Oak-e dok-e

#124
Wednesday, November 9th

6 or so miles in Folsom, photographing my brains out.

I went out today to capture another traillink.com trail.
I had submitted the Oak Parkway Trail in Folsom and the trail finally appeared on the website, desperately in need of photographic decoration.

This trail is a little hilly gem (I've ridden it and written about it here before). In the summer it is brutally hot, but on a cool November morning it is really nice.

It is well-labeled

If you go left up the switchbacks you'll find a nice little park

It has entertaining curves. With downhills!

Great big oaks. (Can you see my tiny vehicle?)

It has great views.

Chinese Menu Ride

Ride #89

Friday, July 22nd
Just a shade under 11 miles on bike paths in Folsom

Here's the closest you or I will come to seeing a recumbent on this ride

I saw such a variety of people, bicycles (no recumbents), and so on that I can only illustrate as follows:

Please choose one from each column. Repeat until bored or until the need for coffee becomes overwhelming.

Col. A	Col. B	Col. C
Hybrid bike	Retiree	Bike Lane
Road bike	Mom	Bike Path
Cruiser bike	Dad	Traffic circle
Stroller	Jersey-clad	Pedest. push-button crossing
Kid trailer	Dog walker	Wet pavement
Roller blades	Bird watcher	Dry pavement
Skateboard	Farmer	Speedbumps

No I did not see a skateboard-riding jersey-clad farmer sailing over a speedbump while navigating a traffic circle. But I could have.

Some of the intersections used to join up bike-path segments are better than others.

No curb cut. And there is a perfectly good bike lane right on the other side of the drop-off.

Splendid push-button crosswalk.

Behind me is a traffic circle. In front is an intersection with a single stop sign. Away over there, to the right of the pretty iron fence, is the rest of the bike path.

As long as there are no leaf blowers running, it is possible to safely navigate this intersection, just listen for the cars and pedal like mad.


Then there are these old speedbumps in the parking lot on the way to the farmer's market.

If I aim just right I can make it over without bottoming out. I aim right about 1/2 the time.

Where I got fab food and loaded up my bag.

From left to right: Lamb pie from Z-pies, scrumptious strawberries, and tantalizing tomatoes.

The approach to my favorite bridge. Gives you an idea of the beautiful sunny weather this morning.

I've been meaning for a while to get new gel inserts for my shoes, instead of the make-do women's high heel forefoot cushions I've been, um. making do with.

So I picked up these on Amazon and so far, so good. I spent some time muttering on the couch, determining the exact right place for them in my shoe. I seem to have guessed right, since I had very little feeling of undue pressure on the balls of my feet. Normally about 6 miles into any ride I get uncomfortable.

My shifting was a little weird today, so I think I need to take a look at the rear derailluer wheel thingies and see if there is stuff stuck in there again.

Thingies
Stuff

Maybe it is time for coffee after all

Heading toward the Bidwell Street overcrossing. This may have been where I exceed 20mph.

This map does not include the side trip to the farmer's market.

8 towns, 3 surfaces, 2 memorable roadkills, and 1 happy 'cyclist

Ride# 87

Tuesday, June 28th

43 miles from Rescue to Elk Grove, CA

I should have taken a picture of the utterly totally completely flattened cat. The poor thing had expired in just the right conditions to tell that it had been a tabby while still admiring the still cat-like shape yet bookmark-thinness. There was also a very large raccoon, also dead but not nearly as flattened. The smallest dead thing I saw was some kind of small grey songbird.

I also saw plenty of live things as well: kill-deers, an egret, and lots of little finch-like birds. No rattlers.

There were also innumerable shards of glass (clear, brown, green), bicycle parts (a brake lever and a bell), car parts (license frame, tire shreds, trim), construction debris (wood, a composition shingle, unidentifed but sharp metal things) and the aforementioned roadkill on the shoulders of the roads I traveled on. I was pleased and amazed to have no flats.

My top speed was 37.6 mph, my average was  9.2, my total time with wheels turning was 4 hours and 39 minutes, the total time elapsed was 5 hours 30 minutes or so.

