Bike to work week: one week later

Last week: hooray for bikes! 

Last week, it was all bike bike BIKE! Ride your bike to work, ride your bike to happy hour, ride your bike home from work, ride your bike to a farm, ride your bike to dinner, ride your bike to rally about riding your bike, ride your bike to a meeting about riding your bike, ride your bike to a course on how to ride your bike, etc.

Accordingly, there a lot of bikes in the bike rack last Friday. So many, I wasn't sure where to put my bike. You'd that would carry over at least a week, right? Nope. Back to normal levels today. I guess free bagels aren't that big of an incentive.

"If it rains, take the bus" levels of bike enthusiam.

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Ewe Deserve A Break

At around 1PM on Sunday afternoon, I had serious need for a break, a chance to get out of the house and two events that sounded appealing. To the west, West Hartford was hosting its inaugural Wheel Fun Day, which ended at 2 PM. To the east, Beckett Farms beckoned with a Hootenanny. slated to wrap-up at 3. While trying to catch a bit of each event was theoretically possible, the necessary scramble needed to reach both places by bike would have undermined my whole quest to unwind a bit.

The Hootenanny won because, well, hootenanny for one thing. Phonetically, it's hands-down more satisfying to say than the somewhat hokey Wheel Fun pun. Also, my week was heavily front-loaded with bike-centric things, between the last gasps of the DOT Flower Street reconsideration hearing (which sucked, but which I won't get into today) Bike To Work (which was fine, aside from the presence of some the two-faced personnel who made the aforementioned hearing suck as badly as it did) and my Saturday afternoon stint of attempted helpfulness with the LCI class that took place in Hartford over the course of this weekend (which was good). Riding my bike to something not bike-related sounded like a nice change of pace.

A steady drizzle fell as I pedaled over to Glastonbury by way of the Founders Bridge. I made it to Beckett Farms by 2 to find the Hootenanny calming down for its final hour. There were still people and vendors about, so I had a nice food, coffee and conversation break. I was satisfied with my choice of destination-- it was nice to visit a farm. There were sheep being shorn and freshly-shorn sheep bleating up a storm. I asked around to see if anyone knew if the ferry to Rocky Hill was running and got a few probably positive maybes to justify pedaling southward to the ferry landing.

This was my first ferry ride of the season, and it made me happy. I meandered through the Rocky Hill meadows and Wethersfield Cove toward home. The rain got a bit harder as I reached Hartford. When I reached home and dried my glasses, I found that the raindrops had been temporarily photo-imprinted on my self-tinting glasses.

Sometime this Monday the Flower Street decision is supposed to be announced. I'm going to savor this Sunday and do my best to not think about it until then. Read more!

If I fall into the drink, I will say your name before I sink

I have prided myself on not falling out of boats. Once in ninth grade, I was trying to flirt with this girl from East Granby. We were both part of this regional marine ecology thing called River to Sea for high school students. The kick off event involved camping at Peoples State Forest and then a canoe trip down to that outfitter right above Satan's Kingdom. I told her that she should canoe with me because I'm good at canoeing and we won't capsize. I was true to my word. We canoed just fine and had a lot of fun. Every other canoe at some point expelled its passengers- even the one with the cocky Boy Scout. We im'ed each other a bit and every went on a date to see a ska/funk band called Neoteric at the Simsbury teen center, Crossroads (I don't know why it's called Crossroads, because it's not at an intersection, it's on Iron Horse Boulevard near People's Choice Pizza. I had thought it was closed, but I googled it and it seems like things have been happening there and you can check in to it on foursquare. (I don't know why anyone would want to check into anything on foursquare ever.)) You may think I'm a great big dork for going to a teen center in my life. You'd be right. I believe that is one of two times I went there. The other was to see Wayward, the most famous band at Avon High, which featured a science teacher, who decided to get quit teaching my senior year to follow his dreams of being a rock star.

Ed. note: I forgot to finish the above paragraph when I wrote this last night.

Today, I got in a kayak today and went down and up the Farmington River in Avon. It's probably the nicest part of Avon. I went from the Old Farms bridge down to the ponds at the Nod Brook Wildlife Management Area, where I portaged into those ponds, and then turned around and came back to Fisher Meadows.

That's where I fell in. I was getting out and I lost my balance and fell in.

This bridge doesn't look so good. Don't golf at Blue Fox Run.

