Another gorgeous day, so why waste it?

After yesterday's thorough drenching from the numerous showers, this morning's bright sunlight brought a sudden riot of light green. It also brought with it the promise of a great day to head out triking. With climate change, the seasons become somewhat less predictable so now, more than ever, am I reminded to head out when I can.

I had my usual breakfast of rice and awesome java. Then, once all that was digested, I showered, dressed, put on sunscreen (a must for all days of the year - even winter) and got ready to zip out for a "quick 10 k run". As the day was mine to do with what I wished, I decided to go for a good run along the numerous pathways that lace throughout the city, including here. I didn't so much have a destination in mind as a minimum number of kilometres I wanted to ride and today's was 10 kilometres, no less than 5 out and 5 back.

So, I checked my trike tires for proper inflation and otherwise suited up (meaning helmet, pant straps and sunglasses). I left and immediately found myself immersed in the tail-end of what passes for rush hour here. My trip took me up Bridlepath, crossing Hunt Club and continuing in a generally easterly direction on Daze. I crossed Bank Street, continued onto Cahill and sought the earliest exit onto the pathways, right by a bus stop. Once on the pathways, I encountered very well behaved dog owners who kept their pets on leashes and even picked up after them. Thank you guys.

What struck me was just how many joggers and other cyclists were out there on the path too and that filled me with a sense of expanded safety. It's not that Ottawa is a dangerous city (it's no more or less dangerous than most other Canadian cities) but the bike paths in suburbia can get rather sparsely used so if there is some psycho lurking in the bushes...then I can outrun 'em even though I'd rather not see one in the first place.

The other thing I noticed was that, despite the sunshine and lack of any discernible wind, it was actually quite chilly - and here it is the end of May. The day would warm up substantially later on but I wasn't there yet.

In no time did I find myself leaving the bike pathway right at the library. Sidling through the parking lot edge, it was a matter of a quick left turn onto Lorry Greenberg before I could resume my happy jaunt through suburbia once more. School was on and there were many parents or caretakers dropping kids off on the side of the road so that made for a busy portion of the day's trip. Finally, I got to the corner of Lorry Greenberg and Conroy where there was virtually no traffic to speak of. I guess rush hour ended.

I went straight through the intersection and arrived at Lorry Greenberg and Blohm. A quick right turn and the silence of the street played nicely into the stillness of the growing morning. I kept going, feeling energized by the now warming (but not too warm) air until I got to Karsh Drive. I slid around the corner, taking somewhat of a wide sweep and noticed that my trip odometer read 4.8 kilometres. Close enough, I thought and then kept curving gently around the road until I got back to Lorry Greenberg and Blohm. I turned onto Lorry Greenberg and then kept going straight through, happy that I didn't have to wait long before getting a green light.

It was only a matter of a very short while that I re-acquired the pathways around the library. I hopped onto the pathways and followed them back to Cahill. A right turn onto Cahill and I continued until I got to Albion. I decided then that rather than risk life and limb going straight through Bank and Cahill and onto Daze (I got my reasons), that I would turn left onto Albion and make up the remaining 200 metres I was short when wanting a minimum of 5 kilometres going one way. Besides, I felt energized, and both the trike and the conditions were perfect. I practically flew up Albion until I got to the top of the hill where it meets up at Bridlepath. The rest of the journey home was a speedy trip where everyone I saw smiled at me and me at them. It was truly a lovely and magnificent morning's trip. Best of all, I'm more than 1/3 of my way towards meeting my goal of 300 kilometres - and it's still just May.

Last standing was 203.5 kilometres
Today's tally was 10.5 kilometres done
That leaves me 193.0 to go as of today.

Quiet trip on a gorgeous day

It's as though someone flipped a switch and the perpetual chill of a cooler-than-we'd-like-to-see-May became instant summer. It was hot yesterday and it's still hot today. As today's high is forecast to reach 30°C (85°F), we felt it best to head out this morning.

We left and had smooth sailing throughout the whole nearly 14 kilometre trip as much because we were out fairly early in the day as that there were almost no cars on the roads. This is the May 2-4 weekend (aka Victoria Day long weekend) and with awesome weather today's trip was nothing less than gorgeous.

When we were out, the temperature was that exquisite warm where sitting outside wearing only a housecoat and nursing a hot cuppa coffee (or an iced tea) would have been so wonderful. Instead, our trek through numerous neighbourhoods revealed just how richly green all the leaves on all the trees, bushes and gardens are now. Garden plots were a hazy display of multicoloured flowers among that bright green. The very air was infused with that lightly sweet scent of lavender and the warm bright sunshine almost completely washed away that powdery blue sky of almost-late May.

