Minuteman bike trail

On Sunday June 1st, Laukik and I met his ex-colleague friends Rago and Jake for a bicycling trip on the Minuteman trail. We planned to meet at about 10 am, rent some bikes and helmets from a local shop and set off. It turned out that the bike rental shop wouldn't open until noon (what kind of arrogance is that? this shop belongs to the exquisite breed of Puneri shopkeepers. for more insight visit here)

We were faced with the prospect of twiddling our thumbs for atleast a couple of hours when Jake opened up his very own bike shop to us. The man has 4 bikes in his house. His brother Andy is into repairing and assembling bikes. He has hacked up and assembled a bike from spares. I was riding that one. Jake owns a LeMond racing bike. He also has an antique velodrome bike that was fitted with brakes for use on the road. Laukik got that one. Jake also conjured 2 helmets for us and himself went without. Rago showed up with his own bike and our foursome was all set to go biking by 11 am.

We did the Minuteman Bike Trail, a 11 mile rail-trail that passes through Cambridge, Arlington, Lexington and Bedford, Massachusetts. The trail is more or less flat because it is built upon a railroad track. It runs through residential areas and is dotted with woods and backyards of houses. There is also a picnic spot called Spy Pond, soccer and lacrosse game fields. It is frequented by bikers, skaters and runners. It was fun to see whole families, kids and babies in tow, on bikes with a variety of contraptions (kids car seats, trailers, trailer cycles). The trail is segmented where it crosses motorable streets and at one point it goes right over the interstate highway I95/Rt128.

We rode almost non-stop from Cambridge to Bedford taking a few Gatorade breaks. It was a perfect day for staying outdoors, not too warm, not too humid. On our way back we took a lunch break in Lexington and helped ourselves to some Italian pasta and paninis at Bertuccis. Towards the end of the trail we made a pit-stop at a bike accessories and repair shop and rewarded ourselves with icecreams. My male co-bikers were quite surprised that I managed to do the round trip without many cribs and complaints :)

5 miles of running in Central Park on Saturday, 22 miles of biking on Minuteman on Sunday... This has been one hell of a fun weekend.

Map of the trail
Photos (courtesy Rago) to be added