Canadians (the ones in Ontario) Who Bike

We just returned from a week in Canada, at a relatively remote lake two hours north of Kingston, ON. To get there we cross the border at Cape Vincent, NY, then drive briefly across Wolf Island, which is a bicyclist haven. You get to realize this soon after arriving on the island. Very little traffic, beautiful scenery form an ideal setting for rolling about. Also, perhaps, it is nature's movement of so many wind turbines on the island that also reflects the human propulsion of bicycles.


Bicyclists are most common at the northern end of Wolf Island, where a larger (and free) ferry brings many of them en masse from Kingston, ON, to the island for various day trips. Some routes are 25km, others are up to 50km. Most roads are paved, others gravel. All of the routes seem, from what you can gather in your car as you drive through, wonderful. Unfortunately, I haven't ever had a chance to ride them. I did manage to grab a couple pot-shots of cyclists as they arrived in Marysville:

Brief Bike Break

Somehow I squeezed in another “ride and sketch” this week.  It’s been quite busy with proposals and reports due, but this deskwork must be balanced with cycling and sketching. I afforded myself about 30 minutes of extra time to ride into town (by way of a long steep hill and over train tracks) and find a place to park and sketch. I came upon a small wooden bench on a brick-paved sidewalk and managed to put this sketch together prior to riding over to the kids to grab them from theater camp.

Urban Bikes

Over at Urban Sketchers there is a recent posting on bicycling in Denmark. The author writes, "Danes bike everywhere - school, job, shopping, picking up kids. Bike lanes figure prominently in major towns, not just in the centre….” Check out his sketch at the link. It reminds me of the multitudes of bikes in Western Europe. I got a chance to ride in the Netherlands in 2009 and then in the UK in 2011. Both trips made my hands very cold, as we traveled to Europe in the winter when it’s cheaper and not crowded. In the Netherlands we rode on dikes and in a national park (where bikes are left unlocked at public stands for free usage) and in the UK, I pedaled around the famed walled city of York.

Nijmegen, Netherlands, December 2008

I’m not sure if I’ve ranted about technology before on this blog, but one barely developed theory I have about technology is that the more we use it the more we are separated from natural experience. Thus we’ve read on so many blogs that “cagers” just miss so much as they press the gas and move through town without noticing the air, the surroundings, the sounds of pedestrians talking, or a better view that comes from a slower pace. Bikes, being relatively low tech, are so much less a foreign appendage of human beings; certainly in comparison to cars. As such, my daughter and our friends (above photo) talked to each other and shared the experience of a ride along a riverside at a human pace and scale.

Bike and Sketch and Bike

The logistics of kid shuttling interfered with riding into work in today's cool, blue-skied weather, although post-office I did manage to ride over to the grocery store and sketch the rising tide of commuters who arrive there as they left their respective employers (I had arrived 30 minutes prior to the rush). The combination of riding and sketching is ideal, providing the double-agency combo of self-locomotion and artistic expression in one delightful dollop. It resulted in this sketch:

After perusing a couple art magazines at the neighboring big box bookstore I headed home to pack a picnic and rendezvous with family and friends. It was then that I made a new acquaintance who had transported himself to the park on a BikeE (below), and he was kind enough to let me ride it. 

Postured with a dash of recline against a fabric seat-back is quite a contrast to my leaning forward on the Trek, on which I support my weight on rubber grips. It took a moment to realize what a lower center of gravity is like while pedaling, but it was quite a comfortable ride. I also appreciated the proximity of the controls (lights, computer, brakes, etc) being much closer than on my hybrid. I'll order two of these for immediate shipping.

Silver Spring Township Supporting Rec Trails

Could this be an inkling of progressive thought? A smidgen of a forward thinking? A more holistic, community-minded agenda? Might our local governments begin serious planning of a more extensive recreational trail in Cumberland County? Obviously, this would be a large benefit to us all. The Carlisle Sentinel reported recently that a trail project is garnering support from some local municipalities. How it will actually wind around our neighborhoods, and take advantage of existing parks and waterways isn't clear but there is lots of potential. May it become to reality soon!

Portland Cyclist Makes House Calls!

This just in....    西洋人  has informed me that docs ride bikes to patients in Portland! 

Mandala Pleasure

Seiyo-jin [  西洋人 ] a far flung correspondent of this blog, has recently sent me some nice shots of a semi-permanent mandala in Portland. Being a large biking community, I wonder how Portland pedalers respond to this when coming upon it. Is it a pleasure? Or do they get lost in the color and wind up more apt to accidents?

More Encounters

Were you racing me? I wasn’t sure why or what inspired you to pick up the pace when I first rode alongside you. We were pacing each other briefly and I said something like, “Good exercise, yeah?” And then you just started pedaling faster, your chain squeaking an awful lot. The chain seemed to say, “Can’t go any faster…” But you put more into the spinning and looked ahead toughly, even though the idea of switching to a more efficient gear seemed to escape you. You were aloof. I kept my pace, although eventually, slowly, moved ahead of you. At the hill and turn I moved further ahead, but I could see you taking the same course as mine, albeit smaller and smaller, in my small round mirror.

Another bicyclist this week wasn’t aloof as much as possessed by his music, riding lazily, swerving almost out of balance, riding against traffic just outside the hospital where we first crossed paths. He moved languidly. I was concerned he’d raise the ire of an anti-cyclist, or worse, meet with injury being so out of whack with the “rules” of the road.  While I waited for the light to turn green, he had already traveled 100 yards, but I caught up with him at the next light. At that point he was off his bike inspecting his tire. Catching sight of my panniers he asked, “You don’t have a pump in those bags, do you?” I turned around and got my pump for him, by trying to fill his rear tube with air was in vain. He decided to ride on flat tires anyway, down the dirty, gravel strewn bypass. We spoke then, riding in tandem. I mentioned cheap patch kits and pumps to facilitate future repairs and then moved of him.