Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Deleted member 18083]

So...what flavor did you get?

Wild Berry Delight.

I suppose that choice would be more appropriate if I rode an R&M Delite rather than the Homage.

 

[Art Deco]

That landscape behind the bike looks really cold and bleak. @RabH would feel right at home there.

 

[Anna]

Dipped my ‘toe’ in the snow with old Valle +. Nice crunchy sound but I prefer fall leaves!

 

[Art Deco]

Wild Berry Delight.

I suppose that choice would be more appropriate if I rode an R&M Delite rather than the Homage.

@Stefan Mikes would have photographed it. Did you? Grin

 

[Art Deco]

Dipped my ‘toe’ in the snow with old Valle +. Nice crunchy sound but I prefer fall leaves!
View attachment 75998

Both sounds can be fun, but both can be dangerous out here, b/c both hide the slippery stuff underneath. Slow and steady.

 

[Readytoride]

Yesterday was a cold, damp, dismal 40°f (4°c). Not a good day to be riding fast anywhere. On the flip side it was perfect day to get some exercise cleaning a road, and a heck of a lot better than sitting on the bike attached to the trainer in the living room, spinning endlessly and going nowhere.

Many years back, through the Virginia Department of Transportation's (VDOT) "Keep Virginia Beautiful" program, I adopted 8 miles of roads: one paved road, and one gravel road. So...this was my ride yesterday - 4.5 miles on my 21 gear 24 year old crosstrail Class 2 (throttle-only 250w front hub) converted ebike. A short very slow stop-n-go ride on my adopted paved road that took me over an hour, but resulted in a beautifully clean byway.

By default my old bike is still an analog (mostly). It has always been a lovely bike to ride, smooth and easy (thanks to 21 gears). As I took off down the road I was pleasantly surprised to find my knee didn't object one bit, and that my legs felt more strong and sure than they ever had before....as long as I was on the flat. Point that bike up a hill and all bets were off. I needed that throttle and motor, especially pulling a trailer.

Which lead me to think about all those dads out there that I've seen over the years, pulling these kiddie trailers behind their bikes. Trailers often loaded down with two kids. That's a heck of a lot of weight. How in the world did they do it? Did they have Superman legs of steel? I know one full litter bag didn't begin to compare with the weight of one child, let alone two. But by the time my bag had reached the 3/4 full point, I could feel the weight of the trailer behind me. Hence my desire to call it quits when the bag was full and ready to be lifted out of the trailer, tied shut, and placed on the side of the road for VDOT to pick up.

Net result was: a full (VDOT official) orange litter bag and one torn-and-cast off truck tire retread. (You can see the retread sitting in the trailer in front of the orange bag). My old bike got a workout, I got a workout, the trailer got a workout, and half the road got cleaned. I'll do the remaining half of the road today. No snow in the forecast as yet, but it will be colder by a few degrees (f).

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Many years back, through the Virginia Department of Transportation's (VDOT) "Keep Virginia Beautiful" program, I adopted 8 miles of roads: one paved road, and one gravel road.

What a great idea!

 

[RabH]

That landscape behind the bike looks really cold and bleak. @RabH would feel right at home there.

Are you trying to say Scotland is bleak? It sure is cold at the moment, not a chance of any cycling yet due to the ice everywhere! I am enjoying my walks though and enjoying reading all the posts here, keep them coming guys! In other news we are in full lockdown for the whole of January due to the new strain of Covid! We can still exercise but need to stay local, I just need the ice to disperse and I will be back out there in a heartbeat!

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Mrs Bancroft's Chair …

Deception Bay, Queensland​

The nineteenth-century matriarch of the Bancroft family certainly chose a pleasant spot to take her mid-afternoon break. Shade! That's what is needed on a summer afternoon!

My photo is taken looking northeast (towards San Diego, CA) with Bribie Island's low silhouette disturbing the horizon; the 1897 photo below was taken in the opposite direction.

