Great Brook Farm State Park mountain bike & road rides - September 27, 2017

 RIDE REPORTS

 

Wednesday, 27 September 2017, Great Brook Farm State Park mountain bike rides & road ride

MTB Ride Leaders:  Tony & Margie Lee

Road Ride Leader:  Clyde Kessel

32 miles (road), 10:00 am start from Great Brook Farm State Park, Carlisle, MA

 

MTB Riders (13):   Margie, Tony, Bob, Larry, Aliza Edwards, Francie Sparks, Gene Ho, Joe Marcangelo, Julie Dodd, Patrick Ward, Rick Carlson, Tom Amiro, and first-timer Lorena Duquette.

Road Riders (23):  Clyde, Andrea Clardy, Barry Kaditz, Dan Krechmer, Dave Balaban, David Kobes, Jack Donohue, Jim Cant, Kathy Horvath, Kaz Zelny, Meng Wu, Neil Martin, Peter Shaw, Ray Komow, Richard Fortier, Rick Billings, Robyn Maislin, Rochelle Holman, Roy Westerberg, Selig Saltzman, Steve Bader, Veronica Vedensky, and Wing Chow.

Thirteen mountain bikers showed up and rode together on the Lantern Trail.  They then split into two groups, with Tony leading five in the advanced intermediate group and Margie, ably assisted by Bob Cheney and Larry Kornetsky, leading eight in the beginner/intermediate group.

 

Both groups crossed Concord Road and started riding in the Acorn section of the park.  We rode beautiful trails along cornfields, through forests, past cranberry bogs, over hill and dale, not to mention Otter Slide Creek.  After returning to “the other side,” some called it a day, while others continued exploring trails.

 

The weather was perfect and a few of us ate picnic lunches under the canopy. Great Brook is a great location for this mountain biking outing.  We basically ride the perimeter of the park and, when people have had enough or have a mechanical problem, getting back to the ride start (parking lot) is relatively easy.

 

Thanks to Bob Cheney and Larry Kornetsky for leading a group. And thanks to everyone for having great attitudes.

 

Report by Margie & Tony Lee.    

Road Ride on a hot and sunny day . . . . .   First of all, Ray and Roy - thanks to Ray for sweeping and kudos to Roy who designed the original route.  I adapted the route and renamed it “2PI/3 Phase Shift.”  Roy was the only one to figure out what the title means. 

We had two wildlife sightings worthy of note:  a milk snake, alive, in the roadway (I hope no one behind me ran it over), and a gentleman putting a ten pound Hen of the Woods into the back of his pickup. 

As far as I know, there were no mishaps.  However, Neil missed the rest stop and was temporarily lost, but someone reached him by phone and he was able to rejoin the group. 

Report by Clyde Kessel.

NH & ME Coastal Rides - September 13, 2017

RIDE REPORT

 

Wednesday, 13 September 2017, NH & ME Coastal Rides

Ride Leaders:  Ken Hablow & Jimmy White

57 or 38 miles, 10:30 am start from Odiorne Point (State Park) Boat Launch, Rye, NH

 

Riders - 57 mi (15):  Ken, Bernie Flynn, Bob Apsler, Dave Balaban, Francie Sparks, Frank Hubbard, Gene Ho, Julie Dodd, Kaz Zelny, Kevin Donnelly, Lindy King, Neil Martin, Ray Komow, Rich Taylor, and Rochelle Holman.

Riders - 38 mi (9):  Jimmy, Celia Donatio, David Fay, Ed Rumsey, Gardner Gray, Greg Tobin, Karen Saltus, Ron Marland, and Selig Saltzman.

Both routes started with a loop through New Castle Island, then across the bridge from Portsmouth into Kittery.  The routes continued up the coast, past York Beach, to Nubble Light and York Harbor.  At Nubble Light we ran into Pat Ward who was co-leading a multiday Maine coastal ride for Easy Riders Bicycle Tours.

The long ride continued up Shore Road to Ogunquit where we stopped for lunch.  We then headed inland and up Mountain Road to Mt. Agamenticus.  Several of us decided not to do the short but steep climb and waited at the base of the mountain for the climbers return.  Once reunited, we proceeded over some very nice back roads through York, Kittery, Portsmouth, and back to Rye.  In York, we took a detour through the Stonewall Kitchen parking lot to a very back road to avoid riding on Rte 1.

 

Thanks to Gene for sweeping.  We only used human arrows a few times.  It was more pleasant keeping the group together than getting far afield.

The Odiorne Point State Park Boat Launch in Rye NH proved to be a perfect start point. It is easy to get to, has a large lot with two porta-johns, and is right on the water.

The day was at least a 10.  There was wall to wall sunshine, very little wind, and comfortable temperatures that stayed in the mid 70s, although at one point it dipped to the high 60s.

 

Routes were courtesy of Karen Saltus (long) and Joanne Samuels (short).  I'm not sure whom I should thank for all of the new pavement.

Report by Ken Hablow.

Witches & Pitches - August 30, 2017

RIDE REPORTS

Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Witches & Pitches Ride
Ride Leaders:  Lindy King & Sue Edwards
43 or 28 miles, 9:30 & 10:00 am starts from Nashua River Rail Trail, Groton, MA

Riders - 43 mi (10):  Lindy, Bernie Flynn, Curt Dudley-Marling, Dave Balaban, Frank Hubbard, Judith McMichael, Kathy Horvath, Kevin Donnelly, Neil Martin, and Ray Komow.
Riders - 28 mi (13):  Sue, Bob Wilson, Ed Rumsey, Elissa Brown, Greg Tobin, Jack Mroczkowski, Kaz Zelny, Patrick Ward, Rich Taylor, Richard Fortier, Rochelle Holman, Ron Marland, and Roy Westerberg.

