Pinckney 1

Pinckney Recreation Area is to our southeast about 40 miles. It's adjacent to the Waterloo Recreation Area where we did some bicycling last year. I posted one of them last spring - click here to read it. Pinckney and Waterloo are nice. They're big, forested, hilly, full of lakes, they have hiking and mountain biking trails, and have some good roads for bicycling, too.

The trail marathon is next weekend in the Pinckney Recreation Area, and I'm planning to run the half-marathon, so I wanted to go down to the area and check out the trail. I don't run much on trails these days, and I'd heard the trails were tough, so I thought it would be nice to preview the course. The first image here is the half-marathon course. Runners doing the marathon get to do it twice.



The kids had sleepovers last night - Abbey had Rachel spend the night and Quinn spent the night at James's house. Rachel and James are siblings, so it was pretty much just a trade. Once Rachel went home and we had Quinn back, we packed up the kids, the bikes, some lunch, and a few gallons of water, and headed to Pinckney. I didn't want to run the whole course today, but I wanted to run roughly ten miles of it, so I had Cindy drop me off along Glenbrook road at the far west end of Hi-Land Lake.

It was warm out - probably in the mid-60s - so I wore running shorts and a t-shirt. I took my phone, two packets of Gu (or something similar), a map, and a quart of water in my Camelbak waist pack and set off in the wrong direction. I was suspicious that I was going the wrong way almost immediately, but after running about 8 minutes, I was sure. I was going clockwise, and I really wanted to run counterclockwise. I could have continued in my clockwise direction - the earth is round, after all, and it would have worked out fine, but I turned back and was at the Glenbrook intersection only 15 minutes behind schedule.

The run was great. The trail was mostly smooth, sandy in places, with lots of ups and downs and curves. Not too much of it would be consider a technically difficult trail, although there were some long steep climbs with plenty of roots. It would most definitely be a really, really, really fun mountain bike ride. Hmmm. There's an idea. There were lots of mountain bikers on the trail. The mountain bikes generally ride clockwise, while the hikers go counter, with some exceptions for those doing smaller loops.

The sun was shining, there was a light breeze, and I was mostly alone, except for plenty of wildlife, running through the forested hills. I was glad I had a map, because while there were some signs, there were also some places where I had to stop and sort things out with the map. It was really nice. It was tiring. I was very relieved to reach the Silver Lake Beach where Cindy and the kids were waiting for me. I had sucked down all of my water and both of my Goos by the time I finished. The Gu shots, by the way, were caffeinated and I think they nearly gave me a caffeine overdose while I was running. About five minutes after sucking down the second packet, I felt like I'd had way too much coffee. A few minutes later, however, I felt really good. I think next time I'll avoid the caffeinated shots.

I finished the in about 1 hour and 50 minutes. I think, given my wrong turn at the start, I covered about 10 miles. Doing the math, that's a terribly slow pace, at about 11 minutes per mile. I never run that slowly, and I'm pretty sure I was running faster than that today, so either I spent more time on my little breaks than I realized, or I ran further than than I've estimated. It doesn't really matter. Once I reached the Silver Lake Beach, I waded out into the ice cold lake up to my thighs for about 10 minutes to keep the swelling down. It felt great. I was pleased to run the distance on the trail without any significant pain or injury. The middle toe on my left foot suffered, a little, I think. The toenail is sore and rather red. Maybe I'll lose it. Want to see a picture?

We ate our lunch on a blanket in the shade of a tree beside the lake. The sun was still shining and there was almost no wind. It looked like a perfect day for a ride. The plan was to ride mostly straight south about 12 miles to Chelsea (home of Jiffy mix), and then come back the same way or maybe another route depending on how we felt. However, as we were walking back to the car, the sunny sky went dark, the temperature dropped, and the wind began to blow. We thought it was going to rain before we even started riding. Somewhat apprehensive about the weather, we set out on our ride, stopping first to pee in an outhouse full of wasps. That was fun.

