Happy Solstice!

Ride #85

In celebration of the longest day of the year, we went and rode around in the sun. Well, my friend's father came along and towed two kids in the trailer while she bemoaned her lack of exercise, and a couple more friends showed up on casual bikes.

We went along faster than I expected (avg 10mph) and we all agreed that leaving at 7am instead of 8 would have been JUST FINE.

However, it was a beautiful day, no wind like we had on Sunday, and there were lots of other people getting their workouts in before we hit 100 degs this afternoon.
Yes, summer's here.
The American River is still very high, and as I saw on Sunday, Folsom Lake (which is fed by the north and south forks American River and produces from that meeting the American River) is high also. And there is a lot of snow left to melt up the hill. I think it will be a good water summer.

We saw a couple of turkeys hanging out in the shade. We also heard a rattler. I did not realize what I had heard until a fellow walking along mentioned that he heard the snake do his thing just as we were cycling by.
Yikes! I'm the perfect height for a snake bite (and not my innertube, either).
I told my friend that I hoped the snake tried to strike through the spokes of my front wheel since I figured that would quickly decapitate the poor thing.

I am going to replace the brake pads before the next ride. Which means learning how to take the wheel off. Which I need to learn to do anyway. I'd rather take the wheel off than mess with taking the calipers off, since I'm pretty sure I can get the wheel back on, but no so sure about the calipers.

Happy trails everybody!

Duck, duck, _ _ _ _ _!

Ride #72
Thursday, May 12th

About 11 miles around Lake Natoma

Cool, clear, and sunny this morning. We went clockwise around the lake (a wide spot formed by the Nimbus Dam on the American River), hauling ourselves up the still-under-construction Hazel Bridge.

I like this bridge and the new bike lane is a huge wonderful improvement over the old one. They've even added bike-lane lights! How cool!

And lights-on-a-stick. Pretty!

We were trying to figure out what the decorative stuff is on the downstream side of the bridge (where the old ped/bike sidewalk used to be covered by an ugly but effective mesh). Maybe a replacement for the mesh?

The early morning view upstream is a blast of sparkly sunlight.

We were out early enough to catch some of the later bicycle commuter traffic, and late enough to see a handful of other recreational cyclists out enjoying the morning.

These particular trail denizens did NOT want to give us right-of-way.

A little further on, we saw some damage from the recent winds.

The limb from waaaaaaaaay up there...

landed waaaaaaaaaay down here. And it was a tree-sized limb. Or maybe a trike-sized limb.

A couple more rides this week coming up.
Will I make it to the 300 miles I pledged for MayIsBikeMonth?
Stay tuned: you'll know when I know.

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

Chain link fence

Ride #49
Monday, February 28th
16.5 miles on the Folsom South Canal

B'bye February!

I like the South Canal but it has issues. It is flat, flat flat flat, (which actually gets a little boring at times) except for some short rises that cross various other things crossing the canal. Clear, ain't I? But anyway the mini hills give a nice view of the canal.

And starting at the Nimbus end means crossing lots of streets and and out-of-service railroad track and some more streets. Then there is the White Rock Road crossing, which right now is mostly a detour on busy streets. Not good for a crowd of beginner bikers!

I've been trying to figure out how to avoid White Rock Road, so today I started just off of North Mather Rd., which made for a very nice ride.

 Brand new smooooooooooooth asphalt bike paths through neighborhoods half ticky-tacky boxes and half vacant fields with developers' signs fading in the sun. I think this will make a good group ride, as long as it is not howling wind or sweltering summer sun.

I saw some more waterbirds perched this time on a pipe crossing the canal,

and also tried (and failed) to get a shot of some entertaining black and white water birds. I need to brush up on my bird identification: black and white birds, maybe slightly smaller than a duck, while floating around they have black topsides and a white hull (a little nautical there). Then when they take off their wings are black with a wide white band. They also make a sort of squeaky sound as they try to get up to speed on the water. I'm sure they can fly, but they seem to prefer to flap along just on the surface of the water, then settle down when they are far enough from my disturbing self.

As you might notice on the map, I took a little detour up Zinfandel (I have no idea what I was thinking about, guess I was just enjoying the sunshine). BUT on the way back I spotted a bike path unlisted on maps so went exploring. A great day for a ride. Supposed to start raining again later this week so this might be all I do for a while.

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!

Look! I forgot to make a title!

Ride #41
Sunday, February 6th
11 or so miles on the American River Trail

Somewhere between 70 and 80 degrees today. Moderate breezes, and shockingly green grass. My nose is stuffed up and the dog is shedding like there's no tomorrow.
It is spring. I'm sure it will rain again and be cold and miserable before May, but right now that is very hard to imagine.

My sweetheart felt a little queasy (happens sometimes when he over-exerts himself) so we stopped for a while at a beautiful shady spot along the river to rest, drink some more water, and share a orange. Yes, the grass really is that green - unreal, isn't it? We saw a large raptor circling overhead, and heard plenty of birdsong. Not so many squirrels as yesterday. Several folks stopped to check that we were OK and that we were not too far from the car and so on. Lovely people, bicyclists are. Recovered, we finished our ride.

Today, we decided to go around Lake Natomas (something we have not done since they've been doing the Hazel Ave. improvement project, and something I'd not done on my trike). I'm sure it will be lovely when it is finished, but right now it is not stellar for a trike. There is a steep grade going up to Hazel from the "north" side of the lake, Granny handled that just fine (but I did wonder if Himself would have to push me up the last bit - there was some swearing as I powered up the steepest part. Yep. Me. Potty mouth). However the interface between the very wide concrete sidewalk on the upstream side of Hazel and the existing bike path needs some work. I only had to dodge one oncoming cyclist and travel against traffic for a little while. I'll be glad when the construction is done.