Even though we knew the daytime breezes would start soon, we had no headwinds or gusts to deal with and so our journey all the way home was done fairly easily. What really helped, too, was the relative absence of cars.

Perhaps everyone is out of town for the May-2-4-time-to-open-up-and-air-out-that-musty-cottage weekend.

-Peace

Last standing was 217.3 kilometres
Today's tally was 13.8 kilometres done
That leaves me 203.5 to go as of today.

Picnics, triking and the quadracycle

Yesterday, May 13th, was Mother's Day. As my 21 year old daughter is in town to visit for awhile, AND the weather was really nice, we decided to pack a picnic lunch and head out. Adam and I have not only catrikes but we also have what seems to be Ottawa's one and only quadracycle. With the three of us heading out, and our quadracycle could only carry two people, we all agreed that Adam and my daughter, would take the quadracycle and I would take my catrike.

So, after packing a good lunch, we headed out. Driving down Bridlepath towards Trapper's the riding was easy. The roads were surprisingly quiet considering it was just around noon on Mother's Day. Perhaps everyone else had already brought their mothers to the restaurant for the requisite brunch and we were the only ones on the road.

It didn't take us long to get to the park. Called Fawn Meadow Park, it's one of those quaint neighbourhood parks with swings, a large jungle gym for the wee ones and, in this case, a large plastic sea monster. Presumably we could climb on it just like small kids. Hmm...

Anyway, we arrived at the covered pavilion, parked the quadracycle and my catrike and proceeded to enjoy our lunches. Admittedly, the breeze was kinda chilly but we had a good time anyway. This is what life is all about, at least to me it is.

Once lunch had settled, my daughter and I decided to go "play on the swings" while Adam took a video of us horsing around in the park in general. After that was done, the three of us decided to play frisbee on the mostly dry grassy field. Like my daughter, I have no talent for frisbee playing but that didn't stop us from having a really good time. After about twenty minutes of that, it was time to go - but we weren't going home just yet. The day was still too good to pack it in.

We then drove east along Queensdale, crossed Bank Street and found ourselves in that small area of Blossom Park we often trek through. We went north on 6th street, to Athans, Levadia and then down that little connecting pathway that joins Levadia to Carriage Hill. Carriage Hill to Sable Ridge and then a quick run down to Hunt Club had us all getting there while the light was still green. We all zoomed through until we got to the library and then intercepted the pathways there. A quick saunter through there and we wound up back on Cahill to Bank Street. Once we crossed Bank Street it was a simple trip up the slight hill that is Daze (pronounced DAH-zay and not DAYS), to cross Hunt Club once again and then onward. The streets remained light for traffic overall and the skies remained that gorgeous blue so typical of May.

The weather is supposed to stay nice for most of this week (plus or minus the odd shower) so I fully expect to head out a few more times. Stay tuned, right?

Last standing was 227.6 kilometres
Today's tally was 10.3 kilometres done
That leaves me 217.3 to go as of today.


-Peace

foray through Vincent Massey

Well, by Vincent Massey is meant that gorgeous valley-like park that lies just north of Hog's Back park/beach and sits just across the Rideau River from Carleton University. It's a gorgeous park, thick with trees, concession stands (not open yet but pretty to behold anyway) and a few dips into tall deciduous forests. It's one of the most gorgeous cycle paths to take during the annual colour change of autumn - but it's only April and the branches on the trees have only just the tiniest tinge of green.

The morning was spent doing domestic chores. I planted some Physalis (aka Chinese lanterns) seeds in our back yard along with some Aquilegia (Columbine) seeds in our two large beige barrels. Another sign that spring is truly here...so were the winds we faced when we left after lunch to head out on a trike trip.

The spring weather this year has been chilly-bordering-on-cold, dry and exceptionally windy..as in gusts up to 50 km/hr. But this day, the temperature was a decent 17C and the winds were not too brisk although they seemed to switch randomly throughout our trip so that we were always into the wind. The sun made a few feeble attempts to finish burning off the last of the fog/mist we had had so conditions were actually quite good.

No, seriously, they were good. Too hot is unbearable as is too cold - these conditions were good.

