Folding Bike

Last summer Max bought a folding bike. Here is a slideshow of Max folding up his bike and stuffing it in the trunk for transport to a trailhead on the Towpath Trail in Ohio. It is pretty slick. Now I have to decide if I really want to be able to fold a bike, too. I'm not sure yet. (If you are interested, after viewing the slideshow you can take more time to view this annotated set of photos in Flickr.)

Happy New Year

Blessed by lovely weather this week, I reset the odometer for a new year and managed to log an initial 45 miles of short commuting trips. Can you guess what one of my resolutions is? For you locals (Las Vegas), hope you have investigated the RTC Club Ride program. What a great incentive to take the time to green up our environment. (I'll let you know if I win anything this year.)

Bike trails in North Las Vegas

We don’t have to go far to find multi-purpose paths where motorized vehicles are not allowed. Right here in North Las Vegas there are 24 miles of paved trails in Aliante that are open to the public as well as the (currently) 5.5 miles of paved trails along the Las Vegas Wash. This will soon be almost doubled when a new trail opens along the Las Vegas Channel from Deer Springs Way to Craig Road. Eventually the two trails will meet, cross I-15 on a dedicated bike bridge and continue to Pecos and Lake Mead. These trails are great for walkers, joggers, skateboarders, roller-bladers, wheel chairs, strollers and cyclists. This recently published story in the Northern/ Aliante View includes a map and more details.

Google Maps adds Bicycle Routes

Have just discovered (thanks to my hubbie - I really don't have time to think recreation this month) that Google Maps has a great feature (can it be new? or maybe we just never noticed it before) that shows bike routes anywhere in the country. Go to Google.com, click on Maps along the top left corner, then when you see the USA map, open the More options in the top right corner and click Bicycling. Then start drilling down anywhere in the country.

I experimented with NLV first and it seems that the light green lines are bike-friendly/bike-lane streets and the dark green lines are dedicated bike trails. I also discovered that Google will give directions between two points using either car, public transportation, walking or bicycling. And you can adjust these little maps if you want to go by an alternate route.

Using this knowledge I explored other trails and areas I am familiar with. Everything rings true unless a route has two designations (i.e. path in a state or national park) and in those cases the bicycle designation seems to take second place (doesn't show on the map). No matter, this will be a great first step in planning any future trips.

It's a New Year

Middle of February, local temps hitting the 60s during the day; looks like the heavy rains we had last month will not repeat any time soon. So time to dust off the bike and begin a new year. Started by pumping the tires (they were at half pressure after five months of hanging from the garage ceiling) and resetting the odometer (I had forgot to take it with me on a few trips over the past three years so the total miles were not correct anyway). But where are the instructions? Never mind. Cateye instructions can always be downloaded from their web site - nice feature. After about 15 minutes of experimenting I finally figured it out and accomplished the task - zeroed out all the whole numbers - but could find no way to reset the tenths - so I start out the year with a 0.1 mile overstatement.

I'm going to make a big push this year to bike more than I did in 2009 AND have a higher percent of commuting miles (as compared to recreational) than I have had in the past. Happy to report that the first 25 miles were all productive as I kicked off the year with rides to church, library and school this week.

Very sweet to be back in the saddle. A few head winds gave me just a little challenge (to make up for being such a wimp and biking the valley floor).

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)