Hilly Perspective
Well I’m on the Hill Streets (Hilda and Hilliard), but I wasn’t feeling the blues (pun intended). I had just powered up the hill that is Lakewood from Lake Road all the way to Lakewood Heights Boulevard. I was feeling strong and accomplished as I arrived at the corner of Hilda and Lakewood Heights. I never notice how hilly Lakewood is as I am driving around in my car, but I feel every slope on my bike. It might be amplified given that I am riding around on a super heavy tandem bike with only one gear.
As I looked further south towards the highway I was surprised to see a steep slope leading up to the Warren Road exit ramp. Once again, I don’t ever remember feeling like I was driving downhill as I got off at that exit. I started wondering if I took my bike to the top of that hill near the highway if I could coast all the way to Lake Road without pedaling.
As I walked down Hilda I noticed an attractive buckeye tree (or perhaps horse chestnut – I can never tell the difference until they drop their seeds). I didn’t notice how tall it was until I backed up and compared it to the nearby house. Another example of perspective making all the difference.
Halfway home I decided to try at least a partial coast without pedaling. I was able to glide all the way from Detroit to Lake and that included two small brakes at the railroad tracks and Clifton. I was super excited to get home and post the elevation from my Strava app on the website. However, when I uploaded it said there was an error with the map. You will just have to trust me that I rode more than 5 feet today.
