Biking and Hiking and Kayaking: Be Careful Out There

Fighting Fahrenheit, Finding New Freedom

The Washington DC area has been in the grip of two forces driving daytime temperatures above 100 and causing night time temperatures to stay above 80:

1. Debt Ceiling Tug o' War Fever
2. It is July, it gets hot in July

So, Saturday am I did my favorite 35 mile loop around the Rock Creek and Capital Crescent trails. I got out early enough to beat both the crowds and the heat, and did it without stopping, total time about 2 hours for a bit over 17 mph average. It was 80 degrees out when I started, 91 and icky when I stopped.

I scored the ride a plus 2. I get one point when I pass someone on a newer, skinnier bike than my 13 year old Trek 520 and I lose one point when anyone on an equally old or older, as fat or fatter, bike passes me. Mostly I was passing 0-pointers, but none of them passed me. The big "pelotons" of club cyclists were all going the other way - sometimes I can rack up points by passing some of them, but usually they are blowing by me like I'm standing still.

Later that night we were first nighters with Jim and Jacquie, seeing a pretty funny "Horrible Bosses" (3 stars, 1 of which is strictly for the various views of a barely dressed Jennifer Aniston) followed by a great meal at Zen Asian in Burtonsville. No power-boating this weekend - it was just too hot.

Sunday Carl and I decided to brave the heat and do one of the middle segments of the Heritage Rail Trail in Pennsylvania from New Freedom to Hanover Junction. Carl decided he knew a backroads "shortcut" rather than take i-83 all the way, so we appeared to tour through Ohio and parts of Wisconsin dairy farm land before I got out the mapping app on my Blackberry and got us back on course.

We did 20 miles from New Freedom to Hanover Junction and back, under a nice overcast that kept the temperature within reasonable bounds. It looked like the rail car pumper people might be out on the tracks but we never saw them. Not a lot of activity out on the trail in general, and the local businesses don't seem to be doing all that well. The turnaround point at Serenity Station only had a few tables occupied, compared to its usually nearly full state - lot of heat wussies stayed home, I guess.

Biking, Boating, Birthdays and Bogart (Deanna) Before Blazing/Burning/Baking

I started the weekend off with a 40 mile bike ride from home, up through Montgomery County and into the hills of NW Howard County. In one short stretch of road I biked by the varying antenna farms of W3EKT, KC3D and W3LPL - aluminum is now a larger crop than corn in that area. At the 20 mile mark I stopped at a convenience store for some Fig Neutrons and water fill-up and another cyclist was there with a new Trek 520, which we compared to my 13 year old version - they went back to bar-end shifters, vs. my STI shifters, which I like better, and seemed to have added some rake to the top tube. 

Carole was going to pick me up when she was done biking with the Biker Chix, so I didn't have to do a loop and was just able to try out new roads. I went by the Izaak Walton League out towards Damascus and seemed to randomly choose the hilliest roads in the county. At about the 35 mile mark Carole called and she picked me up in Laytonsville right when the odomoter hit 40 miles and the temperature broke 90.

That night we had a surprise birthday celebration for Carl at Mike and Kathy's estate in Davidsonville, where we also gave Mike gag gifts for his recent birthday and his recent failures as a fisherman. Kathy made an unbelievable amount of great food, though Mike's laggard attitude as grill master meant we ate about 1am. Colleen practiced her post-Government retirement career as an Audi salesperson and convinced Rod tha a high-end Audi with winking eyebrow tail-lights and a built-in latte/pilates machine was much better than a Granola-munching Subaru. Carl received an Elecraft K2 kit to build, once he buys Coke bottle glasses so he can see the tiny components when soldering.

Sunday am Carl and I did the Tour de Aqueducts, about 20 miles on the C&O Canal towpath, centered around Point of Rocks. We went downstream to the Monocacy Aqueduct (above) which was restored a few years ago, and upstream to the Catoctin Aqueduct (below) where the restoration is almost complete - though the towpath is in horrible shape where the construction access was. While we were at the Catoctin Aqueduct a freight train was rumbling by and was then passed by the Amtrak Chicago Nooner on the adjacent track - two heavy trains going over the old stone B&O Bridge (in the background below) was an impressive sight.

