Day 4 - Chicago!

Today's ride was a fitting finale. 90 miles in all (not bad, eh?), and the ride combined elements of everything we had seen so far. The morning started with beautiful and isolated roads with little traffic, then segued to busy and trafficky roads and then completely switched to serene and leafy bike paths. We were on three or four different paths during the course of the day, covering probably about 40 miles of the route. And I was happy to be on them, except when I stopped to stretch, when the mosquitoes descended en masse. Who knew Indiana and Illinois had so many bike paths? Even native Chicagoans on our trip were surprised. I say Indiana because we briefly passed through its northwest corner on our way from Michigan to Illinois (that's for those of you who, unlike my son, Ben, are not geography majors).

And, yes, of course I went swimming again in Lake Michigan when we stopped at about the 80 mile mark so that all 110 of us could ride into Chicago proper together. This time, however, a couple of other good souls joined me (although none had the, ahem, foresight to actually pack a swim suit and camp towel - I long ago learned that biking in wet bike shorts after a swim is the pits).

By the way, for those of you keeping track, this ride turned out to be a Climate Ride fundraising record, with a total of more than $400,000 raised. Yours truly, with your help (and a little matching action), exactly hit my $5,000 target mark. So well done all around! I Challenge Myself will get a nice check shortly.

Thanks again for reading and for your support. I hope to connect with you again when I'm next on the road.

And, of course, here is today's route and a few final photos.

Day 3 - Michigan's Revenge

So I think the gods of Michigan were not so happy with my lukewarm praise of Michigan bike trails in yesterday's blog post. So what did they do? They gave me 30 miles this morning of gorgeous isolated roads with low traffic and pretty darn good scenery. "Take that, Schwed!" I could hear them muttering....

And then they took me to the shore of Lake Michigan for lunch where  among 110 climate riders, I was the only one who decided to go swimming (son of Pete Schwed, for sure). Which, of course, had me bringing up the rear of the pack so I cut off the 15 mile loop at the end of the ride that took folks down to the town of Three Oaks and, instead, cut straight across the top of the loop towards our campsite where, conveniently, I came across Greenbush Brewery on the way. Need I say more? The faster riders were already there even having done the loop, but within the next 2 hours we had more than 60 bikes there, quaffing a wide variety of microbrews. (By the way, this was not on the official climate ride route, but certainly will/should be next year! )

Even with the shortcut it was a 65 mile day, so I don't feel that was too shabby. Especially with a 90 mile ride into Chicago looming for tomorrow (strike ominous chord here).

As usual, here is today's route and a few select photos.

Day 2 - Michigan as Wine Country?

The title says it all. Who knew? We spent a good portion of today's ride traversing rolling hills replete with vines of grapes - many of which were quite bushy (Concords I was later told). Of course, where there are vines, there are likely to be vineyards -- and even tasting rooms. Which Climate Ride did a good job of researching to find one that was really quite elegant - Cody Kestra - dare I say approaching California quality? And apparently this was not all that easy a task to do,  as a lot of the Michigan vineyards only make sweet wines (which would not have been well received by our group).

The only fly in the ointment? The location. The winery was at Mile 75 of today's ride. With 10 miles still to go! Yes, we rode over 85 miles today, and, yes, we rode the last 10 of it having tasted alot of wine.

Of course, before the winery, there was a lot of good riding. I even made peace with an old nemesis: they crushed limestone bike path - one of which we were on for over 20 miles today. It had the benefit of going through endless canopies of trees, which not only were gorgeous, but also provided lovely shade from a fairly hot sun. The trade off between the shade and the surface was an easy one to make.

Still, in all, Michigan is not at the top of my list of bike riding States. Maybe it was because it was Sunday, but on the road we had a lot of traffic and not great shoulders (although I will say that Michigan drivers, as a lot, are pretty good passers). The scenery continues to be pleasant, but really never spectacular. It's rural, but the population density is still high enough that there are a lot of houses all along the road, kind of marring any sense of isolation. To boot, few of the houses feature any particularly distinguished or cohesive architecture - although many do come with pickup trucks in their driveways (mostly Ford 150s) and rusted equipment in their yards.

But - there's a silver lining - after tomorrow, when we head into Indiana briefly and then into Illinois, I'll be able to sing "Michigan seems like a dream to me now..."

Today's lengthy route and, of course, a few photos (including last night's sunset from our camp):

Day One - Leaving Grand Rapids

Stop me if you've heard this before. How do you make a 53 mile day on your bike seem easy? Make sure everyone knows that tomorrow is an 80 mile day. Well they did and it was. Relatively speaking.

We started off in Grand Rapids and headed due west straight towards Lake Michigan, about a 30
mile jaunt. Made harder by the fact that there was a nice little 5 to 8 mile per hour headwind the whole way. And made easier by the fact that....well... it is the Midwest. It was pretty flat.

The scenery took me back to what I thought of Michigan on my cross country ride. Lots of trees, farms and open fields. Pretty in its own way, but not necessarily so pretty that you need to stop and take pictures all the time (although I did take a few).

We lunched at the edge of the lake, which was gorgeous, and then headed south this time aided a bit by the wind. The next rest stop provided the possibility of swimming in the lake, which, being my father's son, I did not (could not?) pass up. I'd actually planned for it and had been carrying a bathing suit and a towel with me on the back of my bicycle the whole day. It was pretty serene and wonderful. The water was quite warm and very wavy. Plus, a wedding was going on at the beach at the same time. What's not to like?

We're staying tonight in actual bunks at Camp Geneva. Yes, it's another Christian youth camp (Climate Ride seems to find a lot of those), but the lodgings are clean and the food is plentiful.

The evening program is about to begin (no, not the camp's, Climate Ride's), so I'll sign off, but not before leaving you with the day's route and a few pictures (if I can figure out how to post them with the tools at hand.....)

Training (of a sort) for Climate Ride Midwest

For those of you who have followed my bicycle travels, you know that I'm not a big fan of training for my long distance rides. Not because it isn't useful -- it definitely is -- even necessary one might say. It's just that it's....well...boring. And time consuming. And did I mention boring?

Don't get me wrong. I love biking. Obviously. But waking up and thinking, "Gosh, I've got to put in 40 miles today, and maybe tomorrow or the next day, so I can be ready in a couple of weeks for Climate Ride" does not inspire me particularly. Plus it takes a huge chunk out of the day. So what to do?

The answer, for me, was to make training a bit more fun and interesting. I like the Climate Rides, among other reasons, because they're new routes, new people, new experiences. So I figured I needed to make my training rides a bit more like that as well. Living on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, I tend to train on the same routes over and over, where I know the distances and climbs, typically going over the GWB and north on Route 9W. I could do it in my sleep at this point (that's a figure of speech, by the way, for those of you who might be a bit slow on the uptake).

So, recognizing that we were about to take a week of family vacation up in Truro, Cape Cod, before our boys both went back to their respective colleges, I decided to resurrect a ride I did in 2009 -- from New York to Truro -- with some adjustments. The adjustments primarily consisted of cutting it back from 6 days and 400 miles to 4 days and 240 miles -- otherwise I would be arriving after my family (which sort of defeats the purpose of a family vacation). I also did some small route adjustments just for the sake of variation and trying something new, but with a 5 year gap since I last rode the route this was not a particularly large concern.

And it was fun, interesting and excellent training! Maybe less so if I was training for serious climbing, as the whole route was relatively flat, but the upcoming Climate Ride is in the Midwest, after all.

I trimmed down the route this time around by taking a bus out to Peconic, LI, on the North Fork (with my bike underneath in the cargo bay). That basically cut out 110 miles and 2 days of not such pleasant riding (except, surprisingly, for some excellent Greenways in Queens!). From Peconic, I rode about 20 miles on gorgeous and empty back roads to Orient, LI, where I caught a ferry to New London, CT. And I was off!

And the timing worked out pretty well, too. I crossed the town line into Truro on my bike literally about 5 minutes ahead of Laura, Ben and Stephen in the car.

Here are the 4 days of routes, as usual, for those of you who might be interested, as well as a few photos:

Day 1 (the mileage reflects only biking, not the bus or ferry rides!):

Crossing the New London I-95 bridge (fortunately on the separate pathway!)

Day 2 (riding mileage overstated by about 8 miles for the bus ride needed to get across a bridge and into Newport, RI):

Lunch along the way, about 40 miles in, in Narrangansett -- not a bad spot!

Fully loaded bike perched on the front of the bus!

In Newport, along the water.

Day 3 (a long haul -- and without any busses):

Crossing the Bourne Bridge

Serious Canal traffic! (also below)

And the grande finale -- Day 4:

I Challenge Myself is on a Roll (Literally and Figuratively)

For those of you who have followed my biking adventures (and, if you're reading these words, that probably includes you!), you'll recall that much of my fundraising is channeled to supporting I Challenge Myself, the non-profit of which I've been Board Chair for almost 10 years. So I thought a report on their recent (and amazing) progress was in order.

First, on June 8th, the kids at ICM biked their annual Century Ride (100 miles), basically from Upper Manhattan to Carmel, NY, along the various Westchester bike paths, and back again. The picture at left was taken after the ride -- they don't look much the worse for wear! In fact, we had to pull them off the field behind them, where they were running around and playing Frisbee, in order to take the photo!

