2024 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos

[Jeremy McCreary]

I just read about the last 20 pages of this thread and have to say I’m really enjoying everyone’s ride reports and pictures from all over the world. Everywhere from my own home state of California, to other states, Canada, Poland, Great Britain, etc.

Totally agree. Lots of great info and advice on EBR. But for my money, this is the best part.

 

[Chargeride]

Yes, the bicycle produces content that no other activity can, a walker posting pictures would be a much smaller area, while car drivers or motorcyclists wouldnt explore or stop in most of the places posted .

 

[MTO]

Yes, the bicycle produces content that no other activity can, a walker posting pictures would be a much smaller area, while car drivers or motorcyclists wouldnt explore or stop in most of the places posted .

So true!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

6 miles

Only 6 kilometres, even better!

 

[dodgeman]

I rode 25 miles today on the rural road near our house. I saw some wild turkeys and had a freight train go by me.

 

[Prairie Dog]

What a glorious day for a ride. We woke up to heavy fog this morning but it didn’t take long before it lifted giving us a clear view of what would lay before us.

Making our way along the 40km route in a circuitous fashion. Between the Deere and Cats, it was like a mechanized zoo of sorts.

One of the benefits of partial road closures is being able to have the road all to ourselves.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

What a glorious day for a ride. We woke up to heavy fog this morning but it didn’t take long before it lifted giving us a clear view of what would lay before us.

View attachment 180688

Making our way along the 40km route in a circuitous fashion. Between the Deere and Cats, it was like a mechanized zoo of sorts.

View attachment 180689View attachment 180690

One of the benefits of partial road closures is being able to have the road all to ourselves.

View attachment 180691

That first photo's a keeper for sure!

Have been blessed with 2 deeply rural bike commutes — one in SE Ohio, one in central NC, both analog with rolling hills. Loved those rides! With rare exception, full of peace and the sounds and smells of nature.

 

[Chargeride]

My Pembrokshire morning ride.
6.30 start.

You leave the town along the coast via the disused railway tunnels.

Theres three of them and the last one is completely pitch black, all I could see was my blue display, very off putting, not knowing if your knuckles were about to hit the rocky wall.

Each one brought you out to a magical beach sunrise, still had the place to myself.

A good few miles down the coast and found my first other human, this spot was rammed with campers on the way back.

Now on the coastal cycle path, this is high up on a cliff edge, but the trees keep it nice and safe for families.

Dropped down to the next beach, all these little coves have the usual pub, cafe, beach toys shop and trendy local art gallery.

Its very much a gigantic sky scenery and the trail is so inviting to explore.

Getting some good height here, this is still the Irish sea, though it feels like the Atlantic

Followed a path off the trail to an empty cove down a stupidly steep descent and actually felt a bit alone and exposed.

Took a totally wrong bridle path to get to some disused mines, but it was gorgeous to ride along.

I found the mines and smelting buildings, its now part of a lovely caravan site that has the old workings dotted about the trailers.

A bridle path meanders to the top past various well built but abandoned workings and smelting ovens I presume.

This is the head of one of the mines, it seems over the top in its grandeur, those were the days when they even made the factory workings with style.

Back to the town through the tunnels.

Bacon and egg buttie.

Followed by an ice cream, great day out 2.5 hours, lots of full power climbs in and out of every cove and excursions up long, steep bridle paths.
Used about 75% of the battery

 

[Stefan Mikes]

On The Mazovian Lakes

There is an area of West Mazovia where you can find gorgeous lakes. I was invited by a friend for a weekend there. Had to pack my Vado heavily to support myself, e-bike, electronics and also have clothes and toiletries with me! I took a train to Łowicz and then pedalled through the Land of Łódź into West Mazovia.

My destination was the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park, which is shared by two voivodeships. (Płock is an important Mazovian city but it is not related to this story).

Travelling to the Lakes

I had an ice-cream stop in a gorgeous little town of Gąbin.

Beautiful hilly post-glacial area started in Gąbin. There is a system of very old but picturesque bike paths from Gąbin through Łąck to Sendeń.

On the Lakes

We lived in a Boy/Girl Scout camp base on the northwestern shore of Lake Lucień (the friend is a Scoutmaster). The little beach is maintained by Scouts who even provide their own lifeguard! The Camp serves three delicious meals a day and the stay is very very cheap there. A stranger can buy a stay but as the camp base is for kids and teenagers, you really need to behave there! (I spent a lot of time in the water as the afternoon was very hot!)

