Fat Boy Deluxe

Finally, this weekend I made the effort to get out and actually ride part of the Minuteman Bikeway. It’s a rail-trail, much the same as the W&OD back in DC, only not nearly as long. Coming from the W&OD, I sort of expected this thing to be pretty long, but it only clocks in around 10 miles. No worries though, plenty of roads to spin off on when the paved path ends. It should be noted that in the month of living in the Boston area, this is my first “for fun” road ride. All my other riding has been commuting or mountain biking (mostly commuting, ha).

I started around noon from the apartment and headed like I normally commute to work. This way I can pick up the paved path as it crosses through Lexington Center. Hit the path and take a left out towards Bedford. The path is nice and wide, no pot holes and very few root cracks (the cracks that are there have all been spray painted yellow to alert cyclists). A few miles later I found myself at the end of the paved path at the Bedford Depot, where a lone train sits on a set of tracks. Across the street is a bike shop, so I amble into the store to have a look around. The place looks huge on the outside, but very small on the inside. Maybe there was another door that I didn’t see. Back out and jump on the bike and head up one of the random streets that intersects the end of the path. It dumps me out in the center of downtown Bedford. I actually know where I am for the moment and decide to head farther out into the country. I find Route 4/225 and head towards Carlisle. Once I pass over a river and into Carlisle I pull a quick u-turn and head back the way I came. A quick side stop into a conservation area to see where a dirt trail lead, but the ground was a little soft, so I backtracked to the road. Back on the bike again I took a little break at Bedford Farms Ice Cream for a quick sugar fix. Back through Bedford, which eventually brought me within a couple of blocks from Hanscom Air Force Base. At this point I have no clue where I am, but I keep riding and eventually end up right back at the end of the path, only coming in from a different direction on a different road.

Back on the paved path and I’m cruising. It’s fairly easy to push over 20 mph when the path is flat or not giving you the invisible uphill that rail-trails are famous for throwing at you. Before I know it I’ve cruised all the way down into Arlington and the path appears to end. I’m not nearly done riding yet, so I just jump onto Mass Ave. and head towards Boston proper. I head through Harvard Square (I guess it was Harvard Square), then push on past Boston University and into Cambridge near MIT. I’ve ridden about 26 miles so far and not carrying any water I decided to stop in at the Miracle of Science Bar for a thirst quenching pint of Victory Hop Devil. The bar only had a few people there, so service was quick. I grabbed a seat that faced Mass Ave., so I could do some people watching and make sure my bike wasn’t lifted as I didn’t bother to bring a lock.

Boston has a lot of cyclists! There was a ton of classic bikes, a few fixies, and a surprising amount of singlespeed bikes. The majority of cyclists seem to be riding errands, which is a big difference from the DC area where the majority of cyclists I used to see were recreational riders. Pretty cool is you ask me. I guess it helps that there are so many schools/universities in the area…

After my quick pint I decided to head back and pick up the path again, back up Mass Ave. and into Arlington. All was going well and I felt surprisingly fresh and snappy. That all changed at about mile 36ish. I hit one of those invisible hills and immediately saw a drop in speed. It was tough just to sit and spin at 13 mph. No worries, it’s the weekend, just sit back and relax, spin it out and enjoy a beautiful 90 degree day. Finally back at Lexington Center I decided to stop by Dunkin Donuts for a cold coffee, man did that hit the spot! It gave me that extra little boost I needed before riding back to the apartment and climbing the hill to the top.

All in all I covered Waltham, Lexington, Bedford, Carlisle, Arlington, and Cambridge. So 45 miles in about 4 hours including all my stops, so probably about 3 hours of actual riding time. Next time I’m going to try and find the other two rail-trails that connect to the Minuteman Bikeway, as seen here. Looks like theres actually a few miles off dirt stuff that would be perfect on a 35c tired fixie, haha. I’ll even try and remember to take the camera or GPS next time, although they were on vacation in NY this weekend.