Colonial National Parkway – September 9th Bike Ride
[iframe http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/48323852 465 548]
Today I was blessed to ride the Colonial National Parkway in Williamsburg, VA. In the late 1980’s we vacationed in Williamsburg but I did not know about the Colonial National Parkway. According to Wikipedia.com the parkway was built between 1930 and 1957. The road surface is different from what I am used to riding on; concrete with large rock aggregate on the surface. This creates a textured surface but one not as severe as the “chip and seal” TxDOT uses. The parkway runs from Jamestown to Williamsburg to Yorktown. I rode the Williamsburg to Yorktown section today. The National Park Service link above highlights the bicycling features of the parkway. One of the major ones is that commercial traffic is not permitted. The terrain is mixed with some hills and flat portions. Traffic was not a problem since there are three lanes and the traffic that I encountered always moved to the center to pass.
The weather was beautiful: 73 degrees, clear, light 2 mph wind from the east with gusts to 5 mph, humidity was 54%. When I first started the temperature was about 62 degrees but with the hills I was warmed up quickly.
No other bicyclists were on the route with me. I did see a rather unusual sight when I stopped to take pictures at Mill Pond. A man drove a van up to the turn off area and backed up to the woods. A few seconds later I saw a raccoon scamper down the embankment towards Mill Pond. Then I noticed the man putting a trap back in the rear of the van. I suspect he was relocating the raccoon from his yard to the pond.
I managed to get lost trying to find the on ramp to the Parkway and then when I returned to Williamsburg I made a wrong turn and was lost getting back to the hotel.
Today’s ride statistics:
- miles 29.85
- riding time 2:05:01
- average speed 14.2 mph
- max speed 24.7 mph
- average cadence 75 rpm
- max cadence 112 rpm
- elevation gain 672 ft., elevation loss 681 ft.
- min elevation 0 ft., max elevation 100 ft.
- September miles 144.47
- YTD miles 3889.02
The gallery pictures below are from my ride on the Colonial National Parkway. The naval ship is docked at the pier that is part of the naval base. The sign in the picture explains the dock’s purpose. I liked the look of the brick arched bridges over the parkway.
[imagebrowser id=110]