Leader/Member:  Ron Altemus, Carl Hattery



Route:  Indian Head Rail Trail, riding east from Livingston Rd parking lot to White Plains trailhead for a short rest stop. then retracing west back to the ride start.

Weather:  very high overcast allowing for plenty of warming sunshine resulting in a temp range of 40-45 degrees with 3-7 mph NW air

AMS:  10ish

Mechanicals/Mishaps:  none

Report:  Just the two of us and we saw only three other cyclists and several walkers/joggers, all at the east end of the trail.  Given the forecast for the rest of January, today was a most pleasant ride event.  When we returned to the Livingston Road parking lot, we met Connie Q.  She had an earlier appointment that precluded her doing the regular ride but she was going to enjoy the day and probably her last ride in January.

Leader: Lou Dall'Orso

Members:   none

Guests:  none

Route:  ridewithgps.com/routes/12378617

Weather:  almost 50 and mostly sunny at the start, a bit windy, climbing a couple of degrees with increasing clouds and wind mid ride or so..

AMS:  15 mph

Mechanicals/Mishaps:  none

Report:   Probably the last rideable day for a while, certainly through the end of the month, so decided to do this ride again today.  It started windy, and got windier as the ride progressed. I kept thinking the head and cross wind would at some point have some tail to it, but other than the last segment on Route 210, it never happened.  A fun ride nonetheless. I'll take 50 degrees plus this time a year.

Leader:  Ron Altemus

Member:  Gene Villiva

Route:  Leisurely casual tour of Mason Neck, visiting Mason Neck Park, Hallowing Point, Gunston Manor, Gunston Hall, and Pohick Bay Parks.  
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/53344341  ~29 miles, 890' elevation change

Weather:   Mostly sunny with some clouds building in as the day progressed; temp range of 46-53 degrees, 7-10 mph air out of the western quadrant.  Pretty nice for a late January ride, especially given the weekend's forecast of bitter cold and snow accumulation.

AMS:  10ish

Mechanicals/Mishaps:  none

Report:  Opted to do Mason Neck when no one signed up for a Goose Bay ride.  This was Gene's first ride in 2026 so we moseyed along, viewing the winter landscapes.  Didn't see any other cyclists nor many people at Mason Neck State Park.  Vehicle traffic was for the most part light though we had a couple of instances with numerous cars passing us in both directions.

Leader: Lou Dall'Orso

Members:   none

Guests:  none

Route:  ridewithgps.com/routes/12378617

Weather:  Mid to High 40s grey overcast, windy.

AMS:  16 mph

Mechanicals/Mishaps:  none

Report:   The weather forecasters were calling for 50, maybe a bit more, not sure what the actual temperatures were, my phone said between 47 and 49 or so, but it felt colder than that for most of the ride. The forecast called for a looming cold front to come through late in the day, but it appeared to be imminent, and feeling a tad under the weather and having no other riders signed up, I all but made up my mind to cut the route short by making the right onto Hawthorne from Marshall Corner and picking up Livingston from there, and that is what I ended up doing cutting the distance by about 8 miles and completing the route with no rest stops.

Today was  a cool day but eased by brilliant sunshine and little wind.  

Riders:  Jessica H, Joseph McKenzie, Kathy King, Larry Forgy (first ride as non member) and Andrea Clayville

Another Octopus Ride in the books:  (8 out 'n backs)

37 miles, 515'

Unfortunately Andrea's ride was cut short right out of the gate when she noticed a flat.  It took her LBS 20 minutes to mount it yesterday, with great difficulty, so she elected to turn around and head home. 

The Shetland ponies were out and we fed them apples and carrots.  One tried to eat Kathy's glove but she retreated in time.  We also took a bit of a detour to ride out to the end of the Matapeake Pier, with a glorious view of the Chesapeake and the bridge. We had stops at Silver Swan beach, and the other community fishing pier, as well as a stop at the crab marina and lighthouse.   Joe peeled off a bit early to get home to his family. 

