RIDE REPORT
Wednesday, 20 July 2022, Great Brook Farm State Park road ride
Ride Leader: Clyde Kessel
31 miles, 9:00 am start from Carlisle, MA
Riders (12): Clyde, Alex Nelson, Beth Rosenzweig, Curt Dudley-Marling, Ed Hill, Gary Williams, Gerry Sheetoo, Hugh Folsom, Jim Pearl, Rochelle Holman, Wing Chow, and first-timer Ken Weber.
Half of our group had cycled from home, so we didn’t take up much space in the parking lot. Hardly anyone else was at the state park on such a hot day, so it didn’t matter anyway. A couple of people encountered slow traffic (the early start did impinge on rush hour) and were a bit late, but we still got rolling by 9:15 am. This ride leader doesn’t talk much at the ride start.
They say to make something happen, you have to visualize it. Well, I visualized a relaxed ride at a pace slow enough so no one would get overheated. I can tell you that the visualization stuff is a bunch of malarky. The group took off like a rocket and, before long, the leader found himself riding with the sweep. So, if you can’t beat them, join them. I picked up my pace enough to (mostly) keep the front of the group in sight. As it was, no one seemed to have much trouble with the heat, but folks did take advantage of the water bubbler at the Concord Visitor Center to cool down.
There were no notable wildlife sightings - I guess all sensible souls were chilling in the shade somewhere.
At Verrill Farm, a couple of riders split off to go for a swim at White Pond. Others split off at various points to cycle back home (or in one case, to get some extra miles!). At the end, we were down to six riders, three of whom went to the restaurant only to find it closed for vacation. So much for lunch in air-conditioned comfort.
Thanks to Rochelle for sweeping and to the many faithful arrows.
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