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When NPR is your Friend

Had the opportunity to chat with Colin McEnroe on Thursday afternoon.  Oddly they decided the conversation was interesting enough that it should be shared with the larger regional NPR audience.  We were in studio on Asylum Avenue with Mary Collins and Kelly Kennedy.  Mary is a professor at Central Connecticut State University and has written a beautifully titled book, American Idle.  Mary was also instrumental in organizing a bicycle festival, Wheel Fun Day, in West Hartford this coming Sunday.  Her goal is to poke and prod the City of West Hartford into being proactive about Complete Streets infrastructure.  Kelly Kennedy is the exuberant Executive Director of Bike Walk Connecticut, and rep'd the rare BWCT jersey right into the studio.  We talked about helmet technology, mutual respect, and the pure joy of cycling.  At one point I suggest we "fill the streets with dancing bears,"  and it made sense in the moment.

Unfortunately we ran out of time before I could shoehorn in some discussion of education for cyclists.  Bike Walk CT plays an integral role in bringing Traffic Safety 101 and League Cycling Instructor training to the state.  I'm facilitating and taking an exhaustive 3 day LCI training seminar this weekend in Hartford.  There are action ready programs and certified volunteer instructors ready to incorporate bike safety education into youth physical education programs. Teaching our kids this skill set would pay us back for decades.  On Thursday night Valerie and I were brainstorming our LCI course training assignments and slides.  After consuming some creativity juice, we did pretty well with Valerie's cover slide on bicycle brakes.  You be the judge.

On Colin's show one of the conversation topics was Bike to Work, since National Bike to Work day was the next day.  I rode over to East Hartford early this morning to water my community garden plot and plant some squash.  After that I met up with a group a P&W employees from Glastonbury that were riding to the Hartford BTW breakfast.  More than 200 bike commuters of all shapes, sizes, and configurations mobbed the plaza of the Old State House, spilling over into the lawn.  Excitingly the event has become a draw for those that want to be seen and green, such as Mayor Segarra (in a neon public safety jacket) and James Redeker, the CT DOT commissioner.  Hartford is gearing up to create a Parks and Open Space plan that includes bike route connections between their large and under-utilized parks and green spaces.  It smells like a Bike Plan under the guise of the Parks and Recreation department.  As I find out more, will let you know.

Next week we have an East Hartford Bike to Work breakfast on Thursday, May 23rd.  6:30-9AM on the corner of Main Street and Ensign, right across from P&W.  Fingers crossed for the same splendid weather, but the event runs rain or shine.    Anyone can attend, even if you don't work for the behemoth that is my employer.  And despite the mis-worded form, you can also pledge to Bike to Work on the Bike Walk CT website.  A pledge puts you in the running for the bike schwag raffle, always good stuffs.

And I got some winter shoes on sale.  They are pure awesomeness.  I hope it snows soon.



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Eel massacre

I rode down to New Haven yesterday to get some lunch. I was split between pizza and Mexican food, but the view from the Mexican food is better and the food is cheaper. Upon my arrival in Fair Haven, I went out on a dock to look at the mouth of the Quinnipiac. The view was industrially pretty, but much to my chagrin there was a pile of dead eels on the dock. It didn't ruin my day, but I was bumming to see these eels.

Anyway, I ate the Mexican food. Rode around the city a bit, rode to Avon to say to hi to my dad and sister and came home. New Haven is pretty nice.

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People in cars

As you've probably been made aware, it's "bike to work day" on Friday. People are always so smug about how great it is to ride your bike to work. Somehow, you're superior a person for doing it. Nothing is further from the truth. You're a hedonist. Riding a bike is fun When you ride your bike to work  it's like you get to play outside before and after work. If you drive a car, you're probably stuck in traffic with a bunch of assholes. Even if you have a cool car, you don't get to drive it in a cool way, because you cannot move. If you take public transportation, you sit there with some people who may or may not be yelling loudly or smelling bad.

This bike to work day, drive your car to work instead. You'll probably arrive at work in a worse mood than usual. Then, drive home and your family or whoever it is that sees you after work will be surprised how unhappy you are.

Have some sympathy for drivers (not all of them, but some), they don't get to play outside before and after work.

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Keney Park singletrack

I went for a very pleasant bike ride yesterday up through South Windsor. I finally crossed the rubicon that is the Stoughton Brook and, with wet, cold feet, discovered that the river trail just sort of ends in a farm field with nice tobacco barns that I'd been to before.

