End Pavement

With the summer heating up here in SoCal, I figured it would behoove me to do some research on cycling in hot weather. Here’s some preliminary links to read.

justbicycles.org: “Cycling Workouts For the Weather Extreme Months”

It’s the time of the year where exercising has become necessary albeit weathering with the extreme temperatures. It’s that time of year. Extreme temperatures can be related to heat or cold but either makes exercising and Beach Cruiser riding uncomfortable.

It’s the time of year when you decide that you were a freakin idiot for going outside!

womenscycling.ca: “Cycling in the Heat of Summer”

Now that summer is well underway, some parts of the country are hitting record high temperatures, with humidity levels running between 60 and 100 percent. Hot weather is a challenge for cyclists but don’t worry, your body adapts to these conditions quickly.

bicyclinglife.com: “Bicycle Commuting in 120 degree Temperatures.”

That’s right 120 degrees, Fahrenheit.

I live in the California desert. As a life-long bicycle commuter, when I found myself with faced with the possibility of such a commute, I welcomed the challenge. I did this commute for 3 years till the company imploded, allowing me the much easier commute from the bedroom to the living room.

And while we’re on the topic of heat, here’s Ken Kifer and “Coping With Global Warming”

Observations from a cyclist’s point of view over a lifetime of how Nature, solar radiation, and the weather have been altered by man, some arguments that global warming is a myth, and what cyclists can do to cope with the changes.

Bike commute to work today so to celebrate, here’s a bunch of cool links for you to check out.

Redlands Daily Facts: “Loma Linda OKs $3.8 million for purchase of 586 acres in hills”

The City Council on Tuesday night approved spending $3.8million to buy 586 acres of open space south of Beaumont Avenue. The city will borrow from several internal accounts to pay for the purchase. The money will be reimbursed from various sources, including development impact fees.

LA Times Jacket Copy: “John Muir, nature man of Yosemite”

The man who championed protecting natural spaces — especially in what is now Yosemite National Park — was born in Scotland, moved as a boy to Wisconsin and later hiked from Kentucky to south Florida; there, he got sick and headed to California to recuperate. Once he found the wilds of Northern California in 1868, he was smitten. He climbed rocks, cursed the sharp hooves of sheep that tore up wildflowers and even snuck President Teddy Roosevelt away from his handlers and into the backcountry for three nights of camping.

He also wrote like a fiend.

BikeCommuters.com: “Just Ask Jack — Deflecting the Naysayers?”

Although we know several people at our work who also bike in we also get some remarks from a few people who seem to subtly suggest that we are trying to make a political statement or trying to look ‘hip’ or ‘holier than thou’. Yes, I am a liberal but I am also a hair and makeup girl and getting to work slightly messed up has been a mental barrier I had to overcame solely because I can’t stomach or afford $4+ a gallon - we have a mortgage to pay.

Do you ever get this?? If so, how do you handle it?[...]

LA Times: “The trail is his destination”

Billy Goat has hiked more than 32,000 miles — which would have taken him around the world and a third of the way again. He has walked across the South and the Southwest, the Northeast and the West. He has crossed the Rocky Mountains on four occasions, twice in each direction. He has conquered the so-called triple crown of American hiking — the Appalachian, Continental Divide and Pacific Crest trails — multiple times.

Writer Unboxed: “Velvety Shadows: Dealing with Fear”

This push/pull has been going on for a couple of months. I’ll dare myself to try a new challenge, a hike in an area I’ve not visited, freak myself out completely the night before, get through the hike, NOT see a bear, and feel like Paul Bunyan and Rocky all rolled into one. Then I’ll be twice as fearful the next time. Last week, I hiked with joy through an area called Saylor Park, while Christopher Robin, my significant other, orienteered. It was a thrilling challenge–hiking by myself in back country, in deep quiet forest with dazzling views of Pikes Peak from the backside.

But you know, all I could think about was bears. And it’s cub season. And what would I do. And there is a velvety shadow and—eek! It was an enormous relief to get back to main roads and be able to stop thinking about bears, bears, bears.

LA Times Emerald City: “Goodbye and see you at Green Drinks”

Starting tomorrow, June 22, all my green L.A. lifestyle blogging will happen on my own website, green LA girl.

Phew! Now I can close a bunch of browser tabs. ;)

The LA Times (“Climate change threatens two-thirds of California’s unique plants, study says”) and Discovery News (“Calif. Plants Squeezed by Climate Change”) both have articles up referring to a new study showing the risk California plants could experience with projected severe climate changes.

As the Times puts it,

Two-thirds of California’s unique plants, some 2,300 species that grow nowhere else in the world, could be wiped out across much of their current geographic ranges by the end of the century due to rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, according to a new study.

The species that cannot migrate fast enough to higher altitudes or cooler coastal areas could face extinction due to greenhouse gas emissions that are heating the planet, according to researchers.

And of course, the animals that depend on those plants (not to mention the animals who depend on those animals) will be affected as well.

Check out Stephen Colbert’s nightmare scenario. :)

At the Dodger Stadium blogger meetup back in April, one of the questions raised with owner Frank McCourt was bringing public transportation back to Dodger Stadium. He seemed genuinely interested at the time, though he made it clear he didn’t see it as a problem the Dodgers organization needed to solve by itself.

This past weekend brought news that the Dodgers and the city of LA are going to resume shuttle service from Union Station for all home games, beginning in July. And it sounds as if the two entities have divided up the costs as well.

The shuttles would run from Union Station, with two stops along Sunset Boulevard, enabling fans to connect from Amtrak, Metrolink, the downtown DASH shuttle and several city bus lines. The estimated ride time from Union Station would be 16 to 19 minutes, according to city documents.

From the Times story, the Dodgers are treating this as an “interim solution,” so look for more info some time in the not-so-distant future.

No word on if you can bring a bicycle along on the shuttle. ;) But if you’re at Union Station already, it’s not that far if you don’t mind the hills. In fact, you can check out the terrain, along with a 3D model of Dodger Stadium in the latest version of Google Earth.

This is where a hovercraft might come in handy — according to a Press-Enterprise story, “One-third of state-maintained Inland roads are in disrepair, Caltrans says”. Anecdotally it seems to have gotten worse in recent years, and now there are numbers to back up that experience.

Just in case you might be tempted to wallow in schadenfreude at the car drivers, it’s not just the freeways that are screwed up, and our bicycles and buses roll over those same roads.