On the left, beyond the young fig, is a memorial to three generations of Bancrofts:

• Anne's husband Dr Joseph Bancroft, one the earliest medical scientists to make the connection between insect-borne pathogens and human diseases;
• Anne and Joseph's son Dr Thomas Bancroft, a biologist and medical scientist, best remembered for his work in identifying the method of transmission of the mosquito-borne disease filariasis;
• Thomas's daughter Dr Mabel Bancroft, a major in the Australian Medical Corps during World War 2.

The Bancrofts' Home : Deception Bay : 1897​

 

[Art Deco]

Are you trying to say Scotland is bleak? It sure is cold at the moment, not a chance of any cycling yet due to the ice everywhere! I am enjoying my walks though and enjoying reading all the posts here, keep them coming guys! In other news we are in full lockdown for the whole of January due to the new strain of Covid! We can still exercise but need to stay local, I just need the ice to disperse and I will be back out there in a heartbeat!

When I first visited your country I stayed a week on a sheep farm on a mountain on the Isle of Skye. Defination of bleak, right there.

 

[RabH]

When I first visited your country I stayed a week on a sheep farm on a mountain on the Isle of Skye. Defination of bleak, right there.

I have actually never been to Skye but its my brother's favourite part of Scotland, in the right weather its such a beautiful part of the country! In bad weather it can be extremely bleak!

 

[Art Deco]

Mrs Bancroft's Chair …
View attachment 76011

Deception Bay, Queensland​

The nineteenth-century matriarch of the Bancroft family certainly chose a pleasant spot to take her mid-afternoon break. Shade! That's what is needed on a summer afternoon!

My photo is taken looking northeast (towards San Diego, CA) with Bribie Island's low silhouette disturbing the horizon; the 1897 photo below was taken in the opposite direction.

On the left, beyond the young fig, is a memorial to three generations of Bancrofts:

• Anne's husband Dr Joseph Bancroft, one the earliest medical scientists to make the connection between insect-borne pathogens and human diseases;
• Anne and Joseph's son Dr Thomas Bancroft, a biologist and medical scientist, best remembered for his work in identifying the method of transmission of the mosquito-borne disease filariasis;
• Thomas's daughter Dr Mabel Bancroft, a major in the Australian Medical Corps during World War 2.

View attachment 76019

The Bancrofts' Home : Deception Bay : 1897​

Do you have mosquitos as well as all the other unpleasant Australian critters (snakes, spyders, etc.)? The UK and France don't even have screens in the windows, while in parts of the USA clouds of mosquitos hang by the doors waiting to attack.

 

[Readytoride]

Are you trying to say Scotland is bleak? It sure is cold at the moment, not a chance of any cycling yet due to the ice everywhere! I am enjoying my walks though and enjoying reading all the posts here, keep them coming guys! In other news we are in full lockdown for the whole of January due to the new strain of Covid! We can still exercise but need to stay local, I just need the ice to disperse and I will be back out there in a heartbeat!

Scotland is a beautiful country - the cities are incredible, the countryside, too. Up north the lands are laid bare as if it had only emerged from a glacial ice age and not the clear cutting logging ravages of past centuries. There is nothing more surreal than sitting on a hillside in Skye overlooking the Hebrides in the distance across the waters, watching a rain storm deliberately make its way down the islands, drenching each island one at a time. Or finding in random cattle fields and off the sides of roads hidden Celtic and early Pict stones, some so small as if hoping to remain unnoticed for several more thousands of years. Scotland off the beaten path is amazing. Here and there a forestry program had planted millions of identical pine trees on the bare stretches of the NW topography, trees crammed shoulder to shoulder to make up for the lack of naturally occuring woodlands. All they do/did is/was obscure the beautiful open views with a shroud of thick, boring green. My opinion.

Of course these are my memories of my visit there over a quarter century prior. I didn't know, as my husband and I and our son stood on the docks at the ferry crossing from the mainland to the Isle of Skye, gazing down at delight at the seals swimming in the water below us, that we were also standing on the threshold of a whole new world about to change around us. There were no windmills on the Scottish countryside as yet which are prominent in @RabH's photos, and the internet was the new kid on the block but still pretty much an unknown to most of the public. Amazon was a young online startup under the genius of Jeff Besos offering books at a discount, and just nervously, that year, stepping up to the bar on the stock exchange at $18 under the name of AMZN. Facebook was still a decade away from reality, and flights from the US to the UK were still booked through a physical travel agency. There also was no such thing as a ebike, either. It was still a pencil and paper/fax machine/mailed letters/35mm world, but only for a few more years.