Leader:  Ron Altemus

Members:  Leesha Saunders, Esther Steward, Connie Quickstad, Susan Altemus, Robin Garnett, Fran Jezisek, Carl Hattery, Donaro Gardner



Route:  Indian Head Rail Trail, riding east from Livingston Rd parking lot to White Plains trailhead for a short rest stop. then retracing west back to the ride start.

Weather:  a very GRAY day; gray overcast w/water vapor in the air giving everything a gray cast; temp range 46-51 degrees; ~9 mph S winds.  All elements combined to make it feel a bit colder than expected.

AMS:  RL swept in mid 10s

Mechanicals/Mishaps:  none

Report:  nice turnout for early January.  As is the norm, we broke up into mostly cycling pairs and conversed through the ride.  Several riders needing some hill work climbed Bumpy Oak on the outbound leg; another rider, impressed with their cycling prowess, did the trail climb up to Bensville Park (just to see if they could!).

A few more trail users than the previous week (which was much colder) including walks/joggers and other cyclists.  Wildlife sightings were mostly birds - great blue heron; swans; smaller birds flittering across the trail.  

Leader: Lou Dall'Orso

Members:   Eric Nielsen

Guests:  none

Route:  ridewithgps.com/routes/12378617

Weather:  Mid 50s at the start, a bit over 60 by the end, some clouds and sun, not much wind to speak of.

AMS:  16 mph

Mechanicals/Mishaps:  Yes, see below.

Report:   With apologies to Charles Dickens, It was the best of rides, it was the worst of rides. First the best, another unusually nice weather day for January, and this time I was happy to have Eric join me. He was already there when I arrived, and we were ready to roll shortly after. We rolled out of the parking lot and down the Berry Road hill and somehow missed our turn on McDaniels, so just made the right on Middleton which put us right back on course. From there the ride was a fun spin, with no wind to speak of, and only light car traffic along the route. I really like the portion from Hawthorne down to Rose Hill Road, and took the chance to eat and drink, letting Eric take the lead, then pulled to almost the start of the Rose Hill downhill where I followed him down and watched his red Merckx cut the lines at speed and smiled. As we neared the end of the The Route 6 hill, I mentioned to Eric that the pavement on poorhouse is really good now, and asked if he wanted to stop at the Pisgah store, and he replied he was ok with not stopping, so that's what we did, and continued past the intersection on poorhouse and soon we were making our way down Chick, and the couple of rollers there. We made the right on Livingston and decided to skip that stop also. The last hill was a bit of a trudge, but not being steep, not too bad, so we topped that and worked our way past the air field, and then the right on Route 210, made the dog leg to the side road that puts us next to Route 210 on much better pavement that the shoulder, and made the quick left and right to return to the shoulder, and the last little bit of the route.  And now for the Worst part, so I'm riding now within sight of the Berry Road Traffic lights, pointing out some of the debris on the road, thinking "fun ride" when an SUV pulls up along side with it's window rolled down, and someone yelling something out the window, at first it didn't register, but on the second or third time, I made out the last thing I wanted to hear, "He crashed!".  So I pulled over, and turned around, expecting Eric to be right behind me, and maybe it was something else? But , no. I see him sitting on the shoulder, his bike a few feet from him, I don't know, maybe 50 to 100 feet away? So I rush back to him, and see that he  doesn't appear to be seriously injured, but I ask him to take his time getting up, and if anything doesn't feel right, he says he is ok, and good to get going, so I ask him to stay put for a bit while I check his bike,, quick spin of the wheels and cranks, squeeze the brakes, and a bounce, checks out ok, only the right lever looks to have suffered a bit. So after a few more moments, I check again with him, and he is good to go. I threw in a couple of questions to make sure he hadn't hit his head, but it turned out, when we talked later at the cars, there was no evidence of any impact on his helmet at all. So I followed him back to the parking lot where we found some road rash on his shoulder and hip. I felt terrible, and waited to make sure he was ok, and he insisted he was, so we said our goodbyes.  When I asked Eric what had happened from his perspective, he mentioned that he lost control after hitting debris, I'm still not sure how exactly, I never saw it, and more surprisingly, I didn't hear it. Oh and I forgot to mention that the lady who flagged me down, came back and checked on us to make sure we were ok before we got going again, so a big thank you to her.

