So, two weeks ago I stopped at Kmart to get a portable bike pump, thinking that some day I might get a flat.  Someday, after owning my bike for eight years, came today.  Amazing and lucky timing.

So.  From a rookie perspective, here is the deal with changing a flat, in order of importance.

1.  Buy a replacement inner tube and always take it with you.

If you have no idea how to change a tire, but only have a correctly sized inner tube with you, there is more than a passing chance that a good samaritan that has the correct tools and know-how can change it for you.  You can easily find your tire size on the tire itself.  It’s probably 26″.  If it’s not, it will be a number close to that.

2.  Buy a portable bike pump and attach it somewhere on your bike.

This is handy if you have a slow leak anyway, and you really should know how to use a pump if you’re on anything with rubber wheels.  If you don’t it’s easy to practice.

I picked up a junky little Schwinn one at Kmart that attaches underneath my beverage holder.  It worked well enough today that I shouldn’t complain.

3.  Buy a good portable tool set.

Useful for all sorts of reasons, but make sure it has a tire lever.  I had no idea what this was and actually threw one out.  However, I was lucky that my all-in-one tool set had one built in.  The one my wife got me years ago is the Topeak Alien II.  A little pricey, but I have been extremely pleased with it.

Okay – now even if you can’t figure the damn thing out, you’ve really got everything you need to change it.  You’ll be in good shape.

However, I did it just fine after watching a video like this. (I would consider watching this video “Step 4.”)  The key concepts for me was understanding the use of the tire lever in separating the tire from the rim, and making sure the air valve was lined up with the hole in my rim, so that I could actually fill the tire with air after mounting.  The last piece of advice that you might forget in your haste to fix the tire is to look for the offender probably still embedded in your tire somewhere.  If it’s still there, (mine was until I found it), you’ll install your spare tube, roll it right back over that bad boy, and have another flat.

I think the whole thing took me twenty minutes, including fumbling with tools and fighting with getting the tire back on.  I’m actually super thrilled it finally happened to me, so that I’d feel secure in my ability to do the installation.  It’s easy.  If I can do it, you can too.

So, for work I occasionally have to go to Washington DC.  This time, the timing and weather worked out to allow me to explore a local trail.  I had two choices.

The first is the Washington & Old Dominion Trail which runs through Northern Virginia, quite close to where I was staying for my work thing.  I had originally intended to ride a stretch of it, but decided against it for two reasons.  The first is that another regular event I attend is at a hotel directly next to the trail.  I’ve thought I’d take advantage of that on a future trip.  The second is that the trail appeared dreadfully boring on the reviews.

Now, I’ve no doubt that it’s a fine trail and I don’t mean to disparage it.  It looks to be quite popular and well maintained and even well placed for people to incorporate it into their commutes if they want.  However, the trail I’ve been dying to try, and worked it out so that I could is the C&O Towpath.  It’s been a goal of mine to someday take the trek on that and the connecting Great Allegheny Passage from D.C. to Pittsburgh, or really probably the other way around.

So, I rode a thirty-six mile round trip from Brunswick to Shepherdstown and back along the banks of the Potomac, and I was left with mixed feelings that I can sum up with the following observations:

• Crushed stone is not my ideal surface.  I’ve become spoiled by my local paved trails.
• The Potomac is a pretty river.
• When riding your first over-twenty-mile trip of the season, bring bike pants.

As a trial run though, the trip was a success.  It was neat to kind of get to know the C&O a bit.  I found it to be pleasant, a bit crowded at times, but definitely doable.  It’s a bit rough, but overall a well maintained trail.  The terrain is rugged, laced with historical and natural adventure.  I’ve come to appreciate the Allegheny River more, but the Potomac scenery held my attention a little better, I have to admit.  And it was neat to notch another notch in my bike trail belt and explore new countryside.

Finally, a nice day and a Saturday without plans coincide.  And I’m off for the first bike ride (northern bike ride) of the year, and I kept it local today, stretching my legs out on the Ernst Trail.  However, Google Maps’ recent addition of bicycle directions inspired me to address the following flaw in my biking regimen.

Take apart bike.  Load bike into trunk.  Drive the 2 1/2 miles through town to Ernst Trail.  Put bike back together again.  Rinse.  Repeat.

I’ve never been a fan of driving in traffic, but Meadville is a rather flat town, and with the recent reduction in stoplights, has become rather pleasant to drive through.  And as it turns out, it’s rather pleasant to bike through now, too.  Google Maps suggested a low-traffic route through town to the Ernst trailhead, which I amended through personal knowledge and a tad bit of satellite image scrutiny to see if I could find my way through the industrial section of town.  The results were quite pleasing.

