Distributors.  This is further east than I usually pick up the trail, and this portion of the trail is a bit newer and more technical than the rest of the Hockanum segments.  Since I was at full expedition pace, I noticed several great views that I'd missed on faster trips.  Someone did a pretty good job clearing the trail of fallen trees - thanks - and it looked like the trail was getting quite a bit of bike use.

Met up with friends and Heublein Tower and enjoyed the gusty views from the ridge.  First time I'd noticed the glass in the door.  I think Valerie rubbed off a bit and now I notice unique glass and windows more often.

While meandering back through Hartford I took Park Street, which is one of my recent favorites due to the hustle and bustle.  Hooked a right on Pope Park Highway since I'd never been down that way before.  The street runs past the ice house and Lyman kitchen store that are visible from I-84.  There is also an interesting looking nightclub - Divi Divi's - which the internet tells me is a gay dance club.  Will have to check it out, as I've found that gay clubs tend to have enthusiastic dancers, so I don't stick out like I usually do.  Across the street was a new little park with some unique sculptures, windy metal garden, a great spot to take in the sunset.  

Just a block from my place in East Hartford someone had put out a couple boxes of freecycle home goods.  Being the scrounger that I am, I circled back with trailer in tow and scored some excellent items to outfit my soon to be Hartford condo.  Check out the two Polish plates.  Score!

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Racing

I like the Hockanum River. Its watershed has a website and I just realized that it also hosts a canoe and kayak race in April. I don't know much about canoe and kayak racing, but it sounds like a lot of fun and I have access to a canoe. Anybody want to race with me?

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