9 straight days of bicycles

[BailOut]

Some folks live within the bicycle culture full-time. As of today I do not but I am 6 days into 9 straight days of bicycles.

Tuesday: Mountain biked the Galena Creek/Jones Creek/Whites Creek/Zolezzi "Beat Me Up" trails with the Tuesday Night Ride Group (Reno, NV).

Wednesday and Thursday: Attended the annual Nevada Bicycle and Pedestrian Conference at South Lake Tahoe, NV (I caught a ride to and from the conference and achieved zero waste for the whole time, including the party on the first night.).

Thursday night and Friday: Attended the League of American Bicyclist's "Traffic Skills 101" course in Carson City, NV, which included classroom time, skill drills and a group ride (I again caught a ride and achieved zero waste.). I strongly recommend this course for anyone that bicycles anywhere for any reason.,

Saturday: Took my Little Brother on a mountain bike ride on the Manzanita segment of the Steamboat Ditch Trail (Reno, NV). I don't know exactly what changed in that young man but all in one ride he figured out the 7-speed gearing on his bike (this has eluded him for several rides despite my attempts to familiarize him with it), gained a huge amount of stability and speed and actually attacked the rougher segments of the trail where he used to cower in that kind of terrain. I am so proud of him!

Today, Sunday: Bicycled the grocery run and some other errands (haircut, lunch, bike shop), a round trip of 25 miles. It was a heavier shopping day so my trailer was loaded with 80+ pounds for the return trip. Along the way I ran into a fellow that was biking from Boulder, CO to the West coast via Yosemite. We rode together for a while and I gave him some routing advice for getting out of town and towards Yosemite.

Tomorrow: I will bike to my wife's employer's home (mansion) after I finish our own yard work and gardening as he allows us to use his pool when he and his wife are out of town (which they frequently are). It's a 12 mile ride with a 1,000 foot elevation gain. I will be able to ride back with my wife as she will be driving there in the morning to do some work (she gets a comp day for this). When we get back home I'll barbecue and cook some corn in the solar oven.

Tuesday: I'll be mountain biking with the Tuesday Night Ride Group as usual.

Wednesday: This is my usual night to volunteer at the Kiwanis Club's recycling bicycle shop so that's where I'll be. It will be a little different as I'll be giving the initial training to 10 Job Corps folks, and I'm looking forward to it.

Thursday evening I think I'll relax.



This time last year I hadn't been on a bicycle in 20 years and couldn't wrench on bicycles beyond fixing flat tires but I have come a long way since then. I have become a stronger, smarter, more technical rider and a competent bicycle mechanic in the last year. I surprise myself sometimes. It is not feasible for me to ride to work as there is a 4,500 foot elevation gain and a 2-lane road with no shoulder in the way but, as you can see, when I'm not commuting I use bicycles for just about everything else.

If anyone is curious the road bicycle I use is a 1994 Schwinn CrissCross that I refurbished and my trailer is a years-old single-wheel B.O.B. Yak that I found on Craigslist and refurbished. Here's a picture: