I’m a sap for photographing alligators is pass on my rides in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Here is one from today: Here are a few from past rides:

See original here:
Alligator photos from my rides

By George Ingram
Last fall Tony shared a link to Charlie Z’s blog (http://bbandm.wordpress.com/author/chasbo1/) and I subscribed to it. All of you should check it out.

Late last fall, after being so impressed by Charlie’s photographs, knowledge of downtown Detroit and well articulated descriptions of what he experienced, I e-mailed him and asked if I could join him for a ride this spring. He agreed and I added him to the distribution list of my ride reports this spring.

We met the other morning at Campus Martius and went to several places that I requested to see. I found Charlie to be a great guy and fun to be with. He, like a lot of us, was in a job related to the automobile industry. Charlie is now working at Macomb Community College in Purchasing but was previously developing advertising for the Saturn vehicles until the US gov’t told GM to kill the Saturn brand.

The photographs below are only part of what I took. This ride had the most photographs taken per mile of any bike ride that I’ve done. Thanks so much Charlie!!! It was so different than my typical ride up here in the country.

That’s Charley up on the left Charlie on the Riverwalk.

First stop was the Dequindre Cut. Check out the size of this graffiti!

The next stop was Heidleberg Street to see Tyree Guyton’s work. check out his website – http://www.heidelberg.org/

The most famous part of the Heidelberg Project, the dotted house.

Our third stop was the old, abandoned Packard Plant. We were able to bicycle up to the fourth floor and then explore. Inside the complex was quite dangerous due to broken glass, broken concrete, rusted steel and holes in the floor that were at times 6 foot by 4 foot. Outside the building there was a tunnel system that had 3 foot by 4 foot openings every 50 yards that were mostly uncovered. If one were to fall in, the tunnel floor was about 12 feet down.

On the 4th floor, there were two boats and a truck stored there that had been made ‘pieces of art’ by some artists. While looking out the windows to the wing next to ours we could see an old bread or milk delivery truck on the third floor.

When we went to go down, I found that I had flatted the rear tire. I changed to another tube and rode down.

There were several other ‘urban explorers’ in the building. When we rode down from the top we came upon three and frightened them pretty well. When we exited the building I found that my back tire was flatted a second time. This time I patched the tube and was good to go. I hoped that there would be no more flats, but that was not the case.

Charlie got one, too. So in a quarter mile of riding we had 3 flats. Charlie said he had 9 flats in all of last year and I think that he did very well considering how many things were laying around that had potential to cause a puncture.

We cut through Corktown on the way to Mexicantown. We discovered a new bicycle shop and met Jordan the owner. He is open 7 days a week from 11 to 5 now and plans expanded hours in the future. He is at 2819 14th Street, Detroit MI 48216 phone 313-638-0224. His e-mail is jordan@corktowncycles.com

Please stop in if you ride the route I did and help him get his business off to a roaring start. Jordan is planning to add tables and chairs on the lawn at the left of these photos for cyclists to come and eat lunch or take a break.

I failed to take any photographs of open fields which we came across from time to time. Charlie said that Detroit has 40 square miles of fields. Too bad they arent’t in big chucks. We could cut single track trails – ha ha!

I mentioned to TJ that I was going to meet Charlie for this ride and he asked if I would ask Charlie if he would do another with our group. Charlie agreed to lead another ride for anyone in our group! I’d like to do another downtown Detroit ride in the middle of September for our group. I also told Charlie that I wanted to take him around in our neck of the woods to share the Paint Creek Trail, Clinton River Trail, Polly Ann Trail, Macomb Orchard Trail and all those nice gravel roads.

The route we did was to places that I suggested. If any of you have other places that you would like to go, please e-mail them to me and I’ll create a list for our September ride. The best day to do this ride is Sunday because it is the day the streets are least crowded and there is ample parking available for free. We didn’t have much traffic to deal with.

Here is the route we took going in a counter clockwise direction – http://connect.garmin.com/activity/96625395

I went 25 miles and climbed 400 feet, what a change from a typical ride! And what a great place to see things!!
George

Rode with Pat Benson and Tina Laurie today, celebrating the fourth with a 31 miler that took us through two parks, a bunch of mountain bike and nature trails and some fine gravel backroads. There were lots of hills on a perfect July day, with sunny skies and temps in the upper 70′s.

Here’s the video, as shot from my GoPro Hero helmet-mounted camera, followed by a map of the route as recorded by my Garmin. I cal the route the Texas shapped Tralis and Gravel route because of the way the route looks when plotted out on a map.

Here’s the video:

Here’s the route:

Or… this is the result. I dislocated that finger on a downhill on the trails at the Orion Oaks Park in Orion Township, MI yesterday.

I should have known better but wasn’t paying attention.

I went over the handlebars. The helmet proteced my head, though I goit some pretty good road rash from the impact.

Collarbone was okay. Right side pretty brused. The finger? Not so good.

Doc at hospital said it would have been better to have broken it. Dislocated fingers take 12-14 months to heal.

The bike was okay. And I’ll be back on it tomorrow.

We had a great 43 miler this Saturday, joined by two new riders – Matt and Larry. Larry rode a recumbent, the rest an assortment of road bikes and crossovers.

Water was welcome today, with temps on their way to 90, humidity levels high, the wind stiff and challenging and lots of sunshine. I went through four bottles.

Our route was out the Macomb Orchard Trail to the end of the pavement and then back to Shelby Road, into and around Stony Creek Metro Park with side trips most of the picnic areas and then back out of the park to the Macomb Orchard Trail, finishing where we started in the parking lot of the Ice Areana,

Here’s today’s group:

We’ll post details on next Saturday’s ride later in the week.

Back in the wilds of Bloomer Parks single track

Keeping our “if we ride dirt, there must be blood” rule intact, we had lots of fun on our tour of three parks (Stony Creek, Bloomer and Bear Creek) and three trails (Paint Creek, Clinton River and Macomb Orchard).

Thanks to Tim “Free Fall Sausch” there was blood from two of his limbs after a fall off a wooden contraption back in the Mountain Bike skills area at Stony Creek. You can see the video below.

Here’s the route we took, a 27.5 mile ride for me, as uploaded from my Garmin Edge. Click the play button to see the route animated.

Joining us for the first time today was Amy, who proved to be as crazy as the rest of us as we rode in and out of single track, up hills, through mosquito-infested woods and on the teeter totter at Stony.

The weather was perfect, with temps in the seventies.

We rode Paint Creek Trail to Clinton River Trail, took a loop through Boomer and into Stony after a short stretch on the Macomb Orchard Trail.

Terry guided us to the skill practice area of the Mountain Bike trails at Stony where we had a lot of fun. Terry and Amy hit the teeter totter the first time. I didn’t have enough momentum to get up and down the first time, but made it fine the second. I definitely want to come back there and practice my skills.

Opps. Terry goes down

There were several spills, besides “Free Fall Fausch.” Here’s a still of Terry off the Teeter Totter. A dab of blood on his elbow was all he had to show for it. Hmm, come to think of it, I think he also fell back in Bloomer. Guess we’ll call him “Terry Tumbles.”

Pat and Tina wisely watched.

We rode rthe Mountain Bike Trails in the park to Sheldon Road and then took that to Snell and from there rode several single and double tracks and grassy paths in the Bear Creek Nature Park.

Great day. Great people. Just a dab of blood. Though “Free Fall Fausch” should have some impressively nastly looking scabs on his knees for a few weeks.

Here’s the video: