(no subject)
That was the most stressed I've been in a while, but it all worked out beautifully...
I took my bike for the test run to my office and back today, to make sure I could do it (both physically and figuring out the directions). On the way out, I second-guessed myself SO many times. The trail is not nearly as clear as google maps would have one believe. There are so many forks, but I finally did figure out that the ones that don't dump you in some neighborhood eventually all meet up and you can take basically any of them as long as you keep pointing yourself in the correct general direction. There are a few places where the trail crosses roads and I had no fucking clue where to meet up with it again, but was able to figure it out with a wee bit of trial and error. The gps on my phone is minimally helpful -- I mostly just used it to make sure I was still going in the right general direction, and also to see how much farther I had to go when I felt like I'd gone too far already.
Not counting stops to figure out directions, the ride took just over an hour, which is basically exactly what google maps said it would take. It rained on me a little, but it wasn't terribly unpleasant. It's flat almost all the way there -- the very last stretch is quite hilly, but it was manageable. I stopped and ate lunch at Chipotle and read a little bit before hopping on and coming home. The trip home was much easier to navigate, so I'm confident that now that I've done it once each direction, it won't be so stressful when I do it tomorrow. Still, I'm going to leave waaaay early to give myself plenty of time.
I'm really pleased with myself that I am capable of doing this. 21 miles!
I took my bike for the test run to my office and back today, to make sure I could do it (both physically and figuring out the directions). On the way out, I second-guessed myself SO many times. The trail is not nearly as clear as google maps would have one believe. There are so many forks, but I finally did figure out that the ones that don't dump you in some neighborhood eventually all meet up and you can take basically any of them as long as you keep pointing yourself in the correct general direction. There are a few places where the trail crosses roads and I had no fucking clue where to meet up with it again, but was able to figure it out with a wee bit of trial and error. The gps on my phone is minimally helpful -- I mostly just used it to make sure I was still going in the right general direction, and also to see how much farther I had to go when I felt like I'd gone too far already.
Not counting stops to figure out directions, the ride took just over an hour, which is basically exactly what google maps said it would take. It rained on me a little, but it wasn't terribly unpleasant. It's flat almost all the way there -- the very last stretch is quite hilly, but it was manageable. I stopped and ate lunch at Chipotle and read a little bit before hopping on and coming home. The trip home was much easier to navigate, so I'm confident that now that I've done it once each direction, it won't be so stressful when I do it tomorrow. Still, I'm going to leave waaaay early to give myself plenty of time.
I'm really pleased with myself that I am capable of doing this. 21 miles!