couple locks

It’s not a couple of locks, it’s a couple’s locks.

Seen in front of Banter/SCRAP/Querencia.

Lewisville Lake beach recon

It’s crazy hot, and swimming feels good.

Pictured above is a small beach on the north shore of Lake Lewisville. It’s not amazing, but you can bike there from Denton.

I sought destinations via Denton’s MKT rail trail, and in this weather, a swim sounded inarguably good. My route used the rail trail for almost the whole way, which was nice and stress free: no cars to worry about. There are some good, long stretches where you can ride without feeling rushed.

Swisher is car-dominated, and there’s no sidewalk, so I rode that short leg of it anyways. If you look at an area map, you can cut through a neighborhood to skip that Swisher part, taking Dobbs to Shady Shores rd. I rode into West Lake park, and the gate staff pointed me to the boat ramp-y area to the left. Meh. It was not really a swimming area. Just south of the park, there’s a beachhead parking lot on your left.

If you get hungry on the way there or back, the El Centro market has a Taqueria inside, you can get your breakfast taco on.

What Do Women Want (in order to cycle more)?

BFOC just linked to a thoughtful Scientific American piece about a correlation between gender roles and cycling prevalence.

“If you want to know if an urban environment supports cycling, you can forget about all the detailed ‘bikeability indexes’—just measure the proportion of cyclists who are female,” says Jan Garrard, a senior lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and author of several studies on biking and gender differences.

This is fascinating, and I wonder if they have the data broken down by age?  In any case, it’s a well-rounded case that supports drastic need for cycling infrastructure.  As this study says, we should have “improved mobility options for everyone”.

Denton is easy to ride because of its relatively small size, but Denton can also be difficult to ride because automotive transport is exponentially prioritized over people-first transit.  That will only change if the citizens demand that people be prioritized over cars, a concept that I think the Denton square is struggling with right now.

Blackberry Ride?

Today’s Denton Record Chronicle mentions that a blackberry farm in Sanger is now open for summer.

Duck Creek Blackberry Farm, 5037 Duck Creek Road in Sanger, has opened for the season, offering pick-your-own blackberries through late July.

This is the fifth year the farm has been in operation. To check days and hours of operation and availability of berries, visit www.duckcreekblackberries.com

The website states that they’re open 7-10AM on Saturdays, but that they usually sell out by 9AM.

At about 15 miles, this sounds like a great early morning country ride.  Maybe there’s a nice cafe in Sanger to get lunch after picking berries?  If we start riding at 6AM, I’d guess we could be there around 7 to 7:30.

can a bike pump inflate car tires?

yes.

It took me a couple minutes to add about 10 pounds.