The Willing

Leader: Steve Palincsar

Members: Denny Miller, Lois Lightfoot, Lou Dall'Orso, Lisa Oken, Dave VanAmayden, Linda Bankerd, Sherwood Byers, Ray Luckenbach, Sue Gunter, Len Wilkinson, Joan Oppel, Patricia Sanders, Pat Walthers, Catherine Ade

Guests: none

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50570353 A new 40 mile variation that visits some of my favorite roads (Pindell, Lower Pindell, Nutwell) you'll see often on Waysons routes to Deale, along with some new twists and perhaps surprises (Swamp Circle to Plantation Drive to Chalk Point) and a first ever stop at the new Royal Farms at the corner of Shadyside and Deale Churchtown (very successful, we'll definitely be back).  After the break at Royal Farms we went down to the Bay at Franklin Manor before the main lunch stop at South County Cafe, which more than half the group skipped.  The route back to Waysons typically either follows Bay Front, with its seemingly interminable long, gentle grades, or takes the Sudleys to Harwood then down Sands or Polling House to Sands.  This route tried something different: Deale Rd over the bridge and past Happy Harbor all the way up to Franklin Gibson, but instead of zooming down Franklin Gibson to Bay Front and its interminable grades, stayed on Deale Rd to MD-2.  We took MD-2 to Bay Front, but soon turned onto Brooks Woods and then onto Little back to Bay Front for a short distance before the final return on So. MD Blvd.  40.5 mi, 1490' elevation gain per RWGPS.

Weather: Sunny, low 70s at the start rising to a very, very summer-like 84 by early afternoon, accompanied by 12-15 mph winds with gusts up to 22.  The forecast had been threatening rain in the early afternoon for days, but we had none.

AMS: 12.8

Mechanicals/Mishaps: none I'm aware of.

Report: It's always fun to visit Deale, the West River and the Chesapeake Bay, but it's especially fun when you've got a great group, some of whom I haven't seen in quite some time.

Leader:   Ron Altemus

Members:   Donaro Gardner, Gene Villiva, Oswald Martin



Route:   Indian Head Rail Trail - east from Livingston Rd parking lot to White Plains trailhead.  After a short rest stop, return westerly to ride start.

Weather:   Sunny, warm mids 70s to low 80s temps, humidity beginning to become noticeable,  SW 8-10 airs

AMS:   mid 11s

Mechanicals/Mishaps:  none

Report:   a smaller group but still plenty of conversational opportunities.  Not a large number of other trail users though one of interest noted below.  Wildlife sightings included a couple of turtles crossing the trail; a mole king snake and green snake at various points outbound; and, eagles on the nest, red winged blackbirds, and other brown somethings.

Both outbound and inbound, we encountered a fellow cyclist viewing the eagle nest near the Livingston Rd parking lot.  He was hopeful of catching sight of the adults returning to the nest with food for the young eaglets.  Of interest - he had taken a long, sturdy piece of dead bamboo from the adjacent stand next to the trail and fashioned it into a monopod to hold his cell phone for picture taking purposes.  This clever rig allowed him to view the nest through binoculars and then have the phone ready to capture photographs.

What a simply SMASHING day for a bike ride!  The temp, sunshine and windless day could not possibly have been better.  We had a bit of excitement and everyone enjoyed the ride. 

RIDERS: Barbara Butcher, Jim Cavanaugh, Susan Golonka, Jessica Hirschhorn, Lynda Honberg, Ron Honberg, Harry Kidd (SWEEP), Kathy King, Karen McMillan, Joan Oppel, Peggy Tyree, Anne Wittenberg. 

Babs Butcher had a rear flat, and 3 of us stayed to help her change it.  We caught up with the group at Roddy Bridge.  We stopped at Loy Bridge.  The livestock were out in force today, and we passed many horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and lambs. The sun was brilliant and the early spring wheat was a wonderful deep green.  

Roddy Bridge was CLOSED due to damage from a truck, but we were able to figure out a "workaround".  Enough said about the details. 

