Bike Kirkwood & Grant's Trail Photo-Tour

On Saturday morning, I got up bright and early and rode my bicycle to Keysor Elementary for the Bicycle Tour of Kirkwood. This was an event planned and sponsored by Trailnet, and was part of a larger project which seeks to (a) educate school children and parents about safe riding (and encourage more of it) and (b) share information about Complete Streets efforts in Kirkwood. While I don't have any small people of my own, I wanted to support the effort and energy and be part of the group. So I rode to the school and had a complimentary banana while I waited for our first ride.

The original plan had been to do a five-mile ride, but there were so many little-little kids (some still on trikes) and a lack of available police enforcement meant that streets were not closed for the event. So instead, we did two rides: a one-miler and a 2.5-miler. Both were very slow and steady so everyone could participate. They were fun! I moseyed through streets I was less familiar with and had a nice chat with the Trailnet staff who were coordinating the event and leading the rides. I found that after the ride, though, I wanted to ride more, so I rode with a couple of volunteers toward Grant's Trail and separated from them to continue on to the trail as they headed home for the day.

I decided to use the opportunity to put some miles on the bike while there's daylight for it, and to finally take more photos of the trail. Since I ride Kirkwood to Mehlville and back again, most of the trail photos are from the trip toward Mehlville, and then I tried to get some more detailed shots and signage pics on the way back. I should have had more to eat, though (I'd had a couple granola bars and the banana, as well as several bottles of water) -- by the time I was slogging up Sappington Road to Big Bend, my legs were toast and I was starving. I hadn't really planned to ride nearly thirty miles that day, and hadn't eaten for it. Duly noted. I should plan to stick some granola bars in my bike bag just because. I had the biggest meal after I got home!

For me, the trail never disappoints. It can get busy around Grant's Farm, and certain entrance points with larger parking lots, but because I mosey (generally 10-13 mph), I just don't find it that hard to negotiate the other users on the trail. I can see where, if your goal is to get your miles in and barrel through at 20mph, you'd have issues, but (a) that's not the right place for it, and (b) it's against the rules to go too fast, so...

Anyhoo, largely without comment, here's the photo-tour of Grant's Trail.

There's a playground near the Kirkwood Trailhead.

Restrooms and a waterfountain - these were operational on 9-27, but not 12-1, FYI.

Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

The trail smelled alternatively damp (green) and sort of rotten (brown), and, as you can see from the photos, was stuck in between the lingering flowers of summer and the first color changes of fall. It was warm - mid-80s - and I suspect we'll get scant color on most of the trees this year as some trees are already going brown and dropping leaves in a clatter whenever the wind blows. Still, I so enjoy that this trail passes businesses, woods, bridges, highways, and horses, and is all within miles of my home. Because of it's proximity (and resulting accessibility), it's probably my favorite. Perhaps another time I can photo-tour Creve Coeur Lake, but I find that trail much busier and more dangerous to do without directing full attention to errant pedestrians and folks renting bikes (who may or may not know how to use them). 

Daylight Savings Time ends in just over a month (November 2). There are just a few perfect riding days left. I hope you (and I hope I) can make the most of them. 

Cheers and happy riding!

x

#BBFF Date - The Forest Park Balloon Glow & Fireworks

My riding has been really sporadic this summer and fall, hence the (also) sporadic posts. However, I had a great ride on Friday night that I wanted to share with you, as well as some upcoming rides that should be a lot of fun, and some great bike links.

The Balloon Glow
On Friday, St. Louis held its annual Balloon Glow in Forest Park. I met up with several of my #bbff (that's "best bike friends forever" because bike friendships are fantastic things) at a coffee shop several blocks south of the park, and we rode over to the park together, avoiding all of the parking issues inherent in such a popular event. Bonus: unlike taking public transit (my other preferred method of travel to and from busy events or places with tricky parking), our bikes could go anywhere, so we could take them right to where we wanted to picnic, lock them together, then pack up the picnic and walk around and take photos of the race. (Trust me, ten bikes locked together in haphazard fashion will neither be lifted nor rolled away by anyone without a helicopter.)

