When they build it...

...we will be there.

The triking season is certainly done for the year. We have a few centimetres of dry snow that have been whipped about by the really high winds we have had as of late. We have some more snow in the forecast and so my thoughts are now mostly on the hoped for cross country ski conditions.

We do the vast majority of our cross country skiing in the nearby Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetlands, a simple series of pathways located about 400 metres from our house. We often go for walks there throughout the year as well as ski there so it's a useful facility for us year-round. Indeed, this past summer, the City of Ottawa extended the pathways so that users can easily get to the Walkley transit station. That's good news for us as it gives us more places to trike, walk and, at this time of year,

ski. However, the pathway system at the SCCW is still a closed loop. It doesn't allow for easy access from any nearby neighbourhoods...until now, that is.

The Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetlands are located where Hunt Club Road meets with Airport Parkway. It's kind of wedged in between Airport Parkway, a busy road leading into the city from the airport - hence the name - and the South Keys shopping centre. As it's a wetland, bird species like red winged blackbirds, the ubiquitous gulls and a few graceful looking herons are common there. However, it's also a recreational area for joggers, dog walkers and cyclists...and the city is moving to expand its use.

Enter, the bridge. We learned of the city's plan to construct a bridge to join the Hunt Club Community to South Keys and then learned of the public information session held last night - December 7th. City engineers and planners came out to the Hunt Club-Riverside Community Centre, set up a series of information panels in a medium sized gymnasium and were available to answer any questions members of the public may have had.

The information panels consisted, in large part, of descriptions of the project. Such descriptions must have been written by marketing people as promises were made that users of the bridge would feel nothing less than "delighted". Mostly, I just wanted to see what this bridge would look like, who would use it and how it would open the community to cyclists and pedestrians.

The bridge, as yet unnamed, is supposed to start around Cahill West, rise and cross Airport Parkway only to settle back onto the SCCW pathway. Hypothetically, it should both connect residents in the Hunt Club West community to the South Keys shopping centre and provide users a way to get to the shopping centre and transit stations there without having to negotiate the rather busy Hunt Club Road. It should also allow people who live in South Keys and points east (I'm thinking Greenboro) to cycle to Hog's Back for the ever-welcome Alcatel/Lucent Sunday bike days, again, without having to negotiate busy roads like Hunt Club. The bridge won't replace the use of such roads for cyclists but it will provide an alternative, and that's its job.

The bridge should also make it easier for pedestrians and cyclists alike to access the South Keys transit station. The plans include the building of a shiny new tunnel connecting the wetlands to the transitway station's lower level pedestrian underpass. This also means the dismantling of the old, crumbling tunnel that is currently there. Two doors at the west end of the transit station will allow entry of both cycles and wheelchairs. As well, a ramp of no more than 5 degrees and hugging the South Keys station will allow people to gain access to the transit platform itself. The gentle slope will make this both cycle and wheelchair accessible. This is put in place to accommodate the difference in elevation between the South Keys transit station and the wetlands. Right now, hardy walkers need to first hop over a railing, negotiate a fairly steep drop from the transit station to the wetlands, as strewn with rocks, bushes and the odd tree root just to make the whole process interesting. Oh, did I mention the "Keep Out - this means YOU" sign that is both present and thoroughly ignored? Currently, it is not possible to bring a bike through and the new tunnel promises to fix that.

The bridge won't really do much for us. It's just as easy for us to ride the short distance (and it is short) along Hunt Club to reach places like Hog's Back or Colonel By Drive. It will provide an easier way for us to access the Hunt Club community's roads like Cahill West, Plante and McCarthy. Mostly, it'll just be one more cycle friendly route for us and others to explore.

I know the title of this blog entry is a play on the oft-used phrase "If you build it, they will come!" but, according to the city councillor for the area, Maria McRae, it isn't a matter of "if" but "that". The bridge's construction costs (estimated at around $5 million dollars) have been accounted for in the city's budget and the bridge itself is scheduled for completion around this time next year. Unfortunately, that means that we won't be able to try it out for the 2011 cycle season but it should be wide open to the public for the 2012 season.