Although I've ridden farther in one shot on my trike (57 miles), this felt like a much longer ride: probably because of the variety of terrain and number of towns along the way.
Rescue, El Dorado Hills, Folsom, Gold River, Rancho Cordova, Vineyard, Sheldon, Elk Grove. Now, some of these (Gold River, Vineyard) only exist as separate entities when considering the census, but they show up on Google Maps. So there.

I flew down Green Valley Road (the map at the bottom shows only approximate beginning and end points), white knuckled and swearing like a sailor (I even invoked various flavors of Christian profanity, not my usual form. The rest was made up of good old Anglo Saxon four-letter words). My shoulders and neck, despite my best efforts, were tense enough to bounce rocks off of.
.

In addition to all the other things, Green Valley's shoulders are littered with economy size pine cones. These, at least, were out of the way.

The only actual bouncing rocks were the fresh gravel my tires flung when I crossed the recently tended Deer Valley Road intersection. Flinging gravel while white-knuckling along at 30mph is ... interesting. Yeah. Interesting. I could hear the gravel banging through the spokes and just hoped for no gravel strikes on my tender hide.

Green Valley at 6:30am is probably not the best choice, but it is my route to Folsom. There is no bike lane, but a not terrible shoulder. There were also a LOT of cars zipping by in excess of the posted 55mph. Most of them went way around me.

The next terrain was the old familiar bike paths in and around Folsom neighborhoods. What refreshing change! I took my time and tried to relax from the adrenaline-induced hypervigilant state I found myself in.

Those clouds should have told me something.

Tailings from gold dredging. Along the feeder route from Parkshore Dr. to the bike trail along the river.

The next leg was the bike path along the south side of Lake Natoma to the Nimbus dam and then on to the Folsom South Canal path.

Looking upstream to the Hazel Bridge.

There was a strong steady wind from the southwest, so I had it in my face for the almost 2 hours I was on the canal path. Since this trail is very little used (no vehicular traffic and I saw only one cyclist) I went ahead and used my IPod to keep me moving along and un-bored. I'm sure the earbuds meant I did not hear when my brand new Sleipnir flag stopped audibly flapping behind me and took off for parts unknown. Taking the new pole and my little reflective flag went along with it. So very sad.

Weedy canal path.

Killdeer closeup

However, a friend who saw me pedaling down South Sunrise with my remaining flag (a large pink one) said I was plenty visible. And at least I know where the flags went missing.

I exited the canal at Jackson rather then continuing onto Florin Rd. as I had planned, since the already weedy canal-side road got a lot weedier after Jackson. Sunrise was a good alternative, with a nice wide shoulder, marred only by hordes of double-trailer gravel trucks.

OMG. Rain clouds?

Florin Rd. takes you by a materials reclamation site, so once I was past that the traffic dropped way down. Florin's wide shoulder disappears at Eagle's Nest road, but I was passed only a few times in the two miles to Excelsior Rd. Once by a large commercial semi, and once by a pickup. The rest were a handful of sedans and one minivan, who behaved admirably! Thank you, champagne colored van, for staying patiently behind me on the blind hill as I crept up at 10 miles per.

On Excelsoir, I got a friendly beep from a passing truck. I waved, he waved. A warm fuzzy moment.
Tuesday is trash-day in the Elk Grove area, so I dodged some trash cans. Same old same old. I have a genius for trash-day excursions.

Calvine, at least where I rode, has a splendid bicycle lane. Yay!

I used the loop behind the school at Bradshaw and Bond to avoid yet another non-bicycle-aware traffic signal (at least, I suppose it was not bicycle triggerable.) The son of the friend I was visiting was most impressed that I had bicycled right past his elementary school.

I finished my ride on quiet neighborhood streets, the white-knuckle flight down Green Valley already forgotten.

This is my last ride for a while, I'm scheduled for rotator cuff repair surgery in a few days. But I'll be back posting as soon as I am back on the bike!

get out of the kitchen!

Ride #84
Sunday, June 19th

20 miles in Folsom

One of the other ride leaders for the casual biking meetup group decided to put together a 20 mile ride in Folsom, mostly on bicycle paths and mostly including hills.

Windy!

I've decided to call it K's Crazy Cure (for excess  energy).

It was hot. At the end of our ride the wunderground.com said it was 86 degrees. And the wind was roaring today. I was quite distressed at one point to have an uphill AND a headwind! Bah!

