Riding Back Home

I really fell in love with my bike in 1975.  It was a red Sting-ray with a banana seat and a short bracket at the back we then called a sissy bar.

My best friend and I would ride back and forth to each others house and make trips to the store for our moms.  The bike was a ticket to freedom and meant we didn't need to wait for a ride to go someplace.

Just about the same time the country was in the midst of preparing for the nation's 200th birthday, our Bicentennial.  One of the things the city of Janesville, Wisconsin did in honor of the event was create bike routes.

It started at Craig High School for us.  We rode through neighborhoods, Palmer Park, and for a couple of pre-teens it was a trip we grew to enjoy so much we sometimes rode it more than once a day.

Looking back almost 40 years, those two young boys would have loved what their home-town has done for bike riders now.  On a recent ride around parts of the city, I kept thinking how much fun we would have had on the paved bike trails cut through natural areas away from traffic.

You can't quite recapture those youthful days of adventure, so while it's the same pair of eyes in my head, it is certain I see many things differently.

One of the new trails I rode covered some of the same ground I recall riding over paths where tires had worn away the grass to create a single file ride through tall grass and short trees.  Another uses a former railroad bridge across the river to create a vantage point of a bend in the river I had never seen.

The best new path was along the Rock River just north of downtown.  It's carved close to the water at the bottom of a steep hill and then passes under the large span of the War Memorial Bridge.

Janesville marks the southern reach of the glaciers that bulldozed through much of the state, and one of the new trails (Ice Age) traces that line.

Since I moved away a lot has happened in Janesville.  There was growth and decline, most notably the closing of the General Motors plant and the loss of thousands of jobs there and in supporting businesses.

The city is working to keep its best face forward.  There are challenges and there are opportunities.  It was nice to see on a bike seat re-visit that natural scenic beauty is front and center in the revival.

All these years later I have another red bike, my third red bike, and having it under me to ride through the old neighborhoods made for a great ride back home.

I saw houses that had blossomed over what I remembered and saw some that were mere shadows of what they used to be. 

The city's Green Belt, an early effort at prairie restoration and erosion control has become one of Janesville's best features.  It took my breath away in several places, most notably here where the Ice Age Trail crosses Wright Road.  If you can click on it to enlarge the shot you can take this bike break with me, then get back on and ride some more.