It's My Life ...& Welcome To It.

Martha Was Made For Biking!

If you want to see lots of people riding bikes - go to Martha's Vineyard. It's a bicycling paradise. And, apparently, the people who run the island know it because they've developed a comprehensive series of bike paths. These run through pine and oak forests, free from the noise and danger of cars. It's just you, nature and the quiet whir of your tires on the blacktop and the click, click, click of your chain and gears. The air is pure and filled with the fragrance of pine needles, wild roses, honeysuckle and other island flora.

The paths are on the eastern half of the island -- so-called Down Island. Since most of the automobile congestion is located there, it's an ideal place for bike paths which connect from town to town, through forest or along the shore for mile after mile. Thrilling and beautiful!

Up Island (the western half) is less frequented and there bikes share the road with cars. That's nothing for us urban cyclists, used to the congestion of New York streets. But it was off-putting for our friends, Stef and Al, who are not used to biking with cars whizzing by. To be fair, we found drivers on the island to be overwhelmingly courteous and cautious. Truth be told, however, it's time for the planners to consider extending the paths westward as more and more cars have made their way to the island and the Up Island roads are much more heavily trafficked than when I first biked here 15 or 20 years ago.

Reaching the bike path from our vacation house was quite easy - it's about 100 yards from our door! From there, depending on the direction we took, we could reach the various towns of Vineyard Haven, Oak Bluffs or Edgartown or, as we often did, head to Back Alley's for our morning repast - a trip of about five and a half miles, each way.