The local paper, Ottawa This Week, has a write-up.

Segregated lanes?

Well, here I sit sipping a cup of coffee and watching the closest thing to lake-effect snow squalls that Ottawa gets. Actually, if the wind and moisture profile is just right, Ottawa can get some pretty good snow squalls though I readily concede that they're nothing like the kind places like Barrie or Trenton get. If you drive up the 400 from Toronto to Barrie you will pass a number of big yellow road signs warning of potential sudden white out conditions due to lake effect snow squalls.

It isn't called the snow belt for no reason!

We have had a couple of little snowfalls over the past few weeks or so and we now have a good 2 or 3 centimetres draped on everything. With the prospect of a few more snow squalls drifting through here it would seem that ski season is not too far off - but it also means that the triking season is done.

So that leaves us the prospective good winter's worth of x-c skiing, likely at the Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetlands whose trail system the city had expanded earlier this year (yay!). It also leaves me to watch for news items about cycling. With the city of Ottawa having just elected a new mayor, one who is purportedly extremely pro-cycling, Adam and I were more than pleased to learn of a proposed dedicated bike lane on Laurier Avenue. Of course, the article in question seems to be just as focused on how the BIA feels about a segregated bike lane on Laurier. It seems to me, though, that the BIA feel as though they own Laurier Avenue and that anything even remotely different from what they, personally, want is tantamount to a declaration of war.

Come on, what kind of garbage is that? Since when does making business easier to get to by cyclists cause serious problems? I would think that business could be boosted by a comparatively slow moving cyclist who could then take the time to actually look at a business rather than zooming past in a faster travelling car or truck.

In my mind, this amounts to nothing more than mere NIMBYism. The proposed plan addresses the concerns of business owners as far as such matters as access is concerned but the real issue here is how the city of Ottawa can improve accessibility for ALL people, not just motor vehicle drivers. Page 4 of the plan (it's a .pdf so keep that in mind if you click on the link) clearly states that,

"Emergency vehicle access, access to off-street loading zones, and access to building entrances and parkades are all maintained." (italics mine)

Unfortunately, this kind of having-to-justify-improved-access-to-businesses is exactly what's wrong with a lot of cycling and car problems. The fact is that bicycles of any description and cars do not mix well on roads and a large part of the reason for that is simply to do with visibility. My own experience has been that car drivers don't so much loathe having to share the road with cycles as that they simply do not see us on the road and that when they do see us they cannot know what we are going to do. In that respect, I can't blame car drivers for, what would you think if you saw a cyclist beat on down the road, hop onto a sidewalk, zip into a parking lot using the exit lane, run stop signs, sail through red lights and travel the wrong way on roads? My own thoughts on this are that the building and designating of segregated bike lanes can and will do so much to solve a lot of those problems. I'm not saying such a resource will stop any and all dumb shit some cyclists do but it will significantly reduce the occurrences. It would also reduce or even eliminate the reason for doing dumb things in the first place. Ask cyclists who are riding on the sidewalk why they do that and a lot will tell you that it's too dangerous to be on the road (which is BS, by the way, as evidenced by the large numbers of cyclists who do use the road and live to tell the tale) or that it's a lot more convenient. If the city builds a whole, connected system of roads with segregated bike lanes, this problem goes away.

But it requires a shift in behaviour on the part of cyclists and, more tellingly from the article on Laurier Avenue, a serious shift in understanding the realities of higher fuel prices, the fact that some people are choosing to give up their cars and do everything on bike and the fact that at least a few people are choosing to improve their own health by cycling instead of driving. I'm looking at you, BIA, so don't pretend I'm talking to someone else.

As for me, well, my trike is, for all intents and purposes, parked for the winter. I won't take it out again until next spring and only after a good rain washes away all the salt that this city likes to dump on everything. I will continue to write about cycling issues, including a few goodies like maybe some trail mix recipes or just some musings about prospective triking trips while slogging away trying to break a new trail in the wetlands after a good dumping of snow.

