And then some days you just want to mindlessly pedal and listen to music and say your how-you-doin’s to other people doing the very same thing. Monday was that day, so after getting caught up on work emails all afternoon, I hopped on my bike and headed out in the Labor Day humidity for a ride around the Druid Hill Park reservoir. Continue reading
Jones Falls Trail
Virginia Creeper Covering Everything But Two Tree Trunks in Druid Hill Park
Today’s ride took me over to Waverly and then up to Druid Hill Park for some laps around the reservoir where I could safely listen to a song or two on repeat. Halfway around the circle and I was zipping through clouds of gnats. I ducked my head down, but there’s no way out but through with these things. Not willing to hold my breathe for the long straightaway, I veered off the path and up over toward the Jones Falls Trail for air hopefully less filled with these tiny bugs. I stopped to snap this picture on the bridge over the falls on the way to the zoo. Continue reading
A Curve in the Jones Falls Trail From Druid Hill Park to Woodberry
I woke up well rested this morning, a rather rare occurrence lately. I’m having this problem where I’m in such a lovely mood that I am trying to stay awake long enough to not miss it. Thing is, I need sleep, and I got a good lot of it last night, which meant I was pretty much immediately ready to hop out of bed and take a nice bike ride around town. I headed over to Druid Hill Park where the neighborhood was doing laps–walking, jogging, high-stepping, and bicycling. It was a bit crowded, so I took the left off the reservoir path and onto the Jones Falls Trail, under tree canopies and around the arboretum, dodging zoo traffic and disc golfers, and then I was headed down the hill to Woodberry. I snapped this picture at one of the switchbacks on this prettiest part of the trail. It was all green and blue skies and a rare whisper of a cloud, and it felt so good, so at home, to be rolling down to another neighborhood for brunch. I ended up eschewing the newer, fancier choice for an old favorite, but that meant a ride along Clipper Mill Road in all its lushness for a short climb back to Hampden. And then I took the bike back toward Waverly for a stop in a garden to peek in on a beehive before spinning home. It was a perfect sunny Saturday morning, made inestimably better by traveling by bike.
Sunset Behind Bare Trees in Druid Hill Park on the Jones Falls Trail
I had one of those perfectly lovely days, the kind where you wake up where you’re supposed to be and spend your morning doing things you’re supposed to be doing, and then there’s a meeting, but then you’re on your bike riding through the park on an unseasonably warm day. That part’s wrong, but like so very many wrong things, it feels so good. It was like springtime on my bare legs as I pedaled along, I swear. Continue reading
Fall Colors on the Jones Falls Trail Behind the Zoo in Druid Hill Park
I didn’t feel like going for a bike ride or going to the gym or doing much of anything but crawling in my bed with a book after a long day of staring at my computalator waiting for words. But come on, I could at least go for a short ride, just up to the park and back, you know you want to. I Continue reading
Asphalt Patches on the Fallsway Cycle Track, Prison Stretch
My phone was trapped under groceries so I didn’t take a picture, but zomg let me tell you what I saw riding my bike around today. I rode down to Harbor East to check out a gym on a free pass and pick up some frozen raspberries from the expensive grocery store where frozen raspberries are actually pretty cheap. After getting over the shock and dismay that the store was out of soy milk (apocalypse is here!) I piled everything on my bike and headed back up the hill to home. Every time I get to Orleans I have to decide whether to stay on the Jones Falls Trail via the fancy new separated bike lane that’s been installed there or to take the lane. No brainer, right? Except the path isn’t finished yet, and there are these giant holes in it that make an easy ride into a steeplechase–not my favorite. I took the path today to avoid traffic, and lo and behold, they’ve patched over two of the holes with asphalt. It’s a stop gap, sure, but I need those gaps stopped, so I was pretty happy, especially since I know the planned finish date isn’t until early next year. I really wish they hadn’t started it if they couldn’t finish it, and I’m not sure why it can’t just be finished, but hey, I love seeing bike infrastructure being built–not because I can’t just ride in the street, which I do all the time, but because the only thing that is proven to increase the number of cyclists on the road is building facilities for it. And you know what I want? More bikes on the road, because more cyclists make all of us safer. Oh, and I also want no prisons, because prisons don’t actually make us safer, not in the ways I want to be safe. This cycle track keeps that in the front of my mind every time I ride home past Baltimore’s own little Prison Industrial Complex.
Looking Up the Railroad Tracks on Bush, Just After Severn
Today’s ride took me over to campus for the program’s end-of-the-year picnic, this time with dogs. I took my regular route down the hill, but I decided to stay on Dolphin, just to see where it would take me. The city isn’t in the kind of grid I’m used to, so I’m not always sure which streets are running which directions, but I had a hunch that if I stayed where I was, I might end up on Harlem Ave., which seemed increasingly likely as I crossed Eutaw and Druid Hill and Pennsylvania. Continue reading
Plexiglass Flag On The Star-Spangled Flag House at Pratt & Albemarle
Well, it wasn’t all sunshine and blue skies like yesterday, but I was still excited to hop on the bike this morning for a ride around town. I headed to Hampden for brunch and some light reading and then to the Jones Falls Trail to snake my way downtown for a visit to the Lewis Museum and their new Dandy Lion exhibit. Continue reading
View of the Jones Falls Expressway From Druid Hill Park
Today was one of those rare empty days where I didn’t have a thing to do and nothing planned, so of course I couldn’t figure out what to do with myself. I stayed in bed reading with cats for as long as I could, but then I was restless. It’s cold and windy, so a bike ride didn’t exactly sound appealing. What’s a girl to do? Oh, I know–layer up and go for a bike ride! I wasn’t in the mood to think very hard, so I headed west to Druid Hill Park to do a few laps. Continue reading
Entrance to the Jones Falls Trail at the North End of Druid Hill Park
It’s New Year’s Day, which means it’s time for the first bike ride of 2012! If I’m being honest, I wasn’t really in the mood for it. I had a most lovely new year’s eve, and I was perfectly happy to stay in bed all day, lolling around and eating last night’s cheese plate, but you can’t miss a ride on the first day of the new year, right? By the time I was out of bed and ready to get on the bike, the rain had started to fall, but only in sprinkles; I was tired and the left side of my head felt like there was a party last night, so I decided to head to Druid Hill Park to do a couple of easy laps. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 