Last Wednesday morning the weather was beautiful. It was 60° when I left the house for work. So I shed my tights and all my winter gear and set out on my commute. Such a nice morning was just asking for the perfect ride, so I took the Mt. Sinai route to work.
If you read my description of the Mt. Sinai route, my one complaint is the condition of Eubanks road in Chapel Hill between Millhouse road and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Well, it looks like that may be no more. When I rode by last week there was major road widening occurring on this very stretch of Eubanks. A whole third lane is being added to the road, which will make it easier for the buses, UPS trucks and garbage trucks to pass cyclists with ample space.
HOORAY!!! My favorite route just got favoriter.
Update: I rode the new and improved Eubanks the other day. They have added a bike lane and a sidewalk to about half of the stretch between Millhouse and MLK Blvd. Very nice, now finish it all the way to MLK and it'll be perfect.
Showing posts with label Mt. Sinai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mt. Sinai. Show all posts
Monday, February 7, 2011
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Route #3, Mt. Sinai, aka my favorite route
17.9 miles, about 1 hour and 10 minutes
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As indicated by the post title, this is currently my favorite route to ride between home and work. That may not be as true returning home because Martin Luther King Boulevard going out of Chapel Hill is mostly uphill.
Anyhow, this route starts out the same as the rest of my routes. I take Pickett Road out to Randolph then Erwin. However, when I get to Erwin I just cross over and keep going out Kerley Road for a few hundred feet to Mount Sinai Road.
Mt. Sinai Road: I love biking on Mt. Sinai Road despite the large hill right after I turn onto the road. The shoulders are not super wide on Mt. Sinai, but traffic is low, and the cars seem to be very used to bikers. In fact I tend to see the most cyclists when I take this route to Chapel Hill. Most of the people out here look like recreational bikers, not commuters, because only idiots choose a longer route for their bike commute. I am a self proclaimed idiot, I love to experiment with longer commutes. I prefer less stressful routes even if they add a half hour to my commute.
Millhouse Road: Mt. Sinai Road crosses Route 86 and becomes Millhouse Road. There is a barbeque joint on the corner that is always fired up in the morning when I bike by. It almost makes me want to start eating pork ribs, it smells pretty good. Millhouse is a nice quiet road that has wide bike lanes on the second half. The first half on Millhouse has no shoulders, but little to no traffic, there is nothing back here but a horse farm and a Waldorf School.
Eubanks Road: Eubanks is the worst part of this ride, but it's short so I can accept it. Eubanks is in a state of major disrepair, on top of that there is a constant flow of buses, UPS trucks (there is a distribution center on Eubanks), garbage trucks (Orange County Landfill is farther up Eubanks) and construction vehicles (there seem to be some developments going up). This combined with no shoulders and heavily cracked pavement forcing you to bike into the lane make this a tense section of road to bike on. Like I said though it is less than a mile long, so mount a mirror on your helmet or handlebar and watch for large vehicles before you swerve around that giant crack in the road.
UPDATE: Eubanks road is being repaired and widened, see new post.
Eubanks Road connects to Martin Luther King Boulevard, and the rest of this ride plays out like the end of Route #2. So connect to that post to see the rest.
View Larger Map
As indicated by the post title, this is currently my favorite route to ride between home and work. That may not be as true returning home because Martin Luther King Boulevard going out of Chapel Hill is mostly uphill.
Anyhow, this route starts out the same as the rest of my routes. I take Pickett Road out to Randolph then Erwin. However, when I get to Erwin I just cross over and keep going out Kerley Road for a few hundred feet to Mount Sinai Road.
 |
| Mt. Sinai Road |
Mt. Sinai Road: I love biking on Mt. Sinai Road despite the large hill right after I turn onto the road. The shoulders are not super wide on Mt. Sinai, but traffic is low, and the cars seem to be very used to bikers. In fact I tend to see the most cyclists when I take this route to Chapel Hill. Most of the people out here look like recreational bikers, not commuters, because only idiots choose a longer route for their bike commute. I am a self proclaimed idiot, I love to experiment with longer commutes. I prefer less stressful routes even if they add a half hour to my commute.
Millhouse Road: Mt. Sinai Road crosses Route 86 and becomes Millhouse Road. There is a barbeque joint on the corner that is always fired up in the morning when I bike by. It almost makes me want to start eating pork ribs, it smells pretty good. Millhouse is a nice quiet road that has wide bike lanes on the second half. The first half on Millhouse has no shoulders, but little to no traffic, there is nothing back here but a horse farm and a Waldorf School.
Eubanks Road: Eubanks is the worst part of this ride, but it's short so I can accept it. Eubanks is in a state of major disrepair, on top of that there is a constant flow of buses, UPS trucks (there is a distribution center on Eubanks), garbage trucks (Orange County Landfill is farther up Eubanks) and construction vehicles (there seem to be some developments going up). This combined with no shoulders and heavily cracked pavement forcing you to bike into the lane make this a tense section of road to bike on. Like I said though it is less than a mile long, so mount a mirror on your helmet or handlebar and watch for large vehicles before you swerve around that giant crack in the road.
UPDATE: Eubanks road is being repaired and widened, see new post.
Eubanks Road connects to Martin Luther King Boulevard, and the rest of this ride plays out like the end of Route #2. So connect to that post to see the rest.
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