The section from the top of the Folsom Lake Crossing to the river (you can see the big divot on the elevation profile below) is something I've always wanted to try, wondering just how fast I can merely coast down. Well, with a straight on 20mph headwind, it was a lousy 30.3 mph. I will try it again on a day with no wind.

By coming up the Folsom Crossing, we sort of cheated the famous Beals climb, since the 7% grade is downstream from the crossing. We at least got to fly down that grade, although since it is so curvy (and I've not been on it in a loooooong time) I felt I should brake most of the way.

I applied sunscreen three times today (we were out from 10:30 to 3pm, prime sun exposure time) and I don't seem to be as pink as I might sometimes be. Next time I'll take some baby wipes and wipe off the old sunscreen first. My shins looked like they had some kind of horrible skin condition with the way road grit and sunscreen combined to pill up.

I lost track of how many bottles of water I drank. I had my usual plastic one handed bite valve with me, and I refilled it from some metal bottles that I had encased in soggy cotton socks (evaporative cooling) so I had at least cool water to drink. I've had one electrolyte drink since I've come home and I think I need another one. I sweated so much today that when I dumped water over my head at the end of the ride I got an eye full of sweaty water from the stuff running off my scalp.

We picnicked at Beal's Point: I had a lovely turkey club sandwich and a big bottle of chocolate milk. I also ate salty nut and raisin mix along the way, as well as handing some of it out to one of the other riders.

A ride Tuesday, Saturday, then Tuesday again.

Oh my oh my

Ride #76
Sunday, May 22nd

18 miles in Folsom, CA

Although there were no trombones, we did have a parade today.

Yes, all the bikes you see in this pic (and MORE) were on the ride with me!

A parade of more than a dozen bicycles winding their way down and around Folsom's bike paths. I seem to remember counting 17 heads rolling by at one point. No idea if I am remembering that number correctly. I'm sure there were more than 12, and less than 20.

This was one of my bright ideas (maybe I need to switch to compact florescent bulbs in my head) to satisfy multiple levels of bicyclists.

Not sure it worked quite right.

The first part of the ride was 9 miles with a long hill. I did discourage one hopeful rider from this part of the ride, and I think that was OK, since the second, flatter and slower, and also 9 miles part of the ride seemed OK for him. He was slightly pink around the edges and muttering about cardio. So I'm glad he skipped the first part of the ride even though I hate bossing people around. I think he would have been miserable.

I had one person on a 3 speed, walking the bike only a few times. There were others for whom this ride was far too slow. I figured I was providing them with practice for going really really slow without crashing from the clipped in pedals. Heh heh heh. Or maybe an entry into trackstanding.

Managing a large group of people on a non-straightforward path is non-trivial. I'm glad my sweetheart showed up for the second ride and swept the group. He only needed to play herding dog once.

So how does one ensure that all riders are ready for a ride? Ask them how long they've had the bike, what's the last ride they did and how long was it. Ask them if they do other cardio stuff: hiking, swimming, dancing, rowing. Then there are the bikes. Does it shift? Can the route be done on 3 speeds? On a fixie? Blah. Too much thinking!

It was relaxing to go an average of 9 miles an hour, but stressful to try to keep an eye on that many riders.
I think I'll go bombing around on the trails sometime this week All By Myself. I do, after all, need to squeeze 75 more miles in this month for May is Bike Month.

For no apparent purpose

Ride #75
Wednesday, May 19th

12.5 miles around Folsom

The 'cycle was still in the back of the car this morning; I had to take the car for an oil change, so I decided to leave the trike in there and go for a ride after the car was finished.
I argued with myself all the way from the shop to my eventual parking spot. "Where do I want to ride today?" "Not there, but why?" "Maybe here." "Well, I don't know, you decide." "No, you decide."

I ended up at the old same spot of the Raley's shopping center: proximity to bike path, restrooms, and food for after the ride. Although I had decided to stick the Raley's to Glenn Rd. route onto the Nimbus lake loop, I changed my mind AGAIN and decided to have no purpose for the ride.

That whole no purpose thing only lasted about 4 miles, then I decided - "Hey, I can pedal over to Bicycle Planet and maybe pick up some replacement brake pads." So I turned on my Cherry Bomb rear blinky and headed out into traffic.

