Geese on the Wing: Ride 4

Eventually it will snow and storm and turn the streets crappy and dangerous. That's what happens in winter in New England. But for now, all is bare and good. Still, the days are short and though I work from home two days a week and can be on the bike by 3:15, that still doesn't leave a lot of time for long rides; these days sunset is around 4:47 PM and trust me, you don't want to be riding around the city streets in the deep gloaming (even if you are festooned with blinking lights and are dressed in day-glo lime green).

But I make the most of the conditions. Yesterday, Tuesday, January 20, 2015, I set off a little after 3:15 with intentions of ascending to Green Hill Park and then, possibly, if I navigated unfamiliar streets with the proper guess work, I'd climb up to Holy Cross before circling back for an assault on Bancroft Tower.

As fate had it, I didn't navigate all that well and so spent a lot of time trying different neighborhood streets in my efforts to get to Green Hill Park. The good thing is, it was well worth it. First, because getting there involves a lot of climbing - serious inclines up crazy streets through deeply impoverished & totally sketchy neighborhoods. And second, because the streets are largely bereft of traffic; all the cars are on the main thoroughfares.

Coming to the top of Green Hill Park
January 20, 2015

And Green Hill Park, on a cold and sharp January afternoon with the sun going down and the buttery light washing over the long rolling dun-colored hills, is magnificent! I rode all over the public golf course on the tarmac paths and saw, at the far end, a herd of turkeys scrambling off one of the greens into the brushy thicket. But more than that were the geese. It being sundown, they kept coming in at intervals, honking and flapping, to land among a burgeoning colony of several hundred birds. I actually reversed course and rode back the way I came because I didn't want to disturb their hunkered-down-ness.

Green Hill Park
Geese on the Wing
January 20, 2015

So ultimately I had to eschew my assault on Holy Cross. Instead, I picked my way back through the neighborhood, found my way back under rt. 290, across Main St and then climbed George St for a second time. From the top, on Harvard St, with illuminated headlight and daylight fading quickly, I powered over to the Bancroft Tower neighborhood and hoofed it up up up to the tower's rocky monumental prominence. Then rode back to Team Shad HQ in the aforementioned to-be-avoided-gloaming.

Ride Summary: Ride # 4 on the year, Tuesday afternoon, January 20, 2015. Something like 10 miles but 800+ feet elevation gain. My bike computer didn't work because of the cold and at one point, I think in the park while videoing the geese, I lost my strava connection. The long and short of it is, there's plenty of climbing to be done in the Woo. Strava.

Parting Shot

Green Hill Park Pond
Virtually begging for skaters