28 March 2015

A Splendid Alternative

#370

Sunday, March 28th

About 7 miles

Several years ago, I used to ride some segments of the El Dorado Trail fairly often. It had fallen off of my rotation of rides until today.

Today was the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new segment of the trail. Quite a crowd showed up at the intersection of Forni Road and Ray Lawyer Drive in Placerville. Roadies, cruisers, mountain-ish bikes, one recumbent trike (me), two police cyclists (cool!) and one equestrienne (super cool!)

In past years, I would exit the bike trail segment that ended at that intersection, and take Forni Road downhill to catch up with Placerville Drive. On the way back, not wanting to deal with my super slow pace up a hill, narrow road, no shoulders, I would beat my way through the intersection at PV drive and RL Drive, and then slog up Ray Lawyer - still a hill, but a fairly good shoulder and much better sight lines than uphill on Forni.

From now on, we have a much nicer alternative to these two roads: a lovely segment that runs basically between those two roads down to Placerville Drive.

I took pictures!! Wooo!






Poppies on the old segment


Turkey with a side of mosquito

#369 / #166

Friday, March 27th

A late afternoon ride this time, from the Folsom parking garage to the "porta johns past Sunrise" wherever that really is. About 20 miles.

We saw lots of turkeys today. One big tom was shaking his tail feathers and putting on a show for the (invisible) lady turkeys. In the middle of the trail. He moved eventually. I rang my bell (no effect) and some other rider hissed. That worked. Coincidence? Who knows?!

Another turkey sighting was a hen, running down the trail ahead of us, too rattled to head for the grassy verge. She eventually ran off to the side. We continued on.

Also mosquitoes. Mosquitoes in the shade of Willow Creek boat launch where we stopped to try and figure out Red Leader's shifting. His indexing is off, having 1 - 8 gears instead of through 9. I could not remember which way the derailluer moves, so we left it alone. I'm proud, though, that RL fixed his own idler this time. It was not turning as the chain went by. He took it apart, with me hovering, unnecessarily, and put it back together. We don't know what changed, but it was for the better.

More mosquitoes on the last forested hill coming back to the parking garage on the south side of the lake. Maybe if I went up that hill faster, I'd be bug-free. But I'm not that fast. So I pedaled and swatted. Pedaled and swatted. Sigh.

CU

21 March 2015

This squirrel walks into a derailleur

#368 / #165

There was no actual squirrel /derailleur contact. Relax.
Red Leader had an adventure on his last ride (#164). His rear derailleur over shifted his chain into the wheel! He towed the trike a mile back to the car, loaded it up, and drove down to Alphabent, where he got a new hanger and his chain straightened out.

Today, since there was some question about the state of his chain tubes (deplorable), we rode together down to Alphabent, where Shop Minion G got the tubes all sorted out. In the process of doing this, G discovered that the limit screw on the derailluer (I think, anyway) was stripped. Or anyway, something was wrong, so Red Leader now has a new rear derailluer! Yay! Whatever it was is why the thing overshifted last weekend.

On the way back to our car (William Pond, as usual), having correctly identified the barrel adjusters for his twist shifters (I have inline adjusters), I indulged in a conversation bellow while wizzing down the trail at 12 mph, coaching Red Leader through adjusting things so he has the use of all 9 rear gears. His trike didn't want to shift to the largest ring in back. Now it does! Success!

We had three separate instances of Sam the Suicide Squirrel, trying to fling himself to his death or dismemberment under our trikes.

When will our next ride be? I have no clue, but I live in hope.

08 March 2015

Sunny side up

This post was massively delayed! At least it is still March!!
 
Saturday, March 7th
Spring has sprung!
 
 #367/#163

The trail was chock full of other people enjoying the beautiful weather. We saw a recumbent in a parking lot off trail, then three recumbent bicycles and two more trikes.

We had a nice chat with Mr D, a Greenspeed Magnum owner - in custom white! He got his ride at Utah Trikes. We referred him to Alphabent for any necessary repairs. His friend rode the Greenspeed around the parking lot (we were at Nimbus boat launch), sprouting a huge trike-grin after just a few minutes.

That's about all I can remember (oh, 20 miles, from Folsom to 'the portajohns past Sunrise' (wherever that is))
CU