I went through Keney on the way back and, for whatever reason, I decided to check out the old Leadership Trail. I rode it once five years ago with Chill Will. It was in slightly rough shape then. I walked on it a little more recently when Luis and I were investigating where exactly they were proposing putting billboards in Keney (thankfully, we kept that at bay). It was pretty forgotten about at that point. However, judging by the Friends of Keney's flickr page, they did work on it as part of the trail work they did last year. Although, from riding it yesterday, it looks like someone cleaned up more this spring. It's totally clear now and fun to ride. I think it might get the prize for best singletrack in Hartford right now.

It's too bad Chill Will's photobucket account is dead, because there are nostalgic beat bike blog pictures on there.

There's a fox in this picture, but you can't really make it out.

Also, I found a sweet cut through at 999 Asylum that saves you from having to ride Woodland to get back to Farmington.

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Truth in advertising

My ankle is still bothering me, so when I went up to Vermont this past weekend I spent most of my time plumbing instead of riding my bike. Then the plumbing started bothering me, so I went for a bike ride. Not a very long one, but I found a new road or two, road the much beloved Nishikis (Pueblo & Comp III) an discovered a unhappy wheel bearing on my Privateer S.

For those of you who drink beer, you probably don't realize this is a picture of the most famous brewery in North America.

I had always wondered where Swamp Rd. in Greensboro went and I decided to find out. Believe it or not, Swamp Rd goes into a swamp. I think in the winter it may be a useful road that is a shortcut to Hillcrest Road, but the rest of the year it goes into a swamp and you sink. Or, maybe it's for getting swamp resources, like mud. I also went down Highlander Rd., which is one of the coolest road names going.

In non-Vermont news, my friend Jason got his bike stole-- a Schwinn Le Tour no less. Here are some pictures. He lives in West Hartford, so if you this rolling on West Hartford or something like this on craigslist. Shoot me an email or something. It's got thumb shifters. That's sort of a unique identifier.

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WarmShowers.org is Awesome

*** Fun Fact:  My previous title for this post resulted in the suspension of our Twitter feed.  I guess they thought I was a spam porn bot.  Ha! ***

Not to diss fans of golden showers (the naive can do an internet search), but I'm a bigger fan of warmshowers.com.  Warm Showers is a reciprocal bicycle touring exchange.  Folks that have a spare room or some lawn space sign up to host traveling bike tourists, for free.  They offer to provide some level of accommodation, as little as somewhere to set up a tent, and as much as a spare bedroom with dinner and breakfast.  In return they are part of the Warm Showers network, and when touring can contact listed hosts found using the website or a handy phone app to find places to stay that don't cost a damn thing.  If you're a host you don't have to put someone up if you're busy or don't feel comfortable with the arrangement.  The website encourages and tracks recommendations for both hosts and travelers.  Awesome right?  Not much better.

This week I hosted my second traveling bike tourists in at my humble downtown Hartford home.   Only the second in two years.  Would have expected more being in this concentrated Northeast corridor between Boston, Providence, New Haven, and NYC.  Sara and Pedro did mention that my profile photo was a bit frightening, well with the massive ice beard and crazy eyes.  They were curiously surprised that with a recent haircut and summer beard I'm not all that scary.  Perhaps I'll put a cleaned up photo out there, but then I could be deluged with European guests.

Sara and Pedro were a newlywed couple from Lisbon, Portugal that were one day into a two year exhaustive bike tour of North and South America.  They are blogging the trip here.  I was very impressed by their rigs and gear, and I've now decided to pick up a "hypercracker" before my next big tour.   I predict that within a week they will be shedding some weight and either selling or shipping it.  Pedro, a former engineer, had transitioned to being a professional chef.  For dinner he made a delicious risotto that incorporated a bunch of fiddleheads I had waiting in the fridge.  Sara, a lawyer, was tracking their budget and expenses was very pleased with the economy that Warm Showers allowed on their trip.  I've been invited to visit them in Portugal, and looking at available Warm Showers hosts, it looks like a great place to test out a folding bike tour.  My sister, Kristen, has been practicing her Portuguese for a couple of years now.  Maybe we could make it a family bike tour and she could be my translator.

