A lot of time to think, because I just kept getting honked at.

I’m an experienced road cyclist. I ride on the right, as close to the fog line as safe and reasonable; I signal my turns and stops, and generally crank a straight line. I do not ride with an iPod or anything else in my ears. So I don’t think the honk is meant as scolding, unless it’s scolding for daring to be a cyclist. In which case, the sound of your horn, while unpleasant, will not cause me to stop cycling, or stop cycling on the road.

Usually the honker is somebody who is passing me, so perhaps the honk is meant as a courtesy to say “hey, I’m passing you!” You know, in case I didn’t notice the deafening clatter and roar of your big machine coming up behind my relatively silent bicycle. I don’t think it’s that either, because the honk nearly always happens at the end of the massing manoeuvre, when the motorist is already in my field of view. Here, there is no further information that the honk can add.

I should add, in fairness to these motorists: they all passed me properly, by going at least partially into the left lane to leave lots of space between my elbows and their wing mirrors. This is unfortunately uncommon enough to be remarkable. There are some of motorists in the wold who think that as long as a stationary car and bicycle could fit side to side in a travel lane, they can pass at 40 mph without moving to the side at all. Here, it is a good thing that Mass drivers think lane lines are only suggestions.

The route starts in Lowell, heading south on MA 110 to MA 4, and following that road to Bedford, MA. It’s a steady, gentle climb from the start to the Billerica line, then after a slight dip, a steep uphill slog for a mile and a half to Rangeway Road. “Steep” here is not more than a 2% grade, but around here that’s practically vertical. From here on to Bedford it’s basically flat. In terms of scenery, this section progresses rapidly from urban to suburban to rural, past marshes and meadows and forest, with beautiful crossings over Russel Mill Pond (mi. 6.5) and the Concord River (mi. 9.5). From Lowell to Bedford is completely exposed to the sun, so bring sunglasses and sunscreen.

Halfway through Billerica I realized that I had forgotten my helmet in Lowell. Oops. That’s important. But given that the highway riding was nearly done, I decided it would be safer to press on than to retrace it all.

At Bedford, there’s a Whole Foods just off the road, and I decided that Sushi would make the perfect mid-trail snack. I was right.

Across the street from the Bedford Whole Foods, a brief jaunt down Webber Ave to Loomis St puts you at the northern terminus of the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway. The trailhead is a little tricky to find–it’s behind the old Boston and Maine railroad car. On a nice day, follow the bright yellow spandex.

The bikeway is an 11-mile green tunnel, under almost 100% forest cover. Sunglasses went in the panniers here. The trail passes through the towns of Bedford, Lexington, Arlington and Cambridge before ending at Alewife Station. Frequent road crossings are marked by stop signs on the trail, and local motorists are very good about yielding to walkers and cyclists. The busier crossings have traffic lights with trigger buttons for the trail users. In Lexington, the trail passes by a town park where there was some kind of concert going on that the entire town seemed to have turned up for. Just past the park, across from the Seasons Four nursery is a huge patch of wild raspberry bushes, which made for a convenient water and berry-picking stop.

At the Lexington Arlington line, the trail crosses south of Arlington’s Great Meadows, a 180-acre virgin wet meadow with hiking trials around its uplands. At Arlington Center, the bikeway breaks and requires you to ride for a block along Mass Ave, but the signage is good and again, there are always other cyclists to follow.

At Alewife, follow the signs to Davis Square via Linear Park, which is a multi-use trail paved on top of the red line subway connection between Davis and Alewife. Again, there is a slightly awkward crossing over Mass Ave. This part of the trail is narrower and has more pedestrians and dog walkers, so use caution. On yesterday’s ride I nearly had to stop to avoid a small, curious dog whose human was so lost in her iPod that she had no idea it was running straight for my bike!

At Davis Square, the trail is done. Ice cream, beer, and BBQ are good options here. Map of the route below

August 5: Morning at Brooks Lake is gorgeous!  We filled up our H20 at the lake, and I shot the panorama shown in the previous post.  After some trouble with the stove, we had Quinoa cereal that Adrienne made for breakfast.  The last time I had quinoa for breakfast was years earlier while hung over, and although I had loved it before, it was so vile that day that I had not easten it since.  Today, quinoa and I are friends again.  Rowan is not impressed.

US 26 is under construction through Togwotee Pass (Elevation 9 653 feet above mean sea level).  Only one lane is open and traffic must stop and wait for an escort vehicle.  Travel is very slow, and very dusty.  Thank the gods we didn’t try to do this last night!

We finally arrived at Grand Teton around noon.  We went straight to the Jenny Lake, which is the access point to the Teton Range and the center of hiking and mountaineering activity in the park.  We went to the information desk at the Jenny Lake visitors’ center, and discovered that the info ranger was a self-righteous twit who didn’t listen to questions before answering them.  I asked him about an easy one night backcountry trip, suitable for a party including a child and an elder.  He recommended Cascade Canyon to Hurricane Pass!  For those who don’t know the area, that’s a 3,300 foot climb that’s only an “easy” trip if you are a mountaineer!  We also asked about top roping and he told us “we don’t really use that practice here in the park, because we believe in loving our mountains, but not loving them to death!”  Less sloganeering and more facts please.  Top-roping is entirely consistent with clean climbing practices, and what he should have told us–the correct answer–was that there are few sites in the park with walk-up top access, and most of the top-rope sites in the area require one person in the party to lead the route (some sport, some trad) in order to set the top-rope anchor.  He did mention Bouldertown, which is one decent top rope site in the area.  More on Bouldertown later.