Folsom has great bicycle infrastructure: in addition to bike paths they also have bike lanes. And many of the right turn lanes are separated from the bike lane by a nice chunk of concrete. So I enjoyed the bike lanes on Oak Ave. and Iron Point. The traffic was light and well behaved.

I found a couple interesting things along the way:

Yes, I'm part pack-rat and part scavenger.

Alas, Bicycle Planet was out of Avid BB7 brake pads (they are quite popular) so I picked up a medium-bright red blinky for the back of my bike. It is easier, I've been told, for overtaking vehicles to figure out how fast the overtaking is when there are TWO red lights to look at. I shall hang on to the Serfas seat stay light as a loaner.

I contemplated trying on helmets, but I was pretty sweaty and thought that might not be very nice for the next shopper.

I pedaled back, dodging traffic down Prairie City Rd. and then back on to the bike paths.

Somewhere along the way, I stared down this lovely creature.

And startled our state bird, again.

Hopefully no rain this weekend. I've got to get the rest of my miles for May is Bike Month!

Somewhat less vile

Ride #62

Monday, April 11th
Somewhere in Folsom, somewhere around 12 miles

Yes! Three rides in a row.
I was in a foul mood this morning. So foul I decided that it was a good day (or a good day for a bad day or whatever) to see how much difference a nice bicycle ride could make in my personal stormcloud.

So I headed out, after picking up a sandwich from the deli near where I parked the car. Friendly people, beautiful sunshine, entertaining birds. A little tiny bit of huffing and puffing. Ok. I feel better now. The storm clouds circling my head are now reduced from a cat5 to spring showers. Hurray for the great outdoors!

I spent my lunch break by the duck pond, performing ad hoc behavioural experiments on the birds with pieces of my sandwich.
Mallard ducks will compete with each other for bits of bread. And hiss back and forth if another mallard gets too close. Coots will do the same thing among themselves but are pretty quiet about the whole thing. If a piece of bread lands between a bunch of coots and a bunch of mallards, whichever species that gets the bread is ignored by the other species. No hissing or posturing.
Blackbirds are willing to swoop down to snatch the bread off the water if the crumb is near a stick or clump of grass.
One brave male duck was willing to get on dry land to see more crumbs would be forthcoming. He was out of luck since I was occupied with aiming crumbs at the female mallard in the water.
The geese stayed clear.

In other bird-news today, I startled a Great Blue Heron. I would have never seen him if the sound my my derailer clacking had not caused him to flap ponderously away.

That's it for rides until later this week when we attempt the railroad grade to Camino Heights.

CU

Fiery Tails

Ride #61
Sunday April 10th
Big loop in Folsom

Today my sweetie and I went out on the Folsom bike paths. A genuine loop of 10 miles (although Himself (AKA "Mr. Literal")) pointed out the the very short ramp (20 feet?) from the parking would turn the loop into a lollipop.
Lollipop schmallipop

He took off in a good imitation of a rocket. I trailed along behind, bellowing directions and ringing my bell at blind corners. I did not ring it constantly, but there are a lot of twists and turns on the Folsom trails. We stopped for water a few times and snacks once. I think Himself is getting the hang of bicycling and nutrition. He still wants a donut* for breakfast, but he will eat some jerky before we set out and is always happy to eat some orange segments. Holy Cow! Actual Fresh Fruit!

I like my bell but I don't know how I feel about it. Is a polite "good morning" and "passing on the left" more or less or equally friendly than a ding or two of a bell?

• Pros of the Bell: pedestrians seem to have a well-trained Pavlovian response. They shift right over. Sometimes both feet at the same instant. Levitation's always fun to watch, an additional pro.
• Pros of the Voice: I'm taking the time to talk to the person rather than ring-a-ding-dinging at them.
• Cons of the Voice: an adult voice from hip-height seems to be a little startling sometimes. But there's that levitation potential again. Hmmm.
• Cons of the Bell: will not pierce the cloud of sound produced by firmly inserted ear-buds. But then sometimes even my outrageous bellowing won't either. I suppose I could re-deploy my cheerful pink flag as a lance. No, no. That'd be too much fun.

The jury will return a verdict later.

One photo. Too busy keeping up with Mr. Rocket today.

