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Electrical waywiser
May. 25th, 2011 11:26 pmI took advantage of the stunningly gorgeous weather with a 45-mile bike ride: up the Minuteman Bikeway to Bedford; west along the Reformatory Branch Trail, a raised packed-dirt path beneath high trees with some really fun undulations (or "fundulations"); around the Old North Bridge in Concord, where the "shot heard round the world" was fired; down to Walden Pond, where I dabbled my feet in the water and enjoyed the bikini weather ( :D ); then back east along the Battle Road to the Minuteman Bikeway. The Battle Road is a series of crushed-stone trails running through the Minute Man National Historical Park, which is just filled with close, cool woods and life-crammed marshes and rolling farmland and picturesque old stone walls. Every now and then, a helpful sign explains why that big boulder or the other stone foundation is interesting; less frequently, a small plaque, often accompanied by a plastic British flag, says "NEAR HERE A BRITISH SOLDIER IS BURIED." It's a pretty, pretty ride, sprinkled with historical color; I wish I'd had more time, and my legs been less tired.
If you're interested, I mapped the ride with the little bike GPS my parents got me for my birthday. It's a Garmin Edge 500, and it keeps track of ten zillion things (you can see graphs of speed and elevation at the above link, and note, for instance, that my speed goes way up after I've crested a hill). It takes a bit of doing, but it's possible to import a Google Maps path into the GPS, which then does a number of things for you: displays a graph of upcoming elevation on one screen, shows a breadcrumb trail of where you're supposed to go on another, and (if you program them in manually) lets you know when directions and waypoints are coming up (e.g. "turn left on Lexington in 1.2 miles" and "highest elevation in .2 miles"). It lost the GPS linkup a few times, and I had to backtrack a few times when it beeped "OFF COURSE" at me (if you zoom in on my map you can see where!), but I found it very easy to follow, and never had to check the map I had in my pocket. It freed up my mind, too — instead of wearily wondering when a given leg would end, I could say, "Okay, only half a mile to the Great Meadows, and then it's only a couple of miles until the uphill part of the Minuteman is over." It seems like a good compromise between idiot-proof turn-by-turn GPSes (which I dislike, because they sap all the fun and adventure out of orienteering) and riding blind.
If you're interested, I mapped the ride with the little bike GPS my parents got me for my birthday. It's a Garmin Edge 500, and it keeps track of ten zillion things (you can see graphs of speed and elevation at the above link, and note, for instance, that my speed goes way up after I've crested a hill). It takes a bit of doing, but it's possible to import a Google Maps path into the GPS, which then does a number of things for you: displays a graph of upcoming elevation on one screen, shows a breadcrumb trail of where you're supposed to go on another, and (if you program them in manually) lets you know when directions and waypoints are coming up (e.g. "turn left on Lexington in 1.2 miles" and "highest elevation in .2 miles"). It lost the GPS linkup a few times, and I had to backtrack a few times when it beeped "OFF COURSE" at me (if you zoom in on my map you can see where!), but I found it very easy to follow, and never had to check the map I had in my pocket. It freed up my mind, too — instead of wearily wondering when a given leg would end, I could say, "Okay, only half a mile to the Great Meadows, and then it's only a couple of miles until the uphill part of the Minuteman is over." It seems like a good compromise between idiot-proof turn-by-turn GPSes (which I dislike, because they sap all the fun and adventure out of orienteering) and riding blind.