Total 36 .28 miles, 1657' elevation with an average speed of about 11. 

Leader: Donaro Gardner

Members: Oswald Martin,Leesha Saunders,Dan Donahue

Guests: 0

Route: North Keys 32 miles 10:00 am

Weather: 68 degrees F

AMS: 12.5

Mechanicals/Mishaps:None

Report:

It was a exciting ride.It was sunny but  windy.After the ride I added another 6 miles to the ride,the other riders accompanied me.We.saw deer and a green snake.Thanks to  the riders that accompanied me!

Leader: Joan Oppel

Members: Chantal Briere, Lou D'All Orso, Donaro Gardner, Sue Gunter, Harry Kidd, Denny Miller, Patricia Sanders

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50441464  This is the route we rode, not exactly the same as the one published. Outbound we took Chicamuxen to the Stuckeys and Poorhouse/Burch, then on to Goose Bay. Inbound we took Fire Tower/Annapolis Woods/Poorhouse to Sweetman and down to Smallwood Park. At the Smallwood shore,  we revised on the fly  - to eliminate a retrace of Sweetman to Bicknell to Chicamuxen and substitute instead - the loop inside Smallwood Park that goes near the General Smallwood House and then return directly on Chicamuxen. 

Weather: Mid to high 70's for most of the ride, light but sometimes noticeable wind ~8 mph. about 80 at the end.

Mechanicals and Mishaps: Flat tire - about a mile from the end

Report: A couple of riders went off the front early, the rest stayed more or less together all the way to Goose Bay. Leaving Goose Bay, there was another split, then one rider returned to the start without going to the Smallwood shore.

Everyone else was at Smallwood, rode the new route change above together, then rode -almost - to the end together. I was in the lead and at the Hawthorne light when Chantal told me that Sue had stopped on the shoulder of Chicamuxen. I turned  back to Chicamuxen and Lou also u-turned. Sue had a flat, which we almost fixed quickly - except her first spare tube was also flat. So that got uninstalled, she had a second spare and now it was quickly taken care of.

A few of the riders waited for us to see if we were ok, or needed a ride back, always nice to know others have your back.

Leader:   Ron Altemus

Members:  Donaro Gardner, Susan Altemus, Fran Jezisek, Sue Henn

Route:   the ENTIRE Indian Head Rail Trail from the Village Green to White Plains and return

Weather:  another delightful day with plenty of sunshine/blue skies, temps rising from 64 to 71, NW air movement 7-8 mph

AMS:   varied with RL sweeping in the mid 11s

Mechanicals/Mishaps:  none

Report:  billed as a chance for Coastal NC participants to get in some miles prior to the weekend.  Sue Henn, on her first club ride of the year, came because she has an Eastern Shore event next week.  Others just rode as the IHRT is always so nice.

For mid-week, a fair number of other users, mostly walkers but several cyclists.  Not too much in the way of wildlife sightings - maybe an immature eagle flying across the path as we headed up the slope to Middletown.  Lots of turtles, including one in the Bumpy Oak pond that was just a baby - size of a dollar coin, if that.  Many other unidentified birds, mostly heard, not seen.

Also of interest;  fishermen have started trying their luck in the smallish pond just east of Livingston.  We spoke with two of them who said snakeheads, bass, pickerel, and bluegills are often caught there.  Whilst one of them hadn't yet had any luck, the other had a bucket with several good size (i.e., pan frying size) in their catch bucket.