-Peace

Trail on the trail

Monday turned out to be a somewhat sunnier and, thus, slightly warmer day than originally forecast. However, at this time of year, the weather can and does change quickly and so it's a tough call for even the most experienced forecasters to stay on top of things. October in Ottawa is often a breezy affair as the predominant weather pattern changes from the sultry lassitude of summer to the chilled wet of autumn.

Consequently, we thought it would be a good idea to head out on a cycling venture. It actually hadn't rained a great deal recently and so Adam thought it would be a good opportunity to show to me some more of this city's trail network.

The city of Ottawa, in conjunction with the National Capital Commission (NCC) has a plan to create an intricate network of recreational trails from the Mer Bleue/Green's Creek area to the east of here and joining with the trail network around Shirley's Bay to the west of here. These recreational trails are multi-use which means anyone can hike, presumably ski in the winter and - on Monday - cycle through it.

While the colours of the foliage in autumn have already peaked here and the now everpresent winds are s-l-o-w-l-y stripping the branches of their leaves, we thought there was still enough colour and beauty to take a video of me on my Catrike Trail. Adam filmed me from his mountain bike as his Catrike Speed has too low a clearance to easily negotiate the thick clumps of soggy, drag-inducing leaves. In fact, for most of the journey on the trail itself, I had to gear down to the first sprocket. My Trail performed well anyway but it's really designed for road use, despite the name. In fact, at a couple of points, even the lowest gear still had me struggling a bit. Partly it's that I hadn't been out too much lately and so my fitness level had dropped a bit (it happens with startling ease) but it was also that it was late afternoon when my energy level can drop pretty precipitously. It didn't help that we were trying to negotiate trails that consisted mostly of 10+ centimetre thick leaves. Whenever we stopped, we would take a few seconds to pick leaves and twigs from places like the idler on my trike and even the brakes on Adam's mountain bike. It was slow going, mostly because of me. At one point, even in the lowest possible gear, I was still slipping a bit unless I crawled along at the amazing speed of a glacier. Yes, I was more than up to the task but it was still a struggle at some points.

Once we were back on the paved road and heading home, I was able to sail along at my usual speeds of anywhere between 12-23 km/hr. The total distance for this trip was 11.77 kilometres.

You take what you can get at this time of year.

-Peace

"Weather" or not...

I don't have plans to go out on my trike today. Shame, really, because it's sunny and not too frightfully cold - however, it is a bit too windy for me. I'm relying on the forecast for continued sunny skies and seasonably cool temperatures to reassure me that the triking season, though old and aging, is not over.

As I had written in my last post, the seasons here in Ottawa do tend to follow the calendar pretty closely so I am anticipating at least a few more weeks of triking weather before we get into that in-between-time when it's too cold, windy and wet to trike but not snowy enough to go skiing. With any luck that post-triking-pre-skiing "season" won't be too long. Sure, I can do lots of indoor activities, most notably crocheting, but I really can't exercise much more than the muscles in my wrist and if I can't get out for a good trike run or to hit the trails I can get pretty antsy.

Part of the problem for me there is that, with MS, I often feel as though I am on borrowed time. Sure, my neurologist recently declared my multiple sclerosis to be stable but that certainly doesn't mean relapses won't happen. The last thing I want is to miss out on a good chunk of outdoor activity because I can't walk or my fatigue levels make anything more demanding than reading a book nearly impossible. The fact is, that I like to stay physically active and, no, it isn't to do with "battling" or "defeating" MS. There's neither anything to battle nor to defeat. It has nothing to do with MS or any medical condition whatsoever - I have always been a physically active person long before I developed MS. However laudable that may be, though, anything I like to do depends a great deal on the weather. This is why I try to have a favourite activity for each season but seasons here don't just suddenly change - for that I would have to move back to Alberta (hee hee hee).

Catering to the weather is not some onerous task for which I must suffer. Suffering at all is an option, but I can feel disappointed when the hoped for sunshine or happily anticipated snowfall just doesn't materialize. To help there, I write some rambling dissertation on this blog about the weather, or maybe a neat recipe I discovered or even about some new crochet stitch I finally learned.

