Wednesday, 25 September 2019, Witches and Pitches
Ride Leaders: Lindy King & Roy Westerberg
42 or 28 miles, 10:00 am start from Nashua River Rail Trail, Groton MA
Riders – 42 mi (20): Lindy, Bernie Flynn, Beth Rosenzweig, Bruce Lederer, Butch Pemstein, Dick French, Frank Aronson, Gary Williams, Geoff Allard, Gerry Sheetoo, Jerry Skurla, John Aslanian, Kaz Zelny, Ken Hablow, Marc Baskin, Maria Noya, Ray Komow, Rochelle Holman, Rudge McKenney, and Wing Chow.
Riders – 28 mi (8): Roy, Bob Wilson, Don Mannes, Margaret Coughlin, Pat Brennan, Rich Taylor, Selig Saltzman, and Susan Sabin.
It was a beautiful, mild day, considering it was the first ride of fall. I had received a phone call alerting me that there was traffic en route to Groton and riders might be late in getting to the start. So we chatted, waited, had the requisite safety speech, and divided into two groups - for the long and short ride options.
Roy had graciously been volunteered as co-leader and handled the task expertly. He was also of great assistance at the start of the ride.
It turns out our group on the long ride had many spirited riders. At the outset, we decided to make a brief stop in Hollis at mile 10.5, for restrooms and adjusting attire, and then another one at around 30 miles at the Dunkin’ Donuts in Brookline, NH. The scenery en route to Hollis was exquisite and as the hills went up so did the temperature and wind velocity.
We rendezvous’d with the short group and one of our riders turned back due to health concerns - "just being cautious" he alerted us. So our group continued onward through Amherst, NH, where we switched directions and turned onto Witches Spring Road with a nice tailwind. Once we made our way onto Ponemah Hill Road - gorgeous horse farms here - there was talk of the hill: was it 9 or 11 or 13%? In any event it was a good one!
Soon after, we encountered the only traffic light on the route, in Milford, NH, and then several hills en route to Rte 13 in Brookline, NH. It was a busy road but we flew down it, all the way to the Dunkin’ Donuts. Soon after arriving there, we were joined by Gary Williams who had been trying to find us all morning after being stuck in traffic getting to the start - he was glad to finally have companions to ride with! It was a good stop and several photos of the group were taken by our photographer, Maria.
From there we breezed, via Pepperell, back into Groton with a nice tailwind. Once back at the start who should appear but Jerry Skurla who had several delays and did the route on his own! All in all it was a very nice fall day with great company, and another bucolic ride completed.
Thanks to John for sweeping.
Report by Lindy King.
On a beautiful, sunny, but somewhat brisk, early fall day, seven of us set out a minute or two behind the long-ride group. Since both rides followed the same route for the first ten miles, we saw the other group occasionally, and we all met up in Hollis center. Two of our members departed early, but we gained one, leaving six who completed the rest of the route.
Lindy had laid out a beautiful route over mostly rural roads with light traffic, including about a mile on hard-packed dirt. Early signs of fall foliage color were evident in many places. We mostly stayed pretty close together, and only needed arrows occasionally. We proceeded over the route without incident.
After the ride, five of us had a pleasant lunch and conversation at Salt and Light. Susan observed that this was the first post-ride restaurant she had been to that had cloth napkins!
Thanks to those who arrowed, and to Selig for sweeping the entire route.
Report by Roy Westerberg.
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