I’ve found you gauge your surroundings a lot more carefully when you’re on two wheels rather than four, (and even more so on foot.)  However, this was the first time I’ve applied this knowledge to my own hometown.  And you know what?  Meadville up close is a fine little town.  Here’s why:

• Through planning or not, they’ve done a good job of funneling most traffic onto a few key streets, leaving other streets pretty clear for bicycling.
• As I alluded to earlier, replacing stoplights with four-way stops makes negotiating intersections on a bicycle much easier.
• Meadville drivers are generally respectful.  (Every town complains about their drivers, but when I hear people around here complain, I raise an eyebrow.)
• The downtown isn’t bustling, but there are plenty of stores and restaurants reachable by bike.  Meadville is no resort town or bustling shopping mecca, but it’s most certainly not a ghost town either.

I hope that a lot of this seems obvious to folks who live here or know the town, but keep in mind my dislike for riding in traffic.  Getting over this is going to be my goal this year.  I’ve been taking baby steps towards not treating downtown as an obstacle on my way to the grocery store, and this was just one more.  Downtown Meadville, here I come!

Spring is around the corner.  Every day when I walk outside and see the snow melt, I think about the state of the trails and where I plan to go this season.

Google has helped to make this task a little easier with their new mapping feature in Google Maps, directions for bicyclists.  I think it’s a good and exciting first attempt, although some of my test routes leave a little to be desired.

Pros:

• Incorporates the RTC Traillink database and highlights known bike trails directly on Google Maps
• Routes you based as much on elevation change as direct route, avoiding hills and highways
• Gives you a conservative time estimate on how long it will take you to bike

Cons:

• Takes the RTC data a little too literally.  Some of the trails it wanted to send me on I know to be a bit rough
• One practice route I tested sent me on what I know to be a limited access highway.
• No Canada!  Boo.

Overall though, I am really pumped and it’s got me looking more outside of Pennsylvania now for possible excursions.  2010 is going to be fun!

Impressive.  The Stavich Bike Trail is back.

With wife and little man off visiting relatives prior to Thanksgiving, I decided to give this unsung trail another shot.  I tried going down in May after being really sick and only got about five miles in when I ran into a construction crew repaving.  But, good news, because this trail needed some serious TLC.  It used to have pot sinkholes that would swallow a wheel and definitely dismount you if you had the misfortune of aiming for one.

I searched the web over the summer and had trouble even locating contact information to find out if construction was complete, which made me nervous that maybe they never finished.  Stavich doesn’t seem to have the local community backing that many other trails do, maybe I’m wrong?  (Please if someone is reading this who knows more, correct me in a comment!)  So I took a chance today, since a ride this late in the season is really bonus time anyway.

PA side is completely repaved.  Gorgeous job too.  What a difference.  I am definitely adding Stavich back into my rotation of trails.  It’s on an old inter-urban trolley line that used to run from Youngstown to New Castle, so it’s neat in three ways.  One, the trolley apparently didn’t need the flat grade of a mainline rail, so there’s a few semi-serious grades for a rail trail.  The new pavement makes those grades a LOT more tolerable.  Two, you ride within about two car lengths at times next to an active rail line.  I’ve never ridden Stavich without seeing a train.  Today I saw three, one that had to have 50 cars on it.  Really neat.  Three, which I’ve already made mention of, it crosses the OH/PA border, which is a neat twist.

There’s a little town right on the trail (Lowellville) with a restaurant and convenience store.  In fact, if you’re coming into Lowellville, you might think the trail is done, because it empties out onto Liberty St.  It’s not done.  Ride on Liberty for a fair bit – you will see the trail continue at the end of the street.  There’s hardly any traffic in Lowellville, but it has plenty of picnic tables, so if you want to plan for that, it’s a great place for lunch!

Today was a good freebie ride.  It’s gotta be the last of the season, indian summer can’t hold on for much longer.  I like the late fall rides because without the leaves, the trees reveal a landscape rich in features you wouldn’t normally see.  I followed the Mahoning River (the Mighty Mahoning as my 12th Grade English teacher wrote in a poem) along most of the route today.  During the summer, you don’t see it too well.

And as always, sorry for the infrequent posts.  This is really an RSS kind of a blog rather than something you should visit on a regular basis expecting updates.

