Sunday, July 5th rides

I hauled my bum over too Madison County Illinois to sample some of their trails and they are as good as I hoped (well with one exception!)

It was in the 70s and balmy today in St. Louis and I was thinking I had 20-30 miles in me, providing I could readjust my saddle so it didn't squish my undercarriage :rolleyes:

The readjustment was a complete success!

I started out on the Nature trail riding NE from Pontoon Beach, IL. There was a light headwind, but there was also a lot of tree cover on this trail. 'Twas lovely!
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I rode back in the opposite direction on the Nickel Plate trail which led me through the county cornfields along a stretch of Union Pacific rail line. With the dark skies and beautiful, green fields, I decided it must be quintessential Midwest.
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After that 15 mile loop, I decided to bite the bullet and do a 22 mile loop along the Nature Trail, the Schoolhouse Trail through Collinsville to Troy, the Goshen Trail, the Heritage trail and that same stretch of Nickel Plate trail.

The Heritage trail was supposed to be asphalt, but it was more like a crumbly hard pack. I had a verrrry bumpy ride on my stiff little road bike!

Overall it was a lovely day, complete with baby bunnies, lots of other enthusiastic cyclists, a man with a flat tire I was able to help out and a kitten lazing on the warm asphalt of the trail (who I shooed away for her safety). Then I went home and had a bowl of sprouted wheat pappardelle with fresh pesto and sauteed italian sausage. Yum!

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Love the photos Reesha.

Today I left the house at 6:45 am and biked to Fitchburg to catch the criterium and last stage of the Longsjo Classic. It was about 52 miles round trip. I wasn't sure I was going to bike it in due to the previous eve's celebration and libation, but I felt ok when I woke up. A beautiful sunny day and I was there to cheer my friend racing in the Women's Cat 3/4. I love the criteriums, they're fast, close, and if you stand in the middle of the looping you get to see them go by twice. I also hung around to watch another friend ride in the citizens race. The pro's were racing much later but I did not stay for that as I wanted to get a move on and I had seen them before.

I was wheeling my bike through the crowd and people thought I was a racer and asked if I had won anything. Funny I had my hi-viz yellow on and no team kit. Kinda like you Kfergos, how funny people were cheering when you were riding to the point where you wanted to watch.

Chuckle, if people think I look like a racer I'll take it. Looking like one would certainly be the closest I'd ever come to it.

The 22 mile loop including Schoolhouse and Goshen were a part of the Trailnet Bridge Bash last weekend. What a gem--may have to move across the border:)

Yeah I had intended to do the 50 mile bridge bash loop but I worked too late the night before and then got locked out! Didn't get to sleep til 2:30 AM :(

Bummer!

I guess there's a 22/33/49 mile Big Bottle Ride starting in Collinsville on the 14th. I might hop into that one if I can find a friend to ride with me.

Did 20 mile loop this morning. (as a side note, I usually start at the park and ride, and was absolutely apalled (sp?) at the fireworks mess people had left from the night before! Wow! And where the trail ran behind some apartment buildings, it was almost as bad! Sheesh!)

A good ride, and the best part was seeing three very large cranes fly off acrss the trail. Haven't seen cranes around here in a long time, and they were beautiful. Made having gotten up early woth it. :)

I went hawk-watching and found the hawks none the worse for wear after July 4 fireworks. The juveniles were being dive-bombed by some very aggressive mockingbirds, but that didn't stop them chowing down on the rats and pigeons their Mom had caught.

On the way home, I saw a pump fly off the bike in front of me. I stopped, grabbed it, and yelled as loud as I could, but they guy didn't hear me. He was a Spandex boy on a road bike, so I couldn't catch up with him. I'm going to put an ad on Craigslist. I will ask for approximate time and location of loss, gender of rider and brand of pump. Probably won't find the owner, but I can try.

