RIDE REPORTS
Wednesday 31 May 2017, Verrill Farm rides
Ride Leaders: Ken Hablow & Jack Donohue
52 or 36 miles - 10:00 am start from Verrill Farm, Concord, MA
Riders - 52 mi (13): Ken, Barry Nelson, Bob Wolf, Curt Dudley-Marling, Frank Hubbard, Gene Ho, Greg Stathis, Julie Dodd, Larry Kernan, Ray Komow, Russ Keene, Steve Bader, and Veronica Vedensky.
Riders - 36 mi (13): Jack, Adena Schutzberg, Dmitry Gorenburg, Dom Jorge, James Hsia, Mike Byrne, Kim Wach, Richard Fortier, Roy Westerberg, Selig Saltzman, Steve Carlson, Tom Allen, and Wing Chow.
We did not experience any rain. The roads were damp for the first hour, then mostly dry. With temperatures in the mid 50s to low 60s, moderate humidity, no wind, and mostly cloudy skies, this was a very comfortable day. Arrows were not needed as we stayed together, although Gene volunteered to sweep. With his orange jacket and yellow helmet it was easy to keep him in sight with my mirror.
We generally split into two or three smaller groups, leaving enough space between groups to enable traffic to pass. We made a few short stops to regroup, including a short lunch stop in Berlin center. Early in the ride, as we approached Long Hill in Bolton, Larry and Barry took off and were never seen nor heard from again.
Testing the Berlin and Hudson PD and FD: As nice as the ride was, we needed some excitement which, unfortunately, was provided by Veronica. At just about the crack-of-noon, in Hudson just over the Berlin line, she caught her front wheel in a crack and went down. Bob Wolf called 911. As he was on the phone, a sergeant from Berlin drove by, in a “company” pickup truck, on his way to lunch. He stopped, put on his flashing blue lights (which promptly snarled traffic), and administered first aid. Of course, by that time, the Hudson PD and FD were on their way. Besides the Berlin sergeant, we had an officer from Hudson, an ambulance, and the obligatory fire truck. Veronica wanted to ride, even though her knee was bandaged (see photo) and her rear derailleur hanger was bent. We had options in place for her, but she soldiered on and finished the ride with us. Back at the farm, several folks went inside for refreshments. By that time the sun was shining and it was very comfortable riding home.
Report by Ken Hablow.
The weather forecast reminded me of that famous Clint Eastwood line: "Do you feel lucky?" Apparently, a number of WWs did, since there was a good group at the start. I wasn't feeling too lucky since it started out gloomy and drizzly, but this gave way to gloomy and dry and we were able to complete the ride with nary a drop of rain.
I felt like I was on Mission Impossible and my mission, that I chose to accept, was to lead another ride that I had never ridden. Once again, the RideWithGPS phone app performed flawlessly. We did have a bit of operator error, when it signalled a turn and the words it said sounded a lot like "straight." As I was checking the map, I noticed that every one of my followers had, in fact, abandoned me and made the proper left turn. I could have said that this was a test of their loyalty to their leader, but I doubt they would have bought it. This does point out that unlike days of old when the leader was the only one who knew where he was going, with modern GPS technology the leader can be the only one who DOESN'T know where he's going.
I tried to keep the group together so we wouldn't need arrows. My sweep, Mike, chided me about that, since a large group is hard for cars to pass. In my defense, I have in the past encouraged riders to break into smaller groups leaving a gap between groups for the cars, but this has always failed miserably, since no one wants to be the 'gappee.' At least the entire merry band generally stayed to the right when cars were nearby.
The South Acton fire station is becoming my home away from home, as it seems that every ride that goes through Acton (and there are a lot) has a rest stop there. While waiting my turn for the restroom, I noticed a sign on the door to the effect that while they are happy to provide the public with the facilities, some users have been less than tidy. I can't imagine that our group is in this category, but let's not abuse this valuable resource and "leave no trace."
The only mishap was when Tom took the low road while the rest of the group took the high road. He was MIA for a while, but rejoined us after the second rest stop at Fairbanks Center. Tom was lost, but now he's found, as the gospel song says.
Most of the group had lunch at Verrill Farm. I elected not to join the group for lunch, since I still had to ride home and I didn't want to push my luck with the weather. As it turned out, I could have lunched and ridden home without getting wet. Oh, well.
Thanks to Mike for sweeping.
Report by Jack Donohue.
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