Ride Leader: Robert Smith

Members:  Larry Peed, Bruce Wright, Chuck Coe, Lisha Peacock, John Choate, Mike Wilson & Vernon Daley.

Weather:  Sunny with some clouds; about 80F at the ride start and 75F at the end of the ride; and no humidity! Somebody pinch me... it is Aug right? WNW wind at 11mph.

AMS:  Ride Leader averaged 16.7

Mishaps and Mechanicals:  Larry had a rear flat about 4 miles from the end of the ride. Vernon and I helped (watched) as Larry changed the tube. Get some yellow tools!

Report: The ride was great, the weather was great, not a lot to report. Lisha and I rode together to the halfway point around Allens Fresh. We caught up with Vernon and the three of us had a fun ride back to Casey Jones. While on 301 I talked them into some paceline work. All in all a really enjoyable ride.

Ride Leaders:   Norm Lisy and Ron Altemus

Members: Joan Oppel, Steve Palincsar, Patricia Sanders, Tom Roberson, Darryl Lowery, Alan Kurzweil, Dana Trevas

Guests:  None

Route: We traveled over 35 miles yet staying within a two mile radius looping through the quiet, shady streets around Fort Hunt.  Ron labeled the ride "CC" for conversational cruising.  Click here for the route. 

Weather: Temp in low 80's with clouds building anticipating the coming rain.

AMS: 12.8

Mechanicals/Mishaps:  These "loopy" rides are hard for me to map.  The cue sheet was too small to read; it became an eye test!  My Ride With GPS turn by turn feature got "confused" on some of the loops especially tight ones that went around a block.  Next time I think I'll just drop bread crumbs.  But we hung together and had a pleasant ride. (Note to self:  Mondays are garbage collection days in and around Fort Hunt.  Try another day!)  

Report:  Steve appropriately named the ride "No Roads Left Unturned." There were three columns to the cue sheet and that made it difficult to follow. But we stayed together and set an easy, conversational pace so much so that one of the ride leaders (Norm!) made a wrong turn because he was chatting it up with Alan about Alan's trip to Normandy. In fact we talked a lot about our trips and tours: Joan (Sierra to Sea), Patricia (Oregon), Alan (Italy).  A special shout out to Darryl who rode to the start all the way from Fort Washington.  One unexpected surprise was the stop at the American Horticultural Society on East Boulevard. We biked into the area and discovered a wonderful house on property that dates back to George Washington's River Farm. An interesting read for history buffs.  Gardens surround the buildings and extend from the house to the banks of the Potomac River. We talked to an elder man (my age) who told us that artists frequent the gardens to paint and he comes almost every morning to take pictures.

Photo

Our ride started at 9:30am sharp, we followed the trail in a counter clock wise fashion. The trail conditions and weather were perfect. Everyone enjoyed the ride, riders included Barry & Alien. 

Barry Howard 

Ride leader: Steve Palincsar

Members: Jule Thorne, Jerry Reynolds, Sonja Newman, Bob Howell, Joan Oppel, Loretta Troen, Pat Walthers (or, at least, that's who signed up on the CC cue sheet.  Once Bob got his flat on Cooksey, the groups separated and Sonja and Jerry rode off with the Bs while the rest of us stayed with Bob.)

Route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/5558664  According to RWGPS, 1897' of elevation gain; Joan's phone recorded 1900'.  I said this wasn't one of those flat routes.  We went up Cooksey (a lark, really), Kentucky (there's about 1/10 mi of hard lowest gear climbing, after which the grade eases and you find yourself on the big ring merrily spinning away -- although one of the B's didn't find it that way and decided after Kentucky to call it a day & head back on 6 to La Plata.   Definitely that was a smart move for him, because we still had Budd's Creek from Penn's Hill to 301 (not much of a grade, but no shade other than from the trucks that roared past) followed by Pope's Creek north from Captain Billy's, concluding with Locust Grove from Chapel Point Rd up to Old Stagecoach.  Lots of shade (other than on Budd's Creek, of course) lots of pretty scenery (even some on Budd's Creek, at Allen's Fresh Run) and surprisingly little traffic, if you don't count Budd's Creek and the crossings of MD-301.  

