Leader Steve Palincsar - What a magnificient day! So good, superlatives fail to satisfy. High 40s when we left Bryans Road at 10, mid 50s when we returned at 1:30 after riding 38 miles, bright sun, cloudless blue sky, and a wind that must have been easily twice the 7 mph predicted -- but, due to the warm sun and mild temperatures, a wind with lots of push but no bite. Joining me were many familiar mid-week faces: Darryl Lowery, Linda Bankerd, Richard Harrington, Regina and Mike Saizan, Jim Hudnall, Alan Kurzweil, Mike Bivens and Sharon Miller; and doing their own thing as usual, Randy and Jackie Schoch. The route, as is often the case, was new just for the occasion. I've been trying to lead a Tuesday ride that pushed the boundaries of Southern Exposure over towards Nanjemoy for quite some time, but something's always intervened: canceled on account of weather, displaced in favor of a short route to give us time to paint the century route, just too cold for a 38 mile ride. But with a day that would have been perfect in April, never mind early February, it was time to follow up on Mike's push to Nanjemoy last week. The old route I'd designed (but never led) wouldn't work any more: the Ironside store is closed now. But there's a store we haven't used much on Welcome Road just off Rt 6 at Fire Tower that turned out to be ideal with a convenience store, a small restaurant and rest rooms. By going left off Chicamuxen going up the hill on Mason Springs (which turned out to be much easier than it looks) we reached that store at 13.8 miles. From there it was down 6, up Durham Church (always surprising how much easier that hill becomes the more you do it) and left on Ironsides over to Baptist Church (and once again, someone missed the turn in all the excitement, which seems to happen every time we go that way) and right on Bowie back to 6 to Ironside, and Mason Springs to a second rest stop at Pisgah. That section is very rural, mostly forest and farms, and would have been pretty at any time; but today, the lighting was so spectacular that even a ride through a landfill would have been scenic. I think we'll see this route, and variations on it, again.
