Some Afternoons
Dec. 27th, 2008 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdayEvery so often, on those days when I'd wheel my bike out the gate at the truss plant, I'd stop and think, "Ya know, I'm incredibly lucky to be doing this." Then, I'd hop on the bike, cross the road to the opposite shoulder, and start crankin' on the 15 mile ride home.
Some afternoons, the ones in August, outside temps would be in the mid-90s with the air holding about as much humidity as it possibly could without raining. And I'd be soaked with sweat just walking up the red clay road to the front gate.
I think it was one of those days when I first took what I called the long way home: north on Henry Clay Boulevard to Route 33; east on 33 through Euclid and Clay to Cicero; south on Route 11 in Cicero to where it crosses South Bay Road in Mattydale.
In Mattydale, there's a strip mall that sits between Route 11 and Route 81. And down at its far end sits an abandoned theater where my first wife and I used to go, when we were young and she was in love. And just off its equally abandoned and broken parking lot is the Bear Trap Creek trail head.
Which, it turned out, was the coolest ever part of the ride. For a distance of several miles, Bear Trap Creek wanders along Route 81. And somehow some visionary genius had conceived of paving about a six foot wide path from Mattydale down to the Ley Creek Transfer Station off 7th North.
To this day, it's the only thing of its kind in Onondaga County and even incorporates a pedestrian bridge over Route 81. I can only imagine the markers that some politician, on his or someone else's deathbed, must have called in to get it done. (Hence my theory that Jimmy Hoffa is holding up one of the footings.)
Anyway, this footpath meanders through amazing stands of evergreens and swamp grass, into blind corners from which you might well emerge in Jurrasic Park, then back within sight of the cars blazing by on 81 North until finally, through a few more turns, you ride through the gate at 7th North Street.
After that, it's a monster climb up the 7th North hill into the city followed by the final mile and a half of fairly level streets to Mooney Avenue and home.
I don't remember the very last time that I made this ride, only know that there must have been one. And that afterward I was always glad that, while it was there to be made, I'd known what a special thing it was to have in my life...
Some afternoons, the ones in August, outside temps would be in the mid-90s with the air holding about as much humidity as it possibly could without raining. And I'd be soaked with sweat just walking up the red clay road to the front gate.
I think it was one of those days when I first took what I called the long way home: north on Henry Clay Boulevard to Route 33; east on 33 through Euclid and Clay to Cicero; south on Route 11 in Cicero to where it crosses South Bay Road in Mattydale.
In Mattydale, there's a strip mall that sits between Route 11 and Route 81. And down at its far end sits an abandoned theater where my first wife and I used to go, when we were young and she was in love. And just off its equally abandoned and broken parking lot is the Bear Trap Creek trail head.
Which, it turned out, was the coolest ever part of the ride. For a distance of several miles, Bear Trap Creek wanders along Route 81. And somehow some visionary genius had conceived of paving about a six foot wide path from Mattydale down to the Ley Creek Transfer Station off 7th North.
To this day, it's the only thing of its kind in Onondaga County and even incorporates a pedestrian bridge over Route 81. I can only imagine the markers that some politician, on his or someone else's deathbed, must have called in to get it done. (Hence my theory that Jimmy Hoffa is holding up one of the footings.)
Anyway, this footpath meanders through amazing stands of evergreens and swamp grass, into blind corners from which you might well emerge in Jurrasic Park, then back within sight of the cars blazing by on 81 North until finally, through a few more turns, you ride through the gate at 7th North Street.
After that, it's a monster climb up the 7th North hill into the city followed by the final mile and a half of fairly level streets to Mooney Avenue and home.
I don't remember the very last time that I made this ride, only know that there must have been one. And that afterward I was always glad that, while it was there to be made, I'd known what a special thing it was to have in my life...
