Video review: ‘Crunch’

Video: Get to know my latest read-aloud, Crunch, by Leslie Connor.

Product reviews: Jersey and trunk bag

A recent ride between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, via the Santa Rosa Creek and Joe Rodota trails, was an occasion to utilize two items in my cycling gear collection: my new Xingrass women's bicycle jersey, and my do-it-yourself backpack rigging for the Topeak MTX Trunk Bag. Here are my reviews of the jersey and the trunk bag.

Xingrass short-sleeved women's bicycle jersey
I really like the colors and the pattern of this women's cycling jersey. (I love damask and paisley patterns, and rich colors like dark green, blue, and brown.) I ordered a size Medium, according to instructions to use the sizing chart and to order by chest, height, and weight. it fit as expected, very comfortable to move in.

Topeak MTX Trunk Bag
As a cyclist, I often rely on my Topeak MTX Trunk Bag. I just slide it onto the MTX Quick Track rack, it locks into place, and I am ready to go.

The panniers are great to fold down and stuff with groceries (or books purchased at a local store or found in a Little Free Library).

This is my second purchase from Topeak; the first trunk bag did not come with the panniers, and my husband and I (both Topeak trunk bag users) have found that the central pocket of the trunk bag seems to have less carrying space in the model that has panniers.

One design concern of mine is the single carrying strap that comes with the Topeak bag. I have a smaller frame, and the bag gets heavy to carry when I am walking around.

The single carrying strap does not relieve the weight when I carry the bag by the handle, and when the bag hangs free, the weight just bears down uncomfortably on my shoulder. I end up carrying the bag two-handed.

My solution, or "hack," was to take a second carrying strap with me. I shortened one end of each strap so that the shoulder padding falls to the right location, and I attach both straps to the trunk bag I'm using for a makeshift "backpack." A backpack is much more comfortable, plus I prefer "hands-free."

I can't use the water bottle pocket when I convert to a backpack, but I can put my bottle directly into the trunk bag. The water bottle is upright inside it, when I wear the Topeak trunk bag as a "backpack."

Santa Rosa CityBus : Young people ride for free

Young people can ride Santa Rosa CityBus for free, through the Unlimited Rides (UR Free) pilot program, which operates through Dec. 31, 2022.

Our family’s ‘third’ place: parks and community garden

Shelter-in-place affects the way that we can work in our community garden

I’m taking a course in Sociology through Santa Rosa Junior College, and a recent discussion assignment asked, “Where is your ‘third’ place?”

Bicycle theft, a close-to-home social problem

For a Sociology class, I was asked to describe a close-to-home social problem, characterize it as “rural” or “urban,” and identify “objective” and “subjective” aspects of the problem. For this assignment, I described bicycle theft as an urban problem.

Multi-use paths, closed to bikes but not pedestrians?

With parks closed in Sonoma County to prevent spread of COVID-19, the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition raises a fair concern: why are multi-use paths off-limits to cyclists, but still available to pedestrians?

Bay Wheels bike rental

Jonathan and I recently took a multi-modal San Francisco trip. On Saturday, Sept. 28, we rode down into San Francisco aboard Golden Gate Transit’s Route 101.

With bike helmets strapped to our backpacks and having packed our reflective vests, we were all set to try Bay Wheels Bikes rental via the Lyft app. This photo was taken at the Steuart Street at Market Street station near the San Francisco Ferry Building.

Handling the bikes felt unfamiliar at first. The step-through frames had cargo baskets in front so they were weighted and balanced differently from what we were normally used to: which is diamond-frame with rear trunk bag with or without rear panniers. But as we rode, we became more used to handling the rental bikes.

We discovered that bike rental works best when used for short, maybe 15-minute, rides, and we grew accustomed to using a station-map to check for bikes or spaces to dock.

We were able to slip easily along the San Francisco waterfront past a glut of pedestrians at the area’s most “touristy” attractions. We also felt safe biking in the San Francisco road-way due to “critical mass;” there were a lot of other cyclists in the bike lane.

The experience was not without its stressors: the final dock where we stashed our bikes failed to register ride’s-end, so our Lyft apps continued to show an escalation of time and ticking meter of supposed bike-use. It took 48 hours, but eventually the matter was resolved to our satisfaction.

Altogether, our SF bike-rental experience was interesting, fun, and educational. We will consider Bay Wheels Bikes rental for another San Francisco trip.