Pam

We did the BOG ride today, had 21 riders. Ride started at 8am, we got back home a little after 9pm. 84 miles. Lots of climbing. Lots of regrouping points. Lots of food stops :-) One new-to-Portland rider got lost on the way back, that's why we were so late getting home, getting him back on route by cell phone, we waited to make sure he get back ok. I'm too tired to mess with my pictures tonight, but here is a link one of the faster riders posted just a few minutes ago. I think his pics might be better than mine anyway. http://gallery.me.com/captusn#100426

Even on hot days like today, this is still one of my very favorite rides.

Edna

I loved looking at the pictures. Only 3 weeks from tomorrow I will be in Oregon for the start of my 1500 mile ride. :D :D Maybe some of this route will be on my ride? It looks gorgeous. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Rode the MTB on Sunday with a mix of friends: the very fast, the slow, and me in the middle ;) I discovered that riding my usual trails slower than normal made them more difficult. I had to use handling skills and "body english" to navigate obstacles that I would normally steamroll. It was an unexpected benefit to being patient, something that I freely admit that I'm not very good at.

Planning to play hooky tomorrow for some more MTB time. I have some comp time that's set to expire soon :)

Reesha, it's cool that there are so many trails where you are. As you know, nothing like that around here.
Mudmucker, I missed going to Fitchburg this year. I've only gone when I've had someone to cheer (or transport). It sounds like it was fun. I just read in the paper that one of the up and comers in the woman's field grew up in Acton. I am going to go look in my older son's yearbook, since it said she's the same age as he is.

I did a an 8 mile ride on the Jamis to pick up sandwiches and picnic by the Old North Bridge and back home...

Actually have you been to the Nashua River rail trail? It goes through Ayer, Groton, Pepperell and Dunstable. It's only 11 miles long, but it's great for time trialing or leisurely flat rides. I often ride it with my uncle and his gf or my brother.

http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/northeast/nash.htm

It would probably be a 20 minute drive to get there for you, but it's lovely and totally worth it!

I have a few rides that cross the Nashua River Rail Trail on the road in several places... one that goes from Acton to Groton, through Lost Lake (hills??) and back and the other that goes up to Kimball's Fruit Farm in Hollis, NH and back here through Peperell, Tyngsborough, Dunstable, Littleton, etc.
I have been on it twice; once walking and the other last fall, when the last 8 miles of a group ride finished on the trail. Generally, I am not a trail rider, since they are filled with walkers, little kids, etc. that can be dangerous for cyclists. But, it was OK in the middle of the week, in October! I noticed in your pictures that those trails look a lot wider than the ones here.
I actually rode my Jamis Coda 50 miles on the Cape Cod Rail trail last June. Again, it was in the middle of the week, just before the real tourist season started.
It turns out that my son does know the woman who won the overall Longsjo 1st place, although not well. He said she was "very athletic" in high school and it would make sense.

I went on the group mamma jamma training ride. I kind of had a difficult time on a mere 24 mile route! I have been riding that without much of an issue lately but I just had a hard time with all the hills on this particular ride (and this made up a total of 75 miles over three days)

Today I am taking off!

Tina

Alison Powers? Neat!

Yeah the trails in IL are superb-- apparently they converted them to trails to preserve them in case of light rail possibilities. Good idea! I wish they'd do that with the hundreds of miles of unused rail lines in New England!

No, it wasn't Allison Powers, it was Evie Stevens. The Globe said she had just started racing last year!
Yeah, it will be a cold day in hell when we get rail trails like those in Ill. It's because every city or town they go through has to go through years of studies, etc, where in other states, the state just does the whole thing. There is a new trail that will come within 1.5 miles of my house; it's finished between Lowell and the border of Westford/Acton. Acton is working on their part now.
Concord is still fighting about whether all of those "weird" cyclists will pee in their yards and ruin the "natural" trail by White's Pond, i.e. the trail that only people from Concord know about and use.

:( So much paperwork.

Well now a lowly Westfordite knows about the White's Pond trail too! Muahaha!