8 Mile Bike Ride Around Lake Zorinsky

Lake Zorinsky Bike Ride

Once Around Lake Zorinsky On The Bike Trail

We impressed ourselves yesterday May 6, 2008 with an eight mile ride completely around both portions of Lake Zorinsky. Our plan was not to ride completely around the lake, but to ride a while, at least around the smaller portion of the lake, take a break, and head for home.

Lake Zorinsky Trail Rider

Our Impression Of The Lake Zorinsky Trail

There were a few other riders and walkers out on the trail. It wasn’t crowded, but passing and being passed felt strange, this trail felt narrower than what we were used to. This “shorter” trail was also a little bit rough, and had a few hills we couldn’t conquer, and pushed our bikes up. We learned that by pushing our bikes instead of burning ourselves out going up the hills we had more strength for distance. We’ll have to remember that.

Along this portion of the trail I got a ways ahead of Vicky, and heard her honking her horn for me to either wait for her or to come back. I decided to head back and see how she was doing.

Note: When she selected her horn I thought it was way too loud, but it is nice to be able to hear her even if we have a distance between us.

Feeling more than a little bit guilty that I was riding on a 7 speed while she had her single speed, at this point I decided to do the rest of the ride as a single speed. Not quite sure what gear to use, I decided that perhaps my 3rd gear would be similar to her fixed gear. Limiting myself to only 3rd gear made our efforts more equal, and we did the rest of the ride pretty close together.

Lake Zorinsky Trail Bridge Crossing

This Seems To Be A Problem

Almost back to our starting point, and with aching muscles already, we were confronted with what looked like a problem. How the heck did we get from our side of the lake to the other side of the lake without going back, riding down the highway, and across the bridge? The above picture shows the trail on the other side, but there was no obvious way to get there easily.

Luckily at this time a hiker came from the opposite direction, and we asked how to get across. We learned that to get from here to there we had to go under the bridge, then the trail did a left uphill circle back to street level, and there was a very narrow section of the bridge we used to get across, followed by a downhill circle back down to lake level.

We followed her directions, made it to the other side, and noticing a sign that said that there was a picnic area ahead, we decided to head up there, sit at a picnic table and have something to drink from our goody pack.

The picnic area turned out to be a single barbecue and no place to sit. Oh well.

For some reason we were feeling stronger and our muscles hurt less, we decided to keep heading up the main trail around the lake, intending at some point to turn around and head back.

Somewhere along this portion of the trail we decided to go all the way around the big portion of the lake. I was wondering just how we would feel if we did that, and I imagine Vicky was thinking the same thing.

Lake Zorinsky So Near So Far

A Long Ride Ahead For Us

From this spot on the Zorinsky trail there was a nice looking picnic area in sight. However, to get there, we had to go quite a ways, including a ride across the dam and through the woods. We weren't exactly sure what challenges were ahead of us.

Lake Zorinsky Trail Steep Hill

Lake Zorinsky Trail Steep Hill

We did discover (to our dismay) this steep hill that was too much for us, at least without pushing our bikes. We were a bit too far into our ride to even consider turning back, so went up the hill the best way we could.

Lake Zorinsky Trail Across The Dam

A Storm Is Brewing

When crossing the dam, the wind was starting to pick up, and by the time we arrived at the picnic area, took our break, and were riding back to the car the wind was quite strong.

The weather forecast had called for isolated storms for the day, and it seemed possible we were about to get bad weather, so we loaded our bikes and headed for home, quite proud of ourselves for doing an 8 mile ride all the way around all of Lake Zorinsky. If you look it up, you will learn the ride is only 7 miles, but we did go down one trail that we should not have, and had to go back.

Highlight of this ride? In a quiet area near the parking lot, a mother goose and a father goose had their four children out for a swim. Nice to see, and I didn’t want to worry them, so I didn’t get too close when attempting to take their pictures.

Length of this bike ride: 8 Miles

Total miles biked together in 2008: 23.5 Miles

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