No matter, today is a great day and tomorrow's hike to take in the glorious colour of autumn will help to keep things in perspective for me.

-Peace

Borrowed Time

Ottawa is one of those cities whose predominant weather pattern seems to follow the seasons quite tightly.

For instance, the first day of autumn is typically cool and crisp with trees displaying their mantle of fiery oranges, reds and yellows. While we often see snow before December 21st, we generally don't get our first 'permanent' snow cover before that. Yes, that's a huge generalization as anyone who recalls the winter of 2007-2008 will attest when it snowed from mid-December onward. The ground is often a sticky morass of muck, rocks and old crusty ice by March - though the first day of spring is generally a warm and pleasant venture and we will have had our first sweltering heat wave by June 21, when summer officially begins.

Again, these are generalizations but they do allow for at least some modicum of planning and this year is proving to be no exception.

By late August, the green of the trees is noticeably lighter as the little chlorophyll factories in the leaves start to shut down and allow the "true colour" of the leaves themselves to emerge. By September, the trees were really starting to change and now, in early October, we are in the thick of warm coloured vibrancy.

September was also one of the rainiest months we have had this year. See, that's the interesting thing about autumn here - it can be dry and cool-bordering-on-cold or it can be a wet undertaking. Not only was it a wet month but it was also, by my estimation and from this side of my morning coffee in early October, a windy one. Wind is a challenge on the trike but rain and wind together always equal staying inside.

In other words, we didn't do much triking in September.

To be sure, the catriking season here in Canada's capital is a pretty lengthy one compared to, say, the prairies or even northern Ontario. Nevertheless, at this time of year, we are on borrowed time. The weather patterns have been shifting for the past few weeks and it would not surprise me in the least if we see our first few tentative snowflakes by this month's end. That means we need to get out when we can. There are a few advantages to triking in autumn which I think bear mentioning.

1. There are, generally, no bugs. Yesterday, we did a quick 17 kilometre trip to Mooney's Bay and slightly beyond. When we stopped, Adam noticed an electron cloud of gnats buzzing and hovering just above his trike. It was sunny and not too chilly. However, at least there weren't attack squadrons of mosquitoes.

2. The temperature tends to be reasonable. 'Nuff said on that.

3. The bike paths are often not too crowded. A lot of people will only cycle on sunny, hot summer days and that's just fine. They put their bikes away after Labour Day or whenever their season is done. We will be triking until the first snow falls.

4. I don't have to put on quite as much sunscreen. While I don't often trike in shorts (that's a good thing - no, really, it's a good thing), I will trike in a T-shirt if it's really hot outside and that means wearing sunscreen on my arms. In the autumn, I wear a very light windbreaker so no sunscreen is required. Plus, I wear light gloves so my hands don't get chapped and over-dried in the colder air.

Otherwise, triking in autumn is at least as lovely as triking in the summer and I hope to do more over the next few weeks...now that the cold rains of September have passed and we can get on with enjoying what is often the loveliest time of the year. Then, I can look forward to the winter (I'm one of those rare Canadians who actually enjoys the winter) and getting in some x-c skiing - perfect maintenance exercise for next year's catriking season.

-Peace

Another use for the Catrikes

Yesterday, Tuesday September 14th, was both cool and breezy but not so chilly and windy that we couldn't take the trikes out for yet another spin. At this time of year, with the seasons s-l-o-w-l-y starting to change, it's important to take advantage of any good cycling conditions and yesterday was just such a day. We did have another reason for heading out beyond the mere fun of it all.

See, because Adam and I are boring types, it is not uncommon for us to turn a recreational activity into something scientific. So, with the Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetlands having had its pathways expanded recently, a change we both heartily welcomed, we thought we would take our trikes there and measure the total distance around the trails.

