New Bike Trails in Cleveand?

While doing a little research on local plans to improve Cleveland bike ways, I found this interesting blog post from a few month back. It looks like Cleveland has a good initiative in 2010 to build out the inner green necklace. This would be an excellent addition to the metro parks loop. I always look forward to a long ride and would enjoy heading downtown for the day. Perhaps a ride to Progressive field to watch the Indians? No parking $, clean air and exercise. What could be better. Ok, I know it's January but I'm getting excited for baseball.

First Day

Well, the first day of biking to work was a little rough. The morning commute was actually really nice. The sun was out and the birds were singing. A little chilly, but not too bad. Not much traffic on the road at 6:30 in the AM. My commute is about 14 miles each way, so the first half was fairly easy. I reached my midway point and had a quick drink of water at the top of a hill. I continued down a hill and reached the bike path portion of my commute. This is the safest part of the journey with about 5 miles of smooth bike paths and metro parks trails. After making it through the metro parks, I reached the 3 mile city portion of my ride. Still not much traffic in the AM, so I coasted by to my destination at a local fitness center. Got ready for work and I was on my way.

The trip back was a little crazy. I left around 4:00 PM thinking I could beat traffic, I was wrong. The traffic started to pick up around 4:45 and didn't let up until I got 3/4 of the way through my trip. I definitely need to think of an alternate route or leave at a different time of day. In all, it was a good first day. I'm planning out my next trip, which will likely be Wednesday, if my knees hold up.