Bike Rides Archive
These posts are all in this one category.
Down into the machtesh (it's not a crater!). This was a hot and sunny day!
Distance: 60 miles
The ride is over and I'm happy to say it was a wonderful success. The hotels, food, weather, and people couldn't have been more perfect. It was long, hot, and exhausting, and worth every mile of it.
Since I can't use my laptop (power supply is busted), I'm using a terminal in a Tel Aviv internet cafe to post this, and I'm about to run out of time.
The photos from the rest of the trip will be online soon after I return home on Sunday!
Day three of biking!
After being on road bikes for well over 100 miles it was a great change of pace and environment to hop on mountain bikes and take a rocky and hilly trail to a spring in the middle of the desert.
Today was the hottest day so far, and you'll see hardly any trees and lots of rolling rocky hills.
Distance: 67 miles including mountain biking
Second day of biking!
You'll see lots of photos from my favorite impromptu stop so far - an ostridge farm that went for miles and was populate with thousands of ostridges that could be seen in every direction.
Distance: 68 miles
First day of biking!
You'll notice from these photos lots and lots of trees!
Distance: 66 miles
Last day before the ride starts!
The first thing we did today was set our bikes up. Most people brought their bikes in shipping containers on the plane. I have a pretty crappy bike back at home so I opted to use one of their bikes - a brand new Fuji road bike.
After setting our bikes up and a picnic lunch we got a tour of the Old City again. You might recognize a few views from our first day in Jerusalem we entered a different gate and saw a few different things.
Tommorrow we'll be waking up at 4:45 to begin our jouney!
Photos from Day 1 are here!
- 10 hour flight from Newark, NJ to Tel Aviv, Israel. I caught up on Lost and started watching V for Vendetta.
- Arrive at our hotel - Mount Zion Hotel, a converted Turkish mansion.
- Explore the Old City - the ancient part of Jerusalem.
- Walk around Jerusalem, Ben Yehuda street, and other surrounding areas.
In preparation for IsraelRide next week my dad and I biked 75 miles on Saturday. It took us 8 hours, including some snack breaks and a stop for lunch. It was the longest he and I have ever rode in one day.
The weather was nice again on Monday, so I did it again - all 75 miles, but as fast as possible. I did it in just six hours. The best part is that I'm not even sore today. I think I'm ready for the IsraelRide, which totals about 300 miles over five days of riding.
The WO&D Trail - not too crowded on a Monday.
Speaking of the IsraelRide - which starts a week from today - it's not too late to donate. I've reached my goal of $3000, but I'd like to raise even more. It's a simple form, they accept all credit cards, 100% goes to the organizations I'm raising money for, and they'll send you a receipt so you can deduct your donation on your taxes next year.
Donate here:
http://arava.kintera.org/2006israelride/dylangreene
If everyone who reads my blog today gives just $10 I'd raise an additional $30,000!
On May 9th, 2006, my father and I will be joining 120 other amateur cyclists for a 300 mile 7-day bike ride across Israel.
My father and I have been training for the last 12 months. Before we learned about this neither of us had touched our bikes in years. We think we're ready for a trip like you see in the photo here.
Before I can go I need to reach my fundraising goal of $3000. Can you help? If I reach my goal by April 15th then I get first choice of bikes!
Donate here: http://arava.kintera.org/2006israelride/dylangreene
(Tax deductible - they'll mail you the receipt for your records.)
More about IsraelRide 2006.
Donations are for The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and Hazon to support environmental studies and environmental protection in Israel and peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, solidarity & partnership between America and Israel.
I'll be posting photos of this journey here on my blog. Thank you to everyone who has donated!
Digital Blue has created the Tony Hawk HelmetCam, a $99 helmet-mountable camera capable of recording 45 minutes of video on a memory card.
I think they are marketing this to the wrong audience.
They should be selling this to city bike riders.
