Plotting the Summer starts the previous December- Glacier; Going to the Sun Highway

Riding the Going to the Sun Highway has been on my bucket list for many years. I wanted to hit it when I went down the Great Divide , but that was a missed opportunity. When I mentioned this to my partner, he agreed to go with me. My partner is a good cyclist, but not hardcore. The fact that he's interested in doing this truly thrills me.

I started the process by calling Glacier Cyclery in Whitefish, Montana. One of the employees, Vanessa, emailed me back with a lot of information. She suggested that I make sure I have bike rental reservations finished by mid-March. When I had the dates all confirmed and the airplane tickets, I called Glacier Cyclery. I actually got to speak to Vanessa, and she suggested altering my plans. My plan had been to start up as early as possible, believing that everybody had to be off the road by 11 o'clock and there were no other chances to go up. Vanessa noted that leaving early in the morning, it is cold and there's a lot of traffic that makes the trip up quite stressful. Adding to that stress is the time factor, requiring cyclists to be at the top before 11 o'clock. Vanessa also informed me that after 4 o'clock cyclists are allowed again on the road. She noted that it's a fabulous time to go up since the sun doesn't go down until 9:30 at night. She also stated that at 4 o'clock most of the traffic is coming down, and all the people who were rushing to go up to start hikes in the morning are gone. There was an added bonus on top of that; the alpine glow lends a beautiful hue to views on the way back home. We don't have to mention that I do not work for Glacier Cyclery... I was truly impressed by her knowledge of that particular road, and that she's done it several times. The bike rental situation is quite good, especially after I asked her for her advice in terms of timing. Also the rates are quite reasonable and they're going to rent us a bike rack for our rental car. I have had positive dealings with Glacier Cyclery previously, when I was on The Great Divide Route. They took a phone order while we were far away and very remote, for one of my companions who had panniers that failed. The panniers were waiting when we arrived in Whitefish, MT at Glacier Cyclery.

I am more excited to go than ever...

Thank you DC for the Winter Cycling Challenge

It is difficult to motivate yourself to ride in the winter, when the temperatures dip into the single digits, remain in the teens and there is ice on the road and a kick butt wind chill.  A shout out to DC for starting and managing the Winter Cycling Challenge.  It was open to anyone, from anywhere, but mostly it was people from the Buffalo area.

Because of this challenge setup, which pits teams against each other, the inner competitor in me rode 450 miles starting from November 14th. The challenge used the GreenLightRide website. Although it was probably a good place to run a competition, it doesn't seem to be a very good general way to track your mileage, for there is no mobile app and it makes you log on too often.

And on to Lake Champlain

A new trick (for me).  I drove to Lake Champlain at Port Kent, left my car there and took the ferry across. $9.  The crossing took 1 hour, during which I was free to read, look around and NOT drive. Pleasant. FYI there is also an Amtrak station in Port Kent, within walking distance of the ferry dock. Unfortunately the train is slated to take 10 hours to get there and it is only 6 to drive.  Given my previous report of Amtrak usually being an hour or more late, it was not appealing. But the FERRY! Highly appealing. The ferry is so large that you don't feel the swells and a bike doesn't need to be secured to keep it from falling over. So I packed all my panniers on the bike and off I went to Burlington, where I was to meet up with Jamie.

We stayed at North Beach campground, a Burlington park. This park does not have a "no turn away" policy for cyclists, paddlers or hikers, which is a bit of a travesty. When asked why not, the woman at the office exclaimed "If we are full, where would we put them?"  Answer; on the unused volleyball court. Really.  How many could there possibly be? I should write a letter... maybe tomorrow... We rode in to downtown Burlington to their fabulous Co-op to gather supplies. The easy thing about this route is that there are very good re-supply stores all along the way. We carried no stove for this trip. It is warm, neither of us drinks coffee and we usually bought a sandwich to eat for dinner at one of the numerous grocery stores. 