Utility wagon for visit to the nursery

Our cloth-over-steel-frame wagon was the perfect choice for a walk to the nursery to buy pots for an olive tree and succulents. This wagon has turned out to be one of our best investments, great for hauling larger loads than are feasible for on-foot or bicycle.

Pokémon GO ‘Adventure Sync’

What could be in this egg, which we incubated while walking via mobile-game Pokémon GO? Actually, we hatched MANY eggs, spending yesterday almost entirely on-foot.

We began our day with a walk from our apartment to Santa Rosa’s transit mall. We had Route 4 drop us at Maria Carrillo High School on Montecito Boulevard. That’s in easternmost Santa Rosa, right off Calistoga Road.

We walked 3 miles for a Walk MS fundraiser, then headed down Brush Creek Trail and out along Mission Boulevard.

Our route then took us down Montgomery Drive for a rest at Montgomery Village, before continuing on our walk back to Santa Rosa downtown.

While in the downtown, we stopped for “Free Comic Book Day” at Outer Planes Comics and Games, before walking the remaining few blocks back to our apartment.

Altogether, we walked about 11 miles (according to a step-counting app). We used “Adventure Sync” to help incubate the eggs when not running Pokémon Go.

‘Walk MS’ in Santa Rosa, California

Walking has ALWAYS been Team Darkhill’s thing, and wherever we lived, we’ve looked for ways to harness that power for good.

In Lake County, California, we walked each year in the “Vineyard Run for Literacy,” which benefited Adult Literacy at the Lake County Library. In Ashland, Oregon, we supported Ashland schools via the “Monster Dash.”

As of yesterday, we each walked 3 miles in the Santa Rosa Walk MS event. Our route began and ended at Maria Carrillo High School; it took us past Rincon Valley Library, through Rincon Valley Community Park and along neighborhood streets before heading back along Montecito Boulevard.

Walking has been such a core part of our lives, you might even call it our “super-power.” It feels good to channel something that we enjoy so much, into making the world a better place. Jonathan and I will be looking for additional fundraiser-walks, as well as continuing to walk nearly everywhere during our day-to-day travels.

Feel like contributing toward Walk MS? You can share a donation at http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/cynthiaparkhill

SRJC: Free bus-rides with valid student I.D.

Image credit: SRJC Student Affairs Office

This spring I am enrolled in a class at Santa Rosa Junior College. And one of the perks of being an SRJC student is that I can ride the bus for free.

When I board the bus, I show the driver my student photo-I.D. with a validation sticker for the current semester. SRJC has partnerships with Sonoma County Transit, Santa Rosa CityBus and with Petaluma Transit to allow SRJC students to ride free. For more information: Transportation on the SRJC website.

Textbook delivery via bicycle

Rode my bicycle to Santa Rosa City Schools this morning, for a district meeting. The distance represents just a few minutes’ ride from Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts. I stuffed my pannier, trunk bag, and backpack full of instructional materials for delivery back to my site. Talk about a win-win; my school’s teachers will get their books as soon as I’ve cataloged them; my bicycle was that much more stable during wind-gusts thanks to the added weight; plus I’ve saved someone else maybe having to make a delivery that put them out of their way.

Trackable coin found in Santa Rosa geocache

On Friday afternoon, we took a walk down to the Friends of the Santa Rosa Libraries’ book sale, taking place this weekend at the Veterans Memorial Building. The book sale, in itself, would have been a highlight — but, while there, we decided to attempt a nearby geocache.

To our excitement, we found this trackable coin, from the 2010 “Geowoodstock” event in Carnation, Washington. Trackables, like this one, are part of the fun of Geocaching. Once you release a trackable, you can follow its progress as other finders move it from site to site.

Geocaching expedition through S.F.’s Golden Gate Park

Caught Golden Gate Transit​’s Route 101 down to San Francisco on Saturday, Sept. 29, for an adventure in geocaching. San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency​’s Routes 28 and 5 brought us out to Ocean Beach, and we then made our way through S.F.’s Golden Gate Park​, hunting for caches as we went. Our final geocaching stop for the day was outside the de Young Museum​, near its “Pool of Enchantment.” Cool, overcast weather made a great day for traveling through Golden Gate Park on-foot. We’re looking forward to further geocaching expeditions aboard the area’s public transit.

