145/365: Red bicycle going to Rogów

145/365: Red bicycle, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 25th

I like cycling.

The problem is finding people who want to cycle with me. I'm in that awkward bracket: not hardcore enough for most enthusiasts, too hardcore for my casually biking friends. So, when I plan a trip somewhere, I usually end up going alone.

But this time, the trip wasn't my idea. "Let's go to Rogów," my friend Kasia (in the picture) said. "Let's go to the Life Sciences Arboretum." Only, of course, the minute I said yes, the planning fell to me. And planning is odd when you can't gauge the endurance of your group. Already, there were complaints. "Eight in the morning? Why do we have to leave that early?"

"Because it will be boiling hot by 11 am, and because it's thirty miles, and I can't see you going faster than eight on average."

And because I only know half of the way there. But, I didn't tell them that.

I plotted a route, strapped my new Android phone to the handlebars for GPS assistance, and hoped for the best.

We got lost, of course. Pro tip: when the opening of a trail is guarded by a headless Jesus statue, don't follow it. It's a very, very bad trail.

The next trip I'm planning will be lonesome. Apparently no one wants to bike sixty miles to see the ruins of a gothic castle.

Things we saw along the way were a WWI cemetery hidden in the forest in Wiączyń: 

...a village called Moscow:



Apparently the local lord took part in Napoleon's failed Moscow Campaign, and when he returned, he named the village Moskwa.

We crossed a terrible slippery log bridge over a swamp:



...then cycled through the Windows XP background...



...until finally, Rogów!



...with beautiful Azaleas:



...a pond full of lilypads, frogs, and fishies:







The woodcut typography used in the arboretum signposts is worth a mention. Look at the 'transparency'!



It was a good day. Here's the map. Orange trail is what I had planned, blue is our actual route.


View Wycieczka do Rogowa in a larger map