It was slightly drizzling as I rode to the start of the Witches & Pitches ride in Groton.  Fortunately, as I arrived, the clouds parted, the sun peeked through, and a group of WW riders were raring to go!  The early morning temperatures were still cool, so we had a mix of riders with jackets, vests, arm-warmers, long tights, etc.  Being a small and compatible bunch, we opted for riding as a group and using arrows only sparingly.  After a very spirited start, we regrouped to remove the extra layers and rode on to Monument Square in Hollis, NH.

We departed Hollis at a more sensible pace and made our way over to the very lovely Witches Spring Road.  Shortly thereafter, as I was looking forward to the lovely pitches on Ponemah Hill Road, we were stopped by the highway crew because the road was out – apparently had been for some weeks.  Although it was not as lovely a route as I had hoped for, we rode on 122 south, then picked up the short route and had a wonderful time riding around Rocky Pond Road and downhill into Brookline, NH.  We came upon Sue and Kaz (from the 28 mile route), fixing his flat, and then met up with the rest of that group a short distance later.  We stopped at the (now defunct) Brookline General Store for a snack, and then the ballfield @ Bohannon Bridge for a pit stop and photo op.  It was a lovely ride through the wilds of Pepperell back to Groton.

Report by Lindy King.

It was a very good day to be on a bicycle.  The cool, light breeze swept most of the grey away and our mostly lucky thirteen pedaled the shorter version of Witches and Pitches under bluebird skies and puffy white clouds.

Though it was our intention to have twenty-six fully inflated tires for the entire route, one fellow's fell flat, at the halfway point.  Though he begged and pleaded with us not to hover and wait, we hid around the corner, hovering and waiting.  Suddenly, the long route pedalers came whizzing by; we were caught in their spellbinding wake.  We handed Kaz, the guy with the flat, the cue sheet - as he had implored all along.  With his sworn avowal to text when he got going, we clipped in and spun on - up and down hills, past farms and ferns and fields, and a few, fluffy white hens.

With about ten mile to go, we began the human arrow system because our middle was spreading; throughout the ride, Greg arrowed (thank you!).  In the end, we were all in the right place, at the right time, at the start point, on our bikes on this glorious day.

Report by Sue Edwards.

Short Riders

Caz fixing his flat

Long Riders

Meanders from Concord - August 23, 2017

RIDE REPORTS

Wednesday, 23 August 2017, Meanders from Concord

Ride Leaders:  Ken Hablow & Jack Donohue

46 or 25 miles, 10:00 am start from Alcott Elementary School, Concord, MA

 

Riders - 46 mi (10): Ken, Bill Lane, Bill Wachur, Dan Krechmer, Dave Balaban, Everett Briggs, Kaz Zelny, Stan Kay, Steve Kolek (a cameo appearance joining us along the route then leaving well before we returned), and first-timer Austin O'Malley.

Riders - 25 mi (12): Jack, Barry Kaditz, Bill Hanson, Ilkka Suvanto, Mike Hanauer, Nancy Schlecht, Pat Brennan, Richard Fortier, Robyn Maislin, Ron Marland, Roy Westerberg, and first-timer William Feiring.

 

The day started with high humidity and wet roads from the non-rain event the previous night.  By ride start time the sun was out and the roads mostly dry.  For the first hour we could feel the humidity dropping, until the temperature started to rise.  With a light northerly wind, it was a very comfortable and dry day.  Our group stayed together for the entire ride, although some felt we should arrow since, after all, it is a WW ride. 

The route was on some very quiet and pretty back roads through Chelmsford, Westford, and Tyngsboro.  We encountered some nice new pavement which was welcomed by all.  We made the obligatory stop at Great Brook Farm and a longer stop at the DD in Westford on Rte 40.  Our pace was a comfortable 14 mph average, until near the end when the route flattened out and we picked up a nice tail wind.

Thanks to Kaz for sweeping, even though the only time I lost sight of him was when he missed a turn.

 

Report by Ken Hablow.

There was a lot of angst leading up to the ride, since the weather was looking dubious days ahead.  I told Ken a five day forecast is pure fiction and that even the day before is too soon to call it.  We agreed to wait until the morning of the ride for a final decision, which turned out to be an excellent idea, since we woke to a totally changed forecast, and the day turned out to be absolutely perfect.

Many of the long ride regulars were away in Vermont and the short ride outnumbered the long ride.  With a dozen riders, I figured we could stay together and forgo the human arrows.  Roy volunteered to sweep and was wearing a jersey of many colors that was pretty easy to spot.

We had our obligatory photo op at Great Brook Farm.  As an added feature, we had the Best Beard competition.  I had recently been shorn and was, thus, not a contender, but I think Roy is the hands-down winner.

The ride was pretty uneventful (a good thing), except for being stopped by a tree trimming crew for a very long time.  They managed to block the road in both directions while they did their lumberjack stuff.  Not being the most patient person, I considered going overland cyclocross style, but I figured there was no point annoying the police force of yet another town.

We had several who rode to the start, and departed along the way, so I was not concerned by the diminishing numbers as we entered the home stretch.  No one elected to go to the advertised lunch at Trail's End.

Thanks to Roy for sweeping.

Report by Jack Donohue

Short Riders at Great Brook Farm

Best Beard Competition