Cycling Coast to Coast

The next morning, we had breakfast at the the motel, but before we set for the day, we pumped up our tires, only to discover that Talia had another flat! Turns out the tube she had patched the previous day wasn’t patched well, and had leaked overnight. We swapped it out for a new tube, and got on the road around 10am.

Within a few miles, we hit rolling hills again. About 15 miles in, we stopped because little Jess was having really bad knee pain and couldn’t continue riding. We waved down a guy driving a pick-up truck, and he was nice enough to give Jess and I a ride to the nearby visitor’s center. The rest of the group followed on bike.

At the visitor’s center, we found out that there was a walk-in clinic in Hyannis, a couple miles away. We called a cab for Jess to take her to the clinic, and the rest of us got directions to bike there.

At the clinic, they took X-rays of Jess’s knee, and the final diagnosis was that she had iliotibial (IT) band syndrome. She wouldn’t be able to ride for the rest of the trip, but the good news was that it wasn’t too serious and there were exercises and stretches she could do to make it stronger.

Even though Jess couldn’t ride, she wanted to finish the trip by catching a bus to Provincetown, and we would meet here there in the evening.

Once we saw Jess safely settled into a taxi on the way to the bus station, we headed out and got back on route. Pretty soon, we settled into a nice quick pace, and I think we averaged 18-20mph for the next 10ish miles until we reached the Cape Cod Rail Trail. We were all pretty excited when we reached the CCRT trailhead. Finally, a nicely paved, mostly flat road! We turned into the trailhead parking lot around the same time that a roadie in full team kit riding a Cervelo was being dropped off, so we got him to take a group photo for us.

Before we hit the bike path, we decided to stop at the bike shop conveniently located at the trailhead to buy some more spare tubes. Just as we had decided this, however, Talia noticed that her rear tire was flat. Again. Road debris: 4, Talia: 0.

So we went to the shop to get more tubes, and Talia asked the shopowner to take a look at her rear tire, because really, 4 flats in 100 miles of riding? None of the rest of us had had nearly that much bad luck. He helped her swap out the tube for a new one, and found a shard of glass in the tire. We’d checked the tire and rim thoroughly in the morning, so I guess Talia really just has bad luck with flats. We asked to see if they carried any flat-resistant tires like Specialized Armadillos or Continental Gatorskins, but it was a small shop geared towards recreational riders and bike rentals for tourists to the Cape, so they didn’t. “I ride any old tires and almost never get flats, wanna know why?” he asked us, “Because I watch where I’m going.” I guess that’s one way to look at it…

We grabbed a couple complimentary maps of the rail trail, and finally got going again. The trail was almost completely empty and very well paved. Within the first few miles, we passed some cranberry bogs and pretty lakes. After 10 miles on the trail, we stopped for an ice cream break.

The CCRT ended in Wellfleet, and once we reached the end of the trail, we took Ocean View Drive, and, as the name suggests, had some great views of the Atlantic Ocean. The last 20ish miles were rather hilly, but we pushed on knowing that we were almost there!

We rolled into Provincetown right around sunset, and met up with Jess at Moffett House, where we were staying. We were all so hungry that, once we’d put away our bikes, we didn’t even bother changing before heading to dinner.

Another guest at the house recommended a place called the Lobster Pot, so we went there for dinner. After a long day of riding, the prospect of greasy fried food was really appealing, so we all shared fried calamari, fried clams (a first for me), stuffed portabello mushrooms, and fish and chips.

After dinner, we returned to Moffett House to shower. Best of all, we discovered that there were washers and dryers in the House, so we got to do laundry. Since we were all traveling light, it was an awesome surprise to be able to wash our sweaty and dirty clothing.

This entry is way overdue, but finally, an account of our trip to Cape Cod! 

A couple months ago, I got it into my head that it would be a really great idea to bike to Cape Cod from Boston, both as a fun trip (I’d never been to the Cape before), and also as a good test-run for our coast to coast trip this summer. A couple of friends on my hall had biked to the Cape last summer (one of them on a fixie), and had had an awesome time. They had biked about 70 miles to the other side of the canal, camped overnight, and then taken a bus back to Boston the following day, but they told me that there was a well-known route that could take you all the way to Provincetown, at the tip of the Cape.

After a bit of research online, I found that there was indeed a well-documented bike route from Boston to Provincetown, called the Claire Saltonstall Bikeway. The entire trip is about 140 miles, so we decided to split the cycling into two days: 70 miles the first day from Boston to Sandwich, and 70 miles the second day from Sandwich to Provincetown. We would stay overnight in Ptown (as the locals call it), and then take the fast ferry back to Boston on the third day. Joining me on this trip were Devon, both Jess’s, and Talia (who’s on the Southern US route).

Our goal was to hit the road around 9am on Wednesday, and reach Sandwich by dinner time. We all figured that 10 hours was plenty of time to bike 70 miles, including time for lunch and rest stops. You can probably guess that this didn’t end up being the case.

I guess it was a sign that one of us got a flat before we even started riding. At 9am, Devon, big Jess and I were waiting in my dorm courtyard for little Jess and Talia when they called and said that Talia’s rear tire was flat.  They stopped to fix her flat, so we ended up heading out around 10am.

The most confusing part of our trip was getting out of Boston. After Jamaica Pond, we must have taken the wrong exit at a rotary and ended up on the wrong side of Arnold Arboretum. I’d been to the Arboretum a couple times before, and had my bike map of Boston with me, so we were able to quickly cut across the Arboretum and get back on track. About 11 miles into our trip, however, we got really confused trying to get onto Neponset Valley Parkway. Luckily, we ran into a police officer who gave us directions.At around 1pm, we had only gone about 20 miles, and we were all getting hungry, so we stopped at a supermarket in Randolph and bought some bread, ham, cheese, and fruit for lunch.

We had bad luck with flats all day; the finally tally was Talia, 3, little Jess, 2, and Devon, 1.  With all these unplanned stops, we were running way behind schedule and it seemed like we wouldn’t get to Sandwich before dark.

About 15 miles before reaching Sandwich, we hit Long Pond Road, which was all rolling hills.  I’d been warned by my friend Sarah (who had done the ride before on a fixie), that the next 10 miles really sucked.  On a geared bike, however, it wasn’t so bad, and actually a lot of fun as we could pick up enough speed and momentum on the downhills to get us most of the way up the next uphill.  The last hill though, was a long and steep climb that sapped most of our energy.  We reached the top right around sunset, and we could see the Sagamore Bridge in the distance.

At this point, we turned our lights on, and I switched out my dark sunglasses lenses for amber ones.  We got a bit lost on the way to the Bridge, and once we’d reached it, it was completely dark.  We walked our bikes on the sidewalk across the bridge, and then made our way the rest of the 2 miles to Sandwich Lodge, arriving just after 9pm.

Once we’d checked in and locked our bikes in the room, we headed next door to the British Brewing Company for dinner.  Food had never been so appealing, and we all got sandwiches to commemorate our stay in Sandwich, MA.

This past weekend, I went down to Providence on Saturday to watch my little sister play in the NCAA Div III Softball regionals, and then on Sunday, Devon, Jess and I biked back to Boston.  My sister is a pitcher for Tufts, and this is the second year that she’s gone to Regionals with the team (she’s a sophomore).  Last year, however, she tore her ACL while pitching in the NESCAC championship game (right before regionals), so she didn’t get to play during regionals.

I watched the Tufts vs. Wellesley game, which Tufts won 5-1.  They played an excellent game, scoring 3 runs in the first inning and then the remaining two off of a home run in the 6th inning.  Advancing from this game, Tufts went on to play St. Joseph’s College, whom they had lost to earlier in the tournament.  My sister was the starting pitcher, and held St. Joseph’s scoreless for 4 innings before they brought home 3 runs in the top of the 5th inning with a home run.  After that inning, the game was halted due to darkness, to continue the following morning.  Since we left Providence on Sunday morning, I didn’t get to see the end of the game, and sadly, Tufts lost, 1-3. : (

I only had a point-and-shoot with me and the lighting conditions weren’t great, so all the photos I tried to take turned out a bit blurry.  Here’s a photo of her pitching.

We had planned on hitting the road around 10am on Sunday, but we were slow and lazy about getting out of bed in the morning, so by the time we actually got started after breakfast, it was already 11:30am.  It’s about 47 miles from Providence to Boston, and it took us almost exactly 6 hours, including breaks to eat some Clif Bars, refill water, and some unplanned surprises.

This was Devon’s first ride on her new Dolce, and her first ride with clipless pedals.  She did much better than Jess and I did when we first started, and didn’t fall once.  Her bike, however, had some derailleur issues.  Soon after we started riding, it became obvious that the front derailleur needed to be adjusted, but none of us knew how.  I hope to remedy that problem soon by learning how, but unfortunately Devon spent most of the trip only being able to pedal in the biggest and smallest chainrings.  Partway through the ride, we also stopped to adjust the Jess and Devon’s saddle position to be more comfortable.

The route we took was pretty hilly.  There were a few tougher climbs that I had to push really hard to get up, but I’m proud to say that never once did I have to get off and walk my bike.  For most of the trip, it felt like we just kept climbing hills only to pedal hard on the downhill, trying to get enough momentum to propel us up the next one.  Overall though, I had a lot of fun, and at the end of the 47 miles, I felt like I could have kept going.  One of the most rewarding moments of the trip was cresting the top of a small hill on Washington Street and seeing before us a long straight downhill and the skyscrapers of downtown Boston in the distance.  I wish I’d taken a picture.

