Tour Dem Parks

Today Kelly, Lindsay, and myself were joined by Steve for a ride around Baltimore city to celebrate the parks and raise money for the various non-profits whose work support, restore, use, and advocate for the city's parks. Kelly, Lindsay, and I started out from home and rode to the start of the ride in Carrol Park. It was great fun to ride through the city at 7 in the morning - so quiet and virtually no traffic. After a very peaceful journey we were pleasantly surprise to discover a large crowd had gathered in the park to participate in the event. We quickly found Steve and got signed in...

The ride included 4 routes - 20, 30, 40 and 60 mile options - the three longer options mostly paralleled each other, but at times it was more than a little confusing keeping track of the cue sheets and markings on the road. We headed from the park towards the stadiums and immediately missed our first spur down to Middle Branch Park. Once we passed the stadiums we headed up Federal Hill and then down around the inner harbor - it was here that we had the first of several interactions with a running event that was also happening around the harbor. For the next few miles we either paralleled or criss crossed the running route - which was more than a little clumsy. Thankfully when we reached Canton we headed away from the water and the runners. Our first rest stop was at Patterson Park at the Pagoda providing us with a nice view out to the marine terminals and beyond. A history of the Pagoda is HERE and a nice article about the 2002 renovation is HERE. After the rest stop we headed up Washington Blvd. past Hopkins Hospital - then at Gay Street, Kelly and I realized the we were going right by the 1887 American Brewery building and decided we had to take a detour to show it to Steve and see how the renovations were going. A little bit of info can be found at Urban Atrophy. From here we headed up past the old Clifton Park Valve House. Then past Clifton Mansion - the former Hopkins estate.

From here we passed through Clifton Park golf course, Herring Run Park, Lake Montebello, the old Memorial Stadium site, Sherwood Gardens, San Marten Drive, Druid Hill Park, Jones Falls Trail, and eventually to the Gwynns Falls Trail which led us back to Carrol Park.

In Carrol Park we joined in on the post-ride BBQ and hung out a chatted for a while with other riders. We met the guy behind Baltimore Spokes - also known as Human Car and chatted about recent successes at the city and state level for better access and facilities for cycling.

All and all it was a grand day out.

50 miles total for the day
1237 miles YTD