Leader: Steve Palincsar
Members: Ron Altemus
Guests: none
Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/53661078
Weather: Sunny, 40 or 45 (depending on if you were standing in the sun) at the start rising to 54 by early afternoon with single-digit winds
AMS: 12.0
Mechanicals/Mishaps: none
Report: Another fine day to Carpe Diem, albeit 10 degrees colder than yesterday.  Trying to keep the distance below 30, today's route was an abbreviated version of Ron's Tayloes Neck exploration, straight to Tayloes Neck on Ironsides and MD-6, down to the end of the peninsula and back with a diversion down Walters Landing for a photo op, then backtrack to King James Church, followed by Hancock Run and Adams Willet to Liverpool Point, back on Baptist Church to Ironsides and Friendship Landing Rd.

Nanjemoy is a quiet, off the beaten path, low-traffic area and Tayloes Neck makes the rest of Nanjemoy look like the Beltway at rush hour.  We had a lunch break at King James Church (happily, this time the rest rooms were open) and then followed that up with a stop at the Nanjemoy Store for a snack before returning to Friendship Farm Park. 

Leader: Lou Dall'Orso

Members:   none

Guests:  none

Route:  ridewithgps.com/routes/12378617

Weather:  High 50s at the start, a bit over 60 by the end, some clouds and some wind,, but nothing extreme.

AMS:  16 mph

Mechanicals/Mishaps:  none

Report:   Thought I'd get some riders with the weather being so warm for January, but not to be. Decided close enough for shorts, so did that and a long sleeve base layer plus short sleeve jersey, and arm warmers to start. Felt a tad under dressed at the start, but soon felt comfortable and by the time I was nearing the Billingsley round about, forgot it was winter. Got into a good rhythm, so decided to skip the stops, and just kept a middle sized gear rolling. Arm warmers came off mid ride, and pulled up the sleeves up to my elbows, and made some forearm vitamin D to go along with the  legs. A tad of headwind on the second half, but nothing major. 

Ride leader: Steve Palincsar
Members: Ray Luckenbach, Dave Van Amayden, Walt Roscello, Connie Quickstad, Ron Altemus
Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/53640509 30.1 mi, 1050' elevation gain
Weather: Partly cloudy, around 50 at the start rising to a sunny 65, albeit with winds of at least 12 mph and gusts up to 20 mph
AMS: 11.5
Mishaps & mechanicals: none

"Do I even remember how to ride this thing? It's been a month since I've been on a bike" pretty much summed up how I was feeling at the start, and I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't the only one.  Punxatawney Phil is my spirit animal this winter, it seems: if it isn't warm and I don't see the sun, I turn around and go back in my burrow and wait for better times.

And since better times clearly arrived today, six of us were out and about on a route that visited former haunts and oft-ridden roads.  We (slowly) took the IHRT heading towards Indian Head, actually noticing the scenic water views along Mattawoman Creek, unsuccessfully attempted a tour of the new developments adjacent to the Village Green (the road just don't match the map at all, what's up with that?) and then took Strauss to Chapmans Landing and had a rest stop at the McDonalds in Bryans Rd.  We've stopped there hundreds of times in the past, but this was the first that I can recall in at least three years.

Leaving Bryans Rd we took Marshall Hall to Fenwick, stopping for a photo op at McRea, then continued on to Barrys Hill (noting once again the fine new pavement that extends right up to the County Line but no further, leaving a blasted moonscape once we enter Prince Georges county), returning to Bryans Rd for a second rest stop, this time at the Burger King.

The stretch on Livingston from the Burger King to Bumpy Oak confirmed the wisdom of our having relocated the Tuesday Southern Exposure rides to the Livingston Rd IHRT Parking lot, but once we turned onto Bumpy Oak it was all smiles down to the Indian Head Rail Trail, and a pleasant scenic couple of miles back.

Carpe diem, days like this are rare in January but very welcome.