Doug's Annual Bonsai Rides - September 22, 2021

 RIDE REPORT

 

Wednesday, 22 September 2021, Doug's Annual Bonsai Rides

Ride Leaders:  Doug Hobkirk & Clyde Kessel

34 & 40 mi, 10:00 am start from Littleton, MA

Riders - 34 mi (12):  Doug, Barry Nelson, Butch Pemstein, Cindy Chin, Doug Chin, James Hsia, Linda Nelson, Merle Adelman, Romaine Randall, Ron Marland, Susan Broome, and Susan Sabin.

Riders - 40 mi (17):  Clyde, Adam Walpert, Alan Cantor, Bob Apsler, Curt Dudley-Marling, Dave Balaban, Frank Aronson, Gary Williams, Gerry Sheetoo, Joel Bauman, John Ho, Rochelle Holman, Ted Finch, Tom Allen, and first-timers Bruce Eisenhut, Jeanne McDermott, and Sammy Mercier.

Present at lunch:  Helen Greitzer.

Twelve riders, including two on a tandem, did the shorter ride option.  They and two others were much stronger than I, but we all rode smoothly and harmoniously.  I stopped everyone a couple of times at points of interest - like finding a kid playing bagpipes (3 times).  The trees are beginning to turn, and they were the best I've seen so far this year.

Average ascent per mile for the first ten miles was 51 feet, the second ten was 65 feet (it always feels like it must be at least 100 feet!), 49feet for next ten, and 41 feet for the final four miles.  Three riders bypassed the gravel road, so they arrived at the end of the gravel road before the rest of us. This created a TRIPLE ARROW (a first for me)!

Thanks to Butch for being the perfect, professional sweep.  Thanks also to all the riders that participated in the rides.

 

The sandwiches from Nashoba Brook Bakery seemed very good, and everyone loved Helen's brownies, including Michael Levin, the owner of Bonsai West.

Report by Doug Hobkirk.

First, a big thanks to Alan for sweeping, to all of the arrows, and to Helen for delivering the sandwiches and her wonderful brownies.  And, we mustn’t forget to thank Doug for creating such nice routes and arranging for us to have lunch al fresco at a bonsai museum.

Without consulting the co-leader, Doug advertised the long route at 14+ mph.  The co-leader made a valiant effort to maintain that and in the end we managed 14.7.  It seems that everyone was able to maintain pretty close to that pace, since there was never more than a couple of minutes separating the leader from the sweep.  On this ride, usually the shorter group arrives first and gets first crack at the lunch sandwiches.  However, this time the longer group arrived first, even before Helen with the sandwiches.

As we were getting ready at the start, there was some concern that it might rain, but once we got going the sky brightened and it became obvious that it wouldn’t rain - until it did.  Fortunately the rain didn’t last long and was so light that it really didn’t matter one bit.

Everything went off without a hitch - no flats, no one got lost, and everyone had a good time.

Report by Clyde Kessel.