Masons Beach, by the Chesapeake Bay

Leader: Steve Palincsar
Members: Pat Walthers, Erika Kane, Joan Oppel
Guests: none
Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50425989 27.8 mi and 1146' of elevation gain, according to my Garmin, but who knows what it was recording in its comatose state.  RWGPS thinks it was 29.5 miles.
Weather: A taste of summer, with temperatures ranging from the low 70s at the start to around 82 by early afternoon.  Partly cloudy, winds about 6 mph.
AMS: 11.9, according to the Garmin, which had an emotional breakdown at around mile 26 and froze in place, mimicking an earlier freeze before lunch.
Mechanicals/Mishaps: Aside from my Garmin's failure to navigate, none.
Report: A beautiful day for a bike ride.  We arrived at South County Cafe at noon and enjoyed an outdoor lunch, then pootled around the back streets of Masons Beach before tackling the climb up to Franklin Gibson and the thrilling swoop back down.  The long grades on Bay Front and 80 degree temperatures made the last few miles far more challenging in our unacclimated state -- this is, after all, still April, not July -- than the mere numbers would suggest.

Today's ride was a preview of the Memorial Day all-class ride, and will be one of the routes featured.

Leader: Steve Palincsar

Members: Ron Altemus

Guests: none

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50368066

Weather:High haze, sunny, breezy.  70 at the start, almost 80 at the end.

AMS:11.5

Mechanicals/Mishaps: Plenty, beginning with a camera malfunction (memory card somehow got unseated), continuing with me getting trapped in the booth at Captain John's (if Ron hadn't suggested standing

up and sitting on the fence to wriggle out I'd still be stuck there) and coming to a crescendo trying to fix a glass puncture with a pump that developed pressure but wouldn't open the valve; a pump whose piston freely moved up and down but wouldn't move any air; a backup pump I've carried for a couple of years that simply fell apart the first time I actually had to use it; and a replacement tube that may or may not have actually been holding air.

Report:  

Cobb Island's place in radio history

No cyclists out today, but there was a good sized crowd at Captain John's.  The waitresses were wearing bunny ears to celebrate Easter.  We had toured Cobb Island before stopping to have lunch, and after I extricated myself from my imprisonment in the booth on the deck outside, Ron and I set out to explore some wooded lanes that went down to the shore of Neal Sound.  The shoulders of Rock Point Rd were strewn with broken glass, and we got as far as Furby Rd when my front tire went flat.

We struggled for a while with pumps that weren't pumping (at least it was easy to get the tire on and off, so the wheel rebuild and the new rims were definitely a success) as a bunch of children on dirt bikes kept roaring up and down the road.  Ron finally suggested installing the round nut on the valve stem, and somehow, I still don't know how, that change let me start getting air into the tire.

I decided to skip the out-and-back to Woodbury Beach and we headed straight back up Rock Point Rd to Piccowaxen Rec Center, finishing with 29.9 miles.  Definitely an "adventure" that left some indelible memories.

It was a lovely day for a bike ride.  This was apparently on the minds of MANY other cyclists who were out in FORCE today.  There is a road race next week and we suspect that many were training for the race.  NOT us. 

Riders:  Jessica Hirschhorn, Alan Hugely, Doug Kay and Linda Blackman. 

29.27 miles from EE Halmos Park, dipping down to White's Ferry and a beautiful view of the Potomac. 

The late cherry trees are still in stunning bloom, and the early wheat is a brilliant shade of green.   We had a simply wonderful ride. 

Leader: Steve Palincsar

Members: Chantal Briere, Bob Thompson, Luis Dall'Orso, Karen McMillan, Joan Oppel, Tom Short

Guests: none

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/31317564

Weather: 70 at the start rising to the mid-80s, cloudy and breezy.

AMS: 12.3

Mechanicals/Mishaps: none

Report: A pleasant day for a ride in Nanjemoy.  Lilacs blooming in abundance, and the air was heavy with their scent -- or so Joan tells me; when my hay fever is acting up, I don't smell anything.  As usual, Tom Short skipped the rest stop at Mallows Bay in an effort to increase endurance, and as usual Lou was off the front and off the route.  The rest of us enjoyed a visit to Mallows Bay and a lunch stop at the Nanjemoy Store, staying together.  We didn't see much traffic, typical of Nanjemoy, but unlike Jessica and the Gang of Four in the MoCo Ag Reserve, we saw no other cyclists.