Vermont's Maple Festival

Sometime in January, after the calendars went on sale, I picked up one for Vic and me to write down trip ideas and keep an eye on things to do. I brought it home but, oddly enough considering there is no art on the wall, never found a suitable place to hang it. The theme is "New England Activities" with typical seasonal pictures and a sidebar featuring home shows and craft fairs.

We found out about the St. Albans' Vermont Maple Festival through the calendar. It is a small village about 30 miles north of Burlington, close to the shores of Lake Champlain, and a bit south of the Quebec border.

I was interested in three things at the festival: maple donuts, seeing syrup tapped and boiled, and the Fiddler's Variety show.

1. The maple donuts were the size of a child's head and covered in whipped syrup. They were delicious. It's harsh to say, but St. Albans needs a diet. Perhaps folks eat too many donuts while shut-in during winter. I'm hardly a small person and could easily drop 20 pounds, but there are very large people in northern Vermont who make me look anorexic.

2. We rode the school bus to Gary Corey's sugarhouse. Being a bit naïve, the festival occurs after the season is over and people stop working. Gary was super nice, but I'm not sure I learned that much about the process. What surprised me was the surgical tubing from the tapped trees tied into larger PFC pipes flowing directly into the sugarhouse. Gary makes gallons of maple syrup.

3. After a tasty, inexpensive dinner in Burlington at the New England Culinary Institute, we drove back to the fiddling show. Is there a better way to spend couple hours on a cold, wet night? We listened to New England-style fiddling in the high school auditorium, saw a bit of step dancing and even heard a set of harmonica by an old man with hips of Elvis. I particularly liked the sweetness of Franklin's tunes and a young Quebecois fellow, Danny Perreault, who ripped through a set of French-Canadian tunes. Vic's been converted and we bought a CD to drive around to the next day. We were close enough to the border that quite a bit of the show was in French. It makes me excited about biking through Quebec later this summer.

The skies cleared on our Sunday drive home. We motored down Route 22 on the New York side of the Champlain Valley, which eventually gives way to the Hudson. We tried stopping at Shelburne Farms, Ticonderoga and Saratoga, but not much is open as everyone waits for the Mud Season to end.

The highlight was stopping at the Crown Point Bread Company in Crown Point, NY and meeting Yannig Tanguy. A young fellow with wild bed-head, he's the baker in the checkered pants and into fiddling. He pulled out an erhu, in other words, a Chinese fiddle, for a quick demonstration. There's an old Chinese fellow who busks in the T with one of these, but Yanning faltered out a compelling, if odd, version of Ashokan Farewell and Soldier's Joy. Though my fiddle was the car we had to get home early to return the car, so I regret not spending the afternoon jamming with Yanning and his Upstate friends. As for my turn on the erhu? I subjugated the locals in the café to well-known Chinese torture.

Contining through the spiritual center of the Shakers at Mt. Lebanon, New York and into Massachusetts in Pittsfield, you can't help but feel that Pittsfield's glory days in the center of the Berkshires appear long past.

While we decided (and I'm glad we did) not to bring the bikes, almost everything on the New York side looked great for cycling. Wide shoulders, not too much traffic and rolling farm country combined with plenty of historical markers on the campaigns of 1777; both Vic and I chattered about finding the time to come back on two wheels. A fair bit of our drive was marked with NY Bike Route 9, which continue through the famed heart of the Hudson south of Albany before making its way into Manhattan. It would be quite a ride.

Champlain Valley Car Trip

Missouri's Swell for Tours with Kids

Or so I hear from my pal Anthony and his wife, Margot. They just got back from a tour across the "Show Me State" with their three kids and a couple other friends in tow.

The demographics of touring community runs toward empty-nesters who've now got a bit of time and money to take on the slow pace of bike trips. One look at any of the brochures will show you pictures of mainly older, white folks on nice bikes doing civilized tours through wine regions of Italy or one some gorgeous twisty road along the coast of Nova Scotia.

Finding a place to bike a longer distance safely with kids is a bit trickier. It is also something I'd not given much thought to until my recent talks because I don't have any myself.

Based on my limited experience, Holland would be great because of the elaborate trail system. Germany also has a fantastic trail system and perhaps might be more interesting to kids because of the many castles and to the adult because of the vineyards. I think there would be plenty to keep them occupied. I saw plenty of families along the Danube trail which has the added benefit of a great train system, so you could skip or shorten some days with a train. Of course, you'd have to be pretty well-off or save for quite awhile to get the whole family to Europe and fairly industrious to find the folks with the rental bikes and places to sleep.

