I’ve been riding my bike to work but today the clouds went away and I took my first long ride. Okay, not that long, but long for me at this point. 6.88 miles, 50:36 minutes with an average speed of 8.1 mph.
[thumb:559:l] Kate and I rode out together for the first leg of the the ride. Along the way, between the trail and road near our place there are poppies growing. We went out to College Street and then headed back home. Once back then I turned around and went for the long ride.
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[thumb:554:l] The trail is one of the rails to trails project. Along the way there are some streets to cross. Unfortunately the trail running near our apartment doesn’t quite connect yet to the Chehalis-Western Trail. It comes close but there is an unpaved section. Still there are other routes to cover the last short distance. I went down Pacific and then cut through the parking lot to find the trail.
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[thumb:555:l] A short distance up the trail is a railroad bridge that was retained and updated when they paved the trail. It crosses the street below and leads to the Chambers Lake Trail head.
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[thumb:556:l] The Chambers Lake Trail head has a parking lot, restrooms and a non-functional drinking fountain. It’s a popular place for many people to get access to the trail. This afternoon it was pretty quiet at on the trail but there were still cars and people at the trail head. I noticed a new sign right at the start of the trail.
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[thumb:557:l] The sign lists distances down the trail to local cities. Eventually I’d like to be able to ride all the way out to each of these cities but I’m not up to that much riding yet.
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[thumb:558:l] It was tempting to go up the trail but I didn’t want to push too much today. Or end up with a sunburn. I turned around and went back home. On the way I found a better route down a side street to take and connect with the trail until they pave that last section.
That trail looks gorgeous.
We have a few biking trails in our area too, but nothing that close to our home. I’d love to get biking again, but riding in traffic scares me.
Riding in traffic can be scary but there are things that can help. I checked a book out of the library with a lot of information for the urban cyclist:
I’ve also found the touring journals at crazyguyonabike.com to be encouraging. Recently I’ve spent time reading Denise Goldberg’s journals. She is in her fifties, lives in Massachusetts. The first journal of hers I read was her cross-country trip when she’d turned fifty. Along the way she talks quite a bit about riding in traffic.
Geez, you mean I may not be able to put off dusting off the cobwebs on my bike for much longer?
Off to the library…