A berry nice day for a ride

I've been wanting to pick some blueberries for a few weeks, but haven't been able to get out. After making pancakes this morning for me and Mariah WITHOUT blueberries, I made it a point to get some today.

We thought that it would be pretty fun to hop on our bikes and ride out of town to the blueberry fields and pick some. I grabbed a couple of small Rubbermaid containers and put them in my rack bag. I also grabbed my Vortex and we headed out for a short (leisurely) ride. The fields were only about 2.85 miles away and we talked to the owner. He showed us some good rows to pick and told us about the different varieties he had available. Since we were on bikes, we only wanted a small amount and had 2-pounds in short order. We paid our whopping $2.25, loaded up and headed to Bryant Park. There we relaxed in the shade, played with the Vortex and watched some playing disc golf. Bryant Park is one of the nicest parks in Albany. Great places for a picnic. I showed Mariah where we were last night for the River Rhythms concert (just across the Calapooia River). After playing at the park, we headed towards home to enjoy a frosty Otter Pop.
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/or/albany/434124849539275031

Thursday Fun with Friends

Today I commuted to my job at LBCC and took a MTB ride with some friends to Teloh Park nearby during lunch. We had a great time and it appears that they want to make this a regular Thursday lunchtime activity.

I mapped the approximate route out on MapMyRide.com because I didn't have my GPSr on my bike, but I'm pretty sure my mileage is close to what we did today. I was planning on finding several new Geocaches in the park, but when I turned it on, I noticed that all of the waypoints that were loaded were the Geocaches from Lincoln City! Fortunately I was able to find "Muddy Trails" which is a cache I tried to get a FTF on, but the cache wasn't placed prior to it being published. I knew where to look even without the GPSr.

Here is a map of the ride that we took over lunch. This was a great time and fun to connect with co-workers like this.

Biking & Geocaching - What could be finer?

After work today, I thought that I should get some fresh air and decided to go for a nice ride along Riverside Drive to Orleans. I checked Geocaching.com for caches along my route, grabbed my GPSr and an apple and headed out the door. I was a little concerned about the heat, but there was a nice breeze to keep the temperature down. I made good time until I reached the first stopping point (Twin Oaks Cemetery) where I stopped to admire the view, and to search out a Geocache that had two recent DNF's logged. Since it was on my way to Orleans, I decided to stop. I found the location, but the cache was missing.


I drank some water and chatted with Sweet for a bit, and then mounted my wonderful new (old) Specialized MTB that my Uncle gave to me. I've been enjoying riding this bike and have slowly been removing items off of my old MTB's and adding them to my new bike.

I continued down Riverside Drive for another .65 miles to the Orleans cemetery and began to search for the Geocache (Dead Man's Curve) that I was pretty certain was still in place. Before long, I was signing the log. As I prepared for the ride home, I decided to try out Mariah's MP3 player that I had loaded with a Podcacher podcast. I figured that the run time would be just the right length for my ride home. I cruised home and enjoyed catching up on the podcast.

Below you will see my route. As I'm an avid le tour de France watcher, I've come across this new site (MapMyRide.com) which is advertised on Versus (the television channel). One can ride their bike (or even walk/run) and upload routes and training information to the site. During the TDF, if you upload a route, you are entered into a drawing for some great prizes.

What makes the process so easy is using a GPSr to upload your track file to the site. With a Garmin GPSr, one can connect directly to the site with a built-in conduit. Unfortunately with my Magellan, I have to use the Magellan MapSend software to pull the track file off the GPSr, and then use GPSvisualizer to convert the proprietary TRK Magellan file to a universal GPX file the the site can use. It only takes a few moments, but it is still a pain.



All in all, it was a great way to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather, and to partake in two of my favorite activities.

What a way to end the day

7-11 = Free Slurpee! Mariah and I made a late night run to see if we could snag a couple and now we are enjoying them. Something cool on a hot day.

Ride to Lexington Park

Mariah and I wanted to get out today and go for a short ride. We met some friends and played H-O-R-S-E and soccer at the park and had a fun bike ride to boot. Below is a map of our route.

My decoded robot name

Easy spin around town