First day riding

After enjoying everyone's company in CT for a few days, it was time to get riding.  The first day's itinerary was pretty mellow: hare across country to the coast, where we would pick up the East Coast Greenway route and follow it to Bridgeport.

Mileage: 43 miles. 1700 feet of climbing.  Overall, the amount of riding was pretty average for the trip, and the climbing wasn't as much as it sounds like, coming in small rollers of 100 feet or less.  Because it wasn't going to be a particularly difficult day, we got a leisurely start.

We saw the first of what would be many of these signs as we followed parts of the route.


It was a day of firsts for the trip: first day riding, first mechanical issue (Nim's back wheel slipped out of position and started rubbing the frame), first detour (road construction just a few miles in), first flat tire (evil nail that went completely through my tire, making holes in two places!)  Still, it was good to be riding.  Even the kid agreed:

On thing I didn't fully appreciate was that Bridgeport is actually the largest city in Connecticut.  Needless to say, the approach in was a bit urban, despite the fact that we were on the East Coast Greenway Route at this point.  This section was just an on-the-road section rather than being trail like some of the later parts.

The highlight of the day was the most amazingly yummy clam and garlic pizza we had at a brew pub a short walk from the hotel.

Nim and I thought their rootbeer was also exceptionally good.

After dinner, we enjoyed the walk back in the early evening light, with many buildings to look at

and the usual teen dance shenanigans.  We must not have used her up!

Bookends

Continuing the vacation post
Bookending either end of the trip were family visits, which gave us time to see people, as well as friendly places for Chad to do bike packing and unpacking.

On the front end, there were cousins.  Notice our kid and the cousin her age were too cool for this photograph; they were probably both off playing computer games...

While in CT, we helped Andrew install a zipline in the yard.  I am happy to report that all three generations of people present took turns on the line!

On the other end of the trip, we had a few relaxing days in Maine, which were most appreciated after the voyage to get there.  Chad and I had fun coaxing the turtles in the pond to eat out of our hands.

(Thanks to all who extended hospitality -- including in the middle of the trip, which I haven't gotten to yet!)

The Grand Vacation Scheme of 2018

With the limited vacation windows offered when one is constrained by school and work, it is tricky to find time to visit far-flung relatives and also have the family adventure time that we crave.  This year, we decided to fit both into one trip.

The goal:

The strategy:
Put together a bike route that links multiple sets of relatives in New England, so we can both see family and do a bike tour.  In this case, I concocted a route that took us from Greenwich, CT up to Maine via Boston and Rockport. The route linked together parts of the East Coast Greenway, Adventure Cycling Atlantic Coast Route, Airline Trail, and other assorted interesting-looking connections I spotted on Google Maps, along with a couple of legs on a commuter train to avoid the traffic congestion going in and out of Boston.  Nim is strong enough that 40-ish mile days on a (lightly) loaded bike is no problem.

The first step on executing such an endeavor is to get both us and the bikes to the East Coast.  Instead of flying with the bikes, worrying about them getting lost on flight transfers, and having to figure out how to get things to and from the airport, this time we decided to try out BikeFlights.  The hardest thing this required was for Chad to carefully pack the bikes.  Despite the name of the business containing the word "flights", what actually happens (unless you want to pay an arm and a leg) is that the bikes go across country on a FedEx truck.

Overall, that process was pretty easy.  About a week before we left for the trip, a truck came and picked up the boxes, and over the course of the next week they made their way to the destination in CT.  

Our travel for that leg was somewhat quicker, and more scenic, as the weather was cooperative and gave us many fine views from the plane.

Once on the East Coast, Chad got to reassemble all the bikes,

and we were then ready to ride.

(How many of you noticed that I carefully made sure that all three bikes were represented in the pictures above?)

At the far end of the ride, when the truck came to pick up the bikes, it was too full for our big boxes, so the driver had to go make a couple of deliveries and come back, but overall that part of the scheme worked well.  We were lucky that Faith was kind enough to transport our empty boxes from CT to Maine; otherwise we would have had to ship them while we rode.

 So did we succeed in achieving this?


Of course!  Stay tuned for more details.

Following the Bay Trail

Continuing the thread of catching up...

