Leader: Ron Altemus
Members: Randy Schoch, Lisa Petersen, Jackie Schoch, Susan Altemus, Rick Hagen, Gene Villiva
Route: Three Notch Trail south from Northern Senior Center to John Baggett Park southern trailhead. Return to Deborah Lane northern trailhead and the retrace back to the start.
Weather: first day of July was pretty awesome. Chilly start with temps in the upper 60s feeling even colder from a sharp 12-15 mph wind out of the north. Plenty of sunshine and puffy clouds and low humidity.
AMS: ride leader mostly swept in the mid 11s. Everyone else was probably double that speed.
Mechanicals/Mishaps: none
Report: the great weather made this a most pleasant ride. Outbound, with the aforementioned trailwind, allowed to almost fly down to Baggett Park. Going back, what was now a headwind was really only noticeable on the few stretches without any trees to act as a buffer.
A Sunday night thunderstorm with wind had littered parts of the trail with small branches and leaves. One larger limb was encountered and Lisa and Rick, in the lead, dismounted and had the path cleared by the time those in the rear reached that location. On our return, we did see some St. Mary's County park personal doing clean up on the trail.
No wildlife sightings, a fact mentioned by several riders who are use to seeing many different birds and animals on our local Indian Head Rail Trail. However, the 3NT does have domesticated farm animals - we espied different breeds of horses, some donkey, and chickens. Thankfully, we didn't have to share the trail with any of them.
Rick took a few pictures of today's riders in action:
