Progress Report

Having a wife and two kids, a house, job, and a number of other interests sometimes makes getting out on the bike difficult. Just over a year ago I had the idea of setting a few goals for myself to motivate me to get out on the bike a bit more. I started with two.

1 This goal I called Overlooking. It was to ride up to the same place in the Frederick Watershed at least once each month and take some photos to be stitched together into a panorama, to show the change of seasons through the year. I finished that project the other week and, although I missed one month, I'm pleased with the results.

2. This is the project I call Fixing Frederick. Since I don't have the money or time to do some of the long tours to far away places that I enjoy reading about in books and on the Internet, I decided to do some touring at home. The goal of this project is to ride every road where it is legal to ride in Frederick County, MD. Currently the number of roads in the county is 4162, with new roads being added regularly due to ongoing development. I have 57 rides in this series of rides, completing (1034)24% of the roads in the county database. I'll post my total yearly mileage after the new year, and while it won't be nearly the miles that some of my friends and readers ride each year, I'm pleased that it will be more miles than I've ridden in several years.

An additional benefit of this riding has been the participation of my kids. One or the other has come along on several of the adventures and it has always been fun, even when the riding was hard. I am truly a fortunate man.