It was raining at 6 when I went out to get the paper. If that was in the forecast on Monday, I must have missed it. And on the radio they were going on about a 50% chance of rain all day. Weather.com, on the other hand, thought the rain would end by 8 ("Rain before seven, clear by eleven" as the old weather saw has it). There'd been a little confusion about who was leading: I had it in my calendar and was sure I'd posted the ride, but when Mike checked it on Saturday the posting had gone missing, so he put one in. At least, we both agreed: the ride would go on!
The rain was gone by 8. It was still chilly when I left Accokeek to ride down to the ride start, but by 10, it became sunny and quickly warmed up. It was a small group at Bryans Road: Randy and Jackie Schoch, Larry Peed (on a new Cannondale road bike with all of 50 miles on the clock) Darryl Lowery, Mike Bivens and Diane Harris, with Richard Harrington joining us en route.
The route featured a few new wrinkles. Heading south on 210 past Chapman's Landing to avoid the Big Dip, we turned right on Mount Aventine and quickly left on Chapman's. The change in ambiance from 210 to Mt. Aventine was startling, so much difference in just a few yards. We then went up Lower Wharf and down Strauss to Blair, and followed it as it turned to Jennifer Drive along to Mattingly Park, and then onto the Indian Head Rail Trail over to Hawthorne and Bicknell.
One rest stop at Smallwood Park, where we rejoined Jackie and Randy, and then back to Bicknell and a 12 mile loop on Mason Springs (the easy way, or it would have been but for the wind, which was now both dead foul and fairly strong) to Smallwood Church back to Chicmuxen, where we met Richard leaving Smallwood Park. He joined us for the final leg up the hill on Livingston back to the ride start. It was sunny and 80 when we arrived.
