Ride leader: Steve Palincsar

Members: Debby Bowman, Joan Oppel, Sarah Clement.  Also signing on the CC waiver but riding with the B group were Sherwood Byers, Jay Lewis and Cindy Nuzzi.

Guests: none today

Route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/6315876  47 rolling miles, 2463' of elevation gain

AMS: 12.8

Weather: cloudless, clear blue skies, bright sun, breezy to windy.  60 at 10, rising to a hard-to-believe 72 by mid-afternoon.  The air was cool, especially in the shade, so we never got out of long sleeves and leg warmers all day although it was so warm in the sun at the Honey Harvest Deli it made you drowsy.

Mishaps & mechanicals: We were all riding together, Bs and CCs, until I got a flat at at mile 7.  Sarah stopped with me, and after a while Joan and Debby rode back to where we'd stopped.  The Bs, meanwhile, continued on.  We saw them leaving as we arrived at Honey Harvest.

A pretty day and a pretty ride.  It was hard riding at times, and if a high average counted for something, it would have been a disappointing day because the wind pretty much ruled that out.  But that didn't matter today, and we had a great time.

Leader: Karen Fitzgerald

Riders: Blake Altman, Matthew Lewandowski, David Kemp, Brad Francisco, & Darin King

Avg speed: 19.5 AMS

Despite the 38/42 degree temps when Blake/David left their houses to ride to the start this morning, we enjoyed mid to upper-60s and light winds for the majority of the ride, as expected.  Blake and David peeled off to head back near the end, and Brad led the way for the last few miles.  Coming up to the light at Livingston to turn right onto 210, Darin looked back to check on Matthew and me and accidentally ran into the back of Brad, who'd stopped in lieu of the police car beside us.  Both fell with no major incident minus Brad re-aggravating a hand/wrist injury from a crash earlier in the season.  We've been rough on him this year, so he's due for a break.  

Ride leader: Jackie and Randy Schoch

Members: Jim Hudnall
Guests: Clayton Douglas
Weather: A Great Oct. day, 58 at the start to 68 by early afternoon

Route: Same as 8/8/14

Mishaps & mechanicals: Randy had a flat which turned into quite an ordeal to fix. It was caused by glass that was liberally scattered on the trail by the apartments near the trail in Indian Head.

AMS: 11.9 mph

It's a great and moderately easy route with one long climb of approx. 1/2 mile ("granny" is not necessary) up Mt. Pisgah on Hawthorne Rt. 225.  Hawthorne has a wide shoulder that is marked as a bike route and the rest of the ride is on lightly traveled rural roads. Jim left us at the beginning to  meet with the Mayor/City Manager of Indian Head to try to better co-ordinate our Sept.  Century so we would not have to use the Village Green at the same time with any other organization. Then Jim caught up, helped Randy change his flat, and rode ahead of us several times so he could take pictures. Clayton is an A rider and left us as soon as we started up Mt. Pisgah and was not to be seen again. We took our break at the Pisgah Store where Randy bought Mega-Million tickets. There was a lot of wild life out and about (deer, squirrels, snakes, etc). On our return leg, we met up and visited with some old OHBC members on the trail. The Stacey's (father, mother, son, and his wife) were riding their new trike recumbents which they bought in State College, PA. It was a great day to out riding a bicycle.   After the ride, Jackie, Jim, and I dined at George's.

 

Ride leader: Steve Palincsar

Members: Joan Oppel, Ron Altemus, Jim & Jane Hudnall and Vernon Daley

Weather: Some day, perhaps in mid January, we will look back on this and say it was breezy and not too cold.  We'll have become acclimated by then, and 53 at the start to 62 at the finish, with northwest winds of 15-17 mph with gusts up to 29 will seem balmy in retrospect.  But not today.  Today, it felt cold and windy. 

