Rail Trail

I run out of time and still want to ride.  I want to stay off the well traveled road and the rail trail is the easy route.   A mile from my house, up Central, down Second, cut through the Fish Market parking lot, up the rail trail ramp.  Its not long enough.  The Augusta section is fun also, but a different flavor.  It has an unpaved section that is not great for road bikes.  It is a quick dash down Main St in Hallowell to connect the sections, save enough, but always interesting.

At the Gardiner end, the River park is progressing and will be a wonderful addition.  It is not connected to the rail trail, but it seems like a natural progrssion.  the Augusta end has their own Riverfront Park, which is finished and unfolds naturally.  The whole of downtown is oriented away from the river, which seems backwards.  The pull of the river is that it varies infinitely, unlike main Street, which maintains a constant level of boredom.

33 miles early Sunday morning

A great way to start  the day is to go biking  and central maine is biking nirvana.  Even going by I-95 is enchanting.  And some of us eat as we ride.  I am at 1000 miles two weeks ahead of last year.  Pat has 1200 miles, partly because of Ruby’s graduation at Beloit.  I tried to rent a bike, but the only bike store, “GUNS, AMMO, BIKES”,  didn’t rent bikes, so Pat got in 4 more days of biking. 

 Our route is Hallowell, Central st to Outlet Rd to Spears corner to Plains road in Litchfield, Pond rd in Gardiner to the rail trail.  We see few cars, more fishermen and joggers.  We are extremely lucky to live in biking paradise.

Ruby Graduation

We all went to Ruby’s graduation from Beloit college in Wisconsin.  I love Beloit.  It is a small college with a firm emphasis on mentoring rather than on competetion.  Brynne, on left flew in from LA, /sally from Maine, Zoe from Chicago, Jana from NYC, then Rubys friend fromShangai, Cynthia, Ruby on the right.

The graduation speech was on moving through awkwardness.  What I realized that Beloit was a campus of characters, all slightly out of place, but finding compromises together to get through awkward phases.  It was a wonderful experience for Ruby, who had several mentors., who helped her focus and find her place/

Dregs of Skiing at Sugarloaf

Soft snow, warm temperatures, corn texture, spring skiing, simple, but alas, not to be.  I went Thursday, April 15th, and my first run down skidder found crisp, not so forgiving snow and ice underneath.  The more the trail had been skied, the better the chance of turnable snow.  This is wedge, not too bad.  I found my bliss underneath the chairlift.  The key is sun and traffic, to turn the snow over and give enough resistance to fascilitate control.  There are a few more obstacles, rocks, bare ground, narrow transitions, and I mean narrow.  Try turning 3 times on a 3 foot path, on moguls, with trees on one side and bare ground on the other.  Still, once this little feat had been accomplished, it was clear skiing on big fat soft bumps.  Gorgeous!

The end is near, the dirt is showing more and more and raggae weekend can not help.  Scott and I are probably going to brave the cold and hung over revelers on Sunday and hunt for the best snow, the most lift in the turns.

50 Miles and what was I thinking

 

I convinced Scott that he should come biking with us.  40 miles I promised.  I made a wrong turn.  Hills and steeper hills.  We stopped a few times.    Most notably to refuel in Richmond, not at our usual coffe shop, but at the Country Store.   Pat was on top of his game and we dragged Scott past his endurance point.  He trekked on despite being past a reasonable long distance, and wearing a long sleve cotton shirt.

It was a late spring day in early spring, 73 degrees, balmy and beautiful.    We traveled from Hallowell to So Gardiner, Litchfield,  Richmond, Gardiner and then the rail trail.  We ended up right around 50 miles and a little sore and tired, glad to have an early long ride.

Is It Spring

March 24th and the light holds past 7pm.  I am ready for an easy spring, warm days, occasional rain, no more snow, floods or freezing cold.  Except it is okay for cold weather in the mountains, at night and then warm during the day.  I feel we deserve this because the economy has been so shitty and even if didn’t get the swine flue epedemic, bad economic time could easily spread like a variant of the flu.

The ice is out, not even the end of march and it is melted and swept down the river to elsewhere.  However, being a Mainer, I can’t help thinking there is one more snow storm, let alone countless rain storms of epic proportions, just around the corner. 

Sugarloaf  got 5 inches this last snowstorm and they need cold weather to groom.  We need a hard freeze that turns the sloppy snow into ice crystals that will grind and groom and then turn into corn snow on a warm day.  I hope I get too busy with work and can only ski on the weekend, maybe one afternoon a week.  Then I want meditation gardens to take off.

Sal and Jon visit Jana in NYC

We flew down to NYC on  Sat am and could not get into our hotel, the Desmond Tutu center, on 10 Ave at 20th st until 3pm.  We left our luggage and walked to the Chelsea Pier, stopping at Numerous galleries on the way.  I love the little galleries, its much easier for me to process one or two artist than hundreds that you see in the major musems.  You look for the big events, but its the small moments that make the trip memorable.

I love Verrazzano bride, the longest suspension bridge in the US.   I thought the Tampa Bay bridge was the longest, but I am wrong.  I’d like to walk it some day.

We came to see Ellis Island, and as much walking around on a wet rainy day as we could do/

big snow at sugarloaf

It really snowed at Sugarloaf.    In the middle of it, the weather was intense. To get to the good snow one had to take this cut across from the t bar, since nothing else was running in the blizzard winds. It snowed on  Wed., thurs., fri., sat., and Sunday, and 64 inches of wet heavy snow fell.  The visibility was poor, the wind was howling, at one point your goggles got gunked up from the sleet, freezing rain, snow and ice falling, but it was great.  I got stuck on King Pine chair for half an hour when a breaker blew, but my legs were wobblely at the end of the day.  On Sat. the t bar lines were terrible, but i took long coffee breaks and hit little used trails.  I love the wild and wooliness of big snow storms, finding good snow, seeing your way far enough to feel like the fresh power is really under you.

       And then their was Geppettos for a break from bad lift lines, or poor visibility.  I stategically took breaks,  maximizing my runs, and resting from the vigorous physical activity.

Salinger on the porch

JD Salinger died recently.  He wrote several memorable books and then moved to Cornish, New Hampshire to get away from the hero worship, feeling that blind adoration was toxic and dehabilitation.  We seek to elevate ordinary people into gods and then are surprise when they fail.  I think Bode Miller said that in previous Olympic, and repeated it in Vancouver, where he won three.  The big media tries to find heros and elevate or crucify them, but then you didn’t live up to our expectations, our rating are down, we have to find someone else to fixate on.  The real heros are the people who finish 4th or 10th or 16th, often hundreds of a second from a metal, with no big endorsements, yet working just as hard.

It’s fun to ruminate on a sunny, warm february day. on the strength of early season warmth. 

I never thought I be biking in Feburary but we’ve had days of sun and no snow.  The snow melts and less heat is radiated back, warming the air.  The ice jam is still there.  The rail trail is cool, shaded, narrow and wet, but spectatular with the ice jam, melting snow.

PROCRASTINATION OR ADD