Leader: Steve Palincsar
Members: Janell Saunders, Catherine Ade, Linda Bankerd, Pat Walthers
Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/39929626 37 mi, 1575'elevation gain.
Weather: Sunny skies with fluffy white clouds; 53 at the start rising to 64 by the end of the ride, but the thing we noticed the most was the wind: 9 mph winds from the northwest with gusts up to 15 mph.
AMS: 12.1
Mechanicals/Mishaps: none
Report: What a beautiful day! After the chilly, very windy, uncertain weather of the past couple of days, today was a relief. A very picturesque ride on a pretty day, but considerably more difficult than a mere reading of the elevation gain would have indicated thanks to the ever-present wind.
For all but a few miles we were riding across the wind -- which can be a tricky proposition if it's gusty, but today it was continuous, no pushing and shoving, just a steady headwind vector and enough breeze to make it seem much cooler than it actually was.
The route goes up Dubois and down Old Sycamore, then up Bowling and Trinity Church to Gilbert Run Park. We had a rest stop at the Lakeside Pavilion.
There's a zip line in the playground now, and we heard delighted shrieks as we passed by in both directions.
After the break we climbed back up Rt 6 and went down Penns Hill. I'd warned of cars coming up Penns Hill running wide on the turn, but today a motorist tried to pass on the curve only to discover a car coming up. A few sharp words were exchanged, I'm told, but no harm was done. Otherwise, it was a thrilling descent.
It was so much fun going up Dubois amd coming down Old Sycamore I thought it would also be fun climbing Old Sycamore and going down Dubois. I fear some without e-assist might not have enjoyed the ascent as much as I hoped they would, and we all found the descent on Dubois a bit trickier than the climb due to potholes in the pavement. All clearly outlined with white paint, but sometimes there wasn't much of a clear lane, and when you're hitting close to 30 mph finding a 6" wide clear spot between the potholes brings back distant echoes of Luke Skywaker and the Death Star.
But those are mere quibbles. We all had a great time outdoors in lovely weather on a very scenic ride.