Route: Fortunately, the route helped us deal with the wind.  36 and a fraction miles (how much of a fraction depended on whether you went down the gravel road to Mount Calvert or turned around at the end of pavement) miles, mostly at right angles to the prevailing wind and mostly with tree cover, as seen here on RWGPS: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/5580959 with 1721' of elevation gain.  Actually, quite a pretty, scenic route as well, and best of all very little overlap with Saturday's Crop Hop route -- and where we were on the same roads, in almost all cases it was in a different direction, which sowed the seeds of confusion in the ranks of the AB group when Jim & Jane turned off to lay down some Crop Hop turn markers.

Mishaps & mechanicals: None other than the confusion alluded to above.

AMS: Above 12 and below 13.  Going across the wind, although it does spare you from slogging directly into the headwind, does exact a price.

Photos

Leader: Richard Harrington

Members: Jan and Ron Tucker, Rob Smith, Randy and Jackie Schoch, Ron Altemus, Jim and Jane Hudnall, Vernon Daley, Larry Peed.

Guests: None

Route:  I originally wanted to ride the Durham Church 37 miler, until it was pointed out to me that it included a mile of the IHRT which, of course, is now closed. We ended up riding a 30 mile route around Pisgah.

Weather: Mostly overcast, with patches of sun, and temperatures in the high 60’s. Perfect fall cycling weather.

Mechanicals/Mishaps: None

AMS: I have no idea. Sometimes I think we should leave the bike computers at home :)

 

Report: The group stayed together for the most part, with Larry, Rob, and Vernon, surging ahead at times. We left Bryans Rd. via Livingston, and Pomfret Rd. Ripley and Poorhouse Rd. took us to our rest stop at the Pisgah Store. After the break, we rode south on Mason Springs Rd. to Smallwood Church Rd. and returned via Chicamuxen, Hawthorne, and Livingston Rds. Although we’ve been riding these roads for years, I never get tired of them. We’re lucky to have such good cycling roads to ride.

Randy and Jackie did their own ride as the usually do. After the ride, they joined several members for food and refreshments at the Lunch Box restaurant.

 

Note: It was great to see Jane back on the bike and riding well. Ron was riding his beautiful new 60cm Trek Domane. Everyone had a great time, let’ do it again next week!

Richard

 

Photos

Leader: Eric Petersen

Members: Dan Zavorika

Guests: None

Route: Tour de Accokeek

Weather: Weather was a blustery 51 degrees.  Gusty and cold but with clear skies

AMS: 14.1 mph

Mechanicals/Mishaps: none

Report:  Had a wonderful time riding with a member that I did not recall having met before.  We agreed that it would be nice to keep a comfortable pace and just enjoy the ride.  Had winds against us going down, but that put the wind at our back coming home.  Dan was extremely interesting to talk to and we had many similar experiences, both being from Illinois, both having run track (although he had considerably more success at it than I did).  Overall, a very nice ride, and even a nice day for a ride despite the winds.  The Sun and a couple of layers of clothes, made everything good. 

After the AAs left, we four (Steve, Patricia, Bob, Vernon) rode from the front parking lot through the gates to the rear lot and back (in 53 degree temperatures and a 27-30 mph headwind) and then took a vote: 4:0 against, and so we canceled.  It's a nice route, and we'll do it on another day.

Ride Leader:  Blake Altman

Date October 19, 2014

Ride Name:  Hidden Amish

Ride Distance:  47.0 miles

Average Speed of the Ride:  17.6

Ride Class:  AA

Mechanical Issues: None

Mishaps: None

Weather: Partly sunny, 50’s to 60’s, and very windy

Guest Riders: None

Member Riders: Jean Wright, Brad Francisco, Steve Koehle, Claire Chiamulera, Robert Golding, Mike Wilson, Darin King, Karen Fitzgerald

Ride Report:

When I arrived at Oak Ridge Park it was windy.  By the time everyone arrived, it was very windy.  We did the normal whining complaining about the wind and cold but we soon set out anyway.

We started out moving fairly fast because we had the wind behind us.  After a bit we turned into the wind and we got a taste of what it could deliver; it made quite a difference.  Fairly soon we were blown apart by the wind.  We regrouped at the first rest stop but soon started to split again.

