Bike trip to Concord organized by SP Bikes Chair and SP bike interest group (Photo courtesy of SP Photofile Committee)

In the busy life of an MIT grad student, exploring the Boston area usually means a quick trip just across the river.  However, the country-side surrounding Boston is one of the things I have enjoyed most since coming to MIT, and is usually overlooked. Cycling is one way to fill in this gap.  In the words of Hemingway,

“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.”

On the way to the ice cream shop (Photo courtesy of SP Photofile Committee)

The first weekend in September was the first bike trip of the term, organized by the SP bikes chair and the SP bike interest group.  Fourteen of us set off after the SP orientation brunch and several were using SP zip-bikes.  Our goal was Kimball Farms, a well-known ice cream stand near Concord.  We traveled up the river past Harvard and joined the Minute-Man trail, a converted rail-way line that travels straight to Bedford.  After a quick break, we continued on and made it to the ice cream shop, only to discover that there was already a substantial line (at only 4pm!).  Most residents ordered a “small” ice cream, about twice the size of a large at Tosci’s, in a variety of flavors including chocolate raspberry swirl and black raspberry chocolate chip.  However, our Athletics chair declared that he could handle a large but gave up halfway through.  Satisfied and filled with sugar, we made the final trip to Concord where we took the commuter rail back to Boston, arriving back at SP just five hours after we left.

Ice cream from Kimball Farms (Photo courtesy of SP Photofile Committee)

In summary, and in the spirit of MIT and completely unnecessary quantification, I present the ice cream ride in numbers:

By Zachary Ulissi, SP Bikes Chair