That's Mr. Rocket himself in the distance - dull red jacket, dark blue jeans, black helmet in the shade. You must work for your viewing! I believe squinting might yield a glimpse of a white sock.

Some random rides in the next couple of days, including a second try at almost-Diamond Springs to Camino Heights.

Helmet up, tires down. CU

*Blogger's spell checker insists that "donut" should be "donuts" and offers no non-plural solution. I like multiple donuts myself. Maybe the programmers do to? Or I could be all formal and old-fashionedy like and use "doughnut" Or get crazy and doughnaught (which it never has been, but I think it ought (get it? ought ... ha ha) to have been. Ah. I get it. It's that chain store of Dunkin' Donuts. Oh bother. Now it is complaining about "Dunkin'".
Phiffle.
I think I'll go have a sinker (Dad-speak for a plain cake doughnut, preferably slightly stale).

Almost exactly today's ride. But backwards.

Trikers! Front and Center!

Ride #60
Saturday, April 9th
15 lovely sunny miles in Folsom

This was an organized ride, with just two of us. We started off with a heart-pounding 5 mile up and down on some small hills, then cruised around the Folsom bike paths for another 10 miles. Lots of wildflowers, people, birds and so on.

While loafing at the duck pond, we encountered ANOTHER person who rides a trike! What am I, like a trike magnet? So. This other triker and I will get together and ride. This is going to be so nifty.

I did a little economic stimulus of my own the other day and picked up a few more items for my ride. I now have a bright green small PurpleSky flag to replace the generic orange safety flag I had on my seat-back. Now I have a giant pink flag and its little green sister flapping along behind me. I did notice the flapping more today.

And I picked up a Fastback Flash Frame Pack. Which is a very long name for a little tiny bag that velcros around the boom. I can reach it easily enough while I'm riding along. It is the perfect size for my point and shoot camera and a few other small things.

While warming up before the hills, I noticed that the road with the Incredible Disappearing Bike Lane has broken out in sharrows.
This is a sharrow.

It is supposed to encourage drivers of automobiles and riders of cycles to share the road.
This is a Google shot of the road with the intermittent bike lane. In this sat photo it has not yet been decorated with sharrows. The red arrows I scribbled in (I GIMP, do you?) show where some strange overgrowth from the sidewalk intrudes into where the bike lane should be.

I do not know what happened here, but I'll go ahead and imagine a complete lack of communication with the subdivision-planning-entity and the road-planning-entity.

Now, in other news:

Redbuds are out!

So are lots and lots of walkers.

Will try for a two-fer this weekend. I'll keep you posted.

Comet

Ride #53
Sunday, March 13th
12 miles in Folsom.

8 intrepid cyclists set out on an overcast day to conquer some little bitty hills. 9 ascents total by my count. A little walking, a lot of huffing and puffing, some extra laps up the switchback by those with extra energy, and we were done and back at the start. But Wait! Let's keep going! So most of the group added a little 6 mile jaunt around the wetlands, then scooted back for more conversation in the guise of putting our bikes and gear away.

I'm very pleased with how this ride went. I had a couple of no-shows (folks who signed up but did not appear, call, or change their rsvp) but those who came seemed to have a good time. Lots of laughter. At times, as I was barreling down a hill on my unfairly aerodynamic trike, I felt like I was pulling a comet tail of bicyclists along behind me. Other times I guess our comet was switched end-for-end as I trailed almost everyone up the hills.

We saw some other bicyclists, but mostly dog walkers out today. Not a lot of wildlife, expect for the ever-foraging ducks and other waterfowl in the pond. A couple of kids exploring an enticing culvert on the side of a hill. I hope they stayed out of the poison oak! A pleasing number of children outside with their parents, many on their own small bikes (the kids, not the parents) with some children on tag-along-units.

A couple of longer rides scheduled for later this week, but it looks like rain again. Boo hoo!

Brass monkeys

Ride #48
9 or so miles in Folsom
Sunday, February 27th

Today I led a small intrepid band of bicyclists on a "lollypop" in Folsom (route with an out and back part and a loop stuck in the middle). We chugged up a looooooooooong grade and then whooped and hollered our way down the other side. We charged through puddles from the recent rain and I sort of missed my fenders but I got several free mini-showers as a bonus.

