Birdhouses of Boxboro - December 8, 2016

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RIDE REPORT

Thursday, 8 December 2016, Looking for the "Birdhouses of Boxboro"

Ride Leader:  Ken Hablow

35 miles, 10:00 am start from North Bridge parking lot, Monument Street, Concord, MA

Riders (16):  Ken, Barry Nelson, Bob Wolf, Butch Pemstein, Curt Dudley-Marling, Dom Jorge, Francie Sparks, Jack Donohue, Larry Kernan, Lindy King, Ray Komow, Rick Lawrence, Roy Westerberg, Selig Saltzman, Wing Chow, and first-timer David Fay.

The weather was definitely better than on Wednesday.  It was chilly, but not bone-chilling cold.  It was 32 degrees when I left home at about 9:15 am, and maybe a couple of degrees warmer at the ride start.  The temperature rose to 38 during the ride.  The roads were damp, but otherwise clear - there were no puddles or ice.  Worthy of note:  Lindy actually drove to Concord. 

Fourteen of us started out and stayed together enough so I could see the line of riders in my mirror most of the time.  There were a few instances where we used arrows, even though they were not necessary.  We made a few short stops to collect the group.  We rode mostly in single file and were very courteous to passing vehicles. 

Butch left us at the top of Strawberry Hill because he forgot warm gloves and his hands were cold.  We made our obligatory geezer stop at the South Acton fire station at about mile 8.  I thought I saw a "Welcome CRW" sign, but I may have been mistaken.  It was here that Bob and Wing found us.  Bob had to return home, so he left the group at mile 10. 

We found the birdhouses on Hill Road!!  Our photographer of record, Jack Donohue, took the attached photo to commemorate the occasion.  Just as we approached the house where the birdhouses reside, a car swerved into the driveway.  The driver told us that her husband’s grandfather had put the birdhouses up and she was glad that the house was still in the family.  Since Wing kept blasting off the front of the group, he missed the photo, but, as Jack always says, “if you go off the front you are on your own.”

At the bottom of the hill, just before the Rte 111 crossing, we passed by another favorite geezer stop at the Boxboro town hall.  However, we did stop at yet a third favorite stop at a trailhead on South Acton Road.  Again I pointed out a "Welcome CRW" sign, but was told that it really read "Watch for Lyme Disease." 

Roy and the Bedford group left us in Concord center to head home and the rest of us rode back to the parking lot.  Thanks to Jack for sweeping and taking photos.

Report by Ken Hablow.

At the Start

With the Birdhouses

Matching Jackets

Joinred by Bob and Wing at the rest stop

Farm to Farm - December 1, 2016

RIDE REPORT

Thursday, 1 December 2016, Farm to Farm (Verrill to Great Brook)
Ride Leader:  Doug Hobkirk
31 miles from Verrill Farm, Concord, MA

Riders (24):  Doug, Allan Fierce, Barry Nelson, Bill Lane, Curt Dudley-Marling, Dmitry Gorenburg, Don Mannes, Francie Sparks, Fred Newton, Gene Ho, Jack  Donohue, Jim Whinfield, Julie Dodd, Larry Kernan, Mary Kernan, Maurice King, Ray Komow, Richard Vignoni, Roy Westerberg, Selig Saltzman, Steve Carlson, Susan Sabin, Tim Wilson (?), and Tom Allen.

How can 50° be hot, even with a bright sun?  Dimitry wore a short-sleeved jersey and it was apropos  - another gorgeous day for riding.  Almost immediately after leaving Verrill Farm, we took a left onto "Old Road to Nine Acre Corner," aka ORNAC, to avoid Sudbury Road.  We proceeded through Concord center and up Monument Street, where we were joined by four riders (Curt, Jack, Larry, Mary).  We regrouped and waved to Rich Taylor as he passed by - will he reach 10,000 miles by year's end?  Good luck, Rich.

Superb rural atmosphere for almost all of the next thirteen miles (Maple Street to the end of Pope Road), which include a swamp, several farms, Great Brook Farm state park (where we took a break and Julie joined us), and cranberry bogs.  The final ten miles had very little  traffic, but the atmosphere was more suburban.  Zero hills in the final 4.5 miles.

Rider's complaint:  riders were staying in groups too large to allow cars to pass easily.  So I gave a safety talk, mentioning that whenever a cyclist avoids irritating a car driver, it helps all cyclists.

Leader's complaint:  Fred blasts up the steeps, seated, looking easy.  Message to Fred:  AARGH!!

Thanks to Barry for sweeping.

Lunch at Rossini's was great - excellent bruschetta, pizza, sandwiches.

Report by Doug Hobkirk.

Managed to get everyone's face except Jim

Compass Ride & DBTD (Day Before Turkey Day) lunch - 11/23/2016

 RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 23 November 2016, Compass Rides & Day Before Turkey Day (DBTD) lunch

Ride Leaders:  Jack Donohue & Larry Kernan

30 miles from Bikeway Source, Bedford, MA

Riders (25):  Jack, Larry, Andy Brand, Barbara Martin, Barry Nelson, Bill Lane, Bob Apsler, Bob Wadsworth, Bob Wolf, Curt Dudley-Marling, Don Mannes, Doug Hobkirk, Francie Sparks, Fred Newton, Gene Ho, Ken  Hablow (joined en route), Lindy King, Rich Taylor, Richard Vignoni, Roy Westerberg, Rudge McKenney, Susan Sabin, Tim Wilson, Tom Fortmann, and Wing Chow.

Remoted from home & present at lunch (2):  Bob Sawyer and John Allen.

Also present at lunch:  Mike Hanauer.

Like Foghat, I had promised a "slow ride" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcCNcgoyG_0), but then  Larry piped up and offered a faster paced alternative.  Of course, I figured my awesome charisma would prevail, but when the dust settled, two-thirds of the Wheelers present had defected.  Fine, makes my leader job a lot easier.  Barry volunteered to sweep, and off we went.  We stayed together for the most part, no arrows needed.  Whenever I saw Barry at the back in black, I would make the turn.  I used stop signs as a strategic regrouping mechanism, by actually stopping.

One surprising thing was that there was a lot more traffic on the back roads than usual (usual being virtually none).  Maybe there was a Black Wednesday which no one told me about, or maybe it was the hordes of working stiffs being released early from their dead-end jobs.

We ran into the fast riders at the Chelmsford Country Club - they had stopped for some reason, so we joined them.  I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for a group photo, but they had clearly already paused too long and resumed their ride before I had my camera at the ready.

We then enjoyed the new pavement on a couple of our compass points, West Street and South Street in Carlisle.  A couple of more smooth Carlisle roads, then back on Rte 225 for the home stretch.  I was somewhat remiss in not keeping track of folks towards the end of the ride - when we reached our cars, about half the cyclists were missing.  Susan called Don and ascertained that the rest had decided to go directly to the restaurant, so a search party was not required.

Thanks to Barry for sweeping.

Report by Jack Donohue.

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Ken Hablow was supposed to lead the brisk paced ride, but he had a flat shortly after leaving Lincoln.  So I offered to lead the brisk group and Jack warned riders that there would be no arrows, no human arrows, and "no mercy" (my words).

Fourteen riders chose to join the group and we had a very enjoyable ride.  The weather was good - very sunny, little wind, and warmer than previous days.  We stopped at Chelmsford Country Club to regroup after one rider dropped his cell phone.  Jack's group nearly caught us at  that point and word has it that Ken almost rejoined the brisk group, but having already taken our obligatory photos, we got back on the road.

In the end, the group kept up a moderate pace of 14.6 mph and finished with a majority of our initial riders.  Then it was time for our Day Before Turkey Day lunch at Holi Restaurant.

In 1621, the residents of Massachusetts Bay Colony sat down with the Indians to celebrate the first Thanksgiving.  This past Wednesday, on the eve of Thanksgiving, 395 years later, the Wednesday Wheelers celebrated with an Indian feast.  [Editorial note:  Different Indians, you idiot!]

Fifteen of us enjoyed a great buffet.  Among the diners were honored guest, Bob Sawyer, who pedaled over from Carlton Willard on his 95th birthday(!), John Allen who cycled from Waltham, and Mike Hanauer who traveled about three miles from Carlisle in his automobile.

Report by Larry Kernan.

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Here is a link to John Allen's video of Bob Sawyer on his electrically assisted tricycle:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjxlLtjVE5k

Bob Sawyer

Bob Sawyer on his trike

Wheeler pace riders

Brisk pace riders sans Barbara

Brisk riders sans Larry

At Holi Restaurant

The birthday boy at Holi

Water Row - November 16, 2016

RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 16 November 2016, Water Row
Ride Leaders:  Larry Kernan, Ken Hablow, & Jack Donohue
41 or 31 miles from Bikeway Source, Bedford, MA

Riders - 41 mi (13):  Larry, Ken, Barbara Martin, Barry Nelson, Curt Dudley-Marling, Elizabeth Wicks, Francie Sparks, Gardner Gray, Julie Dodd, Kaz Zelny, Rich Taylor, Tom Fortmann, and Wing Chow.

Riders - 31 mi (10):   Jack, Butch Pemstein, Chuck McWilliams, David Kobes, James Hsia, Kathy Horvath, Ray Komow, Steve Bogue, Tom Allen, and first-timer Tom Ennis.

The WW long group stayed together nicely and only deployed a human arrow once or twice.  The group showed good bike etiquette and singled up whenever "car back" was called.  However, our relatively large size did keep many vehicles from overtaking on the smaller roads.  Despite the weather, the cyclists enjoyed the route and the ride.

Eight riders enjoyed the buffet at Great Wall, especially the "all you can eat" aspect.

Report by Larry Kernan.

Larry enlisted me to help with this ride, which I was happy to do since it was close to home.  This time Larry and I actually did a dry run beforehand, so I would not be completely in terra incognita.

The weather forecast, which was pretty cheery the day before, had taken a turn for the worse.  Looking out my bedroom window and seeing that it was raining was a clue ("you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" - Bob Dylan).  Sure enough, NOAA was now saying rain in the morning and possible showers later.  But the prediction was for rain before 10:00 am, as if the weather gods had planned the day with the Wheelers in mind.  And so it was - I rode to the ride start pathologically early and got rained upon, but, by the time of the main event, it had stopped raining.

Butch showed up looking a bit tattered.  Seems he had an FDGB on the way over.  He, nonetheless, soldiered on and did the first part of our ride before returning home to lick his wounds.  Butch and I seem to be star-crossed riders - the last time he showed up for a ride of mine, he discovered that he had a flat tire.

It was good to see Kathy back on her bike, after a long sojourn on the wounded list.

Since we were a small group, I figured we could stay together without human arrows. Tom, our sweep, was pretty easy to spot, though yellow was definitely the color of the day (see photo).

We had to halt a couple of times when I got a "mechanical" alert, which turned out to be a dropped chain, quickly fixable.

We were an exemplary group, calling out "car back" and pulling in to let cars pass.  Gold stars all round. There was, however, one faux pas on my part:  when I'm in sight of Rte 2 and the light is red, I engage sprint mode so that I can be in range of the very short light cycle when it turns green.  Unfortunately, this doesn't work so well when you've got a bunch of other riders in tow.  This time, as I approached the intersection, green had just turned to yellow.  So, rather than slamming on the brakes at that point, I rolled on through.  So I got to wait on the far side of Rte 2, instead of at the light.  Bad leader, bad!!

Our planned pit stop at Lincoln Town Hall turned out to be too early in the ride, so we opted for a stop at the Visitor's Center on Monument Street in Concord, where we had our obligatory group photo.  Tom offered to take one that included your fearless leader, rarely seen.

Thanks to Tom for sweeping and being guest paparazzo.

Report by Jack Donohue.

The whole group at start

Short Ride Group sans Tom

Short Ride Group sans Jack

Many Ponds - November 10, 2016

Thursday, 10 November 2016, Many Ponds
Ride Leaders:  Barry Nelson & Bernie Flynn
40 miles from Weston Town Hall, Weston, MA

Riders (17):  Barry, Bernie, Bob Wadsworth, Butch Pemstein, Dmitry Gorenburg, Dom Jorge, Francie Sparks,, Gene Ho, Julie Dodd, Kim Wach, Mike Byrne, Richard Lawrence, Richard Vignoni, Steve Carlson, Susan Sabin, Wing Chow, and first-timer Maher Elmasri.
Present at ride start & lunch (2):  Bill Widnall and Helen Greitzer.
Present at lunch:  Susan Broome.

Barry asked me if I'd rather lead or sweep the ride, so I agreed to lead.  Barry, who was technically the ride leader, acted as sweep.  We moved along at a reasonable clip and, aside from several missed turns (the bright, angled sun made it hard to see my Garmin), we followed the route.  There were a few regroupings and a geezer stop at Haskell Field about halfway.  Some riders dropped off, but the majority made it back to Weston in one piece and in one group.

There was a round table discussion of the election results, often interrupted by arrows.  Special mention goes out to Dimitry for his cogent analysis of Russian /US relations in the Trump era, and to Steve Carlson for his insight and experience with global manufacturing and the unlikely possibility of Trump being able to "bring back the manufacturing jobs."

Report by Bernie Flynn.

Needham, Dover, & Beyond - November 2, 2016

RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 2 November 2016, Needham, Dover, & Beyond
Ride Leaders: Susan Sabin & Tom Allen
27 or 41 miles from Cutler Park, Needham, MA


Riders - 27 mi (12):  Susan, Ann Northup, Chuck McWilliams, Dale Ferguson, David Kobes, David Wean, Don Mannes, Ilkka Suvanto, James Hsia, Jim Cant, Maurice King, and Stuart Kaufman.
Riders - 41 mi (16):   Tom, Annemarie Altman, Bob Apsler, Ellen Gugel, Everett Briggs, Fred Newton, Gene Ho, Kathy Horvath, Ray Komow, Roy Westerberg, Rudge McKenney, Selig Saltzman, Stan Kay, Tim Wilson, Veronica Vedensky, and Wing Chow.
Present at lunch (9):  Andrea Leopold, Barbara Jacobs, Brett Serkez, Helen Greitzer, Judi Burten, Larry Kornetsky, Margie Lee, Marie Keutmann, and Tony Lee.

This was a glorious day for a bike ride.  After scrambling for parking space (Cutler Park parking was nearly full when I arrived at 9:30 am), we started just a bit late.  We stopped at a porta potty at about mile 6 while we waited for the sweep.  He and two others took a while to appear - it seems they were sweeping some woman who was out riding on her own - talk about full service sweeping!

Lunch outdoors in Dover was a delight, except for the persistent bees (one of which got inserted in Dale’s mouth as he drank his water bottle) - ouch!!  The leader had to wrangle the troops outta there, sadly, before the next wave of riders who then benefited from the empty seats.

As promised, the ride was at WW speed: 13.4 mph according to my gps, and the group stayed pretty much together.  Thanks to Stuart for sweeping.  And, by the way, I cannot take credit for the weather, the roads, or the regular CRW route which I had simply downloaded.

Report by Susan Sabin.

The long ride set out, first crossing over Rte 128 at the site of new on-ramps on Kendrick Street, then on towards Dover via South Street.  We paused briefly at the divergence of the long and short rides, in case anyone wanted to switch (no one did).  Shortly after, one of our riders experienced a pneumatic failure that Everett (our sweep) dealt with.

There were some ups and downs, but nothing this group is not used to.  One hill slowed the leader, such that several riders forged ahead and distributed themselves along the route as forward deployed arrows until I managed to catch up.  It was all done in a very orderly fashion,

At the lunch stop in Dover center we met Brett, Andrea, and Helen, along with several other familiar faces out on different rides.  Susan's group had departed before we arrived.

I received many compliments on "my" route design.  Of course I deflected those to Susan and add my own on a most scenic ride.

Thanks to Everett for serving as sweep and to Ellen for schlepping the uneaten half of my sandwich back to the parking area.

Report by Tom Allen.

The third ride

Leader: Larry Kornetsky (because he had gps), Participants: Tony Lee, Margie

If you’re a mountain biker in the greater Boston area, you’ve probably heard of  Cutler Park in Needham. But many of us have never been there so this was an opportunity to explore. We started out when the road riders were leaving and headed onto a rooty trail behind the parking lot. After turning onto a double track we ascended up and down a few hills on single track, at some points quite close to Rte. 128. Eventually we found solitude in the woods and rode over a wooden causeway (boardwalk), followed the blue heron trail, diverting along the way for “playgrounds” with built up mounds, and past some teenage hideaways, emerging to city streets and an Entering Boston sign. Thanks to the gps we were able to reconnect with the blue heron trail, riding through Millennium Park, behind office buildings and through parking lots to emerge back where we started. Thanks to Larry for his expertise with Ride with gps, we thoroughly explored and enjoyed Cutler Park. It was fun to get together with the long road cyclists for lunch in Dover and to see Brett and Andrea.

Report by Margie Lee

Colorful Country Collage & ME Seacoast - October 26, 2016

RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 26 October 2016, Colorful Country Collage & ME Seacoast rides & LUNCH
Ride Leaders:  Joanne Samuels & Ken Hablow
26 & 48 miles, 10:30 am starts from Joanne's house, Portsmouth, NH

Riders - 30 mi (12):  Joanne, Bob Anderson, Carol Anderson Dale Ferguson, Don Mannes, Susan Sabin, Tom Lucas, and first-timers Jackie Terkow, Jane Harrington, Kathy Paradis, Lillian Hurn, and Peter Terkow.  

Riders -48 mi (9):   Ken, Bernie Flynn, Bob Wolf, Curt Dudley-Marling, Dom Jorge, Francie Sparks, Gene Ho, Julie Dodd, and Russ Keene.

Present at ride start & lunch:  Helen Greitzer.

Present at lunch:  Karen Saltus.

The Wednesday short ride this week started at Joanne's house in Portsmouth.  We actually combined some of the members of the Tour de Tuesday group, that rides in NH on Tuesday evenings, with the Wednesday Wheelers to create a group of twelve.  After practicing a few times with the leader-arrow-sweep system, we were well on our way and stayed together without incident.  The weather was a bit on the cool side, with some wind.  However, the sun peeked through and warmed us a bit along the way.

We rode through the towns of Newington, Greenland, North Hampton, and Rye to make a lovely, fall thirty mile route.  The trees were just a tad past peak, but, with many of the trees losing their leaves, we were able to view the scenery which included Great Bay and large expanses of farmland.  The climax of the ride was when we came upon the glistening Atlantic Ocean from atop a slight hill.  The isles of Shoals were in perfect view.  Then we headed home through the town of Rye for more color, on streets with few cars.  There were no mechanical or other difficulties.

Once home, we gathered for three different kinds of soup and lovely salad and dessert contributions.  People stayed for a while to chat and reconnect.  It was a fun afternoon.  Thanks to Helen for warming the soup, so it was ready for us we returned, and to all who contributed such delicious food items.

Report by Joanne Samuels.

There was a chill in the air.  After all, this was the coldest day since last April.  With the temperature for the day hovering around 44 degrees and moderate amounts of sunshine, nine of us started out on a rolling 49 mile ride.  Once we crossed the bridge into Kittery we spent the next 20 miles along the coast up to Ogunquit.  We had a slight headwind and lots of sun along the coast to offset the temperature.

It was near low tide. The beaches were devoid of people. The long expanses of wet sand were quite beautiful and a bit eerie.   It was apparent that after tourist season all the public restrooms are shut down.  Leaving York Beach, we rode up to Ogunquit on Shore Road which is twisty and rolling.  We spied a great place by a pond, where we could get off the road and claim it a DPS (Designated Pee Stop) with a view.

The route back from Ogunquit took us inland on some very quiet roads with a few rolling hills, past the Stonewall Kitchen headquarters, and into a bit of Eliot, ME.  With the promise of a great feed of three homemade soups and assorted salads, combined with the fact we never passed a place to eat that was open, we made a short “lunch” stop so people could eat out of their back pockets.  Okay, Stonewall has a great restaurant, but we wanted to get back in time to miss the afternoon commuter traffic.

I have come to realize that we have two seasons in New England.  Southern NE has Winter and Construction.  That accounted for all the newly paved roads this summer.  The northern states have Construction and Summer.  We hit one single lane site in Portsmouth, going out and coming back.  The next one we encountered was the last turn to Nubble light.  Several of us got to this site before the others and there was a cop on a construction detail right at the turn.  I stopped to ask her if she would direct the other riders in our direction - she laughed and was glad to do so.  Going into Ogunquit we came upon a Road Closed sign which we promptly ignored.  It looked like a water pipe installation and the right side of the road was a mess with lots of big equipment.  There was a large Caterpillar front end loader blocking the left side, but the driver nicely backed out of the road and waved us through.  Only in Maine.

With a small group, all compatible, we only used a few human arrows.  Thanks to Gene for sweeping, which was a good thing since with seven riders in red, one in blue, Gene stood out draped in yellow with a yellow helmet.  Along with his flashing headlight he was quite visible in my mirror.  As long as I could see Gene, I knew that he could see the rest of the riders and where we were going.  We did make a few regrouping stops at critical points.

Thanks to Joanne for the great spread she put out for the after-ride party at her house.

Report by Ken Hablow.

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Long ride photos courtesy of Russ Keene.

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Short riders at lunch (photo by Don Mannes)