Maybe one day, when we all emerge from lockdowns and the pandemic stangleholds placed on our social fabric, I will take a trip back to Scotland to do some e-cycling around the Isle of Skye. I'd like to see if what I remembered still remains. I'll take H.V. Morton's brilliantly written 1934 book In Search of Scotland with me in my bike panniers, and at stops for lunch, or merely to wile away an hour on a picturesque hillside, I'll sit and re-read his wonderful stories.

In the meantime I will thoroughly enjoy the Scottish countryside ebike ramblings of @RabH and relish his stories. Even through this lockdown.

An old (quarter century) photo from my 35mm camera of General Wade's road through NW Scotland enroute to Skye. This is the road I'd love to cycle someday.

Also a postcard, which is a vivid reminder that I'll have to take all my wet weather gear with me...

 

[Sierratim]

Do you have mosquitos as well as all the other unpleasant Australian critters (snakes, spyders, etc.)? The UK and France don't even have screens in the windows, while in parts of the USA clouds of mosquitos hang by the doors waiting to attack.

Heck, California has mosquitos, snakes, and spiders, as well as bears, bobcats, coyotes, and mountain lions (that have known to attack joggers on urban trails)!

 

[Art Deco]

Scotland is a beautiful country - the cities are incredible, the countryside, too. Up north the lands are laid bare as if it had only emerged from a glacial ice age and not the clear cutting logging ravages of past centuries. There is nothing more surreal than sitting on a hillside in Skye overlooking the Hebrides in the distance across the waters, watching a rain storm deliberately make its way down the islands, drenching each island one at a time. Or finding in random cattle fields and off the sides of roads hidden Celtic and early Pict stones, some so small as if hoping to remain unnoticed for several more thousands of years. Scotland off the beaten path is amazing. Here and there a forestry program had planted millions of identical pine trees on the bare stretches of the NW topography, trees crammed shoulder to shoulder to make up for the lack of naturally occuring woodlands. All they do/did is/was obscure the beautiful open views with a shroud of thick, boring green. My opinion.

Of course these are my memories of my visit there over a quarter century prior. I didn't know, as my husband and I and our son stood on the docks at the ferry crossing from the mainland to the Isle of Skye, gazing down at delight at the seals swimming in the water below us, that we were also standing on the threshold of a whole new world about to change around us. There were no windmills on the Scottish countryside as yet which are prominent in @RabH's photos, and the internet was the new kid on the block but still pretty much an unknown to most of the public. Amazon was a young online startup under the genius of Jeff Besos offering books at a discount, and just nervously, that year, stepping up to the bar on the stock exchange at $18 under the name of AMZN. Facebook was still a decade away from reality, and flights from the US to the UK were still booked through a physical travel agency. There also was no such thing as a ebike, either. It was still a pencil and paper/fax machine/mailed letters/35mm world, but only for a few more years.

Maybe one day, when we all emerge from lockdowns and the pandemic stangleholds placed on our social fabric, I will take a trip back to Scotland to do some e-cycling around the Isle of Skye. I'd like to see if what I remembered still remains. I'll take H.V. Morton's brilliantly written 1934 book In Search of Scotland with me in my bike panniers, and at stops for lunch, or merely to wile away an hour on a picturesque hillside, I'll sit and re-read his wonderful stories.

In the meantime I will thoroughly enjoy the Scottish countryside ebike ramblings of @RabH and relish his stories. Even through this lockdown.

View attachment 76032
An old (quarter century) photo from my 35mm camera of General Wade's road through NW Scotland enroute to Skye. This is the road I'd love to cycle someday.