Once out of the Pinckney Recreation Area, we decided to change our route. The road we had planned to ride (Territorial) for several miles turned out to be very narrow with fast, heavy traffic. It went off of our map, but we decided to go south on the Dexter Town Hall Road, hoping that we could catch some other road west once we'd traveled south a bit. Well, that didn't work very well. Dexter Town Hall turned way back to the east and never gave us a westerly road. And the wind kept blowing and the clouds looked ominous.

After several miles, we did finally get a road back west, but it was only briefly paved, and then turned to something other than pavement. It was nice, actually, it was mostly smooth and quite hard. This is picture of it:



It was quite hilly, giving us plenty of opportunities to practice shifting. Cindy and Abbey were shifting a brand new chain and cassette, too.



The road we were riding was Island Lake Road. Eventually it took us past Island Lake, shown in these pictures. There were a few houses along the shore of the lake, some were new, like this one:



Others were old, like this one.



We were really expecting the clouds to open up and dump rain on us at any moment, and the kids were quite chilly, so we decided to keep our ride short once again. We pulled out the kids jackets, but we hadn't even brought pants for them. Once we found a road, we headed back north to Pinckney without ever making it into Chelsea. The strong wind made the ride back to north quick and easy. However, the roads were very rough and narrow, and there was far more traffic than we would have liked.

Not a bad day at all, but once again we had our ride cut a little short. We're going to have to bump our mileage up to get ready for MUP tour in July. I just learned my parents did 55 miles today, with a total of 85 for the weekend. They'll be ready for the tour! Next week we'll be back in Pinckney for the Trail Marathon (half), and we'll bring the bikes again, but I think we'll go back to Chelsea in the car and ride the Waterloo roads instead of those in Pinckney. And we'll bring pants for kids, too. Even if the morning temperature is in the 80s.

Road Rage

Most of the time my ride to work is pleasant and relaxing. A little exercise in the morning makes sitting at my desk a little more tolerable.

Last night I sent out an email to some key folks in my company to request that, as part of their new sustainability initiative, they consider providing incentives to employees to reduce commuter trips. I suggested that providing facilities for bicycle parking - racks and even covered parking - would be a great benefit to those of us who ride to work and would help encourage others to do this. Some companies actually do this.

This morning at home things seemed a little stressful. Maybe some stress from work creeping into my morning routine. Maybe just the usual rush to get everyone ready and out the door on time. No big deal.

I'm riding my mountain bike to work right now, pulling my stuff in our Burley trailer. This will enable me to keep riding to work while I give a full post-winter cleaning to my usual commuter bike (which just turned over 5,000 miles).

As I was heading west down the Hatch street bottleneck, where my whole giant neighborhood and all the shortcutters from the highway funnel into Dobie Road, toward the "T" intersection where the road splits into a left and right turn lane, I could see in my rearview a fast-moving luxury SUV way out in the left lane racing to go around me. But I was moving pretty fast down the hill, probably around 25 mph, and at our current respective paces, there was not going to be time for him to get around me before we reached the intersection. Given that he was still a hundred feet behind me, and the left turn line was fast approaching, I gave a big left-arm turn signal and moved out into the lane, and then merged into the left-turn lane. The driver moved back into his own lane and merged into the right-turn lane. As he passed me he opened his window and slowed. He was well-dressed in respectable suit and tie, and said, "Hey buddy, they have sidewalks." His window was on the way up by the time he'd finished speaking. He was not interested in my reply.

On the sidewalk to my right there was a woman walking a dog. Crossing the street in front of me (where the "WALK" light comes on a the same time as the left-turn arrow and someone is surely going to get killed) were two kids with backpacks, walking their bikes across the street. A jogger was on the sidewalk across the street. The sidewalks are well-used. A fast-moving bicycle belongs on the road.

