Category: bike ride

Oh, if most of the East Coast Greenway route was like this section around Baltimore!

Baltimore has a trail system that gets cyclists downtown, around the inner harbor and then south using the Jones Falls Trail, the Fallsway, the Gwynns Falls Trail, the Middle Branch Trail, the BWI Trail and the B&A Trail.

I understand more about why Baltimore is a bicycle-friendly community and Maryland is ranked seventh among the states for bike-friendliness by the League of American Bicyclists.

Baltimore has figured out a trail system that gets cyclists downtown, around the inner harbor and then south. That’s pretty amazing for a large city.

It’s not always pretty and it could use some better signage in spots, but given that the trails (multi-use paths, sometimes just wide sidewalks, sometimes out-of-the-way roadways, like the one past an incinerator, and switching from side to side of the road in spots) came after the city, it’s impressive how officials got the Jones Falls Trails to connect to the Fallsway to the Gwynns Falls Trail to the Middle Branch Trail.

Jack in Baltimore (courtesy of jackbikes.org)
Jack in Baltimore (courtesy of jackbikes.org)

And it’s doing more. It looks like this federal grant for bike-ped infrastructure in South Baltimore will improve the East Coast Greenway as well.

While we didn’t see Camden Yards, we did see the stadium where the Ravens play (photo courtesy of Melinda):

ravens stadium

And once we were out of Baltimore County and in Anne Arundel County, we were on part of the 11-mile BWI Trail that loops around BWI airport and connects to the 13.3-mile Baltimore and Annapolis Trail, a straight line of asphalt that got busier and busier as we got closer to Annapolis. And an ice cream shop or two along the way. Bliss!

Police officers on bikes rode with some of the ECG riders along the BWI Trail (courtesy of jackbikes.org)
Police officers on bikes rode with some of the ECG riders along the BWI Trail (courtesy of jackbikes.org)

But Annapolis, what were you thinking when you put the World War II memorial on a large grassy section between two northbound and two southbound lanes of traffic? How accessible to visitors is that?

 

Wednesday’s history lessson, or all things Francis Scott Key

No part of the story of the Star-Spangled Banner is too small for Baltimore to honor.

We didn’t go to Fort McHenry, but we did find this in downtown Baltimore:

Flag House

Clearly no part of the story of the Star-Spangled Banner is too small for Baltimore to honor.

Truly multimodal on the East Coast Greenway

Riding a horse on a state road and on the BWI Trail.

What we saw on the BWI Trail on Wednesday:

Horse and rider passing cyclists on the BWI Trail
Horse and rider passing cyclists on the BWI Trail

The light rail tracks are behind me, and roads for cars aren’t far away. Then there’s a bunch of us on the trail.

We first came across this young woman and her horse on Maryland 170 (also known there as North Camp Meade Road) as we all had to cross a not-busy on-ramp to Interstate 695. When we came across her the second time, she said she had taken the horse to her house about a 30 minute walk away – just because – and was now taking her back to the stable.

horse on the road

No stranger than our group riding 325 miles, I guess.

Day 4 – Towson to Annapolis

When things go wrong, you sometimes get lucky.

(Finally catching up on the blog after a few late nights…)

Ross and Mike
Ross and Mike

When things go wrong, you sometimes get lucky.

I headed out of Towson with two other riders. One had checked his tire pressure that morning and it was really low. So he pumped up the tires to the maximum amount listed on the tire sidewalls.

Bad idea. The tires, it turned out, were old and cracking (but somehow not spotted by the bike shop that did the pre-ride check). We were just a couple of miles into the ride when one blew. Not badly, but there was a cut on the sidewall, and the inner tube had a puncture.

So we pulled over and were just starting to haul out the tools when a guy biked by in the other direction. And as many cyclists do when they see someone pulled over, he called out to see if we were OK or needed anything.

Amazingly, the two guys said we’re not sure. (First clue that I probably have more experience fixing flats than this pair.)

So Ross hit the brakes, came over and took charge. Turns out he’s a bike mechanic (and full-time student and on a local racing team), and he diagnosed the problem behind the flat in an instant. This bike clearly needed new tires if it was going to get its rider to Fredericksburg. Ross got the bike rideable and we headed to the shop where he works (which wasn’t supposed to open for at least another 90 minutes). Between him and Mike, we were back in business pretty quickly. Better yet, we were only a few blocks off the East Coast Greenway route.

So thanks, Twenty20 Cycling!

Who are the riders?

Guess our favorite color.

