I'm relatively new but my latest ride is my new favorite so far!
It took some driving to get there but it was a park around a reservoir dam. There were dirt trails in the woods, gravel paths curving around the shoreline beaches and small paved roads connecting the quiet (for now) marinas and picnic areas. All with gentle hills to keep things interesting.
One of the first rides I did to test my setup before my first small cycle-tour was to the local reservoir! It's interesting to see the intersection between nature and human infrastructure.
The local ice cream shop and bakeries. I work from home, but that's a nice family outing.
True, you can never go wrong with a food or beverage stop on a bike ride! Some of my best cycling memories are bicycle bar crawls with good friends on nice summer days.
My prefered ride is out to the beach and specifically to a seaside cafe to sit and have a coffee while staring at the ocean! I'm fortunate that as long as I go via town there are cycleways almost the entire way. Also, we have cycleways to neighbouring small towns that are often entirely separated from the road. I still haven't biked along all of them. So in general just explore and get to know any cycleways you may have nearby and see where they take you.
Also don't forget to be a tourist in your own back yard and visit all the places people come from far and wide to see. It's easy to take things for granted just because they've always been there.
I do love me a ride to the beach! The nearest one to me is about 20 or so kilometres which makes it a perfect little day ride with a stop to a beach-side restaurant I really like!
Nice! My beach is 20km each way as well. 15km if I go by a more direct route but the way I go adds 5km and is marginally safer. Part of the more direct route is being improved this year but it still doesn't quite link up but instead will go out to another beach north of my current fave spot. Looking fowards to having an alternative place to go but it's not quite as scenic as the coastal route I currently enjoy. It does mostly follow a river, so still pretty nice, but the other way you get to see the sea a lot more!
There's apparently a plan for a rail-to-trail which would directly connect my city and the beach, which despite progressing at a snail's pace has me really excited! It would be along some rivers and creeks in the forest, which I always dig.
Currently, the options are either the highway (which I avoid unless at night because at least it has a shoulder) or the old route, which doesn't have shoulders but doesn't have too much traffic either, and most drivers are respectful. It's a quite gorgeous ride too, going through fields and farmland. No lights and no shoulder are why I opt for the highway at night, though!
Oh man, that rail-to-trail sounds great! I hope it gets completed sooner than later!
Make sure you email whoever is working on that and tell them how much you appreciate their work and are looking forward to biking it! I've written to my local council on a few occasions and told them how much I appreciate what they're doing with specifics about how it effects me personally which can be anything from increased safety, lower environmental impact, improved physical & mental health, just plain fun, or connecting more with your family/friends/community etc. The more they hear that they're having a positive impact on people and their community the more they'll be motivated to push ahead with new projects!
I live in a province with a large amount of old covered bridges (including the world's longest) and those are always a highlight of any ride for me.
Another thing I love is going down local ATV trails (even though my cheap hybrid bike is not made for those conditions). I've seen a ton of cool stuff riding through those.
I typically bike downtown as there's a couple of resturants and hole-in-the-wall places I like to frequently visit.
Besides downtown I actually bike in and around the several parks around the city. Fresh air, gorgeous scenery, fellow cyclists, and cute doggies are what draws me into the parks🤗🌻
Urban cycling is my fav too, it's really the best way to explore a city!
I ride to two different parks in my city. They're both in/on hills with nice trails for downhill. The bigger one is a bitch so I don't climb it too often but the smaller one I try to do some jumps at least once or twice a week. If I can't ride the trails then I hit the pump track so I can practice my technique for jumping, pumping, and manuals.
Are you more of a roadie, downhill, or enduro cyclist?
I mostly just like biking around my town and the surrounding local areas, whether it be on trails or on the road. My bike (a hybrid) is, in typical hybrid fashion, kind of inadequate either way. But that's part of what makes it fun!
I'd love to try proper downhill mountain biking someday though, it looks like a blast. I got real hooked on some MTB content on YouTube a while ago and it seems like such a nice community, too.
Watch GMBN on youtube. They can teach you how to get started with downhill and doing tricks. It's how I started during the pandemic. Even with a hybrid you could try some light downhill trails. But make sure you watch some videos and pay attention to the tips. Body positioning and proper braking technique are really important in downhill. Hope you have fun soon!
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