Luckily for us, car traffic wasn't too bad. I like to think that people around here are actually considering such realities as rising gas prices ($1.33/litre at last check) before mindlessly jumping into their cars and zooming off to somewhere but I'm probably wrong. Yet, our foray up Hunt Club and heading west to McCarthy Road was one of ease. I am not in the least bit afraid of sharing the road with any number of vehicles but I also admit that it is nice when there aren't too many other cars. I don't have a hate-on for cars but any car/cycle accident is always bad for the cyclist so the fewer chances of any collisions, the better it works for me.

Once heading north on McCarthy, it was smooth sailing up to Southmore, a genuinely suburban street. There, we passed a lot of homeowners raking up the thatch from their lawns and quite a lot of early season flowers were blooming nicely despite the fairly chilly and dry conditions we have had lately.

We followed our usual route along Otterson to Walkley where Otterson changes name (a common feature here in Ottawa) to become Springland to Mooney's Bay Place. It was there where a woman and a young child on bicycles thought it would be okay to run the stop sign and I found I had to veer quite far out to avoid hitting the little girl. A few stern words from Adam to the effect that cyclists cannot just run stop signs and, a few minutes later, we had safely (and properly) crossed Riverside and got right into Mooney's Bay Park. If I sound too edgy about cyclists running stop signs, I am. It's bad enough that car drivers hate having to share the roads with cyclists because they think we're too unpredictable without having cyclists act too unpredictably.

Typically, we would trickle north through the park and exit onto Hog's Back Road turning left to curl around and go under the bridge and onto the bike path that parallels Colonel By Drive. This time, we turned right and meandered under the bridge to find ourselves right at Hog's Back Falls. The bike path continued until we got to the switchback heading down and riding along Heron Rd. Another few turns and we found ourselves neatly deposited into Vincent Massey Park - one of the city of Ottawa's most beautiful places, in my humble opinion. Although it wasn't freezing cold, it wasn't really picnic weather either but that didn't seem to stop some people from coming out and kicking a ball around or otherwise enjoying the greening ground.

We kept going on the bike path (this was almost all done on bike paths, by the way) and found ourselves ducking under the Bronson Avenue bridge. We were heading towards Billings Bridge and having a great ride at the same time. We got to the corner of Riverside Drive and Bank Street. We were still on the bike path but it was also a sidewalk so we did have to keep that in mind in case there were some people pushing strollers or walking with canes.

Further we continued until the Ottawa Hospital Riverside campus was visible and getting bigger as we approached. Finally, we pulled over at a park bench, took a break, revelled in the gorgeous scenery and then turned around and headed back.

We retraced our route and pulled into our driveway eagerly anticipating a smoothie. We had some bananas and some strawberries along with some vanilla yogurt so we wanted to replenish ourselves with a smoothie of those ingredients. Okay, Adam added some skim milk, ice cubes and some hot chocolate powder but the result was amazing.

Each day is amazing.

-Peace

Last standing was 248 kilometres
Today's tally was 21.0 kilometres done
That leaves me 227.6 kilometres to go as of today.

My timing was good...

I couldn't have asked for a better day than today. By mid-morning, the temperature was a balmy 13C and, best of all, no howling winds and especially not from the north. North winds really belong in the winter and not in nearly-mid-April.

Today's trip was not an especially long one nor did I try to break any kind of speed record. I was by myself with Adam having been at his volunteer stint at our local ISP, National Capital Freenet (NCF). They needed him in for the whole day on Friday so that left me the whole day here...and not all that willing to stay indoors on such a nice day either.

So, around 10:30 or so, I left to go on a lovely solo trip around the neighbourhood. This time, I decided to head south and so rode down Bridlepath to Trappers. Along that lovely and very quiet street, I had the whole lane to myself. In fact, I had the whole road to myself and so took in the lovely sunshine and soft blue skies. Meandering around the streets, I eventually found myself at Albion. A right turn onto a virtually empty street (rare for Albion), I sailed along until I got to Queensdale. Then, a left turn and I was able to gun it all the way to Queensdale and Bank Street. I crossed the intersection (the light was green just as I came to a tentative stop in anticipation of the green light) and continued into that cute little neighbourhood that always smells like woodsmoke and looks more like a little woodland summer village than the 'burbs.

Before long, I found myself passing schools and then onto Levadia. There is a little pathway (fenced on either side I might add). Trickling down got me to the Quail Ridge neighbourhood of interlocking crescents bounded by obscenely large (imho) homes. A quick zoom through there and I was at the corner of Lorry Greenberg and Hunt Club. Again, there was little to no traffic so my stop at the red light left me enough time to note the real dearth of cars. I am sure an hour earlier would have presented a different story but not at this point.

