Monday, August 12, 2013

Sunday afternoon ride. Distance can be deceiving

Distances, in a car, can be deceiving. The view out of the window can play tricks on you and make you think that the world is passing you by slower or quicker than you might think. Case in point: there is a long road leading out of town. If you follow it you go through fields and salt marsh. There are few large structures, indeed, few buildings of any kind. The road is long, wide and straight with an artificially low speed limit. It takes for EVER to drive down it. It has to be ten miles long!

This is the road that I set out on yesterday to lengthen my normal little loop. I received quite a shock the day before when I realized that riding the same distance up and down the hills climbing out of my river valley was much more difficult that tooling around the stitched-together Bike Path route that is wholly contained in the valley floor and, therefore, mostly flat. My plan was to widen my experiences by incorperating some more "real roads" into my tried and true route that I can easily measure my progress on by comparing time, pace and average speed. With this all in mind, I set out on that long lonely farm road.

It was glorious. I saw llamas grazing on a hillside and little streams and ponds that I hadn't noticed before. I saw the vast carpets of wildflowers covering hidden meadows that you can on;y glimpse  if you are traveling at 15 MPH and not 40 MPH. I saw birds and cows and all the little details of the farm fields. Once back into town I took a break at the train station.

Most cyclists around these parts seem to find their way to the Train Station, even when there is no train. Perhaps the Recreational riders come here because it is the terminus of the Rail Trail and when you ride the extra forty feet onto the platform itself you get to pass all the commuter bikes chained to the various racks and poles. Perhaps, on that platform, a recreational cyclist might even encounter some one arriving as part of a tour or on a "serious" ride. I know that to me, the Train Station is all this and more. I can't see myself riding around here without visiting it. It's as important as the Ice Cream stand, maybe more so!

The rest of the ride was, I'm afraid, anti-climatic. I weaved my way past the walkers and family bicycle gangs and dogs of all shapes and sizes. I was, on this day any way, the fastest thing on the MUP. By far. When I finally arrived back at my front door I checked the numbers. Four miles. I went through two EXTRA towns past all those fields and marshes and only got an extra FOUR miles out of the deal? What a gip! I can't wait to do it again! 

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