I ride sections of the Bay Trail along the South Bay and the Peninsula up to SF on a pretty regular basis, but had never followed the section up the East Bay until shortly before school got out for Nim. Despite being flat, it was a pretty entertaining ride, with lots to look at.  Here are a few pictures:

The first part of the route that was new to me was the Hayward Regional Shoreline, which afforded some nice levee trails, and a most welcome potty hut.  One could also see all around the bay from here -- up to SF and Oakland, down to San Jose and the South Bay.  I was surprised that this park had previously escaped my attention.

I stopped to have lunch on a bench with a view of the Oakland airport.

Heading in to Alameda.

Riding through Oakland was entertaining given the sheer energy on the streets.  It is one of those places where there is just a lot of life going on outside  -- and there was an interesting juxtaposition of stuff from block to block -- from areas that aren't so well-off, to community gardens, to places where there is clearly a vibrant art community, to rapidly gentrifying bits, and every gradation you can think of in between.  I particularly liked one street on which there were several artist workshops, and several people had dragged their works in progress out onto the sidewalk to work on out there.  I also hit a jetty along the shoreline, far from anything else, which a lone saxophonist had claimed as his practice space (he was good).

Nim likes chickens, so I had to text her the giant chicken mural.

One has to stop when one sees this -- and it turned out to be "Free coffee Friday" so I got free coffee. Will have to remember them.

I enjoy the parts of cities that feel like they are in between the cracks of what normal people see.  In this case, it was the bike trail going under the complicated spaghetti of freeway overpasses approaching the Bay Bridge.

Oooh, a sign!  They opened the bike trail along the eastern span of the Bay Bridge a few years ago, and I've been meaning to ride it ever since.

The trail along the bridge is wide and well separated from the cars, and as a result is much more pleasant than the bike route over the Dumbarton Bridge.  I enjoyed the views.

Alas, the trail does not yet extend all the way off the bridge, but rather dumps you off on Yerba Buena Island, from which you can ride to Treasure Island.  There are a number of defunct-looking buildings there, and many large piles of dirt being bulldozed around.  The site with views across the bay to either side is so good that I can't help but think there should be more here.  Another work in progress, I guess.

Fortunately, one of the things that is present on Treasure Island is a Muni stop, so I took the bus across the rest of the bridge to San Francisco and then took the train back home.  A fine day's exploration!

Spring Break

Waaaay back in April was Spring Break.  We wanted to get out of town and be outside exploring something new on our mountain bikes, but the kid didn't want to camp.  It looked like it might rain a bit anyway.

Enter the "camping cabins" at Barrett Cove campground.

Barrett Cove is a campground on the edge of Lake McClure, in the foothills just east of Yosemite that appears to mostly serve boaters.  However, it also adjoins the most excellent Exchequer Mountain Bike Park, a newly-created mountain-bike-only trail system created on Merced Irrigation District land.  Given that this is only a couple of hours from home, it seemed like a good thing to check out over a long weekend.

The entrance to the trails is along a singletrack that leads directly from the campground across to a little hill,

where a relatively short (but noticeable!) doubletrack climb takes you up to the top.  Nim had no trouble with it.

Once at the top, one could admire the view of the storm coming in,

and then make one's choice of singletrack routes down.  I decided that something called "Gnarnia" might be too evil for me...  We did a couple of laps to check out the other options.

After exploring various trails, it started to sprinkle.  We made it back to the camping hut just before the storm really let loose.  Thank goodness for the roof over our heads!

The next day was a repeat, without the rainstorm, but with the addition of much mud on the ground.  The kiddo was somewhat bothered by this, but we still all had fun.

On the third day, we had some extra time due to tired legs, so detoured over to check out Railtown 1897 State Historic Park.  (What else does one do after noticing such an oddity nearby in the road atlas?)  This is the site of the historic roundhouse and trail maintenance yard for the Sierra Railway, and pretty much any historic steam train used by Hollywood in Western movies and TV comes from here.  We happened to show up just as a volunteer-led tour was starting.  Our tour leader was a charming old character with many stories to tell,

and much fun was had exploring the trains, roundhouse, and train maintenance areas.  A most entertaining unplanned diversion!