One of the folks on the ride commented that all the people we encountered on our ride were friendly. I figure it is due to a couple of things: Folsom is a nice town, I've been spreading cheer every time I ride on those trails (I always try to beat the other guy to the smile and wave), and a recumbent trike is just something to smile at.

Many birds, including a very nice landing by a very large and very close Egret. Lots of walkers, joggers, a small band of bicyclists, and of course, dog walkers. No bobcat today. The 'cat was probably denned up somewhere nice and warm. The weather was cool and extraordinarily clear, but there was a light breeze with a cold bite.

I'm so glad I have the chance to lead rides for two area bicycle groups. So far all of my rides have been listed on both groups (one is casual and one is more hard-core) but eventually I hope to be able to ride with the medium fast crowd.

This is pretty much where we went, but I skipped the top loop, only doing the left hand side for both out and back.

More rides scheduled, planned, and hoped for in the next few weeks - I'm a bit tired of rain so I hope it holds off for a few more days.

Drunk on sunshine

Ride #47
Tuesday, February 22nd
10ish miles in Folsom's Wild Animal Kingdom

Had a blast in the sunshine - plenty of other folks out today - including a small group of the ever-friendly and cheery Sacramento Wheelmen.

I think this time I'll let the camera do the talking.

The cure for helmet hair

Ride #42
Tuesday, February 8th
10? miles in blustery Folsom

This was scheduled as a group ride but the rest of the crew sensibly stayed home. Weather Underground predicted "northwest winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts to around 45 mph" today and I do believe they were right! I don't think I encountered any gusts, but it was a strong steady wind today. The high winds and clear skies meant that Sacramento, seen on my drive down to Folsom from the foothills, was a fantastically clear miniature model of a city against the distant bluish coastal hills.

I toodled around Folsom (I will admit I am more fond right now of straight paths since I'm getting impatient with curvy paths) but there was plenty to see today. Soaring raptors, motionless egrets, wind-blown blackbirds, squabbling Canadian geese. Also dogwalkers, stroller pushers, a small pack of speedy brightly colored cyclists, and a coffee-toting woman. Being subject to the power of suggestion, I stopped to get a cup myself at Peet's. I still am trying to figure out a quick effective way to lock my ride up, but the cable + U-lock seems to work out all right.

I was comfortably relaxed from my coffee break so I had plenty of time to admire the wildflower naturalization that is part of the new Bidwell overcrossing.

Near the end of my ride, I turned northwest (remember that weather forecast?) up a little rise, and I had to keep shifting down, and down, and down, until there was nowhere left to go. Headwinds are not as bad on a recumbent as on an upright bike, but they still BLOW. This was clipped from bad video footage, but trust me - I'm going 1.8mph.

Oh, yeah. The cure for helmet hair? On a windy day, remove your helmet, face into the wind, then face away from the wind. And you too can look like this! That fringe of hair you see sticking up on the top? Looks like the edge of a fur hood? That's the hair on the back of my head being blown straight up by the wind. Yeah. Sign me up for America's Next Top Model.

A handful more rides this week. Stay tuned!

I declare this Middle Chainring Month

Ride #39
Wednesday, February 2nd
8.8 miles in Folsom

Returned to an old favorite route - mostly bike paths and some street riding with a fun loop uuuuuuuuup hill and then doooooooooooown hill. My ride ran like a dream, since bike-shop-dude adjusted the rear derailer for me. He also advised taking out another link in the chain, so I said "go for it!"

I decided that I need to push myself a little bit, so I stayed in my middle chainring in front as much as I could. There were a few sections where I needed to be in a lower gear, so I headed in the direction of Granny once or twice. The gearing on this trike is a lot better fit for me than the gearing on my old Trek, or maybe I'm getting in better shape? Anyway, I did not feel the need to drape myself over my ride and pant once I got to the top. I did stop to adjust my brake pads. Much better!

Now for a bunch of pictures!

Hills ahead

Uphill direction on the bridge

<whine>Aren't we done yet?</whine>

Hellooooooo! Granny!

Oh for crying out loud Who said UP was ok?!

Yes, wheel-wrecking curb cuts and prickly shrub debris ahead.

Riding this weekend - both days if I can manage it.
CU!