Wednesday, September 23, 2015, Doug's 70th Birthday Bonsai Run
Ride Leaders: Doug Hobkirk & Clyde Kessel
34 & 40 (?) miles, 10:00 am start from Nashoba Valley Ski Area, Westford, MA.
Riders - 34 mi (16): Doug, Ann Northup, Betty Hoffman, Bob Armstrong, Chris Schuch, Cynthia Zabin, David Wean, Ilkka Suvanto, Jack Mroczkowski, Janet Miller, Jeff Smith, Jim Cant, Margie Lee, Richard Fortier, Winslow Green, and first-timer Mike Luzzo.
Riders - 40 mi (16): Clyde, Barbara Martin, Barry Nelson, Bob Wadsworth, Curt Dudley-Marling, Dave Balaban, Everett Briggs, Francie Sparks, Fred (Clyde) Newton, Jody Angevin, Rich Taylor, Richard Vignoni, Tim Wilson, Tod Cochran, Wick Doggett, and first-timer Bill Sheldon.
Present at (or near) lunch (5): Charlie Learoyd, Francoise Bourdon, Helen Greitzer, Kathy Hobkirk, and Phil Hobkirk.
The shorter ride group set off shortly after the "supposedly" long riders. Within 200 yards, we were joined by some guy named Mike Luzzo (Mike is a young teacher who volunteers with me at Household Goods Recycling). We rode very, very fast (on downhills) and caught the long, slow riders at the end of Lost Lake. How often do we see Everett Briggs looking confused? Lost riders?
Everett sent us on our way after talking to Clyde. Mike left us at that point to ride to Lincoln and have a picnic with his girlfriend, and Ann and Betty left to return on Rte 40, seeking to avoid the hills in Dunstable. One mile later, we passed most of the long riders on the delightful Martins Pond Road, and then bounced along the dirt road at the end to get to Old Dunstable Road.
One big hill, then a pig farm (no pigs anymore?), and we rode through the forest primeval, checking the woods to make sure we didn't find any bears or moose. We passed the neatest wood pile ever just before emerging into civilization, and a Dunkin Donuts at mile 22. We traveled on scenic roads across Westford and over I-495, which I celebrated by hitting a savage hole and bursting my tube (I feared it might have burst my tire). Chris took over and - poof! - everything was fixed, and Jack notified the highway department about the pothole. Six flat miles and we were done, although apparently I gave Richard bad directions that caused him to miss the last turn.
Lunch was beautiful. People wanted cake, so they sang Happy Birthday (first day ever that it was legal without paying a royalty). Leader talked too much. Birthday cake (from Shaw's in Stow) was surprisingly good.
Changes for next year's ride: Winslow suggested that we should have had more arrows through the roller-coaster and Lost Lake roads - too many possible side roads and driveways, and it's easy to make a wrong turn. He's right, but I think there are too many locations for arrows. I have some ideas that I will try.
Thanks to David Wean for sweeping, and thank you all for making my birthday a memorable experience.
Report by Doug Hobkirk.
After being urged on by Doug, the long and fast group headed out at a foolhardy breakneck pace and everything was fine until Bill who is visiting from England and is a very very strong rider blew past an arrow and was lost and Barbara the sweep called one of the Clydes and one of the Clydes tried to get Everett to go chase Bill who is visiting from England down, but Tim who is also a very very strong rider went instead. Meanwhile Bill who is visiting from England had realized his error and turned around and was picked up by the short and slow group until Tim got there and escorted Bill who is visiting from England back to the long and fast group which wasn’t so fast anymore because of the delay and then the long and not-so-fast group continued on until Barry took an alternate route to avoid the dirt path and planned to join us on Rocky Hill Road and then the other Clyde who was arrowing accidentally sent most of the long and not-so-fast group in the wrong direction, down a dirt road which wasn’t part of the plan but was a short cut which would have been good except there were now several hanging arrows because of the short cut and one of them was Bill who is visiting from England and when the short group found him hanging they suggested he head back to find Everett who was also hanging but Everett had already phoned one of the Clydes to ask why he was hanging and say he would go try to find the missing group but Bill who is visiting from England was already heading back to Everett who wasn’t there anymore so Bill who is visiting from England was lost again and one of the Clydes was on the phone with Barbara and Everett at the same time and couldn’t get it straight where the rest of the group had gone but finally the rest of the group caught up to one of the Clydes who was riding backwards with Tim who is also a very very strong rider to try to find everyone and while we were all milling around trying to decide what to do, the short and slow group passed us leaving a little bit of information behind and the long group which by now wasn’t even not-so-fast anymore became the long and slow group and everyone decided that lunch was getting real real late and decided they would rather be the shorter and slow group and turned around to retrace the route back to the start and maybe find Bill who is visiting from England and then we did find Bill who is visiting from England and we all stayed pretty close together for the rest of the uneventful ride back to the start. Meanwhile Barry was waiting on Rocky Hill Road but the shorter and slower group never got there because they turned around, so Barry did the rest of the ride alone. There were no flats.
thanks to Barbara Martin for sweeping.
Ride report by one of the clydes.
No comments:
Post a Comment