It was only about 150 degrees outside when we finished the ride.

Sunday night all the Biker Chix, Jim and Jacquie and Carole and the Cousins and I all went to a free concert by Deanna Bogart at the Lurman Woodland Theatre in Catonsville, MD. We've seen her before - blues-centric, but eclectic, music with Deanna playing saxophone, keyboard, guitar, wolf bladder, live crickets, etc. There was a decent breeze, so the 212 degree temperature wasn't a problem.

The next day we took Carole's cousin Vickie and her daughters Emily and Olivia out for a boat ride. We went out on the Bay to make sure the Thomas Point Light was still there (yup) and then went back up the South River to the Glen Isle area to give the girls a spin behind the boat being pulled on a tube. We managed to flip Emily up in the air at about 30 mph, but Olivia wisely held on tight and practiced the universal signal for "Sloooow Doooown!!". The temperature was up to about 400 degrees Kelvin when we finished putting the boat away, so we stopped for a great lunch at the Annapolis Seafood Market in Edgewater. It was so hot, crabs were jumping into the steamer to cool off and the clocks had melted into Dali-like shapes. Just another day in the DC area summertime.

Boating and Biking from Lake to River to Bay

Carole and I started out the weekend by driving down to Lake Anna to spend the day with the Wyckoffs at their waterfront house. Their house is on the private side of the lake, which is warmed by the output of Lake Anna's nuclear power plant. The water temperature was about 97 degrees, while the air temp was "only" about 90 - you had to get out of the water to cool down. We had a great day kayaking, eating and boating around the lake but it was bracketed by very annoying bumper to bumper traffic on the way down and the way back in the Fredericksburg, VA section of the I95 "parking lot." I made the rookie mistake on the way back of thinking exiting I95 and going over to Route 1 would be faster to bypass the accident causing the backup on the return, which is pretty much like thinking stabbing yourself in the eye with a steak knife will feel better than hitting yourself in the head with a rock.

Sunday morning, Carl and I drove down to White Plains, MD in Charles County to ride on the relatively new Indian Head Rail Trail. This 13 mile trail runs from Rt. 301 over towards Indian Head, MD in almost an arrow-straight line on a paved, well-designed trailway that follows an old military railline that was abandoned around WWII. A lot of it is a monotonous green tree-lined tunnel, sort of like stretches of the C&O Canal towpath, but you go by several wetlands, a nice view of Mattawoman Creek and other scenic views. At the Indian Head terminus at Mattingly Avenue you basically end up in the middle of nowhere, but there was a sign for bike and kayak rental .5 miles away, so that is worth exploring.

Back at the start, after 26 miles in the 90 degree heat, I took advantage of the "Misting Station" but it is much quicker to just dump your water bottle over your head. From there I drove out to the South River to take a ride on our boat with Carole and Lauren. Out on the Bay, the seas were angry, my friends - pitching fits like an old woman whose girdle is too tight. The winds weren't that high but they were out of the south east and had a long "fetch" to build up by the time they reached the South River area. Combine that with all the mega-yachts out and it was a bumpy ride down to the Rhode River and back.

That didn't really bother the Pescatore women, who bravely relaxed and tanned their legs as I skippered them around. Coming back in to Turkey Point, the water is much more sheltered but the breeze was up a bit and the marina return dock was crowded. I decided to attempt to dock in-between two boats in an open spot that was barely longer than our boat. I managed to swing in without overly embarrassing myself or causing any loud crunching noises, and lo and behold - one of the boats was the SS Makowski, with Mike and Kathy just finishing unloading.

We did a bit of blah-blah-blah with Mike and Kathy, comparing notes on our voyages and then exited the 93 degree heat to go back to the real world - air conditioning!

I Hope GiveCorps.com Succeeds

I came across this cool idea that just started up: GiveCorps. Two Baltimore based women who saw success in the financial industry started an organization that is sort of like Groupon for non-profit causes in Baltimore. They call it "Give and Get" - you pick a cause you'd like to contribute to (that's the "give") and local merchants offer some discount as a reward ("get") if you contribute to that cause.