The Lake Champlain Bikeway map is a really good start, but the routing had many odd misdirections and mileage errors.  We should have kept better track of these and given them some feedback to correct the map, but we were ill equipt to do so.  Part of the problem is that the map is available in PDF only (no hard copy) and formatted at a really odd size for home printing, so it was difficult to keep in a map case.  Really, I do have no excuse for not making corrections right on the paper copy I had printed out.  It would help them to get the feedback. On the VT side, the bikeway is marked at regular intervals (though not necessarily intersections), but in NY it is marked as Bike Route 9, I believe. Other than those minor problems, the route is pleasant (but not the most direct- which is fine). Adding camping info would also be helpful.

The second night we stayed at Crown Point, a DEC campground. These DEC CG are staffed by really good, smart people, who are constantly thinking and analyzing.  The night before the ferry, I had stayed in a NY DEC CG and was looking to do some hiking, but wanted to get to the trailhead via bike, having driven for 6 hours. The attendant took the road surface, shoulders and type of trail into consideration and pointed me to a nice trail with great views.

Anyways, this time, the attendant knew the weather forecast and asked us if we wanted to pitch in the only available lean-to. No wet tents in the morning.  Sweet.  There was an amazing thunderstorm that night!

We spent the next night at Ausable Chasm (pronounced Aws-Able Chasm, with the Ch sounding like chicken).  Although this was a private campground, it was pretty nice.  You have to purchase a separate event ticket to travel on the Chasm trails and we didn't think it was worth it, considering we were there for such a short time.

The NY side of the lake is much hillier overall and the route we used was quite, shaded and heavily wooded.

My Bike Friday New World Tourist scored 11,000 miles. Kind of astonishing to me, though I have been watching the milestone approach for a while. Totally missed the 10,000 milestone. I think it occurred on a commuting day.

Plattsburg is working on being more bike friendly, but they have a ways to go. It is obvious they are working on a bike path that hugs the lake, but it is not yet complete.  All in all, I didn't feel harried going through the city, except at a construction zone, when I am sure the drivers also felt harried.  There were several bike tours we crossed paths with along the northern end of the lake, all inn to inn tours.
We crossed the mouth of the Riviere Richlieu, the outlet of Lake Champlain, at Rouses Point and could see the Canadian border crossing just down the road.


 

The bridge took us back into VT and we headed down to North Hero, hoping to camp at North Hero State Park, but the CG had been closed due to bad flooding a couple of years earlier. There was nothing else, public or private that we could find until way down on Grand Isle at Grand Isle State Park. Long day.  Our 50 mile day turned into an 80 or so mile day, but again, they found us a lean-to and again there was a thunderstorm during the night. That was pretty much the only rain we experienced (except another incredible, but short lived downpour when we had instant access to shelter).
Both the DEC and VT state CG hold a "no turn away" policy for hikers and cyclists. Nice job.

Last day: we left Grand Isle via the "bike ferry". We had some difficulty locating the beginning of the northern part of the causeway.
 
 
 

I had some weird idea that this was a pretty long jaunt, but it turned out that it was a tiny ferry ride to cross a gap in the old railroad causeway. The gap allows boats to move from one part of the lake to another.

Ignore the amateur finger in the photo- mind the gap. Really.  That is it. The dock on the other side is the ferry dock. I'm serious.

I understand the causeway was damaged by the same storm that took out the campground, but am unsure if there was a bridge previously. The ferry fee is by suggested donation; $10 (actually more that the Lake Champlain Port Kent to Burlington ferry, but I don't begrudge them the money). Then you travel along the rest of the causeway.  It was pretty heavily used by pedestrians and cyclists, but we were the only touring cyclists around. Lots of young kids.






We stayed at the North Beach campground again that night. All around a pretty decent place with a lovely beach.  We spent the next day renting paddleboards, which was way more upper arm work than I am used to.

Bike repair station with basic tools and a simple repair stand- on the Bikeway.  Very cool.

This finished our journey, which I had miscalculated the mileage for, leaving us 3 unused days.
 
We returned to Burlington and rode the 60 or so miles to Jamie's house and spent those extra days kayaking on Lake Champlain and camping at primitive paddling access only campsites.