Also a postcard, which is a vivid reminder that I'll have to take all my wet weather gear with me...
View attachment 76034

/ offtopic My family and I really enjoyed our times in Scotland (and a bit in Ireland as well). Been back a few times but haven't made as far as Skye, though.
The roads on Skye were basically only one lane when I was there. They had wide pull offs every once in a while. If you met oncoming traffic, one of the cars would back up to the closest pull off to let the other though.
There was an etiquite to it that I've forgotten, but I remember that a Mercedes always had the right of way b/c it was impossible to get German tourists to understand that they were supposed to back up, according to the locals.
And Edinburg had round abouts (traffic circles) that fed into another roundabout, then yet another roundabout, etc. I got a fair number of "Up Your Kilt" gestures when I finally gave up, held down the horn, and just drove through the d@#m thing trying to get to the airport. Good Times. /end offtopic

 

[Readytoride]

LOL! The "etiquette" became fairly clear to this American carriage driver that whoever was on the side of that "slip" (which is a carriage driving term for a place to pull your carriage off a road to allow another to pass on a one lane road), THAT side of traffic was the one who pulled off. Which is why each slip alternated on either side of the road so that one direction of traffic wasn't always having to be the one to pull aside. I had to explain that to my husband when I was driving us through Skye because he didn't understand the implied protocol at first (he's a rotten driver, grew up in Detroit so I didn't trust his driving, especially in a country with different rules)

Roundabouts? Yeah, they were white knuckle events when there was a lot of traffic. In England far more than in Scotland, that is. I'm guessing a rental car driven by a young lady was a big enough red flag (screaming "clueless visitor!!") that I never got the evil eye from the local drivers who ended up being fairly polite and accommodating. Maybe because I always waved an embarrassed thank you to the other cars after I bumbled my way through. I was young and could think faster than. No guarantees now.

I can't wait to go back and cycle that beautiful Isle. And maybe some of the other surrounding islands as well, including Ireland. Bucket List.

 

[Anna]

Both sounds can be fun, but both can be dangerous out here, b/c both hide the slippery stuff underneath. Slow and steady.

Exactly !

 

[Prairie Dog]

An Ecological Gem in the City (Maskepetoon Park)

A portion of today's ride took me to a spot that I haven't visited since last summer. Maskepetoon Park is a natural habitat tucked away in the west end of town and I thought that it would be a great opportunity to take in the park's seasonal changes up close. Maskepetoon often receives less attention over another larger and more prominent nature center located closer to the city’s core. I'm glad that I chose to visit the park this morning as the trail was in decent condition and there were very few people around. It was -7 C when I left the house and once again the idyllic conditions made for another epic day for a ride. The paths and trails of the park wind through forest and marshlands and are linked together by a series of bridges and wooden platforms.

The municipality sends a clear message to the public.

A viewpoint at the start of the trail affords some nice views of the river valley below.

The trail starts on slightly steep decent and quickly takes you into the cozy confines of the evergreen forest below. The QE 2 (Queen Elizabeth) highway in the foreground bisects once which was an undisturbed river valley. Fortunately, this little ecological gem was preserved along with all of the natural plants and wildlife in the area. Once in the forest the din of the highway traffic is just a murmur.

Eventually, the woodland opens up into the wetlands and the trail continues as it loops around and takes you back out the same way.

In the center of the image at the top of the bluff is the approximate location where the viewpoint overlooking the river is.

A remnant of Christmas past.

Video Link to Today's Ride.

 

[RabH]

I can't wait to go back and cycle that beautiful Isle. And maybe some of the other surrounding islands as well, including Ireland. Bucket List.

I hope it happens for you, I would love to do it myself one day! I loved your story about your last visit!

Still no sign of the ice disappearing...its supposed to be 6C on Sunday but I'm not sure if that will be enough to melt this ice! After Sunday its going to rain so I might have to do some wet weather riding, I really want to get out again and if its safe to do so I will....

 

[PatriciaK]

Finalmente!

Bundled up, asthma-inhaled, electric socked, RIDE!

Giant app robbed me of half my distance and time (I know from previous rides this was around 9 miles), so I need to go back to Map My Ride for stats. Electric socks, set on medium, kept my toes nice and toasty on the breezy 39F RIDE.

Can't wait for the next break in our winter weather, to RIDE again!