Nature's fury is too much for Johanna and me, so we're retreating on foot to higher ground for the next few days.
I experienced the intensity at Pope Park and Fernridge Park. It must be said that the Army Corps of Engineers did a good job stopping Hartford from being flooded.
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The Park River comes up a lot when people talk about Hartford. Some people want it to be unearthed and visibly go through Bushnell Park again. Some people like to paddle in it under the City. I think there's some kind of plan to make it in a greenway, in fact I think it's underway. There's a bike path south of Flatbush.
If you've ever been down Brookfield St or the Flatbush Ave entrance/exit ramp, you know that the concrete channel is pretty bad ass. And, it's a pretty bad ass place to ride a bike, at expedition speed or any speed. Best accessed by from Olive Street.
It's strange that there's such an effort from keeping the neighborhood away from the river.
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Interstate 70 finds a way through the west side of the mighty Rockies via Glenwood Canyon, a beautiful drive many of us have prolly made driving cross country. This time, I noticed the multi-use path along the river and decided to check it out since I had my bike with me. Wow! This thing is a feat of engineering in which the builders really worked hard to preserve trees and the canyon and not just blast though....and it shows! If you ever find yourself driving through here and want a fantastic break, bust out yer bike or walking shoes and go exploring. I think there's about a dozen or so miles of path.
It's super fresh to see the tunnels for cars while gallivanting under the dang road! The road noise varies depending where the trail is in relation to the cars and trucks.
The trail moves from the sides of the Interstate, to under, to next to and all over again as the roads and trails meander through the steep, twisty canyon. Its sometimes awkward and noisy with speeding cars a few meters away, sometimes strangely peaceful and quiet, but always surreal. so very urban in many ways, but in a huge natural canyon. 
You usually don't share a path with paddlers carrying boats in Hartford!
But then again, the Hog River doesn't have much great white water to paddle! Not that there aren't some great adventures to be had paddling in Hartford, or for that matter, under Hartford!
There's some artwork along the way including this memorial which was enjoyable and musical
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For some reason, I've had a hard time picking up the blogging machine and writing an entry. It's not like I've been avoiding my bike or there's been a shortage of funny bike-related anecdotes, I've just been word weak. I told Mary V Rickel Pelletier that I'd promote the Wild and Scenic Film Fest thing at Trinity on here, but I guess I need some accompanying bike stuff to go with it.
Let's see...
On Tuesday, I took a ride with Salem, his friend Gary from that big state out west, and others. It started off like a normal ride with 'cross bike: we rode on some roads and then in a park. There was a lot of almost losing lights, but it turns out none of them were ever lost. Then at six, we met up with this group ride that rides the Hop River State Park Trail in the dark starting from Manchester to someplace in maybe Columbia, Bolton or Coventry, I don't really know. I had no idea this trail existed until very recently. It's very nice and has some tunnels. The ride split into the fast group and the not as fast group. Riding with the not as fast group was nice. At the turn around point (where ever it was), I soon learned the worst time to get a flat tire on a fast a group ride: shortly after the turn around. Everyone has regrouped, is ready to hammer back, is thinking intensely about the hammering and is not thinking about much else. So, when I pulled to the side to see if I had a flat, I wasn't really part of anyone's consciousness. I set to work on fixing the flat, which was difficult because I was without tire levers. I was just about to improvise with the quick release when someone rolled up on a 'cross bike, but wasn't on the ride. It was slightly weird, because I was in the middle of the woods at night in rural Connecticut, but I guess one should never underestimate the popularity of whatever it was that we were doing. This nice gentleman had levers and I was back in business without having to resort to quick release improvisation. We started riding back together, but this guy was faster than me. So, I had a peaceful and pleasant solitary ride back.
On Wednesday, I had the day off. I read about CT-NEMBA doing a ride at some place called Grayville Park in Hebron. I decided to mix it up and join them. I also knew that I had to clean up all the bike stuff in the kitchen and living room because Johanna was getting mad about it (with good reason). I was moving things to the basement and in the basement, I discovered a bag with tubes in it. I decided that the tubs shouldn't be in the bag anymore and removed them, only to discover a cute little bat. At first I thought he was dead, but I juggled the bag and he moved in a living fashion. It was warm outside, so I put him under a leaf in the backyard.
So, anyway, I drove down RT 2 to Hebron and rode. Nice guys. Nice trails. It had been awhile since I rode an actual mountain bike. I remembered why I like them.
If you trackstand with one hand in a picture, it actually looks like you're tracking standing. I stole the picture from Mark at Cyclesnack/CT-NEMBA.Wild & Scenic Film Festival:
Saturday, November 14th at 2:30pm matineeCinestudio on the campus of Trinity CollegeEight new environmental adventure films selected from the Patagonia Wild & Scenic Film Festival. See magnificent places on a big screen. (full festival program copied below)
$12 advance tickets on sale now by calling REI (860) 233-2211
pick-up tickets purchased via telephone at the door
Call now - 9pm Friday evening for advance ticket discount.
{ticket price at door = $20.}If you are not able to attend, please consider purchasing "community" ticket/s ($12) in advance on behalf of "Inner City Outings and/or City of Hartford "Urban Adventures" Program. For telephone ticket sales, call REI 233-2211 or visit the REI store in BlueBack Square, West Hartford.This is a fund raising event for Park Watershed Revitalization Initiative and Farmington River Watershed Association. A summary of 'Last Descent' is listed in Thursday's Hartford Courant:bests,Mary Rickel PelletierProject Director, Park River Watershed Revitalization Initiative
www.parkriver.orgin collaboration with the Farmington River Watershed Association
We rode through the Park Rd. parade on the way to the river and saw this sweet bus!!
Brendan has already summed up our clean-up of the confluence of the Park and Connecticut Rivers this last Saturday so I won't add to that but I thought I'd post a few more pictures, because everyone loves pictures!!
Hit them up after the break!
Here is the culvert from whence the mighty Park River flows into the Connecticut. From here volunteers spread North and South along the river cleaning a stretch of about half a mile. Plenty of good bike parking spots here along the railing.
Up the hill everyone is loading up Joel's truck as we finish up.
Joel's truck filled to the brim with our finds. As you can see we managed to haul in quite a catch. If you look carefully you can see the red fiberglass canoe that Brendan alludes to in his blog.
My proudest find, too bad it was a XXXL. Im hoping someone nabbed it off the pile we left for DPW.
The crew picking up the pile.
Joel showing us his best trucker's face.
Oh glorious pile, anyone missing a bumper?
Afterwards some of us grabbed a late lunch at the Hook and Ladder. Not a bad joint, beer selection isn't great (sadly what is in the Beat), but the food was quite good. Brendan even scored one of their rare CBS-branded onion rings!
And finally...
...our beautiful Capitol on a beautiful day!
Thanks to everyone who came out and to those who did not, we shall see you next year.
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