Wednesday, 17 April 2019, Long and Short Way to Heart Pond
Ride Leaders: Lindy King - for the "Long Way” and Harriet Fell (& John Allen) - for the “Short Way"
30 or 22 miles, 10:00 am start from Castle in the Trees playground, Littleton, MA
Riders - 30 mi (18): Lindy, Al Berardi, Beth Rosenzweig, Bruce Lederer, David Wean, Ellen Durgins, Ellen Gugel, Gerry Sheetoo, Kaz Zelny, Patrick Ward, Robert Wilson, Rochelle Holman, Ron Beland, Selig Saltzman, Veronica Vedensky, Wing Chow, and first-timers Gary Williams and Jerry Skurla.
Riders - 22 mi (13): Harriet, John, Barbara Pike, Carol Hartigan, David Fay, Doug Hobkirk, Janet Miller, Margaret Coughlin, Peggy Gelin, Richard Fortier, Robyn Maislin, Sally Chapman, and Susan Sabin.
Present at lunch: Helen Greitzer.
My apologies if I missed any riders or placed you in the incorrect ride group.
It was a bright and mild April morning as riders arrived at the "Castle in the Trees" parking lot, competing with moms of toddlers going to the park. The parking lot was packed when we left. We divided into two obvious groups for the long and short ride options and there were plenty of riders on both. All riders were asked to share human arrowing responsibility and not let it fall to a few overzealous volunteers.
After a quick safety announcement, we were off! Although some of the roads in Littleton and Carlisle had been repaved, there were still some riddled with pot-holes, so riders needed to be on alert! The Nagog hills proved to be a good challenge after the beginning of the ride and spread everyone out. The roads were mostly quiet on this Wednesday morning and we continued through the usual, difficult crossing of Rte 119 with no problems! Yours truly had a great time chatting with all the new arrowers on our route. Two of us waited a while at the turn onto Rte 225 in Carlisle, 'til a bunch of riders came upon us and we continued along. Shortly after turning onto Rutland Street, I received a call from Kaz, our sweep. Butch had gone down after riding over a bad patch of pavement on E. Riding Road. We all waited a while and eventually Butch, Kaz, and other riders showed up. Luckily Gerry had a large bandaid and antiseptic wipes to get Butch cleaned up. What a good sport - Butch rode with us as if nothing had happened!
We continued until we got to Heart Pond where we had time for a break, snacks, lots of chatting, and a line-up ensued for the port-a-potty. A congenial volunteer took our group photo and then we were off down the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, briefly, and rode through Chelmsford back to Westford and into Littleton. Everyone made it back just fine and Butch got patched up by the EMTs at the Littleton Fire Station. Thanks to Kaz for sweeping.
Several riders headed over to Andrea’s Littleton Cafe for lunch, where they were joined by Helen.
Report by Lindy King.
It was a lovely route with very little time spent on busy roads. The group stayed together pretty well, with a few short stops for all to catch up. I took two wrong turns - I corrected the first quickly and on the second, where I mistakenly took the right fork, all the following riders correctly took the left fork and called me back. We averaged 12.5 mph. I don’t usually go on short rides when I have to drive a long distance, but the people and the route made it worthwhile.
Report by Harriet Fell.
After cluelessly passing the arrow ahead of the last rider at the first turn (apologies!), I settled into my role as sweep. The short ride proved to be a good option for me and several other WWs who hadn't yet gotten in much spring mileage. The Bruce Freeman RailTrail cutoff, for the short ride option, proved scenic and other traffic on the path was light. We arrived back at the ride start about a half hour before the long ride. Several of us set out on foot to the lunch stop, where the southwest chicken salad was ample and delicious!
Report by John Allen.
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