Lake Lucień is clean, and not commercialized, so the stay was very pleasant there.


Morning shopping ride

I rode for shopping and to use an ATM in Gostynin, the westernmost city of Mazovia on Saturday early morning. I was cheated by Komoot, which designated the first 5.5 km of my ride as "paved roads" In fact, you need an MTB on wide aggressive tyres to ride inside the Landscape Park! The normal way was asphalt, a short stretch of gravel, and a very short sandy access road (This ride: 22 km).

Afternoon exploration

The nearest convenience store, Miałkówek, 2.2 km one way from the Camp. This kind of establishment has gone in most of Poland but not this specific one! It is the only convenience store on Lake Lucień, which is open since the morning to late evening. You can find water/beverages, bread, vegetable/fruit, beer and strong alcohol, and even washing chemistry there! There are buyers all the time, and often a line forms there!

As I said, Lake Lucień was not commercialized (as it is inside the Landscape Park!) I could find a nicely maintained public beach there, and you could rent an oar or pedal boat there.

On the contrary, the neighbouring Lake Białe (White) was 99% commercialized. Here, the only public beach on that lake!

All the access to Lake Białe was private, with paid access to the shore. Here, the biggest and best organized site called Plaża Udana (a pun: Successful or At Dan's). Paid access but you will find any convenience there including rental of anything that can float, including the SUP boards. There is a big restaurant and a grocery store there as well. How did I get there? Just riding in as if I owned the place Necessary to mention, any other lake access point was vigilantly watched by the owners who were demanding a fee for just riding in!

Please do not laugh! That's how the Summer Residence of the President of Poland at Lake Lucień looks like from a distance! Protected by barbed wire and hidden behind the "Training and Conference Centre" name it does not look impressively! I think the house is for the guards and the personnel but the actual villa must be hidden behind.

My exploration.

The Return Ride

I set off for the return ride at 5:59 on Sunday morning. I knew temperature would be pleasant, wind calm, and no raining or thunderstorm at that time. Here, the aforementioned bike path, which had some violent climbs and descents. I had to pedal for 31 km to find a place serving a breakfast early on the Sunday morning! (It was a service station in Gąbin).

The site of the Gąbin Radio Tower in Konstantynów. Between 1974 and 1991, the mast was the tallest construction ever built by the man worldwide (646.38 m). In 1991, the tower collapsed because of human error during the maintenance. "Once the tallest, now the longest" the press reported in 1991. The world record was only beat by Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2008!

The heat started building up, and the headwind grew stronger. Here, a stop in a gorgeous village of Iłów on the Vistula. NB: I also had a rucksack on my back

A bridge across River Bzura that no-one except farmers with their tractors (or cyclist) uses. This nice gravel road ends up in a pile of sand!

I need to call the Żabka convenience store in the village of Konary by R. Bzura "My Crisis Response Station" 75 km into the ride, the heat became unbearable! Arriving at 10:45 am, I had to wait to eleven o'clock for the Sunday late opening. Then, I took a chair and spent an hour in the shadow, recovering. Now, I already was in my boring Greater Neighbourhood with 39 km still to go... I started increasing assistance. 10 km from home, I was caught by a gentle shower but could avoid a thunderstorm!

I had a good recreation and good rides on last weekend!

 

[Chargeride]

On The Mazovian Lakes

There is an area of West Mazovia where you can find gorgeous lakes. I was invited by a friend for a weekend there. Had to pack my Vado heavily to support myself, e-bike, electronics and also have clothes and toiletries with me! I took a train to Łowicz and then pedalled through the Land of Łódź into West Mazovia.

View attachment 180717
My destination was the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park, which is shared by two voivodeships. (Płock is an important Mazovian city but it is not related to this story).

Travelling to the Lakes

View attachment 180718
I had an ice-cream stop in a gorgeous little town of Gąbin.

View attachment 180719
Beautiful hilly post-glacial area started in Gąbin. There is a system of very old but picturesque bike paths from Gąbin through Łąck to Sendeń.

