[bike] The dzm Seal of Approval

[dmaze]

I didn't even realize I had a Seal of Approval...but that was a really nice ride yesterday, for the amount of detailed route planning that went into it. ("I am at point A; I want to be at point B; I follow the greenish roads on the bike map; done.") As advertised, 76trombones, nuclearpolymer, and I took the train out to Ayer, rode up the Nashua River Rail Trail to the New Hampshire border. Then we followed uncolored roads to Westford or so, and green roads back to Carlisle, at which point routing reduces to a previously solved problem ("the Minuteman"). 47.74 miles, says the bike, counting home-to-Porter and coming all the way back home. Route map

(A trip planning note: you can use the Minuteman to make any west-oriented trip 10 miles longer. Because now it's not "zomg 45 miles", it's "35 miles plus the Minuteman", and the Minuteman is so familiar that you can count it as home. And then next week you say "well, I went 45 miles last week, so 45 plus the Minuteman should be easy"...)

But the route turned out to be remarkably scenic. The NRRT is pretty (busier than I remembered, but still better than the Minuteman), and we passed farms and houses and ponds and stuff without being overly desolate or overly suburban. It was warm but it didn't start feeling actively hot until we got into Arlington. It was a little hilly, but I think there was only one moderate climb, a 1/3-mile section just before the Dunstable/Tyngsboro line. And we did hold up reasonably on moving at a sensible speed and not taking too many breaks.

Comments

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

That sounds very cool! (Your route link causes Safari to hang; that hasn't been a problem with previous routes I think.)

[dmaze]

The underlying technology hasn't changed any. As an exercise, you can try replacing "2006.html" with "new.html", but that's actively beta. (Well, "actively" as in "it's broken in a couple of ways" more than "I'm working on it.") The mile markers work there, and I think the colors in the color modes are a little more functional. I can't think of a reason off hand why this route in particular would cause problems, particularly if you have the color mode set to "nothing".

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Hmm, perhaps I used IE in the past to see the route in the past. Oh well.

[gigglefest.livejournal.com]

Time to start collecting all the biking-to-other-states trading cards... :)

[dmaze]

The previous list *did* have "Maine" on it. I have this very loose thought of a multi-day trip that headed through the Berkshires, and that could accomplish "Vermont"; "Connecticut" isn't that far from Worcester. So most of New England is at least hopeful.

[nuclearpolymer.livejournal.com]

You're such a great route planner. This was lot of fun.