In general, I don’t think I took enough photos on the trip.  When we were riding, I was reluctant to stop for a photo-op.  When we entered Massachusetts, I wanted to stop and take a photo of the “Welcome on Massachusetts” sign, but it was on a steep climb, and I knew that if I stopped then, I wouldn’t be able to get back on my bike and keep climbing.

Some things that worked/lessons learned:

• My bike!  My bike was in great working order and fit very comfortably.  The Allez was awesome to ride, and nothing hurt or was uncomfortable.  I think I may want to adjust my cleat position slightly, but everything else was fine, including my saddle. The same couln’t be said for Devon or Jess though.  I spent $65 on a professional bike fit at Belmont Wheelworks a couple weeks ago, and I think it was well worth it.
• Eating once an hour.  After the first 20 miles, we stopped to eat a Cliff Bar roughly every 10 miles.  Usually, I don’t like to eat during exercise and food is rather unappealing right after a workout.  For cycling, it’s very different.  I thought that I would need to remind myself to eat regularly, but my body told me when it was starting to get hungry and needed fuel. So far, my favorite Clif Bar flavor is Chocolate Chip, thought anything chocolately will do.
• Staying hydrated.  I have a 3L Camelbak, and we stopped to refill water about 20 miles into the trip.  At that point, I’d already drunk about 2L, and a total of ~5L over the course of the entire trip.  It was a warm day, in the mid-high 60s, but it makes me a bit worried about running out of water on the really hot days in the desert this summer.

This Providence trip has got me really excited for this summer.  Still have 6 and a half days until I’m all done with school stuff though..

Below are some photos that I did take on the trip:

While I’ve posted about biking and fundraising, one very important aspect of Bike & Build that I’ve neglected so far is our cause — affordable housing.  When I first signed up for B&B, I did a lot of cursory reading on the topic, and got very interested and excited about it.  Sadly, I haven’t done much research since then.  Even though we’re all really excited about the cause, B&B realizes that many of us may not be very well-informed, so they created the Affordable Housing (AH) Curriculum.

The AH curriculum is the second part of our sweat equity (the first part is volunteering with an affordable housing organization) that we have to complete before the start of the trip.  Ever week on the road, we’ll have group AH meetings to discuss and educate everyone on AH issues.  To help guide those discussions, everyone is assigned a specific topic and two cities (of the ones we’ll pass through on the trip) to research beforehand.  The six main themes for discussion are:

1. What is the affordable housing crisis?
2. History of housing practices in the US
3. Social Influences
4. Statistics & recent studies
5. Nonprofit organizations devoted to the cause (like B&B!)
6. The government’s role in addressing the problem

I’ve been assigned the subtopic of HOPE VI, which falls under Theme 6.  I’m also responsible for finding out more about Las Vegas, NV, and Baker, CA.  As I learn more about the topics, I’ll post some interesting facts and articles here.

There’s only about 6 weeks left in term, and 9 weeks until the start of Bike & Build. This year has gone by so fast, and while I am excited about being done with school and the upcoming tip, I’m also not really looking forward to graduating. I’ve had an amazing time at MIT, with ups and downs of course, but I’ve really come to love this place, and will be sad to leave. I only half joke to my friends that my life would be perfect if I could pick up my dorm and move it to California.

As the clock ticks by, I’m also getting a bit nervous about Bike & Build. I’ve met my fundraising goal (phew, once less thing to worry about), but there’s still a lot to be done before I think I’ll be ready. There’s still the affordable housing curriculum part of the sweat equity, and of course, the training.

I signed up for B&B knowing that I was a complete novice when it comes to cycling. I had a beat-up old bike that I used to ride around campus and to run short errands, but I hardly knew anything about the sport. Riding in traffic on city streets was terrifying, so whenever I biked to the nearby grocery store, I stuck to the sidewalks. I also didn’t know how to fix a flat, and couldn’t name the different parts of a bike if my life depended on it. So, as a geek, what else would I do but turn to the internet and do all the research I could? I’ve spent the last few months reading up on cycling (Sheldon Brown’s website is wonderful) and lurking on Bike Forums, absorbing the lingo and trying to understand why the Touring sub-forum is obsessed with Brooks saddles and being called a Fred is the worst insult for a roadie. It’s been interesting, and informative.

I’m starting to train for the trip now, in earnest. I signed up for a spinning class, and have been trying to spend as much time on my bike as possible. Every time I go out for a ride, I can tell that I’m improving, and am more comfortable on my bike. Devon, Jess, Eric and I went for a ride today, up to Alewife where we started on the Minuteman Bikeway and headed past Arlington before turning. I’m comfortable riding and signaling in traffic now, and am starting to get a better feel of how to shift and keep a steady cadence (having a cyclocomputer with a cadence sensor is very helpful). None of my rides have been very long; the longest one was our ride today, at 13.95 miles, but I’m going to steadily increase my mileage each week, riding whenever I can during the week, and going for longer rides on the weekends. My goal is to complete a century (100 miles) before the start of the trip, by biking to Cape Cod over the Memorial Day Weekend.