On the Lakes

View attachment 180720
We lived in a Boy/Girl Scout camp base on the northwestern shore of Lake Lucień (the friend is a Scoutmaster). The little beach is maintained by Scouts who even provide their own lifeguard! The Camp serves three delicious meals a day and the stay is very very cheap there. A stranger can buy a stay but as the camp base is for kids and teenagers, you really need to behave there! (I spent a lot of time in the water as the afternoon was very hot!)

View attachment 180723
Lake Lucień is clean, and not commercialized, so the stay was very pleasant there.


Morning shopping ride

View attachment 180724View attachment 180725
I rode for shopping and to use an ATM in Gostynin, the westernmost city of Mazovia on Saturday early morning. I was cheated by Komoot, which designated the first 5.5 km of my ride as "paved roads" In fact, you need an MTB on wide aggressive tyres to ride inside the Landscape Park! The normal way was asphalt, a short stretch of gravel, and a very short sandy access road (This ride: 22 km).

Afternoon exploration

View attachment 180727
The nearest convenience store, Miałkówek, 2.2 km one way from the Camp. This kind of establishment has gone in most of Poland but not this specific one! It is the only convenience store on Lake Lucień, which is open since the morning to late evening. You can find water/beverages, bread, vegetable/fruit, beer and strong alcohol, and even washing chemistry there! There are buyers all the time, and often a line forms there!

View attachment 180728
As I said, Lake Lucień was not commercialized (as it is inside the Landscape Park!) I could find a nicely maintained public beach there, and you could rent an oar or pedal boat there.

View attachment 180729
View attachment 180730
On the contrary, the neighbouring Lake Białe (White) was 99% commercialized. Here, the only public beach on that lake!

View attachment 180731
View attachment 180732
All the access to Lake Białe was private, with paid access to the shore. Here, the biggest and best organized site called Plaża Udana (a pun: Successful or At Dan's). Paid access but you will find any convenience there including rental of anything that can float, including the SUP boards. There is a big restaurant and a grocery store there as well. How did I get there? Just riding in as if I owned the place Necessary to mention, any other lake access point was vigilantly watched by the owners who were demanding a fee for just riding in!

View attachment 180733
Please do not laugh! That's how the Summer Residence of the President of Poland at Lake Lucień looks like from a distance! Protected by barbed wire and hidden behind the "Training and Conference Centre" name it does not look impressively! I think the house is for the guards and the personnel but the actual villa must be hidden behind.

View attachment 180739
My exploration.

The Return Ride

View attachment 180734
I set off for the return ride at 5:59 on Sunday morning. I knew temperature would be pleasant, wind calm, and no raining or thunderstorm at that time. Here, the aforementioned bike path, which had some violent climbs and descents. I had to pedal for 31 km to find a place serving a breakfast early on the Sunday morning! (It was a service station in Gąbin).

View attachment 180735
The site of the Gąbin Radio Tower in Konstantynów. Between 1974 and 1991, the mast was the tallest construction ever built by the man worldwide (646.38 m). In 1991, the tower collapsed because of human error during the maintenance. "Once the tallest, now the longest" the press reported in 1991. The world record was only beat by Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2008!

View attachment 180736
The heat started building up, and the headwind grew stronger. Here, a stop in a gorgeous village of Iłów on the Vistula. NB: I also had a rucksack on my back

View attachment 180737
View attachment 180738
A bridge across River Bzura that no-one except farmers with their tractors (or cyclist) uses. This nice gravel road ends up in a pile of sand!


View attachment 180740
I need to call the Żabka convenience store in the village of Konary by R. Bzura "My Crisis Response Station" 75 km into the ride, the heat became unbearable! Arriving at 10:45 am, I had to wait to eleven o'clock for the Sunday late opening. Then, I took a chair and spent an hour in the shadow, recovering. Now, I already was in my boring Greater Neighbourhood with 39 km still to go... I started increasing assistance. 10 km from home, I was caught by a gentle shower but could avoid a thunderstorm!

I had a good recreation and good rides on last weekend!

Yup, thats all beautiful, the tower collapse is pretty famous in the UK, it was all very cloak and dagger eastern bloc soviet spy scandal.
But in reality it was just good old incompetence ...or was it

 

[Chargeride]

Yes Im in Devon again.
Heres a couple of pics that are different.
Looking down over Salcombe from a high road and the Castle on the beach.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

...or was it

Yes it was incompetence Nobody even thought of conspiracy after the tower fell. A worker simply forgot to tighten one of the stays after the replacement of all the stays! Good no-one listens to the AM Long Wave anymore

Yes Im in Devon again.
Heres a couple of pics that are different.
Looking down over Salcombe from a high road and the Castle on the beach.

Britain is gorgeous, especially when you know where to go!

 

[BlackHand]

I'm back in my hometown visiting now visiting family and boy is it nice to be back. We're lucky enough to be staying in a fantastic airbnb just minutes from my folks and sisters.

You can see why they call it Amish Paradise. This is the view from the porch at sunrise our first morning.

The host loaned me his hybrid acoustic bike which is in decent enough shape. A little small for me but it shifts ok.

Here are some photos from my nearly 28 mile ride on Thursday.

This dog was being a good guard dog. He came running as soon as I got to the edge of their fence line but stopped and barked at me from in front of the horse in case I might be a horse thief!

Pretty peaceful out on the country lanes

Coming down White Chapel Road. Word is that around 1910 my great-great grandfather helped build the foundation for the 'new' White Chapel in the photo. The old family farm is just down the road, now an Amish farm.

Because it's been dry here I took the opportunity to ride along the short trail from Volant on the old railbed alongside Neshannock Creek. The 3 or 4 bridges were in various states of disrepair, but the trail was passable despite this and several flooded sections.

This gives you an idea of the rolling hills here.

(Edited to fix my photo links)

 

[JGcycle]

A few pics from this morning's 27km ride:

 

[BlackHand]

Yesterday I had just over a 2 hour window for a ride before family came for dinner. The weather showed 50% of thunder showers with the sky being an equal mix of blue sky, fluffy clouds, and dark storm clouds.

I was a little worried when rain started spitting on me 5 miles into the ride, but it never actually got going despite the occasional rain drop hitting my face. Rode up into Mercer County then back along the Shenango River and through Amish farmland.

At the end of the 26.6 mile ride, I pulled back into our drive just as relatives started showing up for dinner. Everyone was surprised that I was dry as it had rained hard at each of their houses sometime in the last 90 minutes.

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Solid, fun ride today! Got about 10 miles into it when I turned west and observed the sky getting interesting ahead.

There were thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon, but things got going early. I changed plans and turned left, heading south to see if I could outrun it.

Yeah, right. A very enthusiastic storm blew in and settled down over the area I was in and the next hour was heavy (but warm) rain, and lots of thunder and lightning all around, no matter which way I went. Had a great time… I enjoy riding in this stuff as long as the wind doesn’t go wild and I don’t get electrocuted. At one point I was riding on a path system in heavy forest, and the sound of the rain pounding the leaves above me was wonderful.

Most fun I’ve had on a solo ride in some time. The Creo with its Pathfinder Pros did great, and I finished up with my shoes full of water and my bright yellow jersey solid brown across the entire back. A proper bike ride.

 

[dodgeman]

I rode 27 miles today starting from my house. Blackhand’s pics look similar to where I live.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Solid, fun ride today! Got about 10 miles into it when I turned west and observed the sky getting interesting ahead.

View attachment 180792
There were thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon, but things got going early. I changed plans and turned left, heading south to see if I could outrun it.

Yeah, right. A very enthusiastic storm blew in and settled down over the area I was in and the next hour was heavy (but warm) rain, and lots of thunder and lightning all around, no matter which way I went. Had a great time… I enjoy riding in this stuff as long as the wind doesn’t go wild and I don’t get electrocuted. At one point I was riding on a path system in heavy forest, and the sound of the rain pounding the leaves above me was wonderful.

Most fun I’ve had on a solo ride in some time. The Creo with its Pathfinder Pros did great, and I finished up with my shoes full of water and my bright yellow jersey solid brown across the entire back. A proper bike ride.

Really miss the whole thunderstorm experience — from the relative safety of my covered deck back in Denver, that is.

Got them nearly every summer afternoon or evening there. Some of the supercells were downright apocalyptic, with inches of rain per hour, nearly continuous lightning, 50-80 mph cold downbursts, and scary hail — sometimes nearly horizontal. Seemingly small storms could ramp up to that level in a matter of seconds without warning. Quite the force of nature!