Talk is sweet, especially when accompanied by action

Again, GO Bike Buffalo was involved in something inspirational. The Buffalo Bicycle Master Plan, a city/Go Bike Buffalo venture in conjunction with the Alta planning firm, involved city residents in an informational meeting to explain and answer questions about the plan. It was a fabulous RahRah mtg, encouraging citizen participation by having people draw on a big map of Buffalo to illustrate where they wanted more bike lanes and problem areas.  City officials were present, including the mayor and representatives of the streets department. We (mostly Dwight) have had exposure and interactions with the streets people before and they seem to have a genuine interest in people's opinions. 

The turnout was varied age and sex wise, but poorly represented those who rely on a bicycle for financial reasons.  It does appear that that group is being considered; traffic registering devices in lower socio-economic areas are able to discern the difference between a car and a 2 wheeled vehicle, allowing the streets department to see current bike routing patterns.

Afterwards, many retired to Ulrich's for dinner or drinks and I was pleasantly surprised to see a group who arrived via bikes with panniers.

Easing into the first tour of summer

A friend has committed to cycling all of the Finger Lakes in NY and she is almost finished, Cayuga being one of the last. Her and another friend and I joined on the eastern shore of the lake, left our cars and circumnavigated the lake counter-clockwise.
The weather was beautiful, not too hot, not too cool and no rain. The total distance is just short of 100 miles, so we had decided to try to stay in Ithaca.
I contacted a Warmshowers host there, who agreed to host us for a night. This was a fantastic initial exposure to Warmshowers for both Linda and Patty.  The hosts were sweet, engaging, and provided an optimum intro into the WS concept. Patty actually hosted their next night's guests when she got back home.  WS is such a great idea and it has never failed to pair me with both great hosts and great guests.


A fun end to a fun ride; we all jumped off the dock and Patty's friend's house into the lake. It was a terrific way to get clean and cool off, though the neighbors may have had to avoid drinking the water for a while : )

Atlanta, GA- escape from the North

Back in January, we decided to head south to escape Buffalo's cold for a spell (it has been uncharacteristically cold).  The Virgin Islands are pricey, but maybe more importantly, it takes a lot of precious time to get there and subjects you to multi-plane trips where you are more susceptible to weather related delays...
So.
We scheduled a trip to the South, where we have spent little time.  A brief brainstorm suggested Atlanta or Savannah and further research recommended Atlanta for a week long visit. Little did we know that I would end up having hernia surgery 2 days before we left. No worries; it just prevented me from doing drywall or construction work during recovery.

Atlanta was quite enjoyable, even if your bend is industrial reuse and Portland-esk style hippie venues.  It took a long time to find a great coffee shop, but when we did, it was all we I could have asked for.

On the 3rd day, we headed out for a bike tour with Bicycle Tours of Atlanta with Robyn and her intern : )  The tours start at a revitalized industrial warehouse site, which incubates (and obviously also retains) small businesses. The site still retains many of its more charming industrial attributes, such as sliding fire doors, but the roof has been pulled off down the center of the building to offer natural light to the remaining portions.  Extremely well executed.

We also visited a mill conversion to condos.  The greatest thing about it was that much of the huge infrastructure was left.  Hoppers and overhead rail tracks were meshed with a swimming pool.  Pretty fabulous.

Robyn customized our tour based on our architectural and art interests and led us through neighborhoods which saw deep economic slumps and managed to rebound without losing too much of their architectural heritage.  The ?city? promoted a mural painting bonanza, which manifests as fabulous and varied murals in diverse areas.

We really enjoyed the tour and it was not stressful on my recent stitches.  The bikes were better than the ones we rented in New Orleans; less wide saddle and more practical. Robyn was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot.

BTW the most hipster coffee shop vote goes to...drumroll... Octane, 1009 Marietta St NW.  Great mocha, clean tables, industrial bldg reused, they make designs in your foam. I know, I know.  Don't lecture me, this is my one flaw.

