2009 Trail Review

Here is a close-up of the four trails that I rode in 2009: the Paseo del Bosque in Albequerque, New Mexico, the Towpath Trail, around Clinton, Ohio, the Mohawk-Hudson Bikeway near Albany, New York, and the Cape Cod Rail Trail on the east coast near Boston, Massachusetts. This 4-minute video will show you better than I can describe what these trails are like. Enjoy!!

Thanksgiving 2009

I am thankful for a hobby like biking. As I look back over 2009 and smile remembering the good times we had biking with our family, I need to acknowledge that we are blessed to have the health to be able to enjoy this hobby and a family that shares our pastime with us. As the grandchildren get older and can ride longer, it is such a joy to share a trail and a day of fun with them this way.  I feel like we are creating memories for them that will last long after we are gone.  When they ride bikes with their children, they will feel us there with them.


We work at maintaining a healthy life style, one of moderation, of eating a variety of good food but not too much, of exercising through enjoyable outside activities to stay fit.  But at the same time we recognize that the basic good health that we have been blessed with is a gift from God and our parents.  We hope that by sharing fun hobbies like hiking and biking with our children and grandchildren that we are passing on some of the keys to an enjoyable life.


While we were in Ohio at the end of the summer we biked over 25 miles with two of our girls (8 and 9) around their neighborhood and on stretches of the Erie and Ohio Canal Towpath trail and along part of the Olde Muskingum trail.  Then, at the end of our visit with family in New Hampshire, we enjoyed four and a half days at Cape Cod MA and biked 10 miles of the wonderful Cape Cod Rail Trail located there.  It was so easy to rent the trailer bikes needed for these little ones (2, 3.5 and 5 years old) and their parents so we could all bike together.  This was my third visit to Cape Code in four years and one of the main attractions of the cape, in my estimation, is the suburb bike trail.  Oh yes, I love the ocean and beaches too.  But this is one of the few places where I can enjoy both quality beaches and quality biking the same day.  AND be close to my grand-kids.


I'm happy to recommend all these trails to you as I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.  May your day be filled with family, fun and food that will meld together to create fond memories that will always bring a smile to your heart.



Erie and Ohio Canal Towpath, near Clinton (left) and Cape Cod Rail Trail (right)

NM: Paseo del Bosque trail

At the end of July we headed east to see the family. Packed the bikes on back of the Jeep. As a break from the long drive we decided to try the Paseo del Bosque Trail along the Rio Grande River in Albuquerque, NM. We were not disappointed. This city is very bike friendly. This map is pretty good; you can google for better. We stayed near Old Town, on the old Route 66, and biked from the Central Ave. trail head the next morning. Started out going south (the trail has a nice loop at the southern end) and then headed north for awhile before turning south again to return to our car, 30 miles in all. The trail is in good condition, paved all the way. The one disappointment is that you rarely see the Rio Grande because the trail is on the levee and is separated from the river by fairly thick stands of cottonwoods. There is a lot of interesting iron-work sculpture along the trail. Take a snack with you – no eateries along the trail.

Bike Church

One of the great things about bikes, besides letting you concentrate on the simpler pleasures of life, is the great quality people it attracts. Most of them are very sharing and caring people who will stop their ride to help out someone on the trail who needs directions or help fixing a flat tire. Here is a description of how volunteers at UC Davis help each other with bike repairs and more. This little 3:50 video is fairly current (filmed in May 2008). Do you know what a bike church is? You really need to watch this and find out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK5lK925vDA&feature=related

Tour de France

Today is the beginning of the 96th Tour de France – the most famous and grueling bicycle race in the world. This race lasts for 23 days and stretches over 2100 miles through six nations, climbing up and down Pyrenees and Alps mountain roads as well as over flats. You would be hard pressed to get through the month of July without seeing news clips or reading something about this race in the newspaper. People line the race routes each day. Some of the most incredible images to me are of the spectators running from the curbs, seemingly in front of the racers, to wave signs and flags. If I were a racer I would surely swerve and fall but the Tour riders just barrel on. The Tour, like all sports over the past 10 or 20 years, has been marred by the use of drug enhanced performance. The attraction of any sport is to see natural talent in action, to witness the awesome endurance of a well-trained body. To those who favor using any means possible, including drugs whether safe or with unknown long-term consequences, to increase stamina, endurance and balance, I say “form your own leagues and tours.” I want to see baseball, basketball, boxing and bicycling by athletes who don’t need more than an aspirin or Aleve for their normal aches and pains. If they suffer injuries that require more potent stuff, they should be benched until the drugs have run their course. The Tour de France officials this year are taking greater measures to eliminate the cheaters but it seems many will still take the chance that they will not be caught for many years (blood and urine samples will be held for 8 years and new tests devised within that time span that detect illegal drugs can remove any titles won this year). I predict that this will be the basis for years of contentious and negative publicity and will not really restore public confidence in the sport. The other major news about the Tour is that Lance Armstrong, after winning seven Tour de France races and then retiring in 2005, is back in the race. Expect to hear a lot of speculation about why he is doing well (or not). I don’t profess to understand the intricacies of the Tour but it is always fun to watch and marvel at the powers of those who participate. Last July I spent a week biking up and down the hills around the Finger Lakes in central New York State. It took every ounce of my will power to finish each day in the saddle (and one day I didn’t - the rain got to me and I finished in the sag wagon). One thing the Bonton Roulet gave me was even more empathy for the riders of the Tour de France.

States I've Biked In

visited 15 states (30%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or another interesting project

I rode with my kids when they were growing up but then the bike hung from the garage ceiling for many years while I did other things. Riding a bike was always one of those things I was going to do when there was more time. Well, that time finally came in 2006 when we took the plunge and bought a bike rack so we could carry the bikes with us on our annual trip east to visit family. The plan was to stop at various Rails-to-Trails and bike a few miles every few days as a way to break up sitting in the car day after day. We had a blast riding on the Cape Cod Rail Trail and several others in Massachusetts, the Towpath Trail in Ohio, a piece of the KATY trail in Missouri, several trails in Denver and Boulder City in Colorado, Moab and St. George in Utah, and lots of rides in and around Las Vegas. In all we covered 512 miles that year. In 2007 we road more miles around Las Vegas and we took our bikes to Europe and road several bike paths along the Moselle and Rhine rivers, mostly in Germany. Our miles grew to 626 that year. In 2008 we again headed to the eastern US and hit more rail trails and scenic routes as well as spending a week on Prince Edward Island (PEI) in Canada where we biked about half of the Confederation trail. Our mileage really grew in 2008, to 1409 miles. So, although biking over 2500 miles in three years is really not much to a serious and dedicated biker, that is far more experience in the saddle then I ever thought I would acquire. I'm anxious to share what we've learned about touring with bikes, and to learn even more from others who share this interest.

Getting ready to roll

I am a turtle; love to ride but plodding - like to look around rather than race to the finish. I'm relatively new to cycling; rode 500 miles in 2006, 625 in 2007, and 1400 in 2008. Took my Giant to Europe in 2007 and rode some stretches of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers during a 9-week stay. The only multi-day organized ride I've participated in so far was the Bonton Roulet in July '08. Think I prefer independent traveling with my bike on the car rack and hitting the various Rails to Trails that I pass on my trips around the country. I'm serious about commuting by bike as much as possible (couple of times a week to work, library, church). I'm going to use this space to share some of the trails I have experienced and create a wish list of opportunities for the months ahead. Would love to hear suggestions from my readers or compare observations on a particular trail.