Sara and Pedro said that when they told friends they were passing through Hartford they got confused looks, nobody thought Hartford was worth a visit.  After a short stroll down Main Street and Bushnell Park with a rest stop at City Steam Brewery, the couple swore they'd rebuff any future slights of this remarkable city.  Hartford built some international cred with their short stay.  With the East Coast Greenway passing right through Hartford, there is huge future potential to be a bike touring destination and waypoint.  Anyone who has ridden the Allegheny Passage / C&O Canal route has seen the economic and community benefits of a long and largely off road multi-use path.

And don't forget, Bike to Work breakfasts coming up in the next two weeks.  Friday, May 17th in downtown Hartford (and other cities).  Thursday, May 23rd in East Hartford.    Get free food and other goodies. Spread the word!

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The CT DOT does Good. Sometimes.

The CT DOT held a public info and comment session this past Tuesday to present the planned road diet for Burnside Avenue (AKA Rt 44).  There was a healthy showing of residents, bike commuters, DOT staff, City of East Hartford folks, and transportation planners in attendance.  The explanation put forth for the current abominable configuration of Burnside with two lanes each way, down the crowded gauntlet of neighborhoods and flanking local businesses, is that the road layout hearkens to a time before I-84.  The lanes were needed to carry the higher traffic flow of that era.  Curiously in the new design, with dedicated left turn lanes at many intersections, the transportation planning models predict a higher carrying capacity than before.  A lane in each direction will be dropped, and replaced with a bike lane.  Most of the allowed street parking along the curb will be preserved.  In my experience the street parking on Burnside is intermittent, almost never a line of cars.  Just one-sy, two-sy.

Parking is an important consideration because for the length of Burnside the CT DOT is planning on a minimum of 7 foot wide parking with a 5 foot wide bike lane.  That puts much of the bike lane into the door zone.  7' & 5' is the bare minimum, and 8' & 6' is a much better configuration.  That said, projects like this can die on the table due to parking wars.  I wasn't going to push the issue.  The design will be a leaps and bounds improvement over the current arrangement.  Racing traffic will be calmed by the single lane, slightly narrower than before (11' instead of 12').  Pedestrians will have a shorter and therefore safer crossing distance.  Cyclists will have a designated lane for the full length of Burnside from Main Street all the way to the Manchester line, where a very wide berm will take its place.

This is really exciting!  The CT DOT and the City of East Hartford are hoping the Burnside design is contagious.  One can only hope that a Complete Streets design finds its way onto Main Street through downtown East Hartford.   That stretch can be harrowing during morning or evening rush hour.  East Hartford wants to have a livable, walkable,  bikable downtown and rightly understands that it has to do something productive with the wide and dangerous state highways that presently cut it to pieces.

How do we, as ordinary folks with day jobs, get more smart projects like this in the pipeline?  Some suggestions.   Become a member of your regional or state bicycle advocacy organization.  Infrastructure projects take 5's and 10's of years to get implemented.  You need to think and plan your action on a suitably long time scale.  Build relationships with your legislators and key folks at the DOT.  Increase the number of bike commuters and vocal advocates by supporting bike to work programs and commuter education programs.  Grow support in the community via bicycle and pedestrian advisory committees that work with the city council, mayor, and public works department.  Be consistent in your message and don't give up.  Not every project will fall the way of Complete Streets, but a growing and inherently beneficial message will stick enough times to make a difference.

Speaking of building on numbers of bike commuters, May is appropriately tagged as National Bike Month.  Bike Walk Connecticut is coordinating numerous Bike to Work breakfast events in cities across the state.  Most of the events are on Friday, May 17th, including downtown Hartford in front of the Old State House from 7AM to 9AM.  There are meetups coming into Hartford on the 17th from nearby East Hartford and far flung Cheshire and Willimantic.  You can pledge online to bike to work which will enter you into the raffle for some bike swag.  If you are obsessively competitive, you can bring that compulsion to your commute with the National Bike Challenge.  Most importantly, since I'm preaching to the converted, you can do the most good by spreading the word.  Invite your friends, co-workers, and send a note out to your cycling club.

On Thursday, May 23rd there is a stand alone Bike to Work breakfast in East Hartford from 6:30AM to 8:30AM at the corner of Main Street and Ensign.  Pay attention.  I'm organizing this one.  Show up and I'll feel better about myself and the bleak future of our car-centric world.  Pratt & Whitney has teamed up with Goodwin College and American Eagle Federal Credit Union to bring this event back to our near burb East of the River.  You don't have to work for P&W or be associated with Goodwin to attend. Read more!

