Spring Butterfly Ride - April 10, 2019

RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 10 April 2019, Spring Butterfly Ride

Ride Leader:  Clyde Kessel

32 miles, 10:00 am start from Great Brook State Park Visitors’ Center, Carlisle, MA

Riders (17):  Clyde, Bernie Flynn, Bob Wadsworth, David Fay, Dom Jorge, Gerry Sheetoo, Jack Donohue, Julie Dodd, Kaz Zelny, Ken Hablow, Maria Noya, Rochelle Holman, Roy Westerberg, Selig Saltzman, Steve Carlson, Veronica Vedensky, and Wing Chow.

Present at lunch:  Helen Greitzer.

It was a dark and stormy night a cold and windy day and as we waited in the parking lot for our 10:00 am start, many of us were happy we had dressed for the weather realized we should have dressed more warmly.  Fairly close to the designated time, we got on our bikes and headed out of the parking lot.  At that moment, one more rider arrived, so we all stopped to wait for him but no one was in the mood to wait/freeze any longer, so we just kept riding.  The tardy rider finally caught up to us seventeen miles later at our rest stop at the Dunstable town hall.  After the rest stop we headed back south, so the wind was no longer in our faces.  The sun came out and the day warmed up beautifully never came out so it didn’t warm up much, but, even so, the ride home was faster and more pleasant than the northbound leg.  As far as the leader knows, there were no mishaps or other problems on the ride.

Kudos to Maria and Julie and Rochelle (and anyone else I might have missed) who remoted all the way from their homes to the ride start didn’t use cars to get to the ride start.

I made two small changes to the route this year.  The first change was to use the railroad underpass at Stoney Brook Road, instead of the level crossing on Chamberlain Road.  By chance, a long and slow train was passing by and we would have had to wait for it if we had used the old route.  The other change was to avoid the dead-end stretch of Providence Road near the end of the ride.  Once again, by chance, that bit or road was closed the day of the ride.

It was wonderful that every single rider took at least one turn as a human arrow I was a little disappointed that three or four riders had to do all the arrowing, because the bulk of the group hung back, shirking their responsibility.  I realize that the weather was cold, but we rode a nice gentle pace and regrouped a couple of times so the group never got spread out very much.  A big thank you to those riders who did their arrowing duty and also to Kaz for sweeping.

I am happy to report that the seasonal porta-johns have started to reappear.  There are two at the Rodenbush Center at the corner of Plain and Oak Hill roads in Westford, and two more at the playing fields on Nutting Road, also in Westford.

Report by Clyde Kessel.