Photo by M. Staublin

Photo by M. Llorian

Photo by M. Staublin 

When the ambient light is FIRE, you glow red, too. Photo by M. Llorian

After nibbling on our pot-luck picnic and exploring the Balloon Glow, we hopped back on the bikes and rode over to one of the cyclists' apartments in a high-rise in the Central West End, just East of the park. From there, we took in three amazing views from the apartment rooftop: (1) Fireworks post-glow; (2) great view of downtown at night; and (3) terrible motorist traffic on Kingshighway that we didn't have to deal with at all thanks to two-wheeled transportation. (We rode into the park on Macklind and out of the park through the Central West End into the Grove.)

It was a fantastic evening! I always love my #BBFF Dates.

Bike Events & Bike Links

Here are some fabulous upcoming bike events and links you should know about:

In Praise of the Upright Bike by Brent Toderian
As you know, I have an upright bike (Fleur), a ten-speed (The Radish), and a mountain bike (Julek). I vastly prefer rides on the 3-speed upright to the other two bicycles, so this article speaks to my style of riding (and my beloved "slow bike" movement).

Close to home: on September 27, 2014 at 8:30 am, Trailnet is hosting the Bike-Walk Kirkwood Education and Tour. You can register at the link; $5 for adults and $3 for children under the age of ten years. This tour will highlight the work Trailnet is doing to make Kirkwood more bikeable and walkable (I live just a few miles from Kirkwood, and often ride there).

Cycling Savvy is offering their Truth & Techniques classes in October and early November - these will probably be the last classes of the year (due to light and weather problems that generally come at the end of the year). The classroom session will be October 8 or October 26, followed by a "train your bike" session on October 11 or November 1, and a "road tour" to implement the new techniques on October 11 or November 2, 2014. You can register here. Cost is $30 per session, or $75 if you register for all three sessions ($15 discount). This is a great way to improve your comfort riding on streets. The earlier sessions will be based in the city; the later ones in Clayton and along the city/county border if either geographical area is more appealing. I recommend them highly!

BWorks Bellefontaine Cemetery Ride, October 18, 2014 at 9:30

This is a family-friendly ride through one of the City's largest and most historic cemeteries. It is the companion to June's Calvary Cemetery Tour and should be fabulous. I'm really excited to see the cemetery with the fall colors, too. This event is free. 

Finally, it's time for the Fourth Annual Coffeeneuring Challenge! I found out about the challenge too late last year to "win" but tried a couple rides and really liked it. It can be a fun way to challenge the places to and ways in which you ride. I'm planning to participate this year! Here are the rules:

• Goal: Seven coffee shops in seven weeks (10-4 to 11-16-2014)
  (As in, ride your bike to a coffee shop, have a hot beverage, ride home)
• Subject to limited exceptions, only weekend trips count (see main link for details)
• Max of one coffee shop per day (two per weekend)
• Take a photo of the coffee stop, and log your miles and the address of your destination as proof of the ride
• The point isn't coffee, or even hot. It's about a nice ride to a nice place to relax and enjoy the moment. Cocoa, tea, or a smoothie are all legit drinks.
• You cannot combine the coffeeneur ride with a major event ride, but you can combine it with errands (eg, to the grocery store, cleaners, gym, or going to another destination as part of a transportation ride, etc). 
• You must visit seven different locations, though they can be the same chain (multiple Starbucks or Bread Cos, if you will). You can also do a "coffee shop without walls" wherein you pack your coffee, ride to a campsite or other scenic spot, and enjoy your beverage there. It's about exploring.
• Deadline for submission: midnight 11-24-14 to gersemalina (at) gmail (dot) com. Send all proof in a single email (word, etc), not seven separate emails.
• If you win, and pay $4 (competing is free, the prize is not), you get a coffeeneuring patch to display proudly. This is awesome.
• Americans may use Columbus holiday as one of your rides per the "Tara" rule; Canadians may use Canadian Thanksgiving as an extra day.
• If you are on vacation, you may coffeeneur any two days of the week, but only two days of the week.
• If you want to use one trip to buy beans instead of drinking a coffeeneur-approved beverage, that's cool. 
• You may ride on Veterans Day instead of a weekend day, unless you are an actual veteran, in which case you rock and get a bonus coffeeneur day in recognition of your service. Go you!
• If you want to share your escapades on social media:
  Twitter: #coffeeneuring
  Flickr: Coffeeneur group
  Facebook: Coffeeneur Group
  Share your blog posts on any platform.

The 2014 Moonlight Ramble

Before I review the ride, a note:
Three weeks ago today, I participated in the Moonlight Ramble, St. Louis' annual midnight bicycle ride through the City streets. Three weeks ago, Michael Brown, an 18-year-old unarmed teen, was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson in the City of Ferguson, Missouri, just a couple of miles West of the city in the heart of inner-ring St. Louis County. The past three weeks have seen the heart and soul of this community rent wide as we face questions and issues that have been deeply buried for a very long time. I have been simply unable to post here about the event because of the magnitude of pain and uncertainty in our metropolitan area - pain and uncertainty that has touched people nation- and even world-wide. Stability is returning to the community, but we have a long road ahead of us yet, and a great need for healing and change. In light of the stabilization, I am now comfortable posting my review of the ride, but I want to name what happened the same day as the ride, and in the days and weeks that have followed, and which will likely be part of our story for a very, very long time.

*          *          *          *          * 

First and foremost, this event was huge! If there were around 1,500 riders at the World Naked Bike Ride-St. Louis, there were easily three times as many at the 51st annual MR. 

The MR is a charity event that takes place at midnight around the full moon in August. The cost is $25 and nets you a participation number, tee shirt, and benefits Hostelling International. You can choose routes of varying lengths; our group choose the 19-mile route. You can read more about it here and here.

In our group, we had Jim, Mary, Monica, me, and Mike (below, L to R). We met up at Monica's home, about 5 miles from the race start, where we decorated our bicycles before heading to the race start (below). We then took off. The first couple of miles were so closely-packed that we went pretty slowly, but things spread out a bit as we progressed over the course. We rode through downtown, and into South City, through neighborhoods and Carondelet Park, and back through Soulard. Afterward, we rode to Uncle Bill's Pancake House, where we refueled while the sun started to peek above the horizon.

Honestly? This ride was on the short list of my favorite things I've ever done and I really hope to ride again next year and in future years. It was long, but I wasn't tired while riding - it was simply too exciting. That said, it took me about 36 hours to fully recover from it - I was exhausted both Sunday and Monday.

Here are some photos taken by my friends:

Also: You can read Mike's review of the ride here! 

Bare As You Dare: WNBR-STL

Last Saturday was the World Naked Bike Ride-St. Louis, and I participated! This blog post is totally SFW, but the links may not be. Click through at your own risk.

The ride was a blast. I had so much fun. My friend Jules and I connected with friends Melissa, Matthew, Mary, and Steven, and we met up with friends Harold, Karen, and their son Eli, after the race, too. Beyond that, I saw just two or three people I recognized at the event, which suggests to me that:
(1) this was one of those times when St. Louis was being all "big city" instead of "small town" (it vacillates wildly between the two) and
(2) more of my friends should ride bicycles. ;)

For Jules and me, "bare as you dare" = "not any barer than we'd otherwise be in public", so we opted for bikinis for the ride, and I wore a dress over my bikini to dinner and shorts over the bikini bottoms for the after-party. The WNBR stands for a number of great things:

• Awareness and promotion of decreasing dependency on oil-guzzling transport ("burn carbohydrates, not hydrocarbons")
• Increasing cyclist awareness and visibility
  ("now that you see me, pay attention to me when I ride with clothes on")
• Positive body image reinforcement
  ("every body is beautiful")

I decided to play up the environmental aspects of riding, since those, together with increasing my fitness through easy and fun (not gym-specific) activity are my favorite reasons for riding, and "tattooed" burn carbs not hydrocarbons on my arm and leg in permanent marker (I'm much better at writing on my leg than my arm - the arm bit was pretty comically awful). 

By far, the highlight was the ride - over 1,500 (est.) cyclists from all economic and social backgrounds coming together. I love that bikes are a great leveler when it comes to other dividing lines to make a big and unified "us" group. When "we" take off our clothes and ride together, the effect is certainly amplified! I enjoyed all twelve miles - the camraderie and support from bystanders (and the hilarity of the occasional oh heeeellllll no) and was very happy to be at least partially-dressed, as not only did almost everyone have a cell phone, but almost all seemed to be set to video capture, judging by the way the bystanders were holding their gadgets. I was also perfectly happy to realize I was missing from all of the photos posted by the RFT (nsfw) Post-Dispatch (nsfw) and KSDK (mostly sfw). Ha! 

