Post your ride pics

[bobco85]

Hey, I was just there about a month ago! I rode from downtown Chicago to the North Branch Trail which goes through the Skokie Lagoons before arriving at the Chicago Botanic Garden. You can then continue on the trail east to the Green Bay Trail which will take you southeast towards Evanston. I recognized the signs, especially the Forest Way Grove sign, from your pics.

Also, the North Branch Trail has a few of those bikeshare stations which confused me for a bit because I had only seen Divvy bikeshare stations around Chicago. The bikeshare is called Smoove http://chicago.smoovebike.com/ and is associated with Bike And Roll. It only exists in a few places around the forest preserves, which is a bit strange considering most bikeshare services aren’t based entirely around recreational trails.

[cvcalhoun]

My major thrill today: I’d been struggling with either lifting my 65-lb. bike onto the wall racks at my office, or jamming it into a way overcrowded wheelbender rack. While I’d seen this totally unoccupied wave rack, it had a big sign saying reserved parking. And when I tried to use it, an attendant told me I couldn’t, because it was reserved.

So today, I went to the manager of the garage, and asked how much it cost to get a reserved spot on the bike rack. And he told me it isn’t reserved at all–the sign just refers to the surrounding car parking, and the attendant was wrong. So for the moment at least, I’ve got this wave rack all to myself.

Yeah, I’m easily excited.

[bobco85]

Seeing consularrider’s pics inspired me to finish the last portion of my biking in Chicago video (it was 90% complete at the time), and it is now ready to view!

On my trip to Chicago, I went biking on 2 separate days. The first of those days, I rode a Divvy bikeshare bike into downtown, then to the Museum of Science and Industry (farther south), and eventually back. The second of those days, I rented a hybrid bike from Bike and Roll and proceeded to do a tour of the greater Chicago area, using the North Branch Trail to the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Green Bay Trail towards Northwestern University, and the crazy busy Lakefront Trail to get back to downtown Chicago.

The video should show a lot of the various biking infrastructure that I encountered including protected 2-lane one-way bike lanes, bike lanes on bridges where the grating was covered (much smoother), and a busy trail that has pedestrian lanes on both sides. The portion of the Lakefront Trail shown in the last minute or so of the video is what the Mount Vernon Trail would look like if it were to be widened.

[video=youtube_share;EnJkfCKImz4]https://youtu.be/EnJkfCKImz4[/video]

Note: I had made a Chicago Trip video, but I did not post it to the forum as only portions of it are bike-related. If you want to watch my trip video with all places visited inside and out, you can see it here: https://youtu.be/oDhFUg6eZnU

[CaseyKane50]

Now this is full service – water, air, bike tools, restroom, as well as beer.

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[bobco85]

On Election Night, I decided to go on a bike ride to see both the Wilson Bridge open and a replica Spanish galleon arrive at the port of Old Town Alexandria. I think I made the right choice.

Here is a video I made including a timelapse of the Wilson Bridge and some night shots of the ship as it docked:
[video=youtube_share;dzePmzEU690]https://youtu.be/dzePmzEU690[/video]

P.S. – Sorry, Judd, I tried to upload it earlier, but iMovie was derping, so I had to do it this evening.

[bobco85]

On Sunday morning, I (did not sleep in) biked to Georgetown to have some coffee (I didn’t have any coffee) and fellowship (had some fellowship) with some Gateau Breton (Breton cake) that Steve O had brought to Patisserie Poupon. After hanging out with everyone for a bit, I stopped by the John Ericsson statue en route to Old Town Alexandria. I have probably passed by that statue a million times, yet this Sunday I felt compelled to stop and check it out.

(left) Gateau Breton courtesy of Steve O (thanks!); (right) standing in the shadow of the John Ericsson statue which is due south of the Lincoln Memorial
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(Captain) John Ericsson is a Swedish-born Union captain notable for developing the screw propeller which was used in building the USS Monitor
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the statue was carved by American sculptor James Earle Fraser
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above John Ericsson are Adventure and Labor
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[bobco85]

Continued from my previous post, I eventually made it to Old Town Alexandria to see El Galeón, a replica of a 16th Century Spanish galleon, in the daylight. The line leading up to the ship to actually board and explore it was probably a few hundred people long, so I made my way around the lines to get pics.

looking from Founders Park
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closer to the Chart House
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I went out on a dock next to the one the ship was at – (left) view of the sails; (right) sense of scale from people aboard the ship
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(left) view from the end of the adjacent dock; (right) a lady saw me about to take a selfie and offered to take this pic, but sadly she didn’t angle it correctly and the top of the shot was cut by the roof of the gazebo-like structure (I appreciated the effort)
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[consularrider]

My wife is attending a workshop in Slovakia, but she flew while I loaded the Pugsley in the car and hit the Autobahn last Friday. Friday night I stayed at the Landhotel Goldenes Kruez in Saubersreith, Bavaria near the Czech border. The desk clerk was very helpful and worked up a 16 km route suggestion that I expanded to 21 km for my Saturday morning ride.

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[consularrider]

Saturday I continued heading east passing by Pilsen and Prague on my way to Brno-Bystrc where I stayed at the Orea Resort Stanton. This is at the end of a lake on the Svratka River. Sunday morning I road an 11 mile loop around the lake which included passing by Hrad Veveří, a castle dating back to the 13th century.

The trail along the lake was paved until this point, 3.5 miles into the ride

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Even with the fat bike, I did not try to ride this narrow section.

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[consularrider]

After the castle, it was a good uphill climb on dirt and gravel, then through the woods until coming out on a paved road for the descent back to the hotel.

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[consularrider]

Climbed into the Little Carpathians on the northern edge of Bratislava. I went up the paved trail, found some snow at the top and came back down unpaved forest trail.

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[consularrider]

After coming down the hill I got back to the Danube River and decided to head west to its confluence with the Morava River at Hrad Devin.

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[consularrider]

The Morava River forms the border with Austria here and there were a couple of memorials related to those shot by border guards trying to cross. Also a part of the Iron Curtain Trail.

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[consularrider]

Back to town.

“UFO” Bridge

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Bratislava Castle

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[Judd]

Komorebi the avatar with Komorebi the phenomenon.

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