Road or trail?

On several occasions in this blog about riding on roads, I’ve mentioned something about riding on trails.  I understand this may have some readers wondering, “What’s up with that—I thought road riders didn’t like to take their bikes off road?”  Well, that’s right… we don’t.  But we’ve got two kinds of trails around here. 

There are the off-road trails that the mountain bikers use.  But then there are also the trails that are part of the Rails-to-Trails efforts.  I’m not sure if this is nation-wide, or if it’s something that they’re just doing here in Florida, but here’s what they’ve done.  There are a lot of old, abandoned railroad tracks around.  Somebody got the great idea to rip out the rails and the ties, and then pave the surface with asphalt.  The result is a “road” about 10 feet wide, on which no motor vehicles are allowed.  How cool is that?  Of course, like anything else, trails have a good side and a not-so-good side.  The good side is that you can ride for miles and miles without having to pat attention to a single car.  The not-so-good side is that everybody likes the trails.  So even though you don’t have any cars to deal with, you do have to pay attention to things like joggers, people walking their dogs, squirrels taunting the dogs because apparently they know the dogs are on leashes, roller bladers, little kids chasing things, people pushing strollers, and various other people who may or may not realize the implications of 10 or 15 cyclists riding toward them at 15-18 mph. 

Some people in our group prefer riding on the trails to riding on roads.  For others, it’s just the opposite.  My roots are strictly on the roads, but Brenda has kind of grown up with this group that is about half and half.  So I’m getting used to riding on the trails.  They’re not so bad, really—you do have to go a lot slower on the trails than you can on a road.  But I’m getting used to it—in fact there is one section of trail that Brenda and I have come to appreciate enough that we are starting to work it into our default ride.  It’s just another aspect of the variety that we both so appreciate about cycling.  And who doesn’t love a little variety every now and then?