2020 : Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

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David Berry said:
I know!
I trust you enjoyed writing the ride up for us as much as we enjoyed reading it.
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Absolutely. It's always fun to revisit a ride via pen and paper, and to make all those big and little, and oftentimes fleeting, moments leap into life again through mere words in sharing a story. Glad you all enjoyed reading it. :)
 
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Stefan Mikes said:
Excellent read @Readytoride! To my surprise, I only found out the author was female after reading "my husband" :D English can be so confusing for non-native speakers!

P.S. As if a read a John Steinbeck short story!
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English was not too difficult to master for Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, Born in Poland 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language.
 
I always thought Conrad was an English writer who by chance was born in the area of today's Poland to a Polish family ;)
 
Readytoride said:
A 50 Mile Ride, Finding Ghosts, and Making A New Friend
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Good job and what fun! I want pictures of the bridge!!

It was the post and pictures from bobsiii last week that got me to thinking about some of my long ago rides and their distances and what was my longest ride. I used http://onthegomap.com/ to see if my memory was even close to the actual miles, they matched close enough even though many things have changed and many of the roads I took then are now long gone.

It was a few of his pictures with Bear Creek that reminded me of when I used to ride to Red Rocks amphitheater before I was old enough to drive, I did it a half a dozen times or so. There were always families of tourists there... and families of tourists sometimes had cute, young girls😇, and it was much easier to climb the rocks back then.
My longest ride was decades later which is now almost decades ago. As I recall it was about a 52 mile ride on an old GT Outpost... a year or two before it would get it's first taste of electric assist.
 
As promised: pictures from the 50 mile ride - the bridge at Clarks Gap on the Washington & Old Dominion rail trail. This bridge is the last remaining of the original 1800s bridges on the 45 mile trail which stretches from Washington DC area to within 8 miles of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the western border of Virginia.

W&OD Clarks Gap Trail Marker Photo.jpg

The trail information marker near the c. 1870s bridge showing a photo from the prior century - an old diesel engine going under the structure.


W&OD Bridge at Clarks Gap - small.jpg

The bridge as of January 2020, looking west towards Hamilton and Purcellville. Recently the Park Service constructed a protective wooden structure on the trail directly under the bridge to keep dripping water and debris from falling on trail users.

Just beyond the old bridge is a new bridge, styled as an old stone bridge in keeping with the theme of the trail. This new bridge was erected at considerable cost a few years ago when the trail was slightly rerouted in order to make way for a pair of traffic circles (roundabouts) on an adjacent highway crossover.

W&OD- elevations.jpg


The elevation profile of the 45 mile long W&OD trail. I began in Purcellville and rode 25 miles to Herndon Depot, and back.

For those that enjoy videos:
A cyclists bike ride from Clarks Gap to Purcellville
 
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David Berry said:
JRA, Steve, Guv and Richard …
One f the delights of riding my ebikes – yes, I still have Trekkie – is exploring new places and searching out information about them and the sights (lift bridges and cable ferries included!).

I remember crossing rivers on cable ferries powered by gangs of men marching down the side as if they were on a treadmill. Another place; another time. The Richmond River ferry is a two-person craft; one with a straw hat ('everyone' in Australia has one; $5 from Bunnings hardware) directing loading, and one without a hat who is seated high in the bridge determining whether we go this way or that. I know… reality is definitely a bit more complicated, especially when river crossings don't run to plan.

Trees! Should that be 'pretend trees'? There are mountain ashes in Victoria and forests of tingle and karri in Western Australia that are spectacular. Around here, appreciation of 'the bush' is an acquired taste but the wet tropics are special in their own way.

Here are few photos from times gone by.
… David

Daintree in the Wet Tropics — Far North Queensland …
View attachment 43874

Southern Forests of Western Australia …
View attachment 43877
Left : Tingle Forest – Eucalyptus jacksonii
Right x3 : Karri Forest – Eucalyptus diversicolor

The climbing spikes on the karri tree lead to a lookout platform at around sixty metres; the tree goes up a bit more, of course. There are two other lookout trees in WA's southwest, with this one, the Gloucester Tree (named after a British royal; great-grandson of Queen Victoria) available for climbing. Even though the pegs were long enough to allow passing, I decided that scaling the equivalent of a twenty-storey building was not for me.
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Wow I would like to try that and see how far I might venture!
 
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