Happy New Year

I know a lot of people who make it a tradition to get out for a ride on New Years Day, though that has not necessarily been a tradition for me. Nevertheless, when I woke up this morning, Jan 1, bright sunshine and clear blue skies made a bike ride practically a necessity.

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A canal visitor center in Boston.

Despite the shining sun, the temperatures were only in the 20s early on, so I waited a couple of hours for things to warm slightly -- hey, I had nowhere else I needed to be. By 10:00 or so, the temperature had gotten up to 30, and I figured that was good enough that I wouldn't have multiple layers to peel off by the time it got into the upper 30s by noon.

I headed north from Akron, along the valley road through the little village of Peninsula and up to the even smaller village of Boston. Roads were wet in places, so it was nice to have fenders, and I had to keep my eyes peeled for ice on the shady stretches.

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Under the Interstate 80 bridge that spans the Cuyahoga Valley.

Once I hit Boston, which barely exists as a village anymore (having been mostly swallowed by the national park) I got a couple of photos, then thought about taking the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath back to Peninsula but found the path to be a sloppy mess. Even with fenders, it seemed to me that the bike and I were going to be covered in mud. Most of the path is "paved" with packed, crushed limestone, and this time of year it isn't really a good biking choice. Not only is it less than pleasant (that limestone soup is tenacious), but bike tires will leave some pretty deep ruts when the path is so saturated and those ruts will become almost rock hard after the path dries out. Best leave it to the hikers for now. I stuck to the road for the return trip.

My ride ended up being about 25 miles and left me tired but satisfied. What a great way to start a new year.

Wherever you are, I hope you got to start the year as well as I did.