Weather: a pleasant sunny summer day.  70s at the start, mid-80s by early afternoon, and not much humidity for August in Southern Maryland. 

AMS: 13.4

Mishaps & mechanicals: Bob had a flat halfway up Cooksey.  The Bs left, the CCs stopped. It was a lovely place for it, lots of shade and still quite cool so early in the morning, pretty as a pastoral painting; but it was just past a blind curve and the shoulder was completely overgrown, so they worked in the right lane while I played Road Guard and directed traffic (i.e., the 2 cars that came our way) across the double yellow around us.  It took maybe 10 minutes, but that was enough to insure that afterwards we only saw the Bs as they were leaving the rest stops at Gilbert Run Park and Cooksey's Store.

We had a great group today, once the Bs sorted themselves out from us.  We stayed together in a loose group the entire day, spreading out a bit on the steeper grades, but quickly closing up again once things leveled out.  I hope the Bs had as much fun as we did today.

Leader: Darin King

Riders: Ron Carter (guest)

Route: 55 miles, Approx. 2500 ft of climbing

Weather: Perfect

AMS: 18.4

Mechanicals/Mishaps: None

Report:  Since I hadn't been riding much lately, I offered to trail Brad's AA group at an A pace.  Ron Carter (guest from VA) thankfully agreed to keep me company.  For the most part, we were able to keep the AA's in sight, regrouping periodically along the way.  Ron's a pretty strong rider, as evidenced by our 18.4 AMS.  We hope to see him again on future rides.  Thanks, Brad, for designing a nice route and leading us around Calvert County.

Leader: Brad Francisco

Members: Steve Koegle, Karen Fitzgerald, Matthew Lewandewski, Blake Altman

Guests: None

Route: 55 miles, Approx. 2500 ft of climbing

Weather: Perfect

AMS: 19.7

Mechanicals/Mishaps: One broken front derailleur, one jammed chain, one locked up chain

Report:  The A's and AA's departed together on the ride.  Five miles later the two rides separated.  Motorized traffic treated us well, though a couple of cars were very loud as they passed.  Everyone on the ride had ridden with one another in the past, so the ride went smoothly.  We regrouped with the A's at both the rest stops.  A check of the average speed at each stop showed that we were holding an even pace.

Coming out of the second rest stop, we made it to mile 42 before the first mechanical issues occurred.  It wasn't much of a hill, but when Brad downshifted the front derailleur the chain came off and he coasted to a stop.  This startled Karen and her derailleur shifted past the large cog on the rear wheel and jammed in the spokes, so she stopped.  With five helpers (AA's and A's) they got her chain out of the spokes.  Brad's problem was a little different, the rear of the front derailleur broke off.  No big problem, just use the large chainring for the rest of the ride.

The third mechanical was Blake's chain getting stuck in the front derailleur as he was downshifting at mile 44 for a hill.  Fortunately the clamp on front derailleur rotated preventing damage to the carbon fiber frame.  Unfortunately, now he too was without the use of his small chainring.

By this point Steve was off the front, Brad was following and the rest were close behind.  Steve disappeared from view after the turn onto Benedict Road, but we did see him in front during the longer stretches.  Blake took off on the last steep hill leaving Brad behind.  All finished the ride within minutes of one-another (A riders included).

Thank you for coming out to the ride!

Blake offered Brad a ride home, but it was declined.  The ride home was eventful.  I have never been passed by five AC Cobra replicas before and these were pristine!  I even got a wave from the last driver!!

We held our Sunday Morning Mountain Bike Ride at Rosaryville. We decided to follow the course clock wise, and included the inner technical loop. Everyone had a great time, and enjoyed the ride. Riders included Barry, Randy, and Ken.

Barry 

Leader: Sylvia Pope

Members: Jay Lewis, Diane Harris and Ken Meredith

Weather: 73 degrees and low humidity - early morning

AMS:  ~ 16

Mechanicals/Mishaps: None

Enjoyable morning ride through the beautiful roads of Brandywine and Charles County back roads. 