Until Margot and Anthony told me about the KATY trail, a rails-to-trails path, I'd really could not think of a great place for week-long trip with kids that would avoid riding on the side of a highway which takes a bit of concentration and handling skills that most under 14-15 lack. I'd certainly not let my pal Harry ride on most roads I ride on here in Massachusetts.

I don't have much on specifics: they rented the bikes from a fellow in St. Louis, who assisted them with the first night lodging and took them out to the start of the trail 243 miles away. They stayed in motels or bed & breakfasts along the way and averaged about 30 miles a day which sounds like the amounts other folks report doing with kids under 10 in tow. The pictures are just great.

If you have other ideas on a good bike tour for kids here in the US, let me know and I'll pass it on to Anthony and Margot. They're excited that the kids loved it and are looking for more places for long safe rides.

Mi Amor es le Bici Stud

A bit like a nervous mother, I watched Victor wheel his bike out of the house this morning for his first commute to work. It's a 16 mile ride on the suburban streets of Boston, including dashing over an interstate merge, a narrow stretch through downtown Wellesley, a hairpin turn under a bridge with giant potholes, and of course the notoriously bad roads and terrible drivers of Boston.

I thought I'd probably get an email around 9, after my short commute to MIT, but did not hear from him. So I finally called. He was just wheeling into his office and sounded a bit out of breath. He had two flats which he had to patch. He only learned how to patch tires last week. I am, frankly, impressed.

In the last couple days, Vic has been helping me with my Spanish. Or as we call it around the house, "Sponx", as I mangle pronunciation and mix in the little bit of French and German I know. When in doubt, I just add an "O" or an "A" to my English words. While it may not be lovely or even make much sense, the deal is with a bit of pointing and smiling, I've always been able to convey what I want and have a fine time. I love speaking other languages!

I've been sending Vic emails using the google translator. I figure it will help refresh my vocabulary. I know it is an old joke, but after Vic complained about my emails degenerating into incomprehensiblity, I thought I'd reverse translate the mail I sent him this morning:

You are a bolt prisoner of bici! You are the bolt more prisoner studliest of bici! What a hero! Oh my! Planes of fixation two, mending a tire and being able really to work after a stroll of 16 miles in the streets of Boston! Obtain behind, Cat! I am puts! I am puts! Have been remembering, for months, although now it looks like years, when I demonstrated for above in Septemeber and you did not even know to verify the plane in your deflated tire whereas his bici marchitó in the corner? What nerd of bici! I think that you have something to blog around today.

City Boy At Food Source

Victor does not eat mammals but eats cheese like a famished mouse. A city mouse to be sure. He had never seen animals in their natural domestic production setting. He'd never stepped foot on farm.

Just north of Concord, Great Brook Farm is a working dairy farm that also happens to be a state park and a decent bike ride out of the city. Here, Vic got the chance to have his hand slobbered on by an old ewe and some seriously fat and testy pygmy goats.

In addition to the farm animals, we got to see the bunting in Concord hung for Patriot's Day and the character actors out and about for the reenactments on Monday. The magnolias are in bloom, the daffodils are up, the willow trees are budding in bright chartreuse. It's spring in New England and our biking is just getting better and better.

My Foot: An Interior View

Last summer on my European ride, I tripped and fell in a crypt at Mont St. Michel. I hobbled for days. It hurt like hell to get my foot out of my cleat, but as far as the up and down of cycling, it was fine. Later that summer, while attempting to jump a small curb on my over-loaded bike, I collapsed, again on the left foot. And then I twisted it one more time in Slovakia. Everyone I knew said this: "Go see a doctor!"

It is still a bit tender. I've heard fractures in your feet take a long time to heal so I assumed there was not much to do. I am right. There is not much to do. Yesterday, the doc couldn't see much except me grimace when squeezing my foot. He mentioned immobilizing me. I laughed. The cure: no more stumbling in crypts, a bit of stretching, and more time.

Cape Cod Canal: Bike Camping

First, it is much smaller than I thought. Second, it is kept in cage. Plymouth Rock is nothing like I thought it would be.

I’ve been warming Vic up to the idea of bike touring in phases. Our first trip ended at a boutique hotel, the following trip our lodging was not as nice but we still ate fancy food, and finally this weekend, we stayed on the cold ground and swallowed insta-meals. A decent weekend with full bikes and short distances, it was to be a low-stress way to try out my new tent and his new sleeping bag.

What we got was a trip with one long stressful road, a frightening bridge crossing, a subway ride and perhaps some of the best day of cycling in MA yet. The weather was on the edge of warm and I’ve actually got just a hint of cycling glove tan.