The other thing about the Lake Natomas loop is getting across the river at the Folsom end. There is a bike lane on Folsom-Auburn Rd., segregated from traffic by reassuring concrete walls, but that path is quite narrow for a trike, even my trike which can fit through most doorways. The other option is to take surface streets to the old wooden bridge across the American River, which is what we did today.

Something I forgot to note about yesterday's long ride - I added some gel forefoot inserts (marketed for women's high heels) to my yellow Superfeet insoles in my bike shoes. I was looking for something that would be a little cushy but not too squishy, since on the 30 mile ride a few months ago the balls of my feet felt a little pounded on. Much better with the gel inserts. Since I unstuck these from a pair of heels I don't wear very often, I needed to stick the edge down with some paper medical tape since the trailing edge of the insert tends to roll up and attach itself to my sock. I think some of the 'stick' remained in the other shoes.

And on today's ride, I again managed to drop my chain between the small and middle chain rings while shifting down. Himself held the back of my ride up and I wrestled the chain back into place. I think this happens when I am applying a little more force to the cranks then I might normally when shifting, and when I am in a smaller ring in back. Easy enough to fix, just annoying and greasy. I was worrying about my sweetheart and not paying attention to my shifting!

A couple of rides scheduled for next week: hope the weather holds!

I did my best to show how the Hazel interface worked today: no guarantees...

Chalk it up

Ride # 34
Thursday, January 20th
9.9 miles in Folsom

I'm scheduled to lead a ride on this weekend on the Folsom neighborhood bike paths. They are crowded and confusing on weekends (ok, they can be confusing anytime). So I was out today defacing public property by drawing big blue arrows at key intersections.

My big piece of blue sidewalk chalk is now a little nubbin. I'm not planning on having people slavishly follow the arrows (since I might have missed some spots, and irrigation might wash them away) but I hope it helps. And let me tell you, a trike is the perfect platform for chalking a route: just slow to a crawl, stick a hand down, and draw! After the ride is finished, I'll go around with a waterbottle and a rag and erase them. Maybe I'll follow the route backwards, just for fun! Well, maybe not: since my arrows would all be on the wrong side of the path.

Lots of lovely dogs out today (I got to meet an American Bulldog mix that was OK about the strange orange trike once his owner and I had chatted. I even got a dog-kiss on the chin!) and some couples and families enjoying the lovely sunny weather. Stopped for a while at the pond to check out blackbirds, mallards, geese, and a coot or two. Saw a couple of birders who were more than happy to give me a long list of what they'd seen so far today. mumble warbler, mumble black mumble, mumble mumble, mumble something else. Darned if I can remember anything they said!

Had my ride into the shop to straighten out a slightly bent derailer hanger - shifting better but still some indexing weirdness. Oh well, got me up and down the hills with no problems so I'll worry about that later.

TTFN

Waxing Rhapsodic

Ride #30
Tuesday, January 11th
Just over 7 miles on Folsom's bike paths.

Lots more people out today than I expected: mostly accompanied by dogs. Lots and lots of birds also. The blackbirds were making a ruckus in every damp spot (and there are a lot of damp spots right now). Saw an egret/heron/thing. I stink at bird identification.

And Canadian Geese!

I spent a few minutes several times today explaining my odd contraption to interested parties. A common question is "how do you steer it?" I suppose it is not obvious right away, lacking the familiar handlebars of a conventional bicycle.

It was pretty nippy with a chance of rain. There were two drops as I started out, but the rain held off until I was well finished with my ride. Whew! About 45 degrees F, slight breeze, overcast skies, kind of humid. A day to appreciate wool clothing.

If you would like to hear the birds, the first minute or so of my latest youtube video has bird song. Stick around for the rest of the ride, the video's less than 6 minutes long.

Thursday is an Official Ride with my bicycle clubs. And I'm leading the ride! Whoooo! Hope we don't get rained out ...

Hairy Horses and Falling Dogs

Ride #28
Tuesday, January 4th

A scant 5 miles in beautiful sunny Folsom.

For the third time since I got my lovely trike, I headed out to the short hilly section of Folsom's bike trails, this time with my sweetheart's college-age son in tow. OK, so he was actually ahead of me the whole way, since he is young and fit.

This trip we skipped the fun but bumpy trip up the concrete path and followed the bike lanes on Willow Creek Drive to catch up with the bike trail again. We undid our route exactly on the way back, since neither of us felt like tackling the evil steep switchbacks up to the very top of BT Collins park. We were pooped! The kid ran out of leg power and stopped on the side of a hill to get over feeling faint (he is very tall with low blood pressure) and to get the old Trek shifted to a smaller gear. I admit to coasting as much as possible, but also riding the brakes a bit more then I might, since this is the same trail I had my lovely tumble on last month (git on the horse that threw you and the hair of the dog ... oh, you get the idea!).

I saw a large raptor of some kind circling, looking for lunch, and some smaller birds closer at hand. We heard the usual dogs barking at the usual places, and saw several sets of dog walkers and other folks out enjoying the break in our winter rains.

Look left and right for power towers!

Our route generally followed a powerline. Putting a bike path under and between the line is a good use of green space. There are a few sections of bike trail that do this.



I tried out my new HD video camera, attached to the edge of my seat with an old Manfrotto clamp-on tripod. I'm pleased with the quality and I look forward to trying out different attachment points. But, boy oh boy, I talk a lot! I never shut up! If only my trike were powered with hot air, I'd be golden. The pics in this post are clipped from that video stream.

On Thursday, I'm scheduled to go meet up with a beginning cyclist to explore part of the American River trail. Fun!