Cycling

Yesterday ( 2 September 2006) I went for a bike ride on this trail. It starts in Mason NH, very near the NH-MA border, and seems to keep on going. The guide lists the trail as 6 miles long, but there was nothing at six miles that made me think the trail ended. So I kept going. Some 13km into the trip (I really do need to reconfigure my bicycle computer) I still saw no end in sight, but had seen a sign indicating that I\’d reached the end of allowed use, so I ate a couple of Clif bars, drank more water, and headed back south.

The trail itself is moderate-to-difficult for bicycles, but even such an unskilled rider as myself was able to negotiate the trail for a total of 26km. It\’s a great trail for horseback and walking, and in the winter it would be wonderful for XC skiing, and snowshoeing. There are many side trails that branch off from the rail trail proper, but I didn\’t stray from the path (well, that would have incurred more work, pedalling uphill and such, and I was working quite hard enough on the trail\’s rather soft surface. There were signs along the path that indicated a certain level of popularity with snowmobilers, and the number of side paths would seem to bear that out.

So, I definitely got my Lose Weight Exercise in yesterday!

I brought the bike over to Gamache Cyclery in Fitchburg yesterday afternoon. I expected to leave the bike and pick it up next weekend, but John, the manager, lifted the bike into the stand and proceeded to replace the crank arm right then and there. It was only a ten-minute job. $13.64. When I had that same crank arm replaced a few years ago, at the \”other shop\” in Fitchburg, the part alone was $18.00, plus I had to leave it for a week, and there was a labor charge on top of it.

As many of you know, it was my desire to pedal the 23-mile Ashuelot Rail Trail from Hinsdale to Keene New Hampshire on August the Fifth, in the Year of Our Lord 2006. All good intentions, Peg and I drove up after breakfast, found a sign purporting to be the parking lot for said Ashuelot Rail Trail, and I geared up for the ride. A gallon or so of water, cell phone, walkie-talkie (well, I am a ham), camera, helmet, the whole nine yards. Peg takes off toward Keene\’s Colony Mill Marketplace. I head out on \”the trail\”. At least I hope it\’s a trail. It\’s little more than an overgrown cart path, but the wheel spacing is too narrow. Bristling with faith, I set out on my journey. About four or five kilometers into the 27 km trip, the left pedal started to feel oddly mushy. A quick investigation revealed that the bolt holding the left crankarm to the axle in the bottom bracket was loose, allowing the crankarm to flop around and deform so that it will never properly fit again. I didn\’t happen to have a 15mm thin-wall socket wrench with me, but over the course of the next six or eight kilometers, I would alternate pedalling for about 500m and retightening the bolt as best I could with my fingers. Once I had cellphone coverage (Cingular needs to put in more towers along the NH-VT border…), I called Peg. She had met up with my brother Griz, so handed him the keys to my truck, and sent him along to fetch my sorry ass while she continued to shop. I never said she was a stupid woman… Happy Trails.

I fancy myself a bicyclist, though I don\’t ride nearly enough to justify that. For instance, I didn\’t ride at all in 2005. But I\’m trying to be better this year, with a couple of rides on the Nashua River Rail Trail from Ayer to Dunstable Massachusetts, a ride last week on the Norwottock Rail Trail between Northampton and Belchertown Massachusetts. This weekend I\’m going out of state to the Ashuelot Rail Trail from Hinsdale to Keene New Hampshire. It\’s about 37 km or so, but I\’ll be able to find good beer at the Elm City Brewing Co.