No way I'd ride in one of those Colorado monsters, but it might be thinkable here in coastal SoCal, where thunderstorms are both rare and pretty tame by comparison.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The Dog-Days Are Over

It always comes up as a big surprise to the Poles when they have just survived the Canicule heat-wave and now it starts heavily raining with a sudden temperature drop! Now, I need to start thinking what to wear on my rides...

Preparing For The Great Lakes Gravel Race In September

Now, my brother is totally excited about the GLG race that will take place in the province of Mazuria on September 21st.

Mazuria is the Poland's Lakeland (commonly referred to as Great Lakes). After the WW2, the former East Prussia was split between Poland in the south and Russia in the north. A special feature of Masuria is its 2,600 beautiful lakes, which put Poland's other geographical regions to shame (with the exception of the Sudovia and Varmia). The race organizer has placed his three races (Varmia, Great Lakes and Sudovia) in a big area rich in lakes... and gravel roads

Brothers will take part in two different race formats, though. Jacek would pedal his Marin in the Classic race (100 miles) while I seem to have no competitors in the 50 mile e-Sprint
I consider riding my Vado SL as the numerous climbs en route should be manageable for the lightweight e-bike.

The Sprint format covers a very small portion of Great Lakes but it would lead along Śniardwy, the largest lake of Poland. (In May this year, I rode along the deepest Poland's lake, Hańcza, during the Sudovia Gravel race). Interestingly, the racers in the Ultra format (480 km) will ride around almost whole Mazuria, and approach the Russian border!

The infamous cobblestone segment (Photo: Anna Kuśmierczyk)

Now, the best The race will start and end in the city of Mikołajki (German: Nikolaiken), which is deadly expensive. As I was looking for the stay there, I found a guesthouse with nice facilities but still within the budget. After I made the booking, it turned out our base was located as far as... 140 metres from the race start line!

I'm excited!

 

[Chargeride]

The road to the beach was closed and everyone was having to do a long detour, of course I ignored the multiple signs and found this.
Theyre correct you could barely fit a combine harvester past that.

The waitress at the beach bar was the most insufferable snob I have ever met, I presume she doesn't like bicycles, she asked me to repeat everything I said
with a look on her face that she having to converse with some toothless northerner, I actually had to repeat the word sugar three times before she understood and her face
got more disgusted each time.
She asked my name for the order to be called out
Chris
sorry?
chris
pardon?
chris.. she just shook her head, luckily a man sat with his family listening to this got equally peeved and shouted..'hes saying chris as in christopher!'
Oh, and walked away without any a word of apology or recognition of her obvious ridiculous attitude.

Anyway the Mumbai roll was delicious.

rode down a road Ive never visited before and found it was full of posh campsite all with lovely cafes and restaurants, so that's where everyone goes?

I wouldn't be surprised if this sign could still be enforced by digging through some local council basement, or its some trendy faux sign from a London boutique

I just loved this cute thatched outhouse, for little people?

This used to be my dads house and I stayed many times, it belonged to the postmistress and she hung herself in the attic.

This road got more and more remote and creepy, the car in front was a tiny Smart car and it only just fitted through, there are no signs to warn you off it's tiny dimensions.

I followed this road to find this unmetaled track as they call them, it didn't disappoint and was quite the challenge to climb.

Unfortunately a mile in it turned into a trench that was impossible to ride due to pedal strikes, by this time I was feeling a bit Deliverance as i had passed a lot of weird
homestead style setups and strange hoarder encampments that I feel few people are aware of.

But then it got much worse, the track narrowed to an very overgrown path, I had put so much effort into getting to this point, I soldiered on

Then it went to ridiculous after good mile of partially hacking through thick brambles, I stopped to consider my option, of which there were only two.
And got quite a jump of claustrophobia, behind me looked just as impenetrable and climbing out was impossible.

I eventually popped out to a herd of cows looking over a fence, there was a swarm of flies following me the whole way and I couldnt get enough speed to lose them.

This trail felt ancient, the gopro is really upping the exposure here, in real life it was very dark and brooding.

It led to another hillbilly style area with chickens in the road and all kinds of abandoned cars in sheds.
But its OK , its England , probably lovely people and next to no chance of being shot or fed to the pigs.

Great day exploring and only this ebike could do it, the endless supersteep climbs would exhaust me.
They are simply the best exploration tools for local areas.