We use the Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetlands for more than walking or triking; in the winter, it's a great x-c ski trail. From our house, it's a mere 400 metres to the southern entrance. For the past two winters, we would often scoop up our skis and poles and make our way to this nearby gem to ski there. Of course, as the SCCW isn't just for skiing, we do have to share this facility with hikers, dog walkers and even kids out playing. More often than not, though, we would get to the place after a good snowfall only to find that no one else had been there. Blazing trails would be our job but it's a lot of fun and certainly great exercise. However, we never really knew exactly how long the trail was. We estimated the original loop was about 2 or 3 kilometres so a session of blazing a trail and then heading around it once more would be about a 5 kilometre trek...not bad though we could certainly go further. What we tried to find out yesterday, however, was just how long the trail network is, especially since the city added to it. This is where the catrikes came into good use.

Both our trikes have speedometres/trip odometres; a small but important piece of equipment we added to them (thanks MEC). So, we triked to the SCCW, entered the trails, reset the odometres to '0' and began taking measurements. The network isn't just a simple loop but has a couple of spurs that lead away and eventually end at the Walkley transit station. Long story short, we measured 5 kilometres (plus or minus a few metres) a very welcome addition to the already existing network, and all thanks to the trip odometres we have on our trikes. Of course, we wanted to just head out and have fun anyway which we did.

So, when the catriking season ends - at the first snow of the season - we will have some actual numbers of how long the trail is and how long our cross-country skiing path will be. Yes, I really like catriking but I also really enjoy x-c skiing...so....let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

-Peace

A study in contrasts...

That's just a nice, fancy, almost academic way of saying that the last trike trip we did a few days ago was under very different conditions from the time before. Indeed, the trip we took this past Saturday was quite different from the 66 kilometre venture on Labour Day.

For one thing, there wasn't so much as a breath of wind this past Saturday. The winds we experienced on Labour Day would have guaranteed absolute success for anyone wanting to fly a kite! This past Saturday saw us triking in still conditions. Oh, certainly we experienced some breezes and some slight gustiness thanks to convection but it was barely noticeable at the time. Our trip this past Saturday was for a picnic lunch. We weren't intending to go too far - maybe 20 or 30 kilometres round trip, but we did want to head into town along the bike paths. That is where we encountered our biggest challenge!

As I had mentioned a few blog posts ago, the city of Ottawa has seen fit to tear up as much of the bike paths in the city as possible ostensibly for maintenance reasons and not because they hate cyclists. We both understand and appreciate the time and effort put forth for maintenance of the bike paths. However, when the bike paths remain shredded for pretty much the whole season, it's hard not to at least suspect that the city of Ottawa has less than no interest in the needs of cyclists despite the fact that we pay taxes too!

Yet, the fact that we bring maps with us each and every time we head out has saved our skins on more than a few occasions. The Labour Day trip we took required us to find an alternate route home from around the Billings Bridge area. If it hadn't been for our trusty map...(sentence deliberately incomplete to allow readers to complete it as they see fit)

However, this past Saturday had us only having to crunch and trickle our way along a gravelled segment of the bike path for a short period and it really wasn't that bad. It's easier for bicycles to negotiate those sorts of 'path-removed-for-your-benefit' parts because of the high clearance between the ground and the chain/derailleur/gearing/moving bits. In contrast our catrikes have a low clearance - in Adam's case very low. That means that the chain/derailleur/gearing/moving bits sits perilously close to the gravel and other damaging bits and it also demands a fairly slow going along there to at least reduce the risk of any damage. However, the weather remained gorgeous so neither of us seemed to care that we were relegated to creeping along at the amazing speed of a glacier.

Some twelve kilometres into our trip and we found a lovely picnic bench just off the bike path. It was close to lunch time anyway and we were both hungry. The trail runs alongside the Rideau Canal and with the day gloriously sunny, calm and actually nice and warm Adam and I ate our lunch and did some general people watching. We saw a lot of people out walking their dogs, other cyclists a few roller bladers and some who were just out for a nice walk on a gorgeous sunny Saturday. At this time of year, the weather can be sunny, warm(ish) and dry or cool-bordering-on-cold, rainy and gloomy. Today looks to be chilly, cloudy and maybe breezy...but last Saturday was not!

-Peace