To the man in the luxury SUV, I should have said, "Same Roads, Same Rights, Same Rules, sir." Or maybe, "It's my road, too." I should not have said what I did say, and very loudly, which I won't write here because I sort of regret my choice of words, and I want my kids to be able to read this. Oh well, it was just two short words.

Maybe I'll put a sticky note on my handlebars with well-considered and polite replies to rude remarks from motorists. I find that I handle rude or inappropriate comments from motorists better in low-traffic situations than I do at busy intersections. It must have something to do with heightened defense mechanisms that are in place in stressful situations.

And there's more...

About a mile later, still steaming from my previous encounter, I gradually caught up with my red-light-running bicycle commuter friend. I've seen this guy before, maybe even written about him. He pulls out into traffic and runs the light at the intersection of Okemos and Bennett/Kiniwa Roads right in the middle of rush-hour traffic. And it's a big busy intersection. I saw him do it again today. He's tall, has grey hair, rides an older mountain bike, which is black, and wears a backpack. He pulls out of the fairly upscale Briarwood neighborhood and into the bike lane on Kinawa. Today he was about 100 yards ahead of me. He wiggled between the lines of traffic at the intersection and road straight across it when the light was red. The left-turn lane arrows were green, and with all the traffic I couldn't tell whether he was forcing cars to wait on him or not. He just went straight through on the red.

HOW ARE BICYCLISTS SUPPOSED EXPECT MOTORISTS TO TREAT US WITH RESPECT WHEN IDIOTS DO STUPID STUFF LIKE THIS?? SAME ROAD, SAME RIGHTS, SAME RULES!!

The light turned green, I went through the intersection with the traffic. Legally and safely. I soon caught up with offending idiot. I should have run him off the road and beaten him senseless. Or maybe I should have pushed him out into traffic. Or maybe I should have ridden up beside him and said, "Hey buddy, they have sidewalks." Or maybe I should have said, "Excuse me, sir, I think it's great that you're choosing to ride a bicycle to work, but it's really important that you obey the rules of the road."

I failed. I did none of the above, which is just as well for most of those options. I caught up with him, but there was not room for me to ride beside him. I really wanted to talk to him. I shouted, "Good morning!" Even though my shadow had overlapped his way out in front of him, I think my voice nearly caused him to fall off his bike. He looked over his shoulder at me and said something unintelligible. At that point, I decided that he might actually be mentally challenged. I gave up on speaking to him. It should have been clear from his bicycling behavior that he was a few cards short of a full deck, as they say. But now I wonder, does this guy bicycle because he doesn't have the mental capacity to drive a car? Should he be on the road at all?

I pulled into the traffic lane as I approached the round-about at Bennett and Hulett. I find it's safer to take up the full lane as I approach the round-about rather than try to sort things out with the cars as the road narrows and enters the circle. I signaled a right turn and headed north. The road-hazard-rider continued west.

At work, I had a response form the coordinator of the sustainability initiative, asking that post my note about bicycle facilities to the corporate sustainability web page.

All I know is I don't know.

Sandhill bike ride

Today's entry will be written by Abbey:

Hello everybody! Today for our bike ride, we went out to Sandhill Road.
We went on our tandems (of course). It was a very nice day today with a temperature
of about 60-64 F, but a strong wind made it cold! It has been warmer than it as been for quite some time! We were going to do a Mason ride but we decided not to because we would all be zonked after the ride and there was a really strong wind that made it hard to pedal. We stopped early on near the MSU farm areas to take a layer off and while we did, it stank! I can still smell it! But we did see some horses and donkeys and sheep. Here are some pictures.

Stop by the road:

MSU farm animals:


Near the end of the ride, we stopped at a school called "Bennett Woods Elementery School" and we played at the park.

Bennett Woods School 1


Mom helped Quinn get ready to go. Bye-Bye!

Bennett Woods School 2


Statistics for the day:
27 miles ridden; 11 mph average; time gone was about three hours; crossed 1000 miles on little blue Burley!