12.7 Mile Ride Along the Mohawk-Hudson Bike Path
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
photo slideshow
I wanted to get in a short (20 miles or so) easy (relatively flat) ride before heading over to class tonight, so I headed over to the Niskayuna Lions Park to ride the bike path and maybe take a few photos along the Mohawk River... maybe I should have paid more attention to the fact that just slightly over a year ago, I went from running and riding turtle to crashed turtle. Then again, nothing that happened today even remotely approaches that disaster.
Despite Albany being overcast, Niskayuna was fairly sunny, if a bit chilly (especially in the shade.) Snapped some nice shots of the scenery along the river and the path, as well as some close-ups of a cooperative Monarch butterfly, and was having a generally pleasant ride when a bee bounced off my helmet, hit my left leg , and stung me on the inside of my left thigh.
Fortunately, I'm not especially allergic to bee stings, though the surrounding area tends to be swollen and itchy for quite a while afterwards... I guess I should count my blessings that I only get stung every few years. Still, it was bloody annoying to get stung today, and it's going to make my run tomorrow that much more difficult. Gah.
(click for larger image)
On the way back, I stopped at the park to take some photos of an egret just offshore in the river... actually, it looked like there were several on the far side of the river as well. That was cool enough to distract me a bit from my aggravation at being stung.
Headed down the path toward Lock 7, and as I went down the hill to the Lock 7 access road, I heard a loud metallic snap from my front wheel - one of the spokes had broken. I actually wasn't too surprised at that - the spokes have been groaning a bit ever since I installed the stem extender, which I suspect changed my weight distribution and the forces on the wheel enough to put extra stress on the spokes. The wobble isn't even all that bad, though once one spoke goes there's always the concern that more will snap and leave you without a wheel (and probably kissing pavement if it happens at speed.) Given that my rebuild of the rear wheel has held up remarkably well, I will probably order enough spokes to rebuild the front now too... fairly cheap to do, more an investment of time than anything else.
So with a wonky front wheel I gave up going much further and wandered around Lock 7 taking pictures before heading back to the car. In the end, I didn't get to ride nearly as far as I'd have liked... but I did get some nice photos, and other than my two minor mishaps it was a nice ride along the river.
JMH