The ranger at the ranger station was more helpful.  He told us that non-strenuous hiking is limited to lakeshores, and got us a last-minute campsite at Leigh Lake.  Lunch was Indian pouch food at the String Lake day use area, which we should have had for the previous night’s dinner–had we eaten.  Rowan took YEARS to eat it.  We got started down the 2.4 mile trail around midafternoon.  The hike was uneventful, pretty, and short.

We arrive and pitch camp in the late afternoon.  Rowan helps us by taking photos, then putting in tent stakes.  After pitching  camp, we play in the water for a bit.

Pitching Camp

Photo by Rowan

Ranger told us that we were allowed to burn dead and downed wood, but we don’t need much, because the Venture Crew before us left a great heap of seasoned, split wood.   Lucky thing, because we forgot to refuel the stove before leaving on this hike.  Dinner is Capellini with Pesto.  We forgot to bring oil, so the Pesto was a little dry, but scrumptious nonetheless.  Rowan hated it, the rest of us loved it.

Bear protection in the Tetons consists of large steel boxes cemented into the ground.  Forget your ammo crates and BearVault Brand portable canisters, this thing is the real deal!  When you close the lid, steel tabs with holes in pass through slots in the door, and a pair of carabiners through the holes makes the thing totally bear-proof.  No way to open one of those without opposable thumbs.  Take that, Yogi!

Adrienne and I stayed up late, but too much talk of bears as the fire was dwindling scared us off to bed.

]]> http://borealnemeton.org/outdoors/teton-arrival/feed 1 http://borealnemeton.org/outdoors/wyoming-2008-tlat http://borealnemeton.org/outdoors/wyoming-2008-tlat#comments Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:36:52 +0000 Borealis http://borealnemeton.org/?p=64 August 6, 2008
Around 7 AM

Gross Ventre Campground, Grand Teton N.P. 

This is my first real chance to write so far on the trip.  A recap so far:

August 3: Our 5 AM departure became a 9 AM departure.  We were planning to drive 13 hours today and camp at Badlands National Park, SD, where buffalo roam freely through the campgrounds.  Instead, we found a motel in Murdo, SD–population 612.  It was hard to find a room due to the huge population of bikers en route to the rally in Sturgis.  We got the “family suite” in a little hole in the wall motel there, and breakfast in a beautiful little diner–also full of bikers.  

Every town in SD has some little bit of kitsch to stop for: Wall Drug, the Corn Palace, etc.  We stop for none of it, but Adrienne remarks of the Corn Palace, “what else do you do in a state that doesn’t exist besides go see things that shouldn’t exist?

I took no pictures on the third–nothing was very photogenic that day, and what there was we didn’t stop for.  You’ll have to read below the cut to get to the first picture.  

August 4: Due to again getting a late start, not making expected progress yesterday, and multiple stops along the way, we realize that we won’t make Grand Teton NP tonight–at least, not in time to get a campsite.  I note that we are passing LOTS of National Forest campgrounds, and we agree to stop in one of them.  We identify Shoshone NF, near the park, as a potential target.  The road passes through the Wind River Indian Reservation, including the gorgeous natural wonder of Wind River Canyon–made slightly less beautiful by the fact that most of the inner cañon outside of the river is taken up by the freeway and the railway.  This is typical of US Indian policy, and must be supremely insulting to the folks who live there: we, the beneficent United States, will “allow” the Natives to keep nominal sovereignty over their cañon, but we shall “improve” it for them by paving it and running smoky trains through it.  They should thank us.  Really?  There’s no other route that I-90 could have taken?  That cañon would have made for such wonderful hiking and backpacking!  Now, admittedly, it makes for very nice driving…

We stopped in the town of Riverton for Ice Cream.  Yum!  But, more time lost.

Coming off the rez, Marj is interested in finding the earliest possible camp, due to worries about bear activity at night.  We try to reassure her that the bears do not think we are food, either at night or during the day.  But nothing short of getting a tent pitched and herself into it (bear-free) will calm her.  We turn off the road at a brown sign for a state campground around dusk, but we’re not sure how far back from the main road it is.  A very Western man in a felt hat with a big dog reassured us that it existed and wasn’t far, but after a couple of miles the majority of the party agreed to turn around and proceed to Shoshone N.F.    More daylight lost.

We stop in the town of Dubois, WY, and ask at a motel for directions to the nearest campground.  The proprietor gives us directions to the KOA campground, and a map that shows the Brooks Lake area of Shoshone NF being not-far-off.  I expressed my feeling of profound distaste for commercial campgrounds, and we proceeded to Brooks Lake.

We finally arrive in the National Forest around 2130, and after a tense trip up dark forest roads, we arrive at the Pinnacles Camp.  We are all too exhausted to eat, so we make camp and go to sleep with little fanfare.

Have I teased you enough yet?  Anxious for a picture?  So was I!  And now, I present the view from Brooks Lake the next morning:

Panoramic View of Brooks Lake: Continental Divide in Background

What’s an even better reason is the remarkable beauty of the Katskill* region. I am stunned by this part of the state every time that I drive through it, and I am even more able to appreciate it on the bus, where I can gaze out the picture windows and not have to worry about driving.

As we cross Beaver Kill** on NYS Route 17, I feel as if I I have been transported to another era–an era when smoke billowed out from the home fireplace early in the morning, when backyards had smokers to preserve the meat that was raised or hunted nearby. The bus driver told me on a previous trip that one of these little kills has some of the best trout fishing in the world, and I feel that something is missing in my life because I have not fished for trout (or anything else).

Perhaps during the summer I will come here one day with my Bar-Bri books, and catch a trout.

*This is not the conventional English spelling; it is the proper dutch spelling