First Rails to Trails ride

This evening Brian and I drove down to Newville to check out the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail. The first accomplishment of the evening was getting both bikes in the car successfully! We were quite pleased about that, so maybe we won't have to invest in a bike rack for the car just yet.

The Rail Trail was really nice! It's mostly level, with a crushed, packed gravel sort of surface for the vast majority of the trail. We really didn't have trouble on it with our bikes, since we have tires that are made to handle that kind of surface.

A lot of the trail is rather secluded, with trees lining either side of it, so you can't really see anything beyond the trees, although there are a few open areas that go through farm fields. It's very pretty along the trail right now, with the trees greening up and the honeysuckle and lilacs blooming. We saw several kinds of animals along the path- a few rabbits, some cats from nearby farms, and even a deer! Seeing the deer was really neat.

We decided to go five miles down the trail, then we turned around and headed back. So we ended up riding 10 miles today - my longest ride yet! And it really wasn't hard at all. The worst part of it was sitting on that little seat. ;-) We both said we could have gone farther without a problem. But it was getting late, and we hadn't eaten dinner yet. And 10 miles was a nice round number!

I'm actually pleasantly surprised by how much I'm enjoying riding my bike so far. Of course, today's ride was probably under just about the ideal conditions - cloudy skies, moderate temperatures, a level path, no cars to worry about - so there was really no reason for me not to enjoy it. But I suspect even the more challenging rides won't dissuade me from continuing with this new hobby, which is good, since I've invested quite a bit of money in it already!