I had a conference in Harrisburg last week, so I took the opportunity to look on trail link for a good trail, and boy did I find one.

There is a single continuous crushed stone trail running roughly 45 miles from York PA down to Hunt Valley MD on the northern outskirts of Baltimore, the Heritage Rail Trail and the Torrey Brown (North Central) Trail.  I drove down on Saturday night and stayed at a Holiday Inn in York that I found on Priceline and got up early Sunday to ride the trails.  Unfortunately, I had to drive all around York looking for a Dunkin’ Donuts, since I was down south and had no hope of having Tim Hortons.  Oh, well… When in Rome?

I drove to the trailhead in Railroad, PA, figuring I’d ride the 43 miles south to Baltimore on the North Central and back and if I had anything left when I got back, I’d press north towards York.  I didn’t figure on doing the whole trail because I had to be back in Harrisburg by 3-ish.  Railroad is a good spot to go from, there is a little B&B right next to the trail, practically on it.  There are a lot of food options in the Shrewsbury/New Freedom area, from chain to local fare.

The trail is a little rough in spots north of the PA/MD border from some erosion problems.  Also, you are riding along side a real railroad track.  I read in some places it was active, but I seriously doubt that.  The track abruptly ends at the border, which is also I think the high elevation point of the trail.  Keep this in mind, because there is a slight but noticeable slope from the border to about ten miles in on the Maryland side.  The way down I thought to myself that it was going to be a hard road back, and it really was.  By the time I got back, I was beat and looked forward to riding back through York to find something to eat.

The crushed stone reminded me that I really need a fender – I had stone/slug/mud gunk all up my back and seat.  But the MD side of the trail was in pretty good shape and a really pleasant ride once the morning dew dried up.  It got a little busy south of the Monckton trail head as I got into metro Baltimore, but not unpleasantly so.

I don’t know if I would drive five hours just to ride this trail, or it’s sister trail that I never finished to York, but if I’m back for business next year, I may very well give the rest of it a go.

I think it goes back to when I was twelve or so, and we drove through Ontario.  On our way north on the QEW, I watched the hillside in the distance – the Niagara Escarpment.  It’s one of the neatest topographical features I’ve seen, stretching across southern Ontario, just pretty much one long steep hill rock formation.  At its base lies Hamilton, so driving into the city from the south over the escarpment is very neat.  You’re eye level with the tallest buildings and then you work your way down to lake level and into the city.  Hamilton reminds me a lot of Pittsburgh, both in character, topography and the apparently drunken city planners who laid out streets while under the influence. (Well, Hamilton isn’t that bad, but get over to Dundas area and you can get lost easily!)

So biking the escarpment is a nice diversion from my usual flat trails. There are three good trails I’ve done that climb it in different spots, the Niagara River trail, Welland Canal trail and the Hamilton-Brantford Trail. Since I’ve done the first two more recently, last night I made my annual pilgrimage to Canada, stayed overnight just outside Hamilton in order to bike the Hamilton-Brantford Trail this morning.  The trail is roughly 40 miles from Hamilton to Brantford and back. Because I haven’t found a Canadian counterpart to the unparalleled Traillink, I’ve mapped the trail out pretty accurately below on Google Maps, while it was fresh in my mind.

The trail itself is mostly crushed limestone, although it does contract to muddy dirt tracks in a couple of spots. The trail was in pretty good shape today though, so I can not complain about the conditions. Starting at the Ewen Rd. access point, which was a little tricky for me to find, the first seven miles or so are up, up, up the escarpment. I had to stay on a middle/low gear for most of it, and it took me a good hour to climb, but it was never hard enough that one would consider getting off and walking your bike up. Once you climb the escarpment, there are a lot of good straightaways through the rolling farmland of Brant. Not much in the way of amenities that I could see, not even vending. There’s a tricky bit when it goes underneath the 403 – brake with care and watch for bikers coming the other way. Also, the wooden bridge a little under a mile later is very rough!

The trail itself ends in Brantford, but it connects up with the Gordon Glaves trail, which in turn connects up to the S.C. Johnson trail and Cambridge-Paris trail, allowing you to pretty much bike on dedicated path from Hamilton to Cambridge. I’ve done nearly all the sections, so I might review a couple more upcoming posts. The short review is the Hamilton-Brantford section and Cambridge-Paris sections are the best, the middle is not as pretty and in some spots downright hard to manuever. The S.C. Johnson trail also broke my bike last year, on the ill-fated trip that also almost did in my car, so I’m a little biased against it. (It also reminds me of Windex…)

Anyway, as far as diversions for me for my overnight stay, I was pretty lame and ate at Boston Pizza (yuck), Timmies (of course), and Harvey’s (weak poutine is still better than no poutine.) Timmies was a unique experience as I went to one that was immediately to the right of, well, another Tim Hortons in a gas station. There were literally two marked lanes in the parking lot for drive-thru, one that went to the left (gas station), the other to the right (real Timmies). Also, there is an Ikea in Burlington, so I stopped and got gifties for wife and young’un.

