GPS for bikes?

Best laid plans and all that, I failed to get to the reservoir. Oh, wait, that phrase starts out "best laid plans." Perhaps that's where I went wrong. Mine were more "rough laid plans."


According to the map of bike trails throughout the metro area, I could follow Westerly Trail south and hook up to a route that would get me into the State Park and the reservoir. The problem was that the trail ended and the "hook up" was a little vague. I failed to commit the map to memory or to take the map with me and, instead, hit the trail confident that I would find my way.

Well, maybe not. I rode the trail to its end at Yale. I noted the sign indicating that the bike route was to the left. I traveled east for a block and turned south again. Within a couple of blocks, I came face to face with the stone wall that separated the community from the highway. I was looking for my route to take me under the highway and over to the reservoir (just about a half mile for the crow) but found only that the street I was on took me in the opposite direction. Now what?

I followed the road as it curved around first east and then north, the same route the highway took on the other side of the wall. My choices were to wander around the neighborhood looking for the secret passage, head west to the major thoroughfare that I would take if driving or abandon the reservoir plan and focus on logging miles. As I was listening to mountaineering expeditions gone wrong via audio book as I rode, I decided that the best plan was to ride for miles on streets and trails I knew rather than wander around hoping for direction.

I rode safely over nineteen and a half miles. I saw places I had never seen before and also traveled some trails I have come to love. I consider the ride a success even though I failed to make my planned destination. I'll study the map a little more and maybe try to drive the route in the next couple of days when they predict rain and snow. Next weekend, I'll try the route again. If I can't find my way to the reservoir, I'll shop for that GPS unit I can mount on my handlebars!