More on flat pedals

I was eating an omelet this morning, so I was thinking about pedals. The skillet I use the most often is this large Lodge cast iron one. Upon googling that, I learned that there's a 12" one that's the same price. It would be cool to have an even larger skillet, but I don't think it would fit on the stove. This 10" already prevents me putting anything but the smallest sauce pan behind it. When you put beaten eggs into a large skillet they really spread out. In making an omelet on a large surface like that, I find that if there is a lot of filling in your omelet, it requires a second fold. Instead of having a half circle omelet you get a pie wedge omelet. It's a different eating experience, because you get three layers of egg (sort of four, but two of the layers are touching each other) and two layers of filling. In today's case, it was a cheddar cheese and turnip greens.

The foregoing paragraph was a metaphor: a metaphor for pedals. I think that my cleats are slightly too far forward in my shoes and after the big ride this weekend my ankles hurt. Going running did not make them feel better. You know what did make them feel better? Going for a ride with flat pedals. Instead of putting pressure further forward on my foot like I do with clipless pedals, I slid my feet forward and pedaled from the arch. By the end of the ride I went on yesterday, I had worked out a lot of the stiffness in my ankles.

Also, I saw the Skull Trailer:

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PTDD

That stands for Post-Traumatic Detour Disorder, but I kid. The route of this year's De Tour de Connecticut was the same pleasant route as years' past (mostly) and the weather was beautiful, but the pace was bordering on traumatic at times. And since I don't ever want to consult a cue sheet, I hung with the lead group all the way until we rejoined the Air Line Trail in Goodwin State Forest. I probably would have hung longer (despite my growing opposition to the pace), but I got a stick in my wheel and didn't have the fortitude to sprint back up to the group. I rode the airline trail back into Willimantic in solitary and found about half of the lead group at the spring. We also picked up two riders and I couldn't figure out how they got to the Spring before me, because they never passed me. Shortcut.

We got some quasi-substantial food in Willimantic center, Lance smoked a cigarette and we were off once again. We rode the new section of the Airline Trail that a farmer had tried to appropriate by adverse possession for several years (can't acquire property from the state by adverse possession (public policy reasons) & the state can't acquire property by adverse possession either (that's a taking under the 5th Amendment)). The false flat into East Hampton never gets any easier.

We stopped at the library to fill water bottles, pee and wash faces. I was eating WAY better this year and finally conquered Champion Hill without blowing up. I was surprised to discovered that it's not actually that steep of hill when you still have some energy in your body. I parted ways in the Meshomasic and rode home.

I'm not sure who ended up finishing with Salem, but they must have beat last year's time by like a half an hour. According to Strava, even my laughing group (after my leaving) finished in under 9 hours. It took me about 10 hours because I rode out to the start.

Then, I showered and drove to New York to go run as one on Sunday.

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New Hartford Criterium

Not in New Hartford,  in regular Hartford.

The Tim Johnson Ride on Washington rode through Hartford yesterday evening and this morning. Not holding it on Friday makes it difficult to join up with them for lots of people, but Salem met them out somewhere in the eastern part of the state and rode into Hartford with the group. Apparently, there have been lots of cool police escorts.

There was an evening event at the Hartford Bicycle Studio with free beer and some free food. While I miss doing it at Kenny's, because I like to go to Kenny's. I think the Studio is probably a more genre appropriate venue. Also, the beer here was free, so that was an improvement over the pay-for beer at Kenny's.

Additionally, it was announced that the Travlers' Criterium, which apparently was a big bike race that ceased to happen when I was three, is coming back to Hartford as part of Envisionfest this fall. I was hoping a big 'cross race was coming, because criterium racing doesn't do a lot for me (probably because I've never bought a road license). The smaller scale Downtown Criterium hasn't happened since '08 and I haven't got my shit together enough to ever do another 'cross race, so this is a pretty cool development. I mean, there aren't even alley cats in Hartford anymore. I guess bike racing in Hartford has really petered out. But, now it is returning with pros and everything.

Also, Johanna, Salem and I rode downtown together (which is news in and of itself) and saw an ATV beeing towed down Broad St. Was it being impounded? One can only hope. Read more!

Tim Johnson Summits Burnside Ave Bike to Work

*** Updated 4/23 with Burnside Ave info session details. ***

Ha!  Didn't think you'd read a post with such a purposefully confusing run-on title.  But it looks like you're doing it anyway.

