In Which The Trail Miles Fly By

Not sure if you can see it all that well, but this field is not a usual one here in the UK--corn. Field or sweet, I do not know.

Today, the bicycle adventure was quick. We had a full day otherwise, as I describe on one of my other blogs.

It was around 3 in the afternoon before I headed out on the rented bike today. Given time of day, I decided a street ride was not a good idea, so I headed up to the Mariott’s Way bike trail and basically rode back and forth on the paved portion—although on one of my rounds, I gave up and went ahead and rode the dirt miles to Drayton, just because I was getting too bored with the same few miles in Norwich.

And, while parts of the trail were muddy, the dirt trail overall was rideable, which is good because Thursday may bring the long ride of the week.

The dirt trail to Drayton was sometimes muddy, but not too bad.

More rail art along trail, this one at the turnoff to Drayton, as far as I rode today.

 It was cloudy and cool, but not raining, today. I decided to push the speed a bit, since I was not going to ride for as long as I did previously. As it turned out, I did more distance in just over two hours as I had all afternoon the previous day—my speed averaged over 10 mph on this ride.

Trail miles go much more quickly than street miles.

About the fourth circuit or so, I saw a biker entering the trail through a gate. I’ve noticed that gate before, and wondered what was on the other side. So, near the end of my ride, on my last trail circuit when I was deliberately trying to slow down, I decided to try to the gate. It turns out a large city park, Sloughbottom Park, is on the other side. It is a big open grassy area with a BMX bike site, as well as a playground and a small network of trails. The circuit of the park was not lengthy, but it was diverting to be riding somewhere else for a little while today.

I rode 22.48 miles in 2:10 at an average speed of 10.4 mph. Not bad for an old biker! We’ll see what tomorrow’s long ride brings.

South end of ride, where the "quiet" trail is about to become too urban. I reset for a few minutes before final circuit of my route, the rental bike parked as I sit on a bench.

No horses today near this bridge. Just some product placement. No, I didn't drink this, someone left the can.

Pretty fancy for a rundown public toilet building in a city park.

The BMX track in the park. Although there were no other bikers there, I did not try it on the rental bike.