Sproing!

 Taking a break from thoughts on road design, I'd like to acknowledge that spring very much broke, and I do like it! Yesterday, after early 7:30am physical therapy, which happened after leaving home an hour earlier, IN DAYLIGHT!, I rode south into Chicopee for an errand. The weather was, well, pleasant, really pleasant. I wanted to ride more.

I thought about heading home, swapping to a mountain bike, and looping around the Canal Trails in Belchertown, but then I realized hybrids, and I was aboard one, were given that name as they occupy a hybrid spot between mountain and road bike. They can do both, right? Plus, I've ridden lots of trails on lots of road bikes, and it was bound to manage better than those, so instead of turning around, I continued south to the trails of Chicopee State Park.

Aside from a few exposed roots, those trails are pretty well suited to narrow, slick tires, and a rack full of a small load of errand results. I was having fun twisting and turning, and I was reminiscing about the high school age mountain bikers we'd met there in 2022 shortly before my short attempt at returning to wheeled competition. I wasn't disappointed to see some of the ramshackle stunt features were dismantled, hopefully before someone was hurt by their collapse.

A good use for a badly built teeter-totter:

Napping above tick level!

Hmm, extending my ride into the lovely day worked well so far. What else can I do?  I often use the park as an east/west bypass of busy roads, so I continued my loop home to the east and connected with another discontinued road on the eastern boundary of the Westover Air Force base. In summer, that route sees a hefty growth of thorns that could have an, ironically, unflattering effect on the air in my tires, so I had been away long enough that my memory was rusty and I turned off the powerline connection a hundred yards too early thinking I'd missed the turn. It was a good brush up on when to cut through the brush.

When I led a Westover circumnavigation, 

I hadn't yet found this ideally placed gem.

But all piss-poor puns aside, there wouldn't be much left of this post. Still, it was genuinely pleasant, and hopefully reading about it through the misplay of words wasn't too much elsewise. I think I'll go ride again. And yes, I did avoid thorns in my tires, but still changed a flat later, for my running, and riding, friend Matt. He even left his bike at my house, so hopefully I can trick him into another ride with me when it's time to collect it!