I also loved the creativity exhibited by the riders (in their various states of undress or dress). Our group really enjoyed City in a Jar Jess's "Starry Night" body paint (#64 of the RFT photos), and I was really inspired by a 1920s-flavor outfit featuring a pale peach slip that I might incorporate into a future costume. My rule is that if I am photographed, I have to be cool with my employer seeing it, so I'll never be very bare. Not that there is any shortage of folks who were willing to bare it all, though.

The afterparty was kind of a let-down for me, honestly, but I'm glad they have it. We just milled about for a bit, and then rode back to our dinner/parking spot in the Hill. Mostly, it was a celebration of gawkers and people who really like to be naked and/or drunk, but lost much of the context of the ride, and so lost the appeal for me. The only real downside, though, was that my rear light wasn't as charged as I'd believed, and died during the ride. In the future, I'll make sure the lights are fully charged the night before and leave them off for the ride - the sun didn't set until after our return, and in the middle of the pack, I had no need for lights to see or be seen during the group ride. Also, pack back-up lights.

Photo credit: My Hubs. S is drawing fabulous lightning bolts on M's arm.

Photo credit: Karen K.

In future bikey news, the Moonlight Ramble-STL is coming up on August 9, 2014. Unlike the Naked Bike Ride, where you can just show up, the MR requires preregistration and the deadline is this Friday, August 1, 2014. So sign up soon! I can't wait. It's a lot later (Midnight start) which might do me in, but I so enjoyed the big-bike-group dynamic on Saturday, that I'm looking forward to it. I may just sleep through church that Sunday...

If you prefer daytime riding, here are some upcoming group rides  in August hosted through B*Works and Trailnet:

Saturday, August 2, 2014 9:30am - B*Works Automobile Row Tour. From the event link: This tour visits several of the buildings from “Automobile Row” as well as other sites  of historic importance, including both the sole survivor of St. Louis’ first “private place” and perhaps the most overlooked literary landmark in the entire country. Free. Just show up!

Saturday, August 16, 2014, 10:30am - Trailnet I Love STL Bicrobrews Microbrewery Tour. From the event link: Several urban microbreweries are featured on this tour. Learn what it takes to craft a great brwe from some of St. Louis' finest microbreweries. Tastings and tours will be provided at many of the stops. Must be 21 to drink. $8 if you preregister online; $10 day of tour.

Saturday, August 23, 2014, 9:00am - Trailnet Old Frenchtown Bicycle Tour. From the event link: This ride explores two of St. Louis' most fascinating and historic neighborhoods, LaSalle Park and Soulard. Home to some of the Midwest's most interesting architecture, both of these 19th century neighborhoods retian the imprint of the various ethnic and religious groups that have lived and worked there. Both are also case studies in the effects of highway construction on the traditional city as well as models of late 20th century historic preservation and urban redevlopment. Preregister online or in person; $5 for adults and $3 for kids. 

Saturday, August 30, 2014, 9:30am - B*Works Old North St. Louis Tour. From the event link: Known for years almost exclusively as the “Crown Candy Kitchen neighborhood,” Old North St. Louis has experienced a remarkable renaissance in the past decade. This tour begins and ends at Crown but explores the entirety of a neighborhood that began its existence as an independent city with an unusual and  visionary urban plan. Free. Just show up! 

Personally? I am most interested in the Microbrewery and Frenchtown tour - I lived in Soulard for a bit while I was in law school and before the Hubs and I bought in the county. I was thrilled the WNBR tour cut through my old neighborhood, and went right by our old apartment near Broadway (7th) and Geyer. I would love to participate in the Old North Tour, too, but I'm not sure that will jive with some scheduling things for me. I love CCK, though, and would love to go!

These city tours are such a fantastic way to see parts of St. Louis you didn't know much about or maybe were reluctant to travel through alone or in an automobile. In particular, the Calvary Cemetery Tour (and its complementary second half, which will be hosted through B*Works in October) offered the great opportunity to ride to the cemetery through neighborhoods north of the CWE, which I haven't spent any time in during my 13 years in St. Louis. I so enjoyed the architecture and the positive interactions with the people who live there on our routes to and from the Calvary Tour. Cycling really erases so many of our differences and brings us together. It's another reason I love my bicycle.

If you have been thinking of joining us on one of these rides, I hope you'll jump right in (to reference the local music scene) at one of the August events. 

Cheers, and happy riding!

R