Leader: Walter Carr

Members:  We had the following Club members Rosemary Pollard, Paul Bankerd, Janice Wallace, Gloria Gladden, Carole Gardener, Bob Seay, and Celeste Conyers.

We did the 28 mile River Ride, which included the short steep Flint Hill and the climb on Mill Branch Rd.  I brought up the rear with an AMS of 11.5 mph.  No mechanical mishaps were encountered.  Weather was sunny in the mid 80's.  We returned a few minutes after the serving of the food started, so no shortage of food was encountered.

I personally enjoy riding that area of Calvert County and in particularly visiting Linda's zebra.  Looking forward to the day when Linda can see the need to obtain a Giraffe.

Ride Leaders: Calvin Conyers / Eric Petersen

Members: Robin Garnett, Bernie Cohen

Guests: Patrice Coss, Rebecca Wedding

Route: 15 Mile Picnic Ride

Weather: Nice, Low 70's at the start working its way to the low 80's.  A bit humid, but for August this was great!! (stolen from Brad's report)

AMS: 11.82mph leader

Mechanicals/Mishaps: None

Report:  The C/D Riders, being the last ones out of the barn, had greater opportunity for the pre-ride photos, etc. and so while Jane was working on the ominous task of getting a good photo of Calvin and I, our group, who was eager to ride, headed on out without us.  Calvin and I hopped on our bikes and exited the farm thinking that once we got onto the road we would see our group, so we proceeded out, took the first left, and much to our chagrin, no group was in sight.  We immediately started thinking of the professional and personal ramifications of being completely dropped by our group and so we picked up the pace and took the second left, still no group.  Our angst began to build and we further increased our pace, wondering if our group had received special racing injections at the farm that we were not made a party to.  Finally, as the road straightened out, there was our group, moving along at quite a good pace, not in  the least bit concerned about the fate of their infamous ride leaders.  (Apparently all were aware that good food was on the other end of this ride, and that each minute of delay in arrival times would represent the potential loss of that best salad or dessert).  We hit the first set of hills, and one person in our party who was having issues with their knees struggled up the first hill, walking the second with ride leaders one ahead and one behind.  At the top of the hill Calvin noted that not all of the gears on that riders bike were being utilized and began coaching the rider on when to shift which allowed the rider to clear the second set of hills without issue.  (Calvin's coaching and encouragement was very impressive).  When we reached the final set of hills this rider had had enough and wanted to turn back.  Calvin and I were not going to let this rider return back alone and wanted to accompany, but the rider really did not want to inconvenience us, but did not want to continue on either.  We were at a stalemate.  Finally a solution was reached in which a shady place was found where the rider could wait to return with us after we doubled back from King's Landing.  The remainder of the group went up and then down the final set of hills to King's Landing where the beautiful scenery was noted.  Bernie called his wife from Patrice's phone to explain that his phone had been forgotten, but had to leave a message.  Bernie's wife called back, Patrice answered, Bernie's wife hung up, leaving Bernie in a precarious place despite his best efforts.  Calvin spotted what appeared to be a giant, red velvet covered ant, who looked hungry, headed our way and we knew that it was time to be going.  On the way back up the hill we speculated on whether or not the rider would still be waiting, realizing that we had left ourselves wide open for a duping.  Not soon after, my cell phone rang, and suspicions were confirmed.  The rider was announcing a safe arrival back at the farm without us.  We had been duped.  On the way back Robin, Patrice and I speculated on the origins of Patrice's Lighthouse Century Jersey, which was later to be determined to have been the product of a ride in Morro Bay, California.  Also discovered were numerous other Lighthouse Centuries on both East and West Coasts.  All that being said, we returned back to the barn without incident, only to be amazed at the sight of AA riders already having arrived.  So much for any good desserts being left.  (Just kidding, there was an overabundance of great food).   

Many thanks to the riders, ride leaders, ride coordinators, and to Linda for use of the farm, and to all of the OHBTC members who pitched in to make this ride happen.