Tag: East Coast Greenway

Back-to-back-to-back, plus a bit more

I really could call this one the power of ice cream.

power of ice creamI really could call this one the power of ice cream.

For me, it was three days in a row of 30 miles, plus a fourth of 5 miles to work, and another 5 back. Nothing too crazy.

This was the big weekend camping trip with some neighbors, and I knew I was combining it with some biking.

Three of us set off before 1 p.m. for Allaire State Park, where we were camping. Given that everyone else was coming by car, we were spared having to haul our gear and food. (No shortage of food!) We took it easy — one rider was the 16-year-old daughter of a fellow Week-a-Year rider and had been promised breaks every five miles. I slowed down, the breaks were short — all good.

And the 16-year-old voluntarily joined me and the Brit for a ride to the Shore the next day, though I don’t think she was expecting quite that long a ride. But she was away from her parents. All good. (The route was in part on a rail-trail that was supposed to be part of the Capital-to-Coast route. But unlike the East Coast Greenway, this one seems to have run out of steam. Too bad.)

No, the truly impressive day was the ride back. The 16-year-old was on board again. Her third straight day of 30 miles. Another neighbor joined us. And so did his son. This kid turns 8 in October. Yes, a 7-year-old biked the 30 miles of back roads with us.

Yes, the kid is an energizer bunny and particularly athletic. (No, the 16-year-old is not.) Yes, we stopped more often. And once the kid realized we’d be biking through a town where he knew there was an ice cream shop and dad agreed to take him, there was no way he was going to get sagged home by mom. So yes, that kept him going from mile 20 to mile 25.

And restored by ice cream, he biked the rest of the way home. Two hours later, I looked out the window and saw him on his bike again.

As I said, the power of ice cream.

And some other shots from the weekend:

yurtThe yurt, above, and some of our grilling, below:

steak

shrimp on the barbie

bacon and kale

 

A weekend of back-to-back training rides

Sunday’s 30-mile ride left from Burlington City, NJ

Today we headed to Burlington City and met up with friends to do this ride, mapped out by NJDOT.

Burlington City claims a number of New Jersey firsts, but I am looking forward to the day the Delaware River Heritage Trail gets this far south and eventually connects to Philadelphia via Palmyra as an alternate route on the East Coast Greenway.

One cool highlight of our 30-mile loop: The factory town of Smithville, where the American Star bicycle was built in the 1880s. In that era of penny-farthing bicycles, this one apparently had the small wheel in the front, rather than the back, apparently to prevent you from tipping over. Not that the sculpture in the front reflected that.

smithville nj

But with the World Cup finals beckoning, a tour of the mansion and the truth of the design will have to wait for another visit.

Another fun site, this one in Mount Holly. Cute name, huh?

Mount Holly NJ

The bottom line from this weekend: Heat and back-to-back days is a tough combination. Last weekend I did two spin classes and a 30-miler. Thankfully a weeklong ride in October won’t be as hot. But I need to build up that endurance.

Training on the trails

I’ve gotten a slow start to training for this ride, though fittingly, most of my riding so far has been on trails.

Pine Creek trailI’ve gotten a slow start to training for this ride, though fittingly, most of my riding so far has been on trails.

It started with the 150-mile Great Allegheny Passage plus a bit of the C&O Canal in May. (My friend Janet blogged it here).

Then the Brit and I spent one day biking 60 miles on the Pine Creek rail-trail in northern Pennsylvania, essentially due south of Corning, NY. It’s has some wonderful river views and really could be better promoted to capitalize on a length that is long enough to attract overnight visitors. But that tag of the “Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania”? Hyperbole, in my opinion. A nice gorge is what it is.

Fishermen wading in Pine Creek

Regardless, it’s a pleasant place to bike. Just wish there were working water pumps that didn’t come with warnings about water quality. A side effect of fracking?

I also took an early and long lunch to bike 10 miles of the D&R Canal/East Coast Greenway as part of the Cabot Community Tour from Jacksonville, Fla. to New York City.

Time to get serious. Spin classes and bike rides to the train station and work aren’t enough.

What I’m doing

You know I love to explore on a bicycle. And this year will include a great 325-mile adventure from Philadelphia through Washington and onto Fredericksburg, Virginia on the East Coast Greenway.

ready to travel You know I love to explore on a bicycle. And this year I’ll take a great 325-mile adventure from Philadelphia through Washington and onto Fredericksburg, Virginia. I’ll be participating in the annual fundraising ride for the East Coast Greenway, a nearly 3,000-mile route from the Canadian border in Maine to Key West in Florida for bicyclists and walkers. While the route is already mapped, it now uses a mix of trails and generally quiet roads. The goal is to have it entirely on paths separated from traffic. That makes it suitable for people of all ages and bicycling ability.

If I need any convincing about the power of that sort of trail, I can just look at the Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-mile rail trail from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Md., that was completed last year and which connects to the 185-mile C&O Canal to Washington. I’ve just come back from riding it with three others. We ran into so many other cyclists – and it’s not even summer yet. One of the many things that impressed me was the economic power that a long, signposted, car-free trail can have. We heard about the woman who started her B&B with just one house when the trail was just partially finished, then bought the one next door and is now adding a third because there is so much demand. The company that shuttled us back to Pittsburgh is debating buying another vehicle because of the business it is seeing. Many establishments we patronized simply wouldn’t survive in their small towns without this trail. No surprise, then, that others are trying to build trails that connect to the north and west.

This is also why I find the East Coast Greenway so exciting. It connects cities, making it an urban version of the Appalachian Trail. It’s equally suitable for short distances, such as getting to work, as for long adventures. And because it links up local trails, such as the D&R Canal towpath that is just a few miles from my house, each becomes more useful to locals and more of a lure to bike tourists, just as with the Great Allegheny Passage. (Oh, and bike tourists have money. Just ask the Great Allegheny Passage boosters.)

You can learn more about the East Coast Greenway at www.greenway.org

I’ll be riding the 325 miles from October 5 to October 11 and have set a personal fundraising goal of $2,000. Every dollar will go to the East Coast Greenway Alliance, the nonprofit that oversees the creation of the East Coast Greenway, not to pay for my trip. I will be footing the bill for my hotel, food and travel. All donations are tax-deductible, and donations of $20 or higher will give you a year membership in the East Coast Greenway Alliance.

You can sponsor me online through this link or send me a check made out to the ECGA, and I will forward it. I’ll also be blogging about my training and the ride on this site, so come back for updates.

In the meantime, I hope you get out and enjoy the trails in your town.