A quick clip across Hunt Club one the light turned green and I rode along until I got to where the bike paths form tributaries around the library. I turned onto the pathways and it was a matter of a short jaunt before coming out onto Cahill. There were a few light industrial vehicles (as I've said before, Cahill is almost always being torn up at this time of year for no discernible reason) and a few people were waiting at the few bus stops on Cahill. Once I got to Albion again, I decided to take it.

I turned left and rode along in awesome comfort. Even the trek up the hill to Bridlepath was but nothing today. The rest of my journey home was a period of quiet happiness and utter comfort.

All in all, a neat day. So far, my goal of riding 300 kilometres (or more) this season is working out well...so far...

Last standing was 257.2 kilometres
Today's tally was 8.6 kilometres done
That leaves me 248.6 kilometres to go as of today.

Another sign of spring

Ottawa's National Capital Commission (aka NCC) is set to launch the Bixi bike share program today. The bikes themselves aren't set for release to users until Sunday but the CBC news item does provide some interesting stats from 2011 which I think bears sharing here.

There were roughly 22,000 trips last year with a little under 175 subscribers, both monthly subscribers and year-long. There were a reported 7,400 users of the Bixi bikes as well and I certainly remember seeing a few of them on the bike paths, most notably the one on Colonel By Drive.

I am assuming that the NCC is hoping for a larger uptake of the Bixi bikes this cycling season which lasted 6 months last year.

This is, in my view, one of the most socially responsible ventures the city of Ottawa has ever undertaken and I suspect a part of the reason for the relatively weak (in my view) uptake last year is that the program itself is so new. A lot of Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec residents already own bikes, recumbent trikes and other human-powered devices. That, in combination with the single-gear Bixi bikes, probably accounted for the modest uptake.

Weather plays a HUGE role in how these kinds of programs fare and with the very long and warm summer we had last year, that would have helped to increase ridership. Summers in Ottawa are quite variable and though almost always warm, can also be perpetually wet...as in the summer (?) of 2008 kind of wet. So, it is my deepest hope that the Bixi bike season will be a good and long one and that many more subscribers and casual users will take advantage of this incredibly great program.

So, if you are reading this and you want to learn more about the Bixi bike rental program, here is the link and, no, I do not work for them.

Mooney's Bay and slightly beyond

To describe the past couple of weeks as windy would be like describing the ocean as damp. It hasn't been that warm either so triking hasn't really been much on our minds. Adam went out on foot this morning to buy milk and came home declaring that he should have worn gloves. It was only +7C but with a stream of winds from the north, it felt more like just above freezing.

I understood.

We were originally going to head out earlier this morning but chose to head out after lunch instead. The winds were still brisk but the sun was shining and it was warm enough that we didn't have to worry about freezing. Remember that catriking is supposed to be fun, not something to endure, right?

So, we headed out, up Bridlepath, onto Hunt Club heading west and then up MacCarthy. It was like so many other trips we had taken before. It felt good just being out and about and heading up to Mooney's Bay. We arrived there and noticed that there were a lot of people there playing and having fun and even barbecuing. Mooney's Bay, or the park therein, is relatively well sheltered from the winds so we stopped there and felt the warmth of an early spring afternoon. It's Easter Sunday for Christians, Passover for Jews and just a plain ol' Sunday in the park for us.

I wasn't too tired yet but didn't want to go too much further. It's always a debate within myself as to whether I should head out earlier in the day when I have the energy to do so and can go further - but in generally colder and windier conditions or else wait until later in the day when it's warmer but where my stamina is just not as good as I would like. I opted for the latter and Adam didn't seem to mind.

We snaked along the pathway, passing rollerbladers, under-dressed adults with equally under-dressed children and clusters of kids playing with those bright large rubber balls whose emergence after winter was nice to see.

We exited Mooney's Bay and turned left onto the bike path on Hog's Back Road only to re-intercept the pathway going around the corner and under Hog's Back Road itself. It was really nice to see other people out and about but, alas, I was getting tired enough that I felt we should stop. I pulled over to a little bench and trash can (aka typical picnic stop). We took a break and then turned around and retraced our steps back home.

Once home, I made the most awesome smoothie this side of the solar system. I made a chocolate smoothie for Adam and I added some coffee powder into mine. It was the first time I had made a smoothie without using any fruit but that was only because we didn't have any fruit to put in a smoothie in the first place.

Today's total is 13.7 kilometres which means:

Last standing was 270.9 kilometres
Today's tally was 13.7 done
That leaves me 257.2 to go as of today.


Now, go kite flying!
:P