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August 2, 2011. Spotted this morning on James St. South, Hamilton.

As a follow-up to my previous post, where I expressed my love of cycling and Hamilton, here's a self-portrait of me cycling in Hamilton last Saturday, August 21st.

A group of eight of us from Toronto caught a GO train to Burlington in the morning. From there, we rode down Brant St. into downtown Burlington and to Burlington's waterfront. Then on to the Burlington and Hamilton Beach Strips towards Confederation Park in Stoney Creek. After stopping for a delicious lunch at a lakeside restaurant, we carried on to the Stoney Creek Dairy where we re-fueled again. Awesome. And then up The mountain via Mount Albion Rd., which was closed to traffic when they opened the Red Hill Creek Expressway, so we had a fun and relaxing ride up the hill (only a short bit that's very steep!). What goes up, must come down....so we headed right back down the east end rail trail that leads right back into downtown Hamilton, where we split up to get dinner, catch GO buses home, etc.

A totally fantastic day. Hamilton rocks, especially for cycling. I'm already scheming a west end rail trail ride.

In this photo I'm cruising down the escarpment along the east end rail trail near the end of our ride. This was taken with my small point'n'shoot Canon Powershot SD800, which I sometiime carry when I don't want to lug my bigger SLR camera around.

More photos with captions are here.

...and I think squirrels are kind of fun too.

This photo was taken in Macnab St. pedestrian underpass that goes under the railway tracks in downtown Hamilton. I was meeting up with Jen at the Hamilton GO Centre last Friday after work and was a bit early so I went for a little walk around downtown. I hadn't been through this tunnel before, and I was pleasantly surprised by the really bright and cheerful mural here, so of course I took a few photos.

I grew up in Hamilton, and I appreciate it more and more every time I go back. It's a great city to do some cycling in too. Looking forward to going back very soon, with a bike.

August 13, 2010.

My mom's tricycle, tearin' up the streets in their Hamilton neighbourhood.

I bought the "Street Racer" license plate for her in Palanga, Lithuania, on one of the final days of last year's European vacation.

Another shot of blue flowers on my parents' back lawn in Hamilton.

This photo didn't turn out as expected. I took it from directly above, and I think I missed focus by a little bit. The bokeh (background blur) of the grass has some great shapes in it. So yeah, it's a bit of a screwed up photo, but I like how it turned out.

Every Spring, my parents lawn sprouts a whole bunch of these little blue flowers.

Jen's Bike Friday is an adorable little red folding bike. Here it is in my parent's backyard after our ride to their place.

Similar to yesterday's photo, here's Jen riding up the Chedoke Rail Trail in Hamilton.

Two weekends in a row, Jen and I had our bikes in Hamilton visiting family. Here's Jen riding up the Chedoke Rail Trail, a very fun, scenic, and best of all EASY way to climb the escarpment.

My bikey and my wifey on the Chedoke Rail Trail in Hamilton.

On Saturday, Jen and I rode out to Mississauga for an appointment, then down to Port Credit to catch a trail to Aldershot (Burlington). From there, we rode into Hamilton to visit my parents. My parents live up on The Mountain, so the last little bit of riding to their place is usually the toughest as we have to climb a few hundred feet up out of downtown Hamilton along the access roads (typically, the Jolly Cut).

But when we have some extra time and want to go for a nicer ride, we take one of the rail trails that start from the near the centre of the city and fan out up to the east or west end up The Mountain. This time we took the Chedoke Rail Trail from the top of Dundurn St., which leads to Scenic Drive on the West Mountain near the start of Ancaster. Always a lovely ride. Not steep at all, so it hardly feels like we're riding uphill. Plus, there are many excellent views of the West End and Dundas Valley, and a nice shady forest (in the summer, anyway).

I really do love riding my bike in The Hammer, and always look forward to it.