I rode with them again this year, and it was again an inspiring experience. The kids were playful, but careful and polite riders, and really looked after and supported each other on the ride. They also were pretty darn strong in the saddle. This year, we also also had more volunteers than ever -- supporting all aspects of the ride, from meal and snack set-ups, to driving sag wagons, to riding along with and encouraging the kids. It was a long day for everyone, but the kids really did a great job, and I'm not exaggerating to say that all the adults came away impressed with the whole undertaking and, I think, re-invigorated themselves by the good use of their donated time.

Second, a smaller subset of riders took off in late July on a multi-day summer bike tour program, covering almost 400 miles, of seven colleges in Upstate New York: Syracuse, Cornell, Binghamton, Oneonta, Cobleskill, Bard and West Point. Each visit included a guided campus tour and meetings with financial aid and admissions counselors. I just recently met with the kids, and the bonding, enthusiasm and excitement they all showed, having completed a challenge of this size, was extraordinarily heart-warming and inspiring. Please check out their Facebook page for some amazing coverage of this adventure! And if you can't be bothered with clicking the link, here are some photos for you without leaving this very page!

Last, but certainly not least, through the dogged determination of our Executive Director, Ana Reyes – ICM earlier this year received a 3 year Carol White PEP Grant, which is a US. Dept. of Education federal grant, worth over half a million dollars! It means we will be vastly expanding our program, including hiring additional staff, to reach more kids through a cross-fitness program that we hope will become a standard for physical education across all of New York City's public high schools. We'll still maintain our Cycling Smarts program and its Century Ride, as well as the College Summer Bike Tour, but this additional program will, we hope, be a way to get entire schools involved in challenging themselves!

Now I've never quite figured out whether getting a grant of this size positively or negatively impacts prior financial supporters. One reaction might be: "they've got a lot of money now -- they don't need my $50." The other (and the one we hope for) is: "wow, they're really taking it to a new level -- I want to be associated with this organization and support it more than ever!" Seriously, though, the grant does have an obligation to raise some matching funds that means that continued support from our best and earliest donors continues to be needed and much appreciated. End of pitch.

More posts coming soon about my upcoming Climate Ride Midwest ride -- which will be in support of both Climate Ride and I Challenge Myself. I hope you'll follow along.

Day 4: Quite a Workout!

Phew. Today was an 80 mile race against the clock. The timing was driven by having speakers scheduled at the Sacramento State Capitol at 3:30 with everything working backwards from there. So the organizers wanted us to have breakfast at six and break camp and be on the road by 6:30. Right.

Yours truly thinks he did pretty well by getting on the road by 7:15. But it did put a premium on keeping pace, so my photo taking suffered and, in fact, was in complete abeyance until the end of the day when we reach the capital.

Oh, and did I mention that there was a Category 2 climb 5 miles into the route? (Category 2 being the next to hardest climb out of the five categories, measured on a combination of duration and gradient.) About 1200 feet of ascent over the course of 3.6 miles. Ouch. (Take a look at the profile below). I usually give myself the goal of trying to make such climbs without taking any breaks on the way up, but that thought was quickly abandoned in this instance (For the record, ahem, I'm going to blame my lack of a granny gear). Three "breaks" later I was at the top, switched to a dry shirt (essential) and enjoyed a fantastic almost six mile long descent. So it wasn't a bad trade off.

And it was a great scenery day for the first half of the day. Going through rolling valleys and lush fields. It just had to be taken in while whizzing by, without a whole lot of stops. It can be liberating in a way, not to think about photos, and instead just focus on riding and riding hard, but, on the whole, I prefer a day like yesterday, where I could dawdle freely and liberally (and, yes, sample some fine wines).

The last half of the ride was less interesting, as we headed into Sacramento itself (there is actually a bike path that abuts route 80 going against traffic - efficient, but not particularly endearing). And frustrating, as we blew through Davis, the biking capital of the world in certain ways, with barely a glimpse. I would have happily stopped there and spent the night!

I'm writing this entry as we sit in a park in Sacramento waiting for the bus to come and take us back to San Francisco. It's been a fun journey - again! - and I thank you both for coming along with me on the ride and for your support.

Yours, from the road, until next time,

Roger

And, of course, here is today's route and metrics (and a smattering of photos from the end)

Napa Valley is OK!

Today was a really fun day. The weather was perfect, the route was a little bit shorter and more forgiving, and, importantly, there were a boatload of Napa Valley vineyards along the way.

So this blog entry will be short, because I sampled a lot of them!

Today's route and a sampling of pictures: