Circling Cape Ann - May 22, 2024

RIDE REPORTS

Wednesday, 22 May 2024, Circling Cape Ann [67 mile remote option]

Ride Leader:  Clyde Kessel
67 miles, 9:30 am start from Wenham, MA

Riders (5):  Clyde, Everett Briggs, Gerry Sheetoo, Wing Chow, and first-timer Nick Lepeshkin.

For those of you who were sleeping during High School Chemistry class, here is a little remedial info.  Boron is element 5 in the periodic table and has two electrons in the 1s orbital which are very tightly bound to the atom.  The other three electrons (the valence electrons) are in the 2s and 2p orbitals and are much more loosely bound to the atom.

There were five riders for the long version of the Cape Ann ride.  Wing, Everett, and Nick declared that they would not be part of the group - they would be off doing their own thing.  That left us with two tightly-bound riders and three loosely-bound riders.  The group, therefore, resembled a Boron atom.  We started out in the +1 ionization state (ie. missing one electron-rider), very quickly went to the +2 ionization state, and just as quickly back to +1.  The +1 state lasted until we got to the fish pier in Gloucester, when “Everett the Disruptor” made a wrong turn and stripped us all the way to the +4 ionization state.  That is very unfavorable energetically, so we got back to +2 in short order.  The +2 ion seemed quite happy and stable and lasted all the way to the lunch stop at the Cove Cafe in Lanesville.  At that point, Clyde and Gerry voted unanimously to shorten the route by returning directly to the cars, so a happy B+3 ion made it back to the start several hours earlier than scheduled.

We had no arrows and no sweep.  However, the ride leader wishes to thank Nick for the ride there and back again.

Report by Clyde Kessel.

Wednesday, 22 May 2024, Circling Cape Ann [32 mile core option]

Ride Leader:  Richard Vignoni
32 miles, 10:00 am start from Gloucester, MA

Riders (17):  Richard, Barbara Jacobs, Christine Corr, Dale Ferguson, Don Mannes, Francie Sparks, Gene Ho, Lynne O’Riorden, Marie Keutmann, Nancy Smith, Neil MacGaffey, Ron Marland, Scott Mandell, Shawn Corr, Simon Lingard, Ted Nyder, and first-timer Dennis McCafferty.

With oppressive heat forecast for inland areas, seventeen riders were greeted with a refreshing 68 degrees for the 10:00 am ride start at Stage Fort Park.  The group included familiar faces, as well as some new to WW.  After an orientation and safety talk we headed out.

We proceeded pretty much as advertised, taking in the sites along the way, including the Gloucester Fish Pier with a few huge fishing boats at dock, the Rocky Neck artist colony, Eastern Point Light, Good Harbor Beach, and Lobster Cove.  We made a brief stop to view the Angela Rose, the boat used in the movie CODA, which was moored across the harbor from the fish pier.

Lunch was at Destino’s sub shop a few miles from the end of the ride.  While the weather gods were very good to us, giving us cool temps with bright blue skies, someone must have ticked off the traffic gods as the traffic heading back was horrible.  Our thanks to Dale for sweeping and to all those who arrowed and participated.

Report by Richard Vignoni.

Lilac Tuesday and some of the Metropolitan Water System - Tuesday, May 14, 2024

 RIDE REPORT

 

Tuesday, 14 May 2024, Lilac Wednesday Tuesday and some of the Metropolitan Water System

Ride Leader:  David Wean
23 miles, 10:00 am start from Brookline, MA

 

Riders (9):  David, Betsy Kimball, Bill Perry, Cynthia Zabin, Gerry Sheetoo, Jim Campen, John Springfield, Simon Lingard, and Susan Sabin

 

Pre-poned from Wednesday due to an unfavorable forecast, we gathered at Larz Anderson Park to explore a bunch of reservoirs and ponds, many of which were at one point part of the Metropolitan Water System, throwing in a couple of rivers for good measure.  In order:  Brookline Reservoir, Fisher Hill Reservoir, Chestnut Hill Reservoir, Waban Hill Reservoir (see a pattern here?), Chandler Pond, the Charles River, Fresh Pond, the Muddy River, Leverett Pond, Ward's Pond, Jamaica Pond, and the Arboretum's Faxon, Rehder, and Dawson Ponds.  

 

At Fisher Hill, we found that the Reservoir had been drained and replaced by a soccer field, though we were treated to an engraved stone map depicting many of the features of the Metropolitan Water System, indicating when each had gone on- and off-line, as well as several of the aqueducts.  At Chestnut Hill, we admired the Richardsonian (but not designed by Richardson himself) pumping station, part of which is now the Waterworks Museum.  We eventually picked up the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway to Fresh Pond, worked our way through Cambridge on the two-way cycle track along Brattle Street into Harvard Square.  We then followed the Charles to Boston University, after which we twisted our way along the Emerald Necklace, following the Muddy River, Olmsted Park, and a dirt/gravel path around tiny Ward's Pond where we saw the seven newly hatched ugly ducklings.  

 

We continued along Jamaica Pond and eventually to the Arnold Arboretum to catch the display of lilac bushes without the crowds that had visited on Lilac Sunday, two days prior.  Climbing our way through Jamaica Plain's Moss Hill neighborhood, we returned to the ride start, and six of us had lunch at the Putterham Grill, a Mediterranean restaurant about a mile away.  

 

Thanks to Gerry for sweeping and, though we largely hung together, the folks who stepped up to arrow the turns when needed.  

 

Report by David Wean.

Photo courtesy of Simon Lingard.

Wachusett Reservoir and MCRT - May 1, 2024

 Wednesday, 1 May 2024, Wachusett Reservoir and MCRT

Ride Leader:  Tom Allen
33 miles, 11:00 am start from Sterling, MA

 

Riders (8):  Tom, Frank Calabrese, Frank Scibilia, Gerry Sheetoo, Susan Broome, Susan Sabin, and first-timers Christine & Shawn Corr.

Present at start:  Elizabeth Wicks.

 

We gathered at Rota Spring Ice Cream parking lot at 11:00 am, before any customers appeared, and had an orderly start that soon became less orderly.  The initial part of the ride was an uphill that some riders were ready to attack and others not quite seasonally there yet.  The result was a fracturing of our group with a couple of riders setting their own pace while the leader stayed behind to make sure folks did not become lost.

 

We did catch up with the breakaway riders (Elizabeth and Frank C.) and managed to keep together for a few more miles (minus one rider who had her own route on the GPS rather than mine). We then rendezvoused with the lone rider at about the time that Elizabeth and Frank decided to set their own pace (based on Elizabeth's local knowledge).  We never saw Frank again.  [Perhaps he would supply his own ride report.  We did see Elizabeth a bit later on, but by then she was on her own mission and did not rejoin.]

 

The challenge of the ride was the hills, not the unpaved rail trail paths.  All who stayed with the group agreed that the ride was worth the effort. 

 

At Clinton we saw the Train Tunnel mouth, and I described how the tracks would have gone over our heads on a trestle and crossed to the other side of the Nashua River.  This railroad routing was necessitated by the construction of the Wachusett dam. See picture (Wikipedia) below to see a train crossing the gap and construction of the dam in the background. We saw the footings for the viaduct structure as we passed by the dam.

 

Six of us enjoyed a late afternoon lunch at the very accommodating Meadowbrook Orchards.

 

Thanks to Frank Scibilia for sweeping and taking care of the ride's only flat (his own).

 

Report by Tom Allen.