Rails-to-Trails

I joined in on the local bike shop ride tonight. It was great fun and quite challenging. I chose to go with the moderately-fast group, which turned out to be the fast group. Yes, they had to wait for me every now and again. I pretty much rode by myself, but managed to make a strong showing on certain sections of trails, especially the ones that didn't go up.

I drove to the ride tonight. One reason for driving was that my bike was at the bike shop for its "30-day tune-up." It was a new bike last fall when I bought it and winter kind of took away the breaking-in opportunity, so my 30-day tune-up was done seven months later. Such is life in the UP.

I fully intend to work up to riding the snowmobile trails to the group rides and still having energy to ride and come back home. I tried riding to Michigan Tech already, and didn't have a whole heck of a lot of energy, but I still managed to get a decent mountain bike ride in. Swedetown is further away, and will require a little more work.

While we have snowmobile trails for commuting around here, other places have rails-to-trails. These are excellent prospects for getting around and even doing a beginner mountain bike ride. They are handy and safe and waiting to be used.

Visit the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy web site to learn more about the organization, find trails near you, and learn how you can simply help.