There is a second optional rest stop on the ride.  We hadn’t really expected to make a second stop but by the time we all arrived it seemed like everyone needed a break from the wind.  After a bit of a rest we struggled on.  We reached the end in various bunches as the wind and our legs allowed.

The average of 17.6 MPH is for the ride leader who was at or near the back throughout the ride.  I’m sure the front group had a better average but I forgot to ask what they had.  Our average was below the AA range but it was pretty windy!  Still, it was a good ride. 

Ride leader: Debby Bowman

Members: Steve Palincsar, Tim Copeland, Andrea Noseck, Linda Bankerd

Guests: Joy Schmalzle, Steven Cohen, Bob Essink

Route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/5703343 - 56 miles, 2055 feet of climbing

Weather: Low 60s, sunny at first, then overcast with clouds ranging from threateningly black to just plain gray. NW wind 10-20 mph with stronger gusts.

Mishaps & mechanicals: The directions to the ride start need to be clarified, and at least one cyclist wished they had warmer clothes when the clouds rolled in.

AMS: 12.2 mph at the back, 15.5 at the front

Fall colors: not very vibrant, still lots of green.

Farm animals sightings: Oreo cows (http://www.beltie.org), longhorn cattle, horses, chickens, ducks, turkeys, alpacas, pigs.

Scenic bridges: Legore Bridge over the Monocacy River, covered bridges at Loys Station, Roddy Creek and Utica Road, the historic Four Points Bridge over Toms Creek, plus others on Old Mill Rd, Blacks Mill Rd, probably more that I'm forgetting.

This was a great ride. The route was based on a covered bridges ride from another club, with some substitutions of narrow country lanes for busier, less interesting roads, plus the addition of part of the Firefighter 50's century route in order to include a stop in Emmitsburg. The general direction was a counter-clockwise oval, going north from Walkersville to Emmitsburg and then returning via Thurmont.

The weather was a bit strange. We had reasonably warm sunshine at the start, but could see ominous black clouds to our north and west. If there had been a chance of thunderstorms in the forecast, I would have been terrified. Fortunately there was no lightning or thunder, and in fact no rain either. We did have wind, though, the kind that slows you down while you're coasting down a hill, and that made us work a bit harder at times. The black clouds cooled things down quite a bit while we were in Emmitsburg, and though we saw the sun again as we returned to Walkersville, there were gray clouds and a chill in the air for the last half of the ride.

Shortly after we started out, we split into a B group (Tim, Andrea, Linda, Joy, Steven and Bob) and a CC group (me and Steve). We all came together again at the first rest stop, which was at the park near the Loys Station covered bridge, and we also enjoyed a longer break together at the Holy Grounds cafe in Emmitsburg. Soon after this stop we split again, with Tim, Joy, Steven and Bob deciding to continue on to the end while Steve, Andrea, Linda and I stopped to visit the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial.

The memorial is located at a FEMA training facility on the site of St Joseph's college, which was a Catholic women's college run by the Daughters of Charity (founded by Elizabeth Ann Seton) until it closed in 1973.  We had a short ride from the entrance gate to the memorial park, where we viewed the 7-foot stone monument featuring a Maltese Cross and eternal flame, the Wall of Honor, and the 9/11 memorial sculpture. You can read more about it at their website: http://www.firehero.org/fallen-firefighters/memorial-park/.

After leaving the memorial, the four of us rode together to nearby Mount St. Mary's College. Steve and I stopped at the student center for a comfort break, while Linda and Andrea rode on toward our third rest stop in Thurmont, where we regrouped again. This part of the ride featured some of the worst headwinds, but also included our second covered bridge and a nice view of Roddy Creek. The last segment of our ride brought us our third covered bridge on Utica Rd, as well as beautiful views of Big Hunting Creek on Layman and Wilhide Rds and two crossings of Fishing Creek on Lenhart Rd. After crossing the Monocacy River a second time on Devilbiss Bridge Rd (not a pretty bridge, but still a nice view) we returned to the school in Walkersville.

Many thanks to everyone who joined me for this ride. Also thanks to Alan Kurzweil for sharing the original covered bridges route with me. I look forward to doing this ride again.