I'm going to start in the middle.  Burnside Avenue.  It's crummy for riding on and deadly too.  After 3 cyclists died within 18 months, combined with several pedestrian deaths the CT DOT is proposing to drop the state highway down to one lane each way with bike lanes.  A road diet!  The first one the DOT has attempted.  Burnside Avenue is ripe for a road diet.  The dense neighborhoods, small local stores, and high percentage of non-vehicular traffic are a good fit.  The road was designed to carry much more traffic than it actually sees, and the DOT's traffic counts identified it as fitting for one lane each way.

Here's where it gets important.  You can't stop now.   There is a public info session on April 30th.  These are important.  The CT DOT and East Hartford officials need to hear why its important to you and the City of East Hartford to make Burnside Avenue a Complete Street.  A street designed for people, not just cars.  If you ride on Burnside, we need your voice.  If you live in East Hartford, we need your voice. If you would like to see the DOT look at road diets on other harrowing state highways, we need your voice.  This is the first domino.

Here's how you can be heard:

1. Show up at the public info session on April 30th.  The Connecticut Department of Transportation will conduct a public informational meeting concerning State Project 42-315, bicycle and pedestrian improvements on Route 44, Tuesday, April 30, 2013, at the East Hartford Town Hall in the Council Chambers (2nd floor), 740 Main Street, East Hartford, Connecticut.  Department personnel will be available at 6:30 p.m. to answer questions prior to formal presentation at 7:00 p.m.  For more information, please visit the ConnDOT website.
2. Send a note to the CT DOT's Bike Ped Coordinator Kate Rattan (Katherine.Rattan@ct.gov) and the Mayor of East Hartford, Marcia Leclerc (mleclerc@easthartfordct.gov). Let them know you support the project and what it means to you.
3. Do both!

And then I'll go back to the beginning.  Tim Johnson swoops through Hartford on Wednesday of this week (4/24).  He'll be traveling with a speedy group from Boston to Washington DC to reinforce the messages of the recent National Bike Summit. You might want to ride him (and his merry band of bike advocates) into Hartford or back out on Thursday.  There will also be a reception on Wednesday night at the Hartford Bike Studio, starting at 7:00PM.  Beer sponsor is Harpoon!

The Bike Summit.  Don't forget the Bike Summit.  That's this Saturday, April 27th in New Haven.  A responsible alternative to the DeTour de Connecticut sufferfest.

I'm on a roll planning a Bike to Work breakfast in East Hartford on May 23rd (a Thursday).  The downtown Hartford Bike to Work is on Friday May 17th.  Bike Walk CT is asking folks to register online, and it will put you in the running for a raffle of donated swag from local bike shops.  You can also sign up with the National Bike Challenge.  Last year Pratt & Whitney absolutely stomped Travelers in the National Bike Challenge.  Wonder if we'll do it again, or if Travelers and other Hartford employers might give us some competition this year.  P&W is looking strong.  12 bikes on the racks by engineering building this morning, in April.  Not something I would have seen a couple of years ago.  

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The man who drank water from Dudleytown

Johanna and I hiked the Mohawk Trail this weekend. It's one of the CT blue blazed trails and it used to be the Appalachian Trail until the late 1970s. I recommend it. Quiet, pretty and the only blue blazed trail I know of with lean-tos and campsites. We had a good time. Saturday night, I got to sit by the fire drinking apple brandy, smoke my pipe and look at the stars.

The other thing about the Mohawk Trail is that is goes through Dudleytown- THE MOST HAUNTED PLACE IN AMERICA!!!!! Or, not, who knows? All the paranormal websites seem to give contradictory information. Most people say it's on the Mohawk Trail, but the Warrens say it's not in the Bonney Brook Valley at all and nowhere near Dark Entry Rd. It's hard to verify things in the world of superstition. Dark Entry Rd seems like a really nice neighborhood, though.

Anyway, we hiked through there and it's really quite pretty. The Bonney Brook has a beautiful series of cascades. There are also lots of no trespassing signs from the ominous sounding Dark Entry Forest, Inc.

And, as I was thirsty, I filtered some water from a Bonney Brook tributary and drank it. Hopefully, my demise isn't approaching anymore rapidly than it was before.