Checking out IPhone apps for cycling

Leyla has a much newer and NOT jailbroken iPhone, so she scopes out the app store.
Her newest find is called Route Loops. Supposedly you can tell it how far you want to go and it will calculate a route for you from your current location. Highly skeptical, we started out. This app gets a silver star rating for our one trip so far. It kept us on manageable roads and was not outrageously zig zaggy, but regardless of which direction we had travelled the loop we would have gone the wrong way down a one way street at least once.




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Cruising in Canada

Went out for a 40 miler with locals. Canadian customs is getting a little weirder. Not only do they change the rules, but the questions are getting stranger. Meanwhile, US customs are normalizing relations with their citizens. Odd twist.



Four of us traveled on the Friendship trail to Port Colburn, diverged onto the roads, then looped back to the trail. Blair showed me a new and improved way to get back on the Peace Bridge.




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Impromptu Minneapolis

6:45pm Minneapolis airport: Delta airlines asks for volunteers to lay over 24 hours, hotel and meals included, $400 travel voucher.
7:15- I'm all set and rescheduled for tomorrow, same bat time, same bat place.
24 hours in Bicycling Magazine's #1 ranked bike friendly city, and the whole day sponsored by Delta.
At the Mall of America Ramada hotel (which treated me just as well as if I had paid for the room), I used their public, very fast computer to look for cycling info and print 3 pages (no charge).
Results: a whole listing of shops renting bikes, info on obtaining path maps and countless links to further info.
Picked one close to the Hiawatha light rail.
9/3 6:00am woke, showered, packed, checked out, asked to leave my duffle, used the Delta meal vouchers for breakfast and lunch (Ramada packed me a box lunch) and walked the short distance to Mall of America.






7:30 jumped off at Lake to walk a quick 1 mile to Freewheel Bike Shop.





Amazing. They rent really nice carbon Treks- $50.
Problem- they have to put a hold on your credit card for the value of the bike. $1,400. Several years ago I asked my CC company to reduce my credit limit to avoid cc fraud. I am at that limit (set it pretty low, didn't I- thought I was sooooo smart). Called CC company- could they please up my limit? BUT OF COURSE! What a stupid question.
Crash couse on using a CO2 cartridge to inflate presta tubes. All new to me. No toe clips. At least I had a helmet and mirror. How embarrassing, I had to go back to the shop to ask how to shift.  Such an old school girl, with her bar end shifters, toe clips and steel framed bike.






Followed the Greenway Trail until I saw a likely candidate for a riding partner. Out for several hours, avg 17- 22 mph. Sounded plausible. Then he was joined by 3 others. Really lean guys. It should have flashed a warning. Didn't. First half, about 15 miles, well within my speed limits. Second half, not so much. On two occasions at least, they waited for me. No computer, so I have no idea how fast, but I would guess well over 20 on the flat. After about 5 miles they slowed down again, but a little off, I had to draft to keep up then. This group... maybe part of a triathlon team out of Urban Tri shop. They could have and probably should have kicked my Buffalo butt and dropped me. But kindness ruled. So sweet. I know, I know. But I really enjoyed myself.






After they finished, I kept going to cross the Mississippi into St. Paul, then back into Minneapolis, around "The Lakes" and back to the bike shop. I joined forces with a rider going the same way who knew the route. Such a pleasure. He went a more manageable pace. Kudos to the cycling community of Minneapolis. Very welcoming. I think I did 45-50 miles, but am guessing.
Compare Portland to Minneapolis: apples to oranges. One is more fabulous for recreational, the other maybe for all around commuting. Maybe. Both nice. What says you? 6 months in Portland, 6 months in Minneapolis. Would you like to guess which 6 months would belong to Minneapolis?
Full light rail train cars. On a Saturday.  And the trains had bike hooks. The amazement never ends.




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GAP near Pittsburgh, PA

We spent the Fourth in Pitt watching fireworks from up on high.











I took Bill down to Pittsburgh, PA to start his trek down the GAP and C&O to return to his car near DC. Riding 15 miles from Versailles (near Pitt) brought back memories of the first time I did this trail. The GAP part at least is quite smooth and easy. We were doing 16.5 on its limestone without much trouble.
Though more of the path between Pitt and McKeesport has been completed, it is still not quite there. That group is sure working hard, though.

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