Bike Ride 7 Canceled Today!

Yes, we know it looks sunny right now, but with a quick-developing system of severe storms coming through Dane County, we’ve decided to call off the bike ride for today.

A little rain is one thing, and we’ve biked in that before. But a special weather statement indicating a strong thunderstorm in the area is something else, especially when that statement says (and we quote):

“ONE HALF INCH DIAMETER HAIL... WINDS UP TO 50 MPH... OCCASIONAL CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING... BRIEF HEAVY DOWNPOURS... ARE POSSIBLE WITH THIS STORM.”

And what do we mean by quick-developing? Here’s the regional radar at 12:30 today:

aaand here it is 2 hours later:

Now, the way these things work, once we cancel the ride, the system will move through, maybe not even hit Madison, and we’ll look like fools and be sad we didn’t go out. But we’ve gotta make a call at some point so that people have a chance to change to their plans if necessary.

It’s like having an umbrella – if you remember to bring it, you get sunshine all day, but if you forget, you can bet you’ll be wet. If those are our options, we vote for No. 1 today. Because after all, we can all still go out on our own if the weather clears up.

In fact, you can even follow the same routes if you want – the maps and cue sheets are posted (as always) on our blog. And I’m sure they'll still give you happy hour deals at the Echo if you ask nice and tell them you’re a biking friend of Clean Wisconsin.

See you in 2 weeks (no ride on 4th of july)!

Ride 6 recap

We had a great ride last Thursday evening, with a nice group of folks, a beautiful route, and terrific weather.  Thanks to Justin, Russell, Fiona, Sarah, Gina, Addison, Amanda, Erik, and Dan for joining me (Ezra) for this one!

Here's some of the gang gearing up in the parking lot:

If you've been waiting in the wings wondering if these bike rides are family friendly, here's proof that they most certainly are.

6-year-old Addison joined us last week and had a great time! She pushed her mom, Clean Wisconsin's awesome Creative Director, Amanda Wegner, along for most of the 15-mile route we had chosen for the shorter ride this week.  When the going got tough, she jumped on the back of my bike for a few minutes of respite and to make sure I was navigating the route properly.

Thanks again to all of those who have joined us so far!  Please join us if you haven't yet--we'd love to see you.

-- Ezra Meyer (Clean Wisconsin's Water Resources Specialist)

Ride #6--celebrate the summer solstice with a lovely bike ride!

It looks like this week's amazing weather will still be with us through our weekly ride tomorrow (Thursday) evening. It's really starting to feel like summer now--and the solstice is here this weekend, so it's official. Please join us, and bring your family and friends!

The shorter ride this week (see it in detail on our routes page) is a 15-mile jaunt through the Northeast side of town to Warner Park and back downtown through Maple Bluff along the shores of Lake Mendota.  It should be a very nice ride. Clean Wisconsin staff will be on hand to lead this one again. These rides are well suited to anyone with an operational bicycle. Got a kid on an add-a-bike? Bring 'em. Got a smaller one in a trailer? Bring 'em. We're out to see the sights and have a nice time, not to break any land speed records, so don't be afraid to join us even if you're new to biking or just dusting it off after a long respite.

Since our fearless longer-ride leader, Tyson, will be out of town this week, the longer / faster ride--a 28-miler through the Town of Dunn and McFarland south of Madison--will be self-led by those who are interested. As always, we'll have maps available with turn-by-turn directions here at the parking lot between 5:00 and 5:30. Find the route map on our routes page.

Ride 5 Recap

Thanks to everyone participating, we had a great ride on Thursday. In fact, we were having so much fun chatting while getting ready to ride, that the whole group decided to stick together on the shorter loop for a tour around Lake Monona.

New and old faces getting ready to ride

Other than a chain falling off as David was parking his bike at the end, the whole trip was without incident.

"The greasy thing came off!"

We really couldn't have asked for a nicer evening, although not keeping speed with a train on our way into town would have made for a more relaxing finish. Hanging out outside in the sun at the Echo more than made up for that, though.

Ride 4 Recap + Ride 5

Last Week's Lesson 1: Just because the forecast says 0% chance of precipitation, doesn't mean it won't rain. Lots.

Last Week's Lesson 2: Just because rain happens to be letting up, doesn't mean you should say things like "Looks like the rain is starting to pass, so that's nice." It's not.

Last Week's Lesson 3: Just because it a ride starts out drizzling, and proceeds to rain through 25 of 30 miles, doesn't mean you can't have a great time!

Justin and Tyson were the only people cool(?) enough to take the long ride in the rain last week.

I feel like I say this every Tuesday, but hopefully this week the weather will be nicer. We've got a couple great routes planned: down southeast of town for the 30 mile Waubesa (Three-Lake) Loop on the longer ride, and 13.75 miles around Lake Monona (counter-clockwise) on the shorter ride. Both rides are mostly flat this week, with a couple rolling hills and plenty of nice lake-view scenery.

As always, you can check them out on the Ride Routes page.

Ride 4

As of Tuesday, the forecast is looking up compared to a week ago: 64 and mostly to partly cloudy - not bad weather for a ride.

Ho!

So as not to tempt the fates though, we're not going to try to revisit the Ride 3 routes we missed. Instead, we're going to plow on ahead to Ride 4, and enjoy some more Madison area biking classics.

Hey!

The short ride will be the "Wingra Watershed" route, which revisits Lake Wingra and the Wingra Creek, but covers a bigger portion of (you guessed it) the Wingra Watershed. It's a really nice figure 8 on a combination of streets and paths, passing by Olin Park, through the Arb, and back via Vilas Park. There are a couple hills on Arboretum Dr, but the scenery is nice enough at that point to distract from any burning legs.

Ho!

The long ride this week heads to the hamlet of Paoli. And while many bikers have taken the tour there many times, most haven't tried out what we're calling the Sam Weis Memorial Paoli Path - or the Sweis Remix, for short. (Side note here: no, Sam's not dead, he just moved on to colder pastures in Alaska.) This route heads out of town through the Arb and on the bike path as expected, but veers off to the ride at Vroman and goes up Sunset to get in as many little hills as possible. It's no "Paoli XL," but still has enough to make it interesting before coming back via Sun Valley and Sayles to the bike path all the way home.

Hey!


P.S. Don't forget to check out the maps and download cue sheets on the Ride Routes page. 

P.P.S. Yes, the Lumineers were on while I was typing this up.