We had perfect weather today, so I took a nice 31 mile ride on my favorite trail hands down, AVTA’s Allegheny River Trail.  I know, I know… I sung the praises of the Sandy Creek Trail in an earlier post, and that is the best, mile-for-mile trail I’ve ever been on, the Allegheny trail is long, has plenty of access points and is just a great flat, smooth, all-out rockin’ trail.  It only really gets busy in and around Franklin, which is the primary trail head.  It follows the Allegheny River pretty much its entire length, which can get a little monotonous, but the valley is really gorgeous, so really, I take that back.

The trail goes much longer.  If you start with the connecting Justus Trail in Oil City, it’s 37 miles of consistent paved trail along the river.  It has the unparalleled Kennerdell Tunnel in the southern portion, which is 3/4 mile long and has a bend.  (Key here – you can not see the end of the tunnel until you make a turn, extremely disconcerting, and downright dangerous without some kind of artificial light.  I’ve escorted unprepared bikers through it.  Bring. A. Light.)

The easiest trailheads to get to are Franklin, Emlenton, and Oil City.  Belmar is a nice one to get to, because it’s an excuse to go across the Belmar Bridge on the Sandy Creek Trail.  The southern/middle sections are a little more isolated to get to by car.  There used to be a portage section due to some property acquisition problems, that was a little difficult to traverse, but they have paved around that now, so you can get from beginning to end without a problem.  I haven’t attempted to go south to Foxburg before, I’ve only gone down to Emlenton.  I’m not entirely clear if the trail picks up again after you go through Emlenton.  Maps I’ve seen still have you riding along a state route to Foxburg.  (Foxburg Inn is a nice place to stay and/or eat if you’re driving into the area!)

First – The biking story:

It was a beautiful day today, and I got a chance to get home early.  Wife was in a good mood and she’s gotten the chance to get out and about quite a bit recently, so she told me to go biking before dinner, so I headed down to Goddard State Park, which is one of my least favorite rides, but some of my favorite scenery.  Moreover, it’s a short, twelve mile loop, so it’s one I could get in before dinner.

Yes, Traillink says it’s 23 miles, but that counts the side paths and whatnot.  It’s twelve miles of very well-maintained state park trail, asphalt the whole way.  The reason I don’t like it so much is that it’s a LOT of short up and down hills.  Your wrist will get tired changing gear, because it’s almost constant.  There’s only one hill that I can’t make it up without getting off the bike, but a few that really push me too.

The scenery is beautiful though.  The trail circles Lake Wilhelm, a man-made lake with lots of picnic, fishing and boating opportunities.  And, it’s a loop, which is refreshing.  Most of the trails I take, I have to double back and repeat the scenery all over again.

So, now the “threat” part:

We recently went to the midwest and tried to enter an Indiana state park, just to have a picnic lunch, and they wanted seven bucks!  We couldn’t believe it.  Pennsylvania has such fine state parks and they’re mostly, if not all, free.  However, the Erie Times-News reported today that the state of Pennsylvania was considering closing half its state parks, including Goddard and even more alarmingly, Oil Creek State Park, including the famous Drake Well.

After reading a lot of the politicking behind the scenes, this looks like a war between DCNR/DEP and Senator Mary Jo White from Oil City, PA over funding issues….  There are a bunch of very nervous sounding press releases on her website, as it looks like she’s trying to weasel and worm her way out of looking like the bad guy on cutting DCNR/DEP funding.  I wouldn’t be surprised if DCNR specifically singled out Oil Creek since it’s in her district.  Hopefully the politicians will get down to business and make the decisions that make the most sense for Pennsylvania.

USA Today had an interesting article today about Google taking its street view off-road and recording bike trails.  I’m not a huge fan of street view for privacy reasons, but I’ve been known to scout out a hotel on street view just to get a sense of the neighborhood, particularly industry or railroad tracks nearby.  This could be very exciting if they can really apply this technology to scout out what kind of conditions will meet you at the trailhead!