Ever since moving to Chapel Hill, we've been riding up to the Carrboro Farmer's Market just about every Saturday morning. It's only about 5.5 miles one way but encompasses all kinds of cycling: suburban trails and neighborhoods, a small stretch of rural road, urban bike paths, and urban roads. Because of the variety, it seems a lot longer a ride, but it never fails to be fun and interesting -- and it helps that most of the climbs are on the way there, and we can whiz home with our bounty pretty easily afterwards! (It also helps that Barry carries most of it...ha!)
This Saturday provided some extra excitement as it was the UNC football home opener with kickoff at noon. This meant that Chapel Hill was buzzing with traffic and pedestrians, where it's usually fairly sleepy on a weekend morning. We did fine, though; even extending our ride to pick up some ice cream at the grocery store and some reward goodies at the food co-op nearby.
Please join us as we take you on a virtual ride through our little part of blue heaven on a beautiful late summer football Saturday. Thanks to Barry for taking so many wonderful action shots!
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| Our Bike Friday Pocket Crusoes - perfect steeds for this utility ride! |
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| The one short rural section of our route (that's me in the yellow and blue) |
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| Approaching Hwy 15-501 - our most difficult crossing; we often have to wait minutes to cross safely. |
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| "Tacking" up a long climb up Laurel Hill Rd. to get to Chapel Hill's campus - the word HILL is not used by accident! |
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| The Old Well - a famous Chapel Hill landmark - actually houses a drinking fountain. |
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| The Old Well, and some UNC students before the game. My bike is Tarheel colors (minus the red)! |
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| Bike lane as we head to Carrboro, immediately west of Chapel Hill's campus |
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| Carrboro multi-use path - a very bike-friendly community! |
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| Over the RR tracks... |
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| And again! |
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| Downtown Carrboro - less busy than usual. Maybe everyone is going to the game? |
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| Excellent Carrboro bike lane in most of the downtown area |
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| Almost to the market -- it's just down here to the right! |
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| And here we are! |
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| Lots of good stuff here! |
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| Getting ready to shop! |
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| An excellent photographer, cyclist, and veggie hauler! |
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| Waiting to nab some organic kale and green beans... |
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| Beautiful garden bounty |
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| Still need some potatoes and tomatoes... |
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| All done at the farmer's market, we rode down a big hill to a grocery store for Breyer's ice cream. |
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| Barry heading in to make a BOGO score - he has a freezer bag from my mom to keep it cold. |
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| Next stop after climbing back UP the big hill, Weaver Street Market food co-op. Lots of people bike here! |
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| Goodie run!!!! |
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| The haul (L to R): Bran muffin and chocolate roll -- they bake everything in house, and it's yummy! We split both. :-) |
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| Heading back through campus - lots more traffic now. Fortunately, most going the other way! |
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| We zipped down the big hill on Hwy 54 from campus back east, and look at the traffic heading the other way to the game! |
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| This tunnel goes under Hwy 54 and back over to Meadowmont - we call it the "Chunnel" (Seinfeld fake movie reference) |
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| Meadowmont bike path |
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| Meadowmont Village and bike lane |
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| Meadowmont Village fountain and roundabout |
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| Green light to Meadowmont Apartments straight ahead...almost home! |
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| And here we are, safe and sound, and with lots of goodies for our bellies! |
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| This bag kept our ice cream cold. Thanks Mom! |
2 comments:
What a beautiful place to ride! I love cycling and have done a triathlon or two.. but our home of 3 years doesn't have the bike paths that our other home had so I really miss that. Nice!
Thanks! It really is a nice riding area and has great cycling infrastructure compared to places we've lived in the past. Still too many cars, tho!
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