J. Fink: Remember that really nice adventure we had?  By the waterfall?  It was sunny and not windy at all.  And we went sliding down all those hills…

Kid Fink: It wasn’t nice for me.

J. Fink: Well, okay.  We did get lost.  And your mittens were wet and cold.  But that’s what makes it an adventure!  Like when the Superfriends get stuck in a trap and have to figure how to get out.  We had to figure how to get out of the woods!

Kid Fink: It’s not very exciting.

Well, we do our best.  I can only hope that, on some primal level, he enjoyed it.

My advice to you:  Take close note of the junction where the trail from the trailhead joins the trail along the river.  It’s easy to miss the turn on the way back.

P.S.  Bikes are wecome on this trail.  That means you.

Riverbend Smelting Camp

We caught seven smelts.  And we ate them up there and then.

Through an unfortunate confluence of events, it happens that this was the first time in my life that I had reeled in a fish.  And, it boggled my mind…

Do you mean to tell me that, wherever you are, you can literally drop a line in the water and you might pull up a fish?  It turns out that, stripped of all its arcane knowledge and endless equipment, fishing is simple and beautiful!  Maybe not successful, but that depends on how on measure success, right?

For those hardy enough to ride a bike in the deep, dark, Maine winter, a smelting camp would be a great destination for a ride.  They provide everything you need for fishing -  lines and bait all housed in a wood-heated, sauna-like shack.  The fishing hole is inside the shack.  Like Mark says, “It’s a little like fishing from your living room.”

Let’s get small. These guys believe that everything you need to catch a fish fits in an Altoid Tin.  Or smaller.

Another goal for 2009.  Drop more lines.

The sad truth of living on a hill is that, for every giddy coast downhill, there’s the inevitable grind back up to the top.

This is doubly true when you use your bike to do a little shopping.  An exercise in sustainable living turns into a symposium on curse words when you are slowly winching your way back up hill – now with 20 extra pounds of groceries and a 35 pound kid on the back.  It’s enough to make you re-think those electric assist thingys.

I have spent five years trying to figure out the best way up Munjoy Hill and, I’m slightly embarrassed to say, it took Google Earth to help me visualize what is going on topographically.  What an incredible program that is!  It’s staggering to think that, for the princely sum of $0.00, you can get all the images shown below instantly sent to your home.  We are truly living in a golden age.

As you have probably intuited, the Portland Peninsula is roughly “saddle-shaped”.  The East End and West End neighborhoods sit on the high points.  Congress Street runs the ridge from the East End to the West End.  The trick then, is to get on the ridge line at the lowest point of the “saddle”.   This makes for a gradual climb to a high point.

 
And so, I have a new geographical appreciation for Pearl Street.  This little gem with a 3% grade will get you up onto Congress from Bayside.  Conveniently, recent development has put a nice little pass from Marginal Way to the foot of Chestnut Street!  But Google doesn’t know that…yet.

Can you guess the absolute steepest grade up Munjoy Hill?

Well…

The hardest way up to the top of Munjoy Hill is Fox Street to Walnut Street.  This 9% grade is exaggerated below to show what it actually feels like.

For the adventurous, there is a second easy passage up the hill, but it requires a tricky (and slightly illegal) maneuver.  This route takes advantage of Munjoy Hill’s classic drumlin shape, letting you climb from “tail” to “head” on an easy grade. 

Case 1:  Looking good with axle pegs – via Soul Side Down

Case 2:  Make her do the work - via Amsterdam Bicycles

I wanted so badly to get the Target Like-A-Bike, that I was willing to overlook all kinds of details.  Like the fact that it was way, way, way too tall for my 2-year-old son.  To fit him, we needed a “low-rider”.

But, with a little perseverance we could get that thing lowered, right?  Besides, it’s made of wood!  In the worst case, couldn’t we just saw it off?

In the end, the easiest approach was to change out the very nice wheels (wooden rims with 12-inch pneumatic tires) for some small, cheapo lawnmower wheels.  I was able to get everything I needed at Maine Hardware.  A pile of nylon spacers and some 6-inch wheels did the trick.

Or, you could probably get even better parts at McMaster-Carr.  These rubber tired wheels (Part No. 2331T11) would work just fine.  A couple of nylon spacers (Part No. 94639A081) will allow you to step up from the 1/4-inch axle provided to the 1/2-inch bore on the wheels.  Add some washers (Part No. 90295A187) to center your new wheel in the bike frame, and it’s ready to go. 

The bike has been sitting in the corner of the living room all summer, waiting for Kid Fink to get up the nerve to try it out.  This was the week.  We rode in the driveway, down to the store, and down the hill.  “Zooming!”

Kinda Sorta.

Look what I found at Target today!  From the side!  And from the front!  In this box!

It’s a Chinese rip-off of the German made Like-A-Bike.  I have been oogling that thing since the day I found out I was destined for Fatherhood.

Granted, Target’s design isn’t quite as clean as the original, but what do you want for $230 less?

UPDATE:

Take a look here for a detailed post on how to “lower” your Like-A-Bike.