Lessons learned (or remembered) from a bike ride from Midtown to Collierville
Posted by Alex McPeakJune 8th, 2008
I took a week off from my day job the week before last, since I work seven days a week. It was time for time-off, even though I still worked for the paper on my regularly schedule.
Undaunted by the recent spike in temperatures, I intended to complete my old weekly riding goal of 100 miles a week, but I ended the first week only riding a paltry 12 miles. I decided to make up for it by planning a 30 miles ride to a friend’s house in Collierville from my apartment in Midtown, if for no other reason than just to say I did it.
I don’t have a sleek road bike yet, so I still ride my early 2001 edition Specialized Hard Rock mountain bike, which wouldn’t look so old if it didn’t have such an abusive owner. Not that I don’t do regular maintenance on it. After seven years of hauling anywhere from 250 to 300 pounds through the streets of Memphis and the trails at Stanky Creek and Shelby Farms my poor bike just ain’t too pretty anymore.
The most challenging aspect to consider when taking off on such an expedition is the route. I live right off Union in the heart of Midtown. My friend lives off Peterson Lake, close to Collierville Elementary. While I used to brave Poplar and Union in my early days of cycling, I’ve tried for the last few years to use neighborhoods and side streets to get to where I need to go. There are several advantages to this besides avoiding cars, and it’s a great way to see the city. You avoid traffic, trees and house reduce the amount of wind and there is a smaller chance of running into broken beer bottles and other refuse tossed onto the streets. You might even find a shortcut or escape route from the gridlock of your daily commute.
- Going East means going uphill
- People in this town love to throw glass bottles out their windows
- Winchester is both busy and windy as hell
- If you don’t drink Gatorade an hour or so in, you will start to crash - hard
- Motorists will either almost hit you or almost hit another motorist to avoid you
- Avoid houses under construction, no telling what your tires will pick up
- Collierville is not right next to Germantown. It was 14.5 miles from Midtown to Germantown Road at Park ; it was another 15 miles from there to my friend’s house off Peterson Lake
It took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to make the ride on my mountain bike, which is respectable considering I was going less than 10 mph for the last 5 miles or so. Tell me about a ride that pushed you or turned out to be more than you expected.
June 8th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Excellent!
I am considering almost the same ride in reverse. Care to publish details about your route, or publish the route on mapmyride.com?
June 8th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I almost put it in the post, but I can map it as well. I’ll post the quick version here. Understand that I messed around in town a little.
- Union to Union extended to Broad.
- Broad to Highland.
- R on Highland, Left on Autumn, which is the first street on the left just south of I-40.
- Autumn to High Point Terrace
- R on High Point to Highland Park
- L on Highland Park to Eastland
- L on Eastland to Minden
- Go through Hedgemoor to Goodlett.
- R on Goodlett. Take to Park Ave.
- L on Park Ave. Take all the way to Hacks Cross past Germantown High School
- R on Hacks Cross to Winchester
- L on Winchester
- Take Winchester as far as it will go, past Byhalia Rd in Collierville. I turns into Cowan Rd.
- Follow Cowan around to Rowlett St.
- R on Rowlett
- Take Rowlett to the Square.
- Turn L where you like, take to Poplar.
- L on Poplar. Take to Peterson Lake.
- R on Peterson Lake. I took this to the Elementary School.
I’ll post it to mapmyride.com and post the link. Watch out on Winchester. It gets hairy at Hacks Cross.
June 10th, 2008 at 9:39 am
For anyone interested, here is the route on mapmyride.com - http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tn/memphis/371349314325. I couldn’t get it to go down Union Ext., Broad and all of that, though.