Sonoma County employer earns ‘Bicycle Friendly’ status

​For the first time, a Sonoma County employer has earned certification as a Bicycle Friendly Business by the League of American Bicyclists. (​This welcome news comes via the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition.)

Dare we hope that more businesses follow the example of Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital?

My husband and I live and travel throughout a city that’s a Bicycle Friendly Community — but too often, sidewalks are the only safe place to ride along roads that were only built for cars. ​​It’s vitally important to have safe and complete routes to get us where we need to go.​

When we reach our destinations, we frequently find no secure place to lock up our bicycles. Too often, around town, we’ll see a bicycle still attached via a lock through its frame to a rack — only to see that someone has stolen one or more tires. Or a reflector. Or the seat.

What sort of message does a business think it sends when it posts a sign proclaiming itself “not responsible” for the theft of your bicycle?

In addition to exposing our bikes to weather and possible theft, many of the racks appear designed and installed by someone who doesn’t ride — someone who, therefore, doesn’t understand the practical needs of cyclists.

For example, we’ll find racks that were placed too close to a wall or other barrier — so there isn’t any room to attach a bike to the now-useless, solely decorative rack.

This absence of safe, usable, bike parking at the majority of Santa Rosa businesses really shows in glaring contrast to what Sutter is doing right ... specifically, providing “secure covered parking” for its employees who ride bicycles.

Personally, we’d love to see more BikeLink® lockers at business and government buildings. ​For a few cents per hour, we can lock up our bikes safe from thieves and inclement weather. Sadly, however, BikeLink® locations are still few and far between; we find them mainly at SMART Train stations and on the Santa Rosa Junior College campus.

Rails-to-trails through Sonoma, Mendocino, and Humboldt counties

A bill awaiting signature by California governor Jerry Brown would convert 300 miles of decommissioned rail line ​into a pedestrian and bicycling trail. The trail will still face numerous hurdles in the way of its completion, but just imagine what it could do for bicycle touring in northern California. (​Via Brian Coyne, the San Francisco Chronicle)

Trackable geocaching tokens

CityBus pass and PathTags token

Bought a couple of all-day CityBus passes, and headed out for geocaching adventure. First stop, “Good Grief Sparky!,” which requires the user to visit a Santa Rosa landmark — where, using information we obtained on-site, we were able to obtain the coordinates we needed to locate a hidden cache.

Geocaching

Jonathan and I have embarked on an outdoor treasure-hunting adventure! Geocaching involves using GPS to locate a hidden object.

With so many phones now equipped with GPS, participation can be as simple as downloading a free app and creating an account.

Caches come in a range of sizes, and shapes. This one had an appealing “hand-crafted” look, sort of a paper-collage effect.

The caches generally include a paper “log” for finders to write their names, but some of them also carry little “prizes” and even trackable tokens. If you take a prize from the Geocache, it’s nice to leave something too, for the next finder who comes along.

Jonathan and I went around to some local thrift stores and assembled a “stash” of trinkets, less than $1 each. Later, we might also purchase tokens from the Geocaching store.

I especially like combining Geocache with a ride via public transit or a trip on-foot or by bicycling. Yesterday, we caught Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit from downtown Santa Rosa. We disembarked in Cotati, and then used our apps to look for nearby caches.

West County Regional Trail via bicycle

Image credit: Sonoma County Regional Parks

After taking several successful round-trips on bicycle between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, Jonathan and I made our first foray this week on the West County Regional Trail between Sebastopol and Forestville.

West County Regional Trail is 5.5 miles in length, according to Sonoma County Regional Parks. “The path is separated from Highway 116 and offers views of farms, pastures, and vineyards.”

We began our ride from our apartment to Santa Rosa-downtown and out the Prince Memorial Greenway, which, if we stayed on it, would become the Santa Rosa Creek Trail. But for this ride, we headed out the Joe Rodota Trail to reach downtown Sebastopol.

We had to navigate downtown Sebastopol traffic to reach the West County Regional Trail entrance. We fell in line behind a tour group of riders led by Getaway Adventures.

Once on the trail, we found it quiet and peaceful, fragrant from eucalyptus and far from traffic noises. We rode the trail until it met up with Old Gravenstein Highway; on future rides, we plan to tackle additional segments of the trail.

Commute by-bike for summer school

During the summer, I’m working for “summer school” at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa. My work-days this week each began and ended with a bicycle ride. It takes me a 15- or 20-minute ride to reach Montgomery High School from our apartment.