This Saturday marks the official end of the BBC summer riding season with leader Jim Schroeder's slightly modified version of the club's Ride Around Bloomington. Here's a link to an online GPS map of the route. The elevation profile shows a total climb of 2788 feet. Hope to see a good turnout for the last ride of the season.
-Allan Edmonds
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
I-69 Crossings
By Allan Edmonds
Our route started from the Clear Creek Trail parking area off of That Road and at the far extreme got into some relatively unfamiliar territory, on Burch and Evans Roads.
Below is a segment of the I-69 route map. The big blue stars are interchanges. The green dots are planned overpasses. These include Tramway, Lodge, Rockport. The purple dots indicate where current roads cross the route and are tentatively planned to be closed. These include Bolin, Harmony, Evan Ln, and Burch Rd. Jean thinks it likely that Harmony will become an overpass anyway, based on recent public comments about closing off Harmony.
Jean Smith, BBC member, club representative to the I-69 planning groups, and owner of Bikesmith's led a group of 18 cyclists on an exploration along roads near the currently planned "new terrain" segment of the proposed I-69. This part of I-69 starts from a planned interchange, where it begins heading southwest from Bloomington, leaving the present Highway 37 corridor where That Road crosses 37.
Jean explained the route to the group before we set off.
Our route started from the Clear Creek Trail parking area off of That Road and at the far extreme got into some relatively unfamiliar territory, on Burch and Evans Roads.
Below is a segment of the I-69 route map. The big blue stars are interchanges. The green dots are planned overpasses. These include Tramway, Lodge, Rockport. The purple dots indicate where current roads cross the route and are tentatively planned to be closed. These include Bolin, Harmony, Evan Ln, and Burch Rd. Jean thinks it likely that Harmony will become an overpass anyway, based on recent public comments about closing off Harmony.
A bigger version of this map and more information about this segment of I-69 is available at I-69 Tier 2 Studies. At this site you can enter public comments. Note that the current deadline for comments is coming up very soon on October 28.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Hilly Review
ByAllan Edmonds
The Hilly Hundred for 2010 is over. I know lots of BBC members took part. For some it was a long family tradition; for others it was a new family event; for some it was the culmination of a year of training; for others it was another ride on familiar but crowded roads. The weather was unbelievable...well, really too hot, don't you think?
In the rest of this post I'll share comments I received from club members in response to my request for personal stories, plus a few observations of my own.
The first to respond was SW who somewhat gruffly complained that Day 1 was 57 miles, not 50, and that the total for the weekend was going to go well over 100. "If they're going to call it the Hilly Hundred, then it should be exactly 100 miles!"
DH, who didn't ride, participated vicariously. He was one who loaned a bike to JA who was having something like 20 family members coming to town for the event, honoring her late father who had ridden it many times. He wrote to say how moved he was by their story.
TB rode along with her husband who road a tandem with their 5 year old on back. She wrote:
"It really was fun to experience this ride from a 5 year old's perspective. She was happy and smiling seemingly regardless of what was going on. She loved the music at the stops and we spent lots of time just watching her enjoy the time off the bike. She was in a 5 year old heaven at stop 3 on day 1 when there was a slide and swing set to play on!
"For both days the only real complaints we heard from her were about 30 miles in on Day 2, the road was a bit rough, she was tired, and she was beginning to hurt. We convinced her to go the long route so we could stop at rest stop 3 in Stinesville. When we got to the stop we laid down under the sycamore tree, listened to the music, and watched the hawks circling high overhead. After a good LONG stop we finished with Jessica smiling and happy once more. She has been proudly wearing her Hilly cap the rest of the day.
"It really was a great weekend! I would not have changed a thing."
The Hilly Hundred for 2010 is over. I know lots of BBC members took part. For some it was a long family tradition; for others it was a new family event; for some it was the culmination of a year of training; for others it was another ride on familiar but crowded roads. The weather was unbelievable...well, really too hot, don't you think?
In the rest of this post I'll share comments I received from club members in response to my request for personal stories, plus a few observations of my own.
The first to respond was SW who somewhat gruffly complained that Day 1 was 57 miles, not 50, and that the total for the weekend was going to go well over 100. "If they're going to call it the Hilly Hundred, then it should be exactly 100 miles!"
DH, who didn't ride, participated vicariously. He was one who loaned a bike to JA who was having something like 20 family members coming to town for the event, honoring her late father who had ridden it many times. He wrote to say how moved he was by their story.
