RIDE REPORTS
Wednesday, 1 November 2017, Magical Mystery Tours
Ride Leaders: Kathy Horvath & Curt Dudley-Marling
37 & 50 miles, 10:00 & 10:30 am starts from Bikeway Source parking lot, Bedford, MA
Riders – 37 mi (14): Kathy, Annemarie Altman, Bill Wachur, Bob Wadsworth, Jack Donohue, Jack Mroczkowski, Judith McMichael, Richard Fortier, Roy Westerberg, Selig Saltzman, Susan Sabin, Tom Allen, first-timer Gerald Sheetoo, plus one unidentified individual (in red bike jacket) who may have been absent during the taking of attendance.
Riders – 50 mi (14): Curt, Barbara Martin, Bernie Flynn, Butch Pemstein, Dave Balaban, Frank Hubbard, Gene Ho, Kevin Donnelly, Lindy King, Marc Baskin, Ray Komow, Rick Carlson, Sandy Gray, and Wing Chow.
Despite a surprisingly chilly, overcast morning, where the temperature went down to 31 degrees, thirteen enthusiastic riders gathered at the start and Barbara soon joined the ride. The group stayed together and the sweep duties were nominal, but appreciated nonetheless. Passing the riders on the short route, near Silver Lake in Tewksbury, confirmed that the riders were in a smooth rhythm. Fortunately, very little debris was encountered on the road, despite the recent rain and wind storm; a couple of tree removal crews posed little difficulty. With a well-functioning GPS route, the long route riders finished earlier than the short route riders. Feedback was positive - although the route is a bit more urban than most CRW rides, the roads were quite different and interesting in their own way, and the segment through Harold Parker State Park is always scenic.
A half hour later start made little difference in the temperature due to the overcast sky. Very light winds were a small relief to the chilly weather, and several riders added layers and borrowed gloves to be more comfortable. As Lemony Snicket would say, there were some “unfortunate events” but nothing that resulted in bodily harm, thankfully. This second-time WW leader learned a valuable lesson - be sure to designate an arrow when turning in to a rest stop; not realizing that part of the group got caught back at a stop light, we were separated and the first group yelled to no avail as we watched the second group go sailing by the DD on Winn Street. Fortunately, the Sweep checked his phone messages and stopped to get directions to back-track and they were awarded bonus miles for their effort. One rider decided to ride directly home from DD, and the remaining thurteen rejoined as one group for the last ten miles. Three riders took the bike path option in Lexington and the rest attacked the hill at Grove Street. Tom subsequently sent some very useful suggestions to modify the route for the future, which the leader will certainly investigate.
Special thanks to Curt for co-leading, to Jack Donohue for sweeping, and to all riders for their gracious good company.
Report by Kathy Horvath.
Over the river (Ipswich) and through the woods (Harold Parker State Forest, which was our one and only stop). The ride was cold at the start, cold in the middle, and somewhat warmer at the end (mostly because of the hills leading to Lexington and Bedford). Kevin Donnelly announced at the start that this was the first ride he’d done where the temperature was below 60 at the start. Well, it was at least 20 degrees below 60 at the beginning of this ride.
We were expecting Barbara to join us at mile 1.5, but she wasn’t there when we made it to the designated coordinates at 10:15. We waited for a whole minute before moving on (remember: it was really cold). About ten miles later Barbara managed to catch up with us, bringing peace, joy and arnica to the group. Good news story: near the end of the ride Ray Komow discovered that his wallet had fallen out of his jacket pocket. So, he turned his bike around and began the search for his wallet. Lucky for him, he found the wallet where it had fallen, only 50 yards from where he had realized that it was missing.
It was my first time leading a Wednesday Wheeler ride and we returned to Bedford with nearly all the riders that we’d started with (Marc veered off to Lexington near the end of the ride in search of some finer dining opportunities and Lindy left us earlier to ride home). Having me ride at the front also spared the group my “quirky” sense of humor - no eye rolling on this day.
All in all, ‘twas a very good ride. Following the example of our chief executive, I give myself a 10 out of 10 (and Kathy a 20 out of 10 for her hard work creating this delightful ride). Thanks to Butch for sweeping.
Report by Curt Dudley-Marling.
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| Group sans Susan |
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| Group with Susan |
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