My own Freedom
Date: July 4 Fri
Mileage: 34 (Trek400)
July mileage: 92
Year to date: 1076
What a great morning for a comfortable bike ride. With the holiday, the streets and roads were quite empty and this gave me the opportunity to do a loop I rarely try now. The LBC Tuesday night ride for many years left Cherokee, rode out Rudy Ln., then out River Rd. to Prospect and back. Now, not only does the club forgo this ride, but the ever-helpful KyBikeRides doesn't eve have a cue sheet for it. Prospect is one of those suburb/exurb areas that has become unbikable. River Rd., a KY Scenic Byway , is merely a long, straight, flat commuter road between the McMansions of Prospect and downtown. Instead of taking KY42 to the Watterson or 71, they just fill a "scenic byway" with lots of pissy SUVs, with an occasional redneck thrown in for good measure.
The holiday gave me the freedom to do this ride this morning. Now that I think, 'Lance' and I spent a month or 2 doing this route (plus extension) back in '99, so in 10 years it's gone from a prime cycling route to a meta-highway. It rained quite a bit overnight and was still piddling this morning, so I dragged the Trek out for a soaking. The last time I tried the Trek heinous sounds came from the pedal/bb area, so before I left I took off and regreased the pedal axles. It didn't seem to help too much until about 3 miles in when I noticed the noise had gone, so I guess it worked. With the rain, I also had the good fortune to give my new RBW cycling cap a workout, underneath the helmet mind you.
RBW guy, not me. I'm fatter. But my cap is orange.
My route out was straightforward: Seneca/RudyLn./LimeKiln/Prospect. Now that I had a good hour of "cycling" in, I decided I would goof around a little on the return. I have a work friend who lives in Prospect; her husband is a dry-waller, so I assume the construction boom of the '90s/'00s helped them to buy a house with a big lot in "Valhalla", as I call the area when I speak to her. She's a good sport, but flaming Republicans tend to stick out in educational fields. Remember, we're public servants who enjoy the largesse of the welfare state. Enough of that. I rode by her house and then through a table-top flat subdivision that is named for the farm it engulfed. Gotta love it. After that, I passed through Hays-Kennedy park to get to Garvin Brown Nature Preserve. There aren't good web resources for this little preserve, but it's formerly a farm that's right on the river. I've had notions of doing a stealth camping trip there, but at the entrance gate off the city park there is an obvious sign "No Camping" and being a public servant I sort of follow laws sometimes. We'll see. Here is a series of someone else's pics in fall.
Although the morning weather was probably considered inclement by many, I found that the 70F rainy day provided a spectacular opportunity to see the river at the Preserve. It's right at the end of what I believe is called 6 Mile Island, which I just found out is a state nature preserve. It's at a point in the river when you begin to leave some of the industry behind, so you can get very natural views of a great river. From there I came home. A great day, and a great day of freedom to ride without being accosted. Is that such an unreasonable request?
Mileage: 34 (Trek400)
July mileage: 92
Year to date: 1076
What a great morning for a comfortable bike ride. With the holiday, the streets and roads were quite empty and this gave me the opportunity to do a loop I rarely try now. The LBC Tuesday night ride for many years left Cherokee, rode out Rudy Ln., then out River Rd. to Prospect and back. Now, not only does the club forgo this ride, but the ever-helpful KyBikeRides doesn't eve have a cue sheet for it. Prospect is one of those suburb/exurb areas that has become unbikable. River Rd., a KY Scenic Byway , is merely a long, straight, flat commuter road between the McMansions of Prospect and downtown. Instead of taking KY42 to the Watterson or 71, they just fill a "scenic byway" with lots of pissy SUVs, with an occasional redneck thrown in for good measure.
The holiday gave me the freedom to do this ride this morning. Now that I think, 'Lance' and I spent a month or 2 doing this route (plus extension) back in '99, so in 10 years it's gone from a prime cycling route to a meta-highway. It rained quite a bit overnight and was still piddling this morning, so I dragged the Trek out for a soaking. The last time I tried the Trek heinous sounds came from the pedal/bb area, so before I left I took off and regreased the pedal axles. It didn't seem to help too much until about 3 miles in when I noticed the noise had gone, so I guess it worked. With the rain, I also had the good fortune to give my new RBW cycling cap a workout, underneath the helmet mind you.
RBW guy, not me. I'm fatter. But my cap is orange.My route out was straightforward: Seneca/RudyLn./LimeKiln/Prospect. Now that I had a good hour of "cycling" in, I decided I would goof around a little on the return. I have a work friend who lives in Prospect; her husband is a dry-waller, so I assume the construction boom of the '90s/'00s helped them to buy a house with a big lot in "Valhalla", as I call the area when I speak to her. She's a good sport, but flaming Republicans tend to stick out in educational fields. Remember, we're public servants who enjoy the largesse of the welfare state. Enough of that. I rode by her house and then through a table-top flat subdivision that is named for the farm it engulfed. Gotta love it. After that, I passed through Hays-Kennedy park to get to Garvin Brown Nature Preserve. There aren't good web resources for this little preserve, but it's formerly a farm that's right on the river. I've had notions of doing a stealth camping trip there, but at the entrance gate off the city park there is an obvious sign "No Camping" and being a public servant I sort of follow laws sometimes. We'll see. Here is a series of someone else's pics in fall.
Although the morning weather was probably considered inclement by many, I found that the 70F rainy day provided a spectacular opportunity to see the river at the Preserve. It's right at the end of what I believe is called 6 Mile Island, which I just found out is a state nature preserve. It's at a point in the river when you begin to leave some of the industry behind, so you can get very natural views of a great river. From there I came home. A great day, and a great day of freedom to ride without being accosted. Is that such an unreasonable request?
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