TB rode along with her husband who road a tandem with their 5 year old on back. She wrote:
"It really was fun to experience this ride from a 5 year old's perspective. She was happy and smiling seemingly regardless of what was going on. She loved the music at the stops and we spent lots of time just watching her enjoy the time off the bike. She was in a 5 year old heaven at stop 3 on day 1 when there was a slide and swing set to play on!
"For both days the only real complaints we heard from her were about 30 miles in on Day 2, the road was a bit rough, she was tired, and she was beginning to hurt. We convinced her to go the long route so we could stop at rest stop 3 in Stinesville. When we got to the stop we laid down under the sycamore tree, listened to the music, and watched the hawks circling high overhead. After a good LONG stop we finished with Jessica smiling and happy once more. She has been proudly wearing her Hilly cap the rest of the day.
"It really was a great weekend! I would not have changed a thing."
At Tuesday's OWLS ride we had a small group of just seven coming out for our ever shorter rides. I was amused that five of the seven had done the Hilly. All 5 had those neat helmet mirrors that one can only easily get at the Hilly and three were wearing identical souvenir socks.
For pictures and more personal commentary from another Indiana rider, see the blog by Helen Steussy.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
By Allan Edmonds
I went out for a 20 mile ride this morning by myself. I just did a version of the club's Fluck Mill Ride. We're getting to the point where there's not quite enough sunlight to do a route like this on the OWLS rides in the evening. The weather was beautiful as everyone who is doing the Hilly Hundred know well.
I'm more and more using the new multi-use train in the "Goat Farm", running from the roundabout at High and Winslow/Rogers to Sherwood Oaks Park. It makes for a good route for getting in an out of town.
I stopped and took a quick snapshot of the fall foliage down on Victor Pike, near Fluck Mill.
There was very little traffic and absolutely no other bicyclists (I wonder why!). Well, actually on the way home in Sherwood Oaks I saw a dad out with his young son on a small bike and then I saw a granddad on the new trail teaching a grandson to ride without training wheels.
I went out for a 20 mile ride this morning by myself. I just did a version of the club's Fluck Mill Ride. We're getting to the point where there's not quite enough sunlight to do a route like this on the OWLS rides in the evening. The weather was beautiful as everyone who is doing the Hilly Hundred know well.
I'm more and more using the new multi-use train in the "Goat Farm", running from the roundabout at High and Winslow/Rogers to Sherwood Oaks Park. It makes for a good route for getting in an out of town.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Tour de RAIN
About 20 riders braved a questionable weather forecast and cool temperatures around 50 degrees to take
part in the club's annual Tour de Boat Ramps, led per tradition by Joe Walker.
Note the club's fanciest jersey and the Tortuga booties.
This ride does the standard basic route around Lake Monroe but builds in the prospect of going down, and back up, all the boat ramps along the route. There are ten altogether and it is each rider's decision how many to do. The basic route is 44 miles roundtrip from Bryan Park, and doing all ten ramps raises the mileage to 78 miles. Naturally this led to many small groups of riders.
I decided early on only to do one ramp. So I picked the flattest one, namely Cutright, just south of the Causeway. Here's GPS proof:
Cutright actually was fairly deserted, with a few cars and no boats in sight.
Shortly after our turn off on Chapel Road it started to sprinkle. Too late to go back. So we kept plugging along. Gradually the rain increased, but never got beyond light rain. It was only toward the end that hands and feet got really wet and cold.
It was actually a pretty good ride. But I doubt that very many riders did very many ramps this year.
part in the club's annual Tour de Boat Ramps, led per tradition by Joe Walker.
This ride does the standard basic route around Lake Monroe but builds in the prospect of going down, and back up, all the boat ramps along the route. There are ten altogether and it is each rider's decision how many to do. The basic route is 44 miles roundtrip from Bryan Park, and doing all ten ramps raises the mileage to 78 miles. Naturally this led to many small groups of riders.
I decided early on only to do one ramp. So I picked the flattest one, namely Cutright, just south of the Causeway. Here's GPS proof:
Shortly after our turn off on Chapel Road it started to sprinkle. Too late to go back. So we kept plugging along. Gradually the rain increased, but never got beyond light rain. It was only toward the end that hands and feet got really wet and cold.
It was actually a pretty good ride. But I doubt that very many riders did very many ramps this year.
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