There's a limited selection of causes on their site today, but one of my favorite restaurants (Woodberry Kitchen) is offering $10 off any meal bill over $25 Sunday through Thursday as one of the "gets." Very cool.

The Biker Chix Kidnapped My Fourth of July Weekend

Another 4th of July holiday has come and gone, and once again I didn't see fireworks one. I started out the weekend with a 6 mile paddle on Triadelphia Reservoir. Nothing exciting -though I did conk a few turtles on the noggin as I sped along. Then, Carole and I went out with Jim and Jacquie as first-nighters to see "Larry Crowne", about the only new movie opening - four unanimous "what were they thinking??" ratings - but but followed by a great dinner at Spice Xing in Rockville.

Saturday is when those Biker Chix began to inflitrate my 4th of July weekend. I managed to get all four of them (we calculated that they do not yet equal the same age or weight as eight 28 year-olds) (but it is getting close - on the age side, only - or they would never have fit in my car, any car really...) and 5 bikes onto my Subaru Outlook and we drove to the Washington and Old Dominion Rail Trail at Goose Creek. I took off and did a high speed 16 mile ride to Purcellville where I spent several dollars at a home-grown lemonade and granola stand run by a 10 year-old Opie look alike. I turned around and started biking back and met the Biker Chix a few miles outside of Purcellville where I urged them to support the pint-sized entrepreneur while I continued back to the car, completing a nice 33 mile ride. I then drove back to Clark's Gap and parked to wait for the Biker Chix to finish their 21 mile ride. While I waited, I ate about a gallon of wild red raspberries from the bushes on the side of the road.

Monday I managed to escape the Biker Chix, and Carl and I did a manly bike ride on the North Central Rail Trail, from White Hall up to New Freedom PA. This section of the trail is mostly a 2-3 percent grade uphill until New Freedom but the reward is a nice downhill ride for most of the 14 miles on the way back.

The North Central Rail Trail is one of the best in the country. Like most rail trails, when it was proposed neighboring landowners fought it, picturing bikers stealing their VCRs and littering their yards with PowerBar rappers and peeing in the bushes. However, once rail trails get built, inevitably homeowners spruce up their landscaping, local businesses see revenues increase and the attractiveness of a nearby amenity like a bicycling trail causes real estate prices to rise.

The respite from Chix-dom was brief, as the Biker Chix forced Hunter Dan (Andie's husband) to kill, butcher and char tons of meat for a 4th of July barbecue, augmented with many fine side dishes and desserts baked up by the Chix who continue to prove that not only can they send their husbands to the grocery store, but when he comes home the Chix can use up all his Giant Shell gas discount points and make pretty tasty desserts.

But, that wasn't enough for the Biker Chix, noooo. On the final day of the extended celebration of when we declared independence from the British, they dragooned me into taking them out on the boat up the Chesapeake Bay to the Magothy River and Dobbins Island. We anchored there and as you can see, Andie proceeded to flex her calves in an attempt to lure young Zumba instructors over, while Sue called to get into the next Zumba class lead by the hot 28 year-old guy, Christine poured Watermelon juice on her white shorts to show what the hot Zumba instructor looked like when he sweated through his tight Zumba shorts and Carole demonstrated how he did rapid pelvic thrust Zumba maneuvers in his soaking wet, tight, white Zumba Shorts.

Sometimes (often, actually) I find it wise to distract myself from the estrogen-laden world of the Biker Chix, so I focused on nearby Little Island where years ago some guy caused a huge controversy by building a big house, with it's own faux lighthouse, without getting the proper permissions. Being rich enough to build such a house apparently means being rich enough to fight the powers that be - the house is still there.

While we sat anchored and the Chix dangled their legs from the boat's swim platform into the warm waters of Sillery Bay, a small plane made continuous counter-clockwise circles. We didn't put two and two together (luckily) until the way out when I noticed two official looking boats anchored at the center of the river and remembered someone had drowned there the day before - sure enough, they were still looking for his body. Luckily we did not have to play amateur "Quincy" medical examiners...

You can see a map of the Biker Chix's boat ride here.