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Motet

There was a time when El Presidente de Chine used to write about these multi-modal adventures to Bridgeport, wherein he'd get driven to Middletown, take a bus to New Haven, ride to Bridgeport, take the train back to New Haven, ride to Middletown and get driven home. It was something like that. Sometimes, I ride to Avon, chop wood and then take a car home with the wood. One time, I rode downtown to work, skateboarded to the train station, took the train to Maryland and then was picked up by car. Yesterday, I used multi-modality by putting a canoe on a car, locking my bike up at the canoe's destination, driving up river, canoeing down river and then riding the bike up to where the car was left. It worked great. I've considered doing this to canoe by myself and keeping the bike in the canoe, so I can go as far as I please, but I can't figure out how to get a canoe on top of a car by myself without breaking a window on the car.

Besides, it can be lonely canoeing by yourself.

There are these things, but I'm unsure if they'd be usable in a hilly place like Connecticut.

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Busy Bees, Removing a Stinger

While spinning around with Brendan after work a couple Fridays ago, I managed to catch a stick between the ground and my shin.  Just minutes after rolling up my pants to enjoy the warm weather.  I realized that there was a sizable scratch, but kept on riding.  Later in the ride I realized the scratch hadn't stopped stinging.  A piece of the stick was embedded in my shin, stubbornly refusing to come back out.  Finished the ride with plans to deal with the wood chip later, but heading home would make me late for the Hartfolk Festival.  I stopped at a bench in Elizabeth Park and improvised with a flashlight clip and multi-tool to pry out the unwelcome hitchhiker.  Glad that shins are light on nerves and major blood vessels.

This is your heads up for upcoming awesomeness.  Its time to come out of your hives and put the tires back on the road (or dirt).  Beat Bike Blog is your source for the best bike buzz.  Go get some.  Ha!

• Reveal the Path - Tuesday, April 16th.  7:30PM at the Wadsworth.
• Happy hour socializing beforehand at Arch St Tavern.
• $11 online, and $15 at the door.  This show is coming back because it sold out in February.
• Part of the proceeds go to Bike Walk CT.
• Trashion Fashion Show and After Party - Saturday, April 20th.  6PM at Hartford City Hall.
• The theme is recycled couture.  Wear your duct tape pants and represent.  I built a couple of tree stumps to add to the cardboard forest that will be transforming Hartford City Hall.
• acTrashion Fashion Show starts at ??.
• After party, Welcome to Bohemia, is at the Hartford Bicycle Studio right next to Arch Street Tavern.
• Tickets on sale now!  - If you get tix for both events, you save a couple bucks.
• Tim Johnson's Ride on Washington - Wednesday, April 24th
• Let's be welcoming as Tim Johnson and crew grace our state on the way to DC for some advocacy.
• Reception for the cyclists at Hartford Bicycle Studio around 7PM on Wednesday.
• The route - LINK.
• Bike Walk Connecticut Summit - Saturday, April 27th
• Want to help make things better and get up to speed on what's already in the works.  This is your chance.
• The Detour - For those that prefer pain and pursuit of the bonk to engaging bike / ped advocacy seminars.  Salem is touting the Wee Tour for those that can't stomach the full 118 miles (1/2 road, 1/2 dirt)

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5 years of the Beat Bike Blog

There are lots of anniversaries out there of things, because once something happens, it's got an anniversary. Today, this blog celebrates its fifth anniversary. That's pretty long, but my other blog has been around for 12 1/2 years. That's so long that Blogger won't even display the original posts. You'll have to take my word that I started it in January of 2001. It's a pre 9-11 blog; that's ancient.

Things have changed a lot since the beat bike blog began 5 years ago. Back then, people used to ride around Hartford and enjoy themselves. We thought Critical Mass was cool. At that time, Hartford seemed giddy with bikeyness. Even though Hartford has some bike racks now, it doesn't seem particularly giddy. Other things that have changed are that, save me, none of the people in the masthead picture writing things here anymore. It makes me question why I haven't moved on to more interesting things, but I like clinging to my halcyon days of being 24.

It also used to seem that everyone have a bike blog 5 years ago. Now, people use Strava to talk about bikes instead. Since most bike blogs were just ride reports, maybe just replacing them with data isn't a bad thing.

I guess because of this blog I've met a bunch of new friends who are pretty cool. I also put together some Eels, which I think were good things. And, there were the four river cleanups I did in the blog's name. Those were positive. It's also given me a reason to post pictures of things from bike rides.

So, should we keep going?

Also, what's your favorite beat bike blog post?

This is mine.

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