We used the MBTA to get a late start to Plymouth. After looking at the Rock and having lunch, we had to skip Plimoth Plantation. I am fixated on the Puritan character actors so we'll probably make another day trip. Route 3A is the most direct route to Cape Cod from Plymouth but is busy with not much of a shoulder. I could not recommend this to inexperienced cyclists. The Rubel maps show an unpaved road from Plymouth that may be a nice ride if you’ve got a mountain bike.

I misread the early season campground guide and took Vic to Scusset Beach. The campground here is mainly a field for RVs and right on the bay. At this time of year, the bathrooms were locked tight. So we backtracked to go to Shawme State Forest. To get there, we crossed the Sagamore Bridge riding in a lane of traffic. Easily the most hair-raising bit of road we’ve been on yet. Evidently cyclists are to use the east sidewalk, though riding through the terrifyingly fast rotary, it is completely unclear how to access it.

While both sides of the Cape Cod Canal have a wonderful bike lane, access to and across the bridges (even make a decent short loop ride) is non-existent. The route over Sagamore Bridge is also part of MA Bike Trail 1, though the signs are mysteriously absent over this most treacherous bit.

Shawme State Forest Campground is a perfectly acceptable car campground. Vic woke me up wide-eyed and we listened to a small animal eat our crackers at 3 am. It had managed to slide the food pannier out from under the rain fly, open the zipper, and get the crackers out. Of course, as Vic says, it only proves animals are stupid because it left the organic chocolate bar in the bag.

After a lovely warm-up spin along the canal on Sunday morning and a quick strategy session on crossing the Bourne Bridge (walking on the sidewalk), our ride back toward Boston was much less stressful than the ride down. Taking back roads through Onaset (oh lovely!) and Wareham, we walked on the beach and looked at drained cranberry bogs. Opting to get home with plenty of time to do our weekly grocery shopping, we took the train from Middleborough. Unfortunately the train was running on half an engine, so we were quite delayed and instructed to take the subway from Braintree. So yet another first: having our loaded bikes on the subway. Bikes are allowed only in the last car on the subway but not during rush hour nor on the Green Line. We got off at South Station to avoid the congestion at Park Street.

Honestly, this trip is memorable only for its functional camping warm-up. A bit more time in Plymouth would have been nicer, staying at the campground on the beach would have been more interesting as we could look for birds, and a bit more coastal riding would have been lovely. Still, not every day on long trips is note-worthy, the weather was superb, and the new gear works like it is supposed to. At least we were biking…and getting started on the tan.

Next trip: Cross Connecticut! The Last Green Valley
When: April 16-18 (three days, all camping!)

Southeast Massachussetts Ramble

Online Training Log

Ok, geek that I am, here's an electronic training journal. I think the best thing about it is watching spring open up in New England as I'm including daily ride pictures. Feel free to copy the file to track your own rides. Note: Firefox will try to download this and you won't be able to link to the pictures. AND I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO STOP IT! It works great in IE, go figure.

I found several online training journals: Techmarc has one desinged for touring, BikLog from Holland which looks fairly low fi, and Cyclistats which appears more robust or at least has pretty graphs. All of them have some free demos and than cost around 30$ to buy. If I were a racer I'd probably embrace this concept, though would likely buy a bike computer that came with software.

What would be cool as a tourer and fitness biker is a program that combined biking with other activities, like swimming! and perhaps even had a food log or calorie burn rate so that I could justify pop tarts now and again.

1000 Miles

Last week the swimming pool thawed. Despite a call for snow next week, I am putting away my Eskimo coat, thick scarf, and mittens. Spring has arrived in New England.

My friends back in Seattle are busy and inspired this year. Pam will be doing the Yeti Ascent in a few weeks, Carrie is up for the Danskin after a couple years off, and Allison has almost reached her goal for the Leukemia Team Ride.

I’m going to ride 1000 miles this month.

Not much for a pro perhaps, but for me, this is a huge amount of miles and only accomplishable if I can stay on my bike everyday and think up longer commutes to and from work. While I’ve been out around town telling folks not to worry too much about strenuous training for bike touring, I’m getting pretty excited about the upcoming "season" and starting it in better shape than when I finished it last year. Certainly, the more time you’ve spent on your bike before a big trip, the better that trip will start.

Of course, I have a long way to go. While I managed to ride my bike some all winter, only a few of my pants even fit. The benefit is that I don’t have to think hard to decide what to wear. I normally keep a goal sheet ripped from the pages of Ben Franklin’s Autobiography to help me keep focused, but it is very binary and only yes/no. So for example, I’m only recording that I did in fact get on my bike. Whether I went for a 2 mile ride or 60 mile ride is not at issue (on paper!). I’ve never kept a training journal, but I picked one up, along with a training guide, at the bike show. It looks a bit intimidating and is geared toward racing. I’ll post back on what it is like to use it. I am ready for spring.