Nature Walks in the Western burbs

I spent today riding my scooter around the western suburbs of Boston, in search of nature walks. Before leaving I picked out a few places to visit, based on our family memberships in the Mass Audubon Society and Trustees of Reservations; I would definitely visit Drumlin Farm in Lincoln and the Broadmoor sanctuary in Natick. As it turned out, I did more than that, and just missed a place I really want to go back and pick up. I also stopped in for a visit with Dan, one of my former colleagues at IBM.


View Larger Map

We used to take the kids out to Drumlin Farm pretty regularly, but I haven't been there in probably at least 10 years. It is bigger than I remembered, and it now has this cool, solar-powered bird mobile.

From 2011-07-16

I wandered around for about an hour, and then rode down to Dan's house in Wayland. He suggested I visit nearby Garden in the Woods, so when I left his house, I did.

The New England Wild Flower Society runs the Garden, and it's a lovely spot. Here are some of the pictures I took as I walked around.

From 2011-07-16

From 2011-07-16

From 2011-07-16

From 2011-07-16

From 2011-07-16

From there I made my way, not especially directly, to the Broadmoor sanctuary in Natick. Because of our connection with Drumlin Farm, we've been Mass Audubon members for probably 20 years, but this was the first time I've visited Broadmoor. It's enormous, with a large trail system.

From 2011-07-16

From 2011-07-16

From 2011-07-16

From 2011-07-16

From 2011-07-16

I want to go back to Broadmoor again; they open a portion of the trails in the winter for cross-country skiing.

My last two stops were accidental; I passed the Trustees of Reservations sites Chase Woodlands and Powisset Farm. I was unfortunately unaware that, while at Powisset Farm, I was literally across the street from Noanet Highlands, a truly gigantic preserve with views of downtown Boston. Ah, well - something for another day.

Looking at Wheels

Yesterday I looked at wheels of various sorts. Last weekend RuthAnne and I took the Basic Rider Course from Training Wheels in Plympton and passed the exam to get our motorcycle licenses. I've wanted to know how to ride - and be able to do so legally - since my long trip to India in 2007, when it became clear that a 2-wheeler would have been the ideal way for me to get around. More recently, my daily commute to Burlington by bus has been getting me down; it takes an extra hour out of my day to go by bus than by car, yet I don't want to do all that driving, so I've been thinking a high-MPG 2-wheeler would be a good choice.

So - I stopped first at Boston Motor Sports in Arlington and looked at scooters. They carry scooters from (among others) Kymco and Suzuki. I was especially interested in the new Kymco Downtown 300i, but it's unfortunately not going to be available until the fall. It looks like a sweet vehicle; 60MPG, top speed of about 80MPH, large wheels (for a scooter), lightweight, FUN. While there, I looked at the Kymco People S 250, a similar scooter; it looked pretty good. I also checked out a used 2008 Aprilia 250 with 3000 miles, for $3200, including rear box.

I unfortunately couldn't ride anything; Boston Motor Sports (not unreasonably) requires a full license for test drives, not just a permit, and I'm still waiting for mine to come in the mail. After leering at metal for a while, I wandered upstairs to their gear department and checked out, helmets, gloves, jackets and such. One of the sales guys was particularly helpful, and I tried on a lot of stuff.

A helmet is a completely indispensible piece of safety gear, and I tried on helmets from Shoei and Arai. The Arai Vector medium fit me particularly well; it's about $450. I checked on the Internet (of course), and that's a very reasonably price for that helmet. I did price checks on everything I looked at at Boston Motor Sports, and they alway came in just a little over the best Internet prices. So I'll be buying locally!

For gloves, the Power Trip Grand National medium fit well and felt comfortable; $45/pair. For jackets, there were several that seemed pretty reasonable, costing between $250 and $450 for a complete system (outer shell with protective inserts, removable inner insulation layers). Chaps or other overpants seem like a wise idea, and boots wouldn't hurt, either. So I could be looking at about $1000 worth of protective gear before I even get a machine...

I left Arlington and went out to Framingham to look at a Sym Citycom 300 at Metrowest Scooters. They were a bit more laid back about the license requirement, and I got to take the citycom out for a spin. I was a bit disappointed with the acceleration; there's clearly a big performance difference between motorcycles and scooters with similar engine sizes. But the scoot handled bumps smoothly and was, of course, insanely easy to operate.

Finally, for something completely different, I stopped at Ace Wheelworks ( a few blocks from home) and took out a Trek Allant for a test ride. It was really fun being back on a bicycle, and this one is even pretty affordable. The 20" frame was right for me, and I had no trouble (aside from my terrible out-of-shapedness) gtting it up hills and stopped on the way down.

I'm sure I won't be making any purchase real soon, but it was fun to look.

Monsoon vs. Summer

One thing that struck me my first day back in Hyderabad was how green everything looked. Initially I chaulked it up to faulty memory - but, no, it's real. Here are two pictures of the open land behind my house, the first taken in early April, shortly after I arrived, and the second taken this afternoon. Wow.

---

---

Today's bike ride produced a few fun pictures. The first is of a little architectural feature I almost didn't notice; it's pure luck that I glanced up at the right moment. I'm sure there's a story, if only I could find it.



The next I almost missed because signs like this have become mundane to me. I stopped here to buy an extension cord, and only as I was leaving did I think to record the sign.



Finally, there was no way I would have missed this little scene.



I went riding yesterday, too, and came back with these pictures. The first two are of an attractive green spot south of Lumbini Park, on Hill Fort Road. Nothing stunning, just a nice relief from urban Hyderabad.





The next two are temples I rode by - the first rather subline, the second silly (to my Western eyes...).





Next we have the treehouse at the southwest corner of NTR Garden. I now know that it's clearly modeled after a mango tree.



The next two shots are of a work in progress, some new statues in front of the temple near the city library in Khairatabad. I'll have to keep checking back on their progress; this work wasn't even begun back in early August when I last rode by here.





Finally, I was stopped by a train after taking the previous two pictures, and I thought a picture of an Indian passenger train might be of interest.

Biking before work

This morning I woke up early (5:30) and decided to go for a ride before work. I headed off into Jubilee Hills, hoping to find my way via back streets to the hills that look out over Durgam Cheruvu (Secret Lake). I didn't get there, but I had a nice ride anyway. I rode past what now know to be Lotus Pond, which I've seen before from above:

I got thoroughly lost and never did get to Secret Lake.

Here's the raw material:

GPS track

Pictures

I've also uploaded pictures of the kids who live in my house with the scooters I brought them from home:

Scooters