And then the other way
Another weekend with nice weather, another bike trip, this time in the other direction: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4107998
Twelve miles today. Trying to be home in a semi-reasonable time, so gave up on getting to Mapel View Farm (17 miles at least). Hit a few roads I'd never been on to the west of here. Found one really nifty pond, with geese (and not just Canada Geese), ducks, and a Great Blue Heron. I was excited because it was one of *very* few ponds I'd found not totally surrounded by "No Trespassing" signs. Then my mood came crashing down when I got around to the other side of it and some dude in his driveway told me I was on private property. *sigh* Outwardly, of course, I politely but vaguely apologized, but inwardly I was like "Oh come onnnnnnn, cut me a friggin' break, whine whine". The gravel lane I'd turned in on had a nice green street sign like any other public road, though I suppose that's not actually a guarantee. Vaguely curious if I could look it up in county records, but honestly I doubt he was lying so it's probably not worth bothering. But seriously, I'm one dude on a bike, it's not like I'm ripping stuff up in an ATV, or making an appreciable amount of noise, or leaving any litter, or actually going through anyones yard.
...sorry, venting there. Finding nearby public access that isn't boring gets hard, especially when I've exhausted most of the public forest and state park sections that I can reasonably get to and back in less than a couple hours. Though I did notice one other section of Duke Forest northwest of here that I should check out sometime.
Speaking of private property, in addition to a lot of no trespassing signs I saw one today that said "grounds not open to the public", but with a number to call for appointments, and no further explanation. Huh. A little googling shows it to be Moorefields, an estate built by a Supreme Court justice in 1785. (pic on wikipedia) You can pay to have group events there, but theoretically there's also free tours at some completely unspecified time.
Twelve miles today. Trying to be home in a semi-reasonable time, so gave up on getting to Mapel View Farm (17 miles at least). Hit a few roads I'd never been on to the west of here. Found one really nifty pond, with geese (and not just Canada Geese), ducks, and a Great Blue Heron. I was excited because it was one of *very* few ponds I'd found not totally surrounded by "No Trespassing" signs. Then my mood came crashing down when I got around to the other side of it and some dude in his driveway told me I was on private property. *sigh* Outwardly, of course, I politely but vaguely apologized, but inwardly I was like "Oh come onnnnnnn, cut me a friggin' break, whine whine". The gravel lane I'd turned in on had a nice green street sign like any other public road, though I suppose that's not actually a guarantee. Vaguely curious if I could look it up in county records, but honestly I doubt he was lying so it's probably not worth bothering. But seriously, I'm one dude on a bike, it's not like I'm ripping stuff up in an ATV, or making an appreciable amount of noise, or leaving any litter, or actually going through anyones yard.
...sorry, venting there. Finding nearby public access that isn't boring gets hard, especially when I've exhausted most of the public forest and state park sections that I can reasonably get to and back in less than a couple hours. Though I did notice one other section of Duke Forest northwest of here that I should check out sometime.
Speaking of private property, in addition to a lot of no trespassing signs I saw one today that said "grounds not open to the public", but with a number to call for appointments, and no further explanation. Huh. A little googling shows it to be Moorefields, an estate built by a Supreme Court justice in 1785. (pic on wikipedia) You can pay to have group events there, but theoretically there's also free tours at some completely unspecified time.
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