Not Quite Haverhill Redux - April 13, 2022

 RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 13 April 2022, Not Quite Haverhill Redux

Ride Leader:  Tom Allen

34 miles, 10:00 am start from North Reading, MA

Riders (8):  Tom, Barry Nelson, Betsy Harper, Pat Stabler, Rochelle Holman, Selig Saltzman, Simon Lingard (sweep), and first-timer Ed Hill.

This was weather worth waiting for - a beautiful day as we started north from Ipswich River Park!  The initial set of hills convinced one rider that she was not yet in full cycling shape and she dropped out.  The rest of us made our way through Harold Parker and on to North Andover.

After crossing busy Rte 114 we turned onto the officially closed and aptly named Brook Street, wetting our tires in the water flowing over the road.  Passing through a variety of residential neighborhoods we made our way to the planned rest stop in West Boxford where we noshed on high calorie muffins and fresh baked banana bread.

The hill on Uptack Road seemed to satisfy the climbing craving of a couple of our more aggressive riders as we continued on to lovely rural roads.  The touted "easy" off-road portion proved to be attractive to only one other rider.  The group taking the on-road bypass failed to identify the re-merge point and it took a bit to get us all back together again.

Four of us stopped at Ryer's Store for very generous sandwich portions, with the rest being led back to the parking area by one of our riders with local knowledge.

Thanks to Simon for very ably serving as sweep.

Report by Tom Allen.