Three Rivers, Twelve Bridges - March 11, 2020

RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 11 March 2020, Three Rivers, Twelve Bridges

Ride Leader:  Bill Widnall (substituting for Jerry Skurla & assisted by Rich Taylor)
31 miles, 10:00 am start from Crosby's Market parking lot, Concord, MA

Riders (20):  Bill, Rich, Al Berardi, Annemarie Altman, Blaine French, Bruce Gelin, Butch Pemstein, David Fay, Doug Hobkirk, Ellen Gugel, Gerry Sheetoo, Harriet Fell, Kathy Horvath, Pat Stabler, Randy Stern, Roy Westerberg, Rudge McKenney, Selig Saltzman, Steve Miller, and Vic Lebovici.

Twenty-two years ago (1998) I created a ride that I named "Bridges of the Sudbury River."  After several seasons of my leading this ride for the Wednesday Wheelers, and as a CRW weekend ride,  Rich Taylor took over the leadership and has added both longer  and shorter route options.  Then, with the advent of  Ride With GPS (RWGPS), Rich posted his three ride options to RWGPS.  Jerry Skurla has since added another branch to the tree - his "Three Rivers, Twelve Bridges" ride includes my original eight Sudbury River crossings and adds two crossings each of the Concord and Assabet Rivers.  His ride also adds the delightful, new extension of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.  Jerry has posted his ride on RWGPS.

Regrettably, and on very short notice, Jerry was unable to lead his ride this past Wednesday.  At 5:59 pm on Tuesday, Helen accepted my offer to be the substitute leader.  With only sixteen hours (including sleep time) to prepare, I studied Jerry's new route and decided I would do my best to lead his intended route, rather than substitute an alternate ride that was more familiar to me.  I was aware that it was going to be a challenge to lead from a printed cue sheet (downloaded from RWGPS), as I do not yet have an on-bike RWGPS system worked out.

It was a lovely, sunny day for the ride, with dry roads and not too cold or windy, bringing out twenty WWs for the start at Crosby's Market in Concord.  Rich Taylor volunteered to be co-leader and Butch Pemstein volunteered as sweep.  I admitted to the group that I felt like a substitute teacher who, on very short notice, agrees to fill in despite having little time to study the intended lesson plan.  Rich agreed to stay right behind me and be the one to call for and designate a human arrow for each turn.  That freed me up to concentrate on my clipped-on paper cue sheet, which was happily flapping in the breeze.  I had planned a rest stop for halfway into the ride at the Longfellow Health Club in Wayland, which would be a short-distance diversion from Jerry's route.  When we regrouped at the foot of Goodman's Hill (at mile 15.4), the majority of the group wanted to skip the rest stop.  So, we split the group - Rich led the larger group, while I led the smaller number to the planned rest stop, after which we resumed riding the route.

Thank you to Rich for co-leading, to Butch for sweeping, to and all who volunteered to be arrows or help in other ways.  And thanks to all who refrained from giving a hard time to the "substitute teacher!"

Report by Bill Widnall.

At the base of Goodman's Hill Road, a group of twelve riders decided to bypass the rest stop and carry on.  Rich "led from the back" of the group to be sure no one got dropped.  The folks in the lead had the route on GPS or were familiar with the original route. We rode in a group of seven and five riders, keeping everyone in view so that arrows were not deployed.  A couple of traffic lights assured that we stayed together.  There was a bit of a split climbing Garfield Road after Bridge 11, but the speedy downhill got us together for the final two miles across Rte 2 and past Daniel Chester French's house (sculptor of the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in DC).

Everyone had a smile at ride's end - good route - good friends. Thanks, Jerry, for a new adventure and thanks, Bill, for volunteering to lead on such short notice.

Report by Rich Taylor.