Bike Routes in Portsmouth? (Part 2)

(This is the continuation of Bike Routes in Portsmouth? (Part 1)

After I exited the business area, I followed the intermittent bike signs across the windswept barrens of Pease Tradeport. Where would this path lead? Was it a veritable Northwest Passage to The Mall? I could use some supplies from there anyway . . . Could it be a scenic bike route through the wildlife refuge? Who doesn't like a bike ride down an untrafficked road through the woods?

Here's what I came to, in Stereoscopic Omnivision:

While the road in to the wildlife refuge looked inviting, I spotted a bike lane along the road to the left. I had followed the lanes and signs this far; I had to know where they lead.


The bike-laned road cut through either a scenic woodland or a windswept industrial wasteland, depending on which of your eyes is dominant. I hardly stopped to see any of it though; I quickly pedaled along with the speed and efficiency of kid tearing through Christmas presents--knowing that all the little ones were just leading up to The Big One.

This road was going somewhere, I could tell. This was really getting to something, and whatever it was, it was going to be awesome. I mean, I'm on a bike lane, on a road I've never been on before, in the middle of a decommissioned Air Force Base. There's no possible way that this wasn't going to be completely awesome. Fighting the vicious cross-winds, I came over the crest of the last rolling hill. This was it, this was what it was all building up to:


Wait. Whoa. What's this? Just a loop-back, a pile of rocks, and a pickup truck blocking a gate leading on to the tarmac? Seriously? This was the grand destination? Like the spoiled Christmas kid who finds there is no The Big One, I was thoroughly disappointed. I had the kind of disappointment that only rabid capitalism could cure:

I decided to go to The Mall.

How crazy is mall-traffic at six in the evening, three days before a major holiday? Find the answers to this and more in next week's thrilling conclusion!