A few things to know about the 40 (or is it 41?) riders on this year’s East Coast Greenway ride:

lime green

High-visibility lime green seems to be our favorite color. I have never seen so much of it! And yes, I’ve been wearing my lime-green jacket quite a bit too. For those who wonder why cyclists often wear gaudily patterned jerseys, it’s so they get noticed by motorists.

We skew older. Like other week-long rides I’ve been on, there are a lot of retirees. And not just early retirees. May I still be riding longer distances well into my 70s. Next up are the 50-somethings. I think there’s just one 20-something on this one, and he was enlisted by his dad.

He? Yeah, I’d say the majority are men, though I haven’t done the tally.

Riders are less intense than on other rides, and very supportive of each other. There’s not this dash to get in early that I’ve often seen. And one reason I’ve been able to ride with a fast group at times is that they aren’t all on road bikes. Many are on hybrids, and some tires are pretty knobby, so more resistance and therefore require more energy to move. I’ve seen a couple of Bike Fridays (a collapsable bike with road-bike gearing) and even a Dahon (a more typical foldable bike).

The biggest group by state is from Connecticut. Rhode Island and now New Jersey are also well-represented. I don’t think there’s anyone from Delaware, Maryland or Virginia.

About a dozen people have done every one of these week-long rides since they started at the Canadian border. There are definitely some pre-existing groups, but everyone is welcoming to others who want to ride with them.

Where do the bikes go? The fancy Hotel DuPont gave us a separate meeting room. But at the Super 8 (where the room was the size of the DuPont room’s bathroom) and the Sheraton in Towson, where I am now, we brought them into our rooms.

And yes, Melinda is doing great.

Day 3 — Havre de Grace to Towson, Maryland, on the East Coast Greenway

In a word, hilly.

In a word, hilly.

Continue reading “Day 3 — Havre de Grace to Towson, Maryland, on the East Coast Greenway”

Day 2 on the East Coast Greenway — Wilmington, Delaware, to Havre de Grace, Maryland

Our boatless adventures from Wilmington to Havre de Grace.

We were supposed to be like Washington crossing the Delaware, getting on barges to cross the Susquehanna from Perryville to Havre de Grace in Maryland.

But somehow the boat people thought this was happening on Wednesday, not Monday. So we became more like Dunkirk, mustering vehicles of every size to get us across the no-bikes-allowed bridge.

Continue reading “Day 2 on the East Coast Greenway — Wilmington, Delaware, to Havre de Grace, Maryland”

Lafayette came through Elkton, Maryland

Came across this bit of history as we rode through Elkton. I had to stop.

Came across this bit of history as we rode through Elkton on the East Coast Greenway. I had to stop.

lafayette in elkton

Who is Kelly Drive in Philadelphia named after?

If you, like me, said Grace Kelly, aka Princess Grace of Monaco, wrong.

If you, like me, said Grace Kelly, aka Princess Grace of Monaco, wrong.

And it’s not the John B. Kelly whose statue you see on the Schuylkill River Trail around Boathouse Row. (This is the sort of stuff you notice moving at bike speed.) He won three Olympic golds in rowing and lived in Philadelphia.

John B. Kelly statue, via wikipedia
John B. Kelly Sr. statue, via Wikipedia

No, it’s his son, John B. Kelly Jr., who was a city councilman. And brother of Princess Grace. He also was a rower and went to four Olympics. But the best he did was one bronze.

Politics?

Day 1 — Conshohocken to Philadelphia to Wilmington

Today’s 50-mile route was bookended by two fabulous trails: The Schuylkill River Trail and the Northern Delaware Greenway trail.

ECG sign

Today’s 50-mile route was bookended by two fabulous trails: The Schuylkill River Trail that runs from Conshohocken (actually 27 miles from Valley Forge, or even beyond, with some road bits) to Philadelphia, and the Northern Delaware Greenway trail, which runs for at least nine miles, sometimes in sight of I-95(!), and connects several parks before it essentially dumped us out in downtown Wilmington.

From the Schuylkill...
From the Schuylkill…

... to the wooded Northern Delaware Greenway
… to the wooded Northern Delaware Greenway

In between was plenty of urban grit and some surprises, such as the view of the Philadelphia skyline from Bartram’s Garden. And then the birds enjoying the wetlands of the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge within sight of the airport.

Philadelphia from Bartram's Garden

John Heinz nature refuge

Of course we also stumbled across odd stuff too, like the groups of guys who drove their cars onto the piers under the Commodore Barry Bridge in Chester. Not that there looked like there was much to do in town.

chester