bikes on trains. bikes on bikepaths

we rode to ann's house for the first time on the 8th march. it was ok.

we took the train up to pascoe vale and then rode across. it wasn't so far. last weekend i rode the whole way. took me an hour, riding into the wind, uphill. it was really overcast and then it started to rain after i arrived. but luckily ann had homemade vegan chocolate cake (not made from vegans, she assured me) and homemade ginger biscuits, so i was ok.

i feel quite strongly about the upfield bike path (look here - it's along the edge of the train line). i like it. i like it a whole lot. it goes along the side of the train tracks, from sydney rd right up to... well, maybe batman station? there are some gaps, and it ends pretty much at the second victoria street, just before bell street (not the first victoria street below albion street), but it links up with about a million other bike paths - the cross-town route to moonee ponds, the merri creek route, the route to CERES, the capitol cities trail, the path along the side of royal park. it's so ace. but it's not very well lit, which can be scary at night. but i love it.

the other night i was riding home up the path and two trains passed me at once and blew their horns at each other. it was just all sound and light and i could feel the trains shaking my guts and the bones in my chest. then i was past them, and they were past me, the tracks hissed and hummed, and then it was back to that wonderful dark, quiet rushing up the bike path.

the trains are so much huger than trams when you're down at wheel level, and faster. you know you'd get totally squished if one flew off the tracks and onto the bike path. but you don't think those sorts of thoughts.

if you're lucky, you get a train coming along behind you as you ride down the path to the city (or the gym, or the pub, or spotlight). all the traffic has to stop and you can fly across the roads at the crossings, getting a free run as you race the train between stations. it's most excellent.

it's my favourite thing to ride up and down that path by myself - i feel like i'm going a million miles an hour, even though i know i'm slower than every other bmx bandit i know. but when i'm on my own i feel like i'm flying. or i can mosey slowly, try not to think about my sore knee as i lug home a ton of shopping when i stop off at the supermarket on the way home. i love the panniers - i can carry a million groceries. two big bottles of juice, 2 litres of milk, 12 rolls of toilet paper under the clippy thing, and cheese, ham, sliced bread, bread rolls, yoghurt sweeties, tuna, eggs, emergency garlic, sports socks (2 pr) canneloni - all the non-greengrocer stuff. makes me sweat, makes me grumble, but it also makes me about the toughest person in the whole world.

who'd drive a car in brunswick when they could ride a bike?