When I was in New York for the 9/11 bike ride, I met a cyclist who was hit by a car. She now wears a helmet-mounted camera and a recorder that straps to her waist. If she is hit again, or sees somebody get hit, she'll have video evidence of who was at fault. Her setup was far more bulky than what is being offered by Digital Blue, and I wonder if this device would be a more ideal solution.
Digital Blue's web site, while attractive and blue, has just the one picture you see here of device, and no technical information. There aren't even even any sample videos. Has anybody given this device a try?
It seems like something all city bikers should have.
The weekend of September 11th, 2005, my dad and I drove up to New York City for a memorable weekend of sight seeing and biking.
The bike ride was the NYC Century Bike Tour, presented by Transportation Alternatives, an advocate for safety in bike riding. There were four tours available: 100 miles, 75 miles, 55 miles, and 35 miles. The tours all started in Central Park.
We did the 55 mile tour, which took us through New York City, over the Brooklyn Bridge, around Brooklyn, past Cony Island, up through Queens, over the Triborough Bridge, and back to Central Park.
This was my first time in most of these parts of New York. Riding over the Brooklyn Bridge was absolutely spectacular, especially with perfect weather and thousands of other bike riders on the bridge around us. My favorite part of the ride was through and around traffic in the city, passing familiar landmarks like the Lincoln Center, and cautiously zooming through traffic lights in packs of 15 or so riders.
My dad has a rule about going to New York - he can't leave without seeing a show. We saw two excellent shows - The Pillowman, staring Billy Crudup and Jeff Goldbum, and The Great American Trailer Park Musical.
We stayed in Jersey City and took the train in each day, which dropped us off at the makeshift World Trade Center station. On September 11th, it was powerful and emotional to be at the footsteps of the remains of the rubble as hundreds of people had gathered to lay flowers, cry, and pray for their missing loved ones.
This weekend I celebrated Father's Day with my dad in a bike ride from BWI to Annapolis and back.
We started in Thomas A. "Tom" Dixon Jr. Aircraft Observation Area, as airplanes were landing right beside us. There were a lot of people there watching the planes land and was an amazing sight each time the enormous plans passed by.
From there we took the new BWI Trail, which goes around the BWI airport
The BWI Trail connects to the Baltimore-Annapolis Trail. We took that all the way to end of the B-A Trail in Annapolis and then back.
The trails are paved, have few non-busy intersections, and are mostly in the shade and mostly flat.
It was just under 35 miles and took about 3 and a half hours.
Today Danny, Andy, and I went biking up the C&O Canal trail. I took photos along the way.
About the canal:
The C&O Canal follows the route of the Potomac River for 184.5 miles from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, MD. The canal operated from 1828-1924 as a transportation route, primarily hauling coal from western Maryland to the port of Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of original structures, including locks, lockhouses, and aqueducts, serve as reminders of the canal's role as a transportation system during the Canal Era. In addition, the canal's towpath provides a nearly level, continuous trail through the spectacular scenery of the Potomac River Valley. Every year millions of visitors come to hike or bike the C&O Canal in order to enjoy the natural, cultural, and recreational opportunities available.
Source: National Park Service Chesapeake & Ohio Canal web site.
Every Saturday and Sunday from 1pm to 4pm there is a free bike tour given by the National Park Rangers. It meets in front of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and you bring your own bike and water.
Yesterday I did the tour titled "Off the Beaten Path - Discover Lonely Landmarks" and it was a lot of fun.
The tour was lead by three full time rangers, and there were four of us in the group. We stopped at many memorials that I've seen driving by but never taken the time to really notice, and some that you would never find without being shown, such as the plaque for the first airmail delivery in US history, which departed from DC and was bound for New York, but the inexperienced pilot crashed in a field 20 miles in the wrong direction. The total ride was about 7 miles, and could be done by anybody but since we were on DC roads for some bits I wouldn't recommend small children.
The schedule of future tours is available as a PDF file.
Credit goes to my dad for discovering this great find.