Leaders were Randy and Jackie Schoch and riders were Bob Howell, Larry Peed, Vicki Garlock, Paul Bankerd, Darin King, Jane and Jim Hudnall. The ride started with us see a very poor shaped fox on the Village Green.  The fox tail was not bushy tail but looked like a stick. He didn't come close to us which made us happy. The weather was nice at 46 degrees at starting and the wind wasn't too bad, but boy did that changed.  The wind went crazy on the way back from White Plains.  It was either blowing from the side which made you feel like you were going to fall over.  Then the wind changed to a very strong head wind which really made it rough.  Now Randy and I will have to do some thinking about cancelling the rides because the wind is going to be strong. Darin King had a flat at White Plains so he was able to fix it with all the "HELP" he had with suggestions on how to fix a flat.  They were also kidding him about having 2 patches on the tube, but Darin motto is to wait for #3.

Beside the fox we saw at the Village Green, we saw a hawk and also evidence that the beaver is working on his house at the swamp.  Take notice next time of the tree he has cut down and the mud pile he has at the top of his house. I guess he is getting ready for winter.

This note is for Tom of the Indian Head Rail and Trail we also notice that some boards on some of the bridges from the 8 mile maker to Indian Head might need replacing by Spring.

 

Ride leader: Jan Tucker

Members:  Ron Tucker, Darryl Lowery, Regina and Mike Saizan, Larry Peed, Tom Short, Jay Lewis, Darin King, Jim Hudnall, Sam Perry, Jim McDermott, Karen Fitzgerald

Guests: None

Route: 36.1 miles

Average speed: 15.1 mph at the back

Mishaps and Mechanicals: None

11 riders joined Ron and me for a route we hadn’t done for a while.  We went down some of our usual ups ( Bumpy Oak) and up some of our usual downs (the “Beast of Bel Alton”).  The weather was quintessential Maryland autumn, chilly and cloudy but not too bad.  The fall colors were at near peak and very pretty.  We had nice stop at Johnny Boy’s BBQ with french fries provided by Ron.  Who knew french fries would make a good bike snack?  Someone even suggested we should call this the “French Fry Ride”.  Johnny Boy’s has installed a large gazebo with picnic tables inside that will make a great shady place to stop when the weather is hot next summer.  We also stopped at St Ignatius where the view of the fall colors was great.   Darin and Darryl had ridden to the ride from their homes and peeled off before the finish.  The rest of us finished at Brian’s Road with no problems.  Six of us had a sociable lunch at the Lunchbox Diner afterwards.  Thanks everyone for coming out to ride!

Photos

I posted a CC/C ride for Tuesday, and then Jan posted a B ride a little later.  Tuesday morning brought out a crowd of B riders - and none in a slower class.  Same route was planned so I rode in the back with my empty sign up sheet.  Thanks to Sam, Jim and Mike who were with me at different times.  It was a great day for a ride and I thoroughly enjoyed the route to Johnny Boy's and St Ignatius.

Ride leader: Debby Bowman
Members: Karen McMillan, Pano Gianniotis, Steve Palincsar, Karen Morgan, Loretta Troen, Joan Oppel, Kenny Statom, Diane Harris
Guests: None
Route: 40.2 miles, 1920 feet of climbing, http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3579308
Average speed: 13.6 mph at the back
Weather: Sunny, blue skies, temps in the 50s with a brisk NE wind
Mishaps and Mechanicals: Two flat tires and a broken brake cable

The excitement started before our ride this morning, as a lacrosse tournament packed the Southern High School parking lot with spectators from up and down the east coast. I was worried that we might have to move the ride start, but fortunately there were still a few empty spaces at the north end of the lot, farthest from the field, so we were all able to park our cars and get rolling.

Our route was a clockwise loop, going in the opposite direction of most rides starting in Harwood. We went left on Owensville-Sudley Rd, then headed toward Deale on Sudley, Muddy Creek, Swamp Circle and Bay Front Rd. As we neared the turn onto Rockhold Creek, we had our first mechanical incident, a flat tire on Kenny's bike. A problem with the stem complicated the repair, and then his brake cable broke, so he decided to cut the ride short and head back to the start. A few miles later on Deale Rd, Steve decided that he too needed to shorten the ride, due to a knee problem, so he turned north on Franklin Gibson while the rest of us headed south. And so we were down to 7 cyclists, with Karen McMillan riding ahead and the remaining six riding together.

Karen expected us all to catch up with her quickly, but that was not to be, as Diane's tire went flat on Franklin Gibson, and then we stopped for a brief nature break in the wooded area on Leitch Rd. From there we headed south on Town Point and Fairhaven Rds, enjoying the views of the bay and the brightly colored leaves on the trees. Then we turned west on Friendship Rd and south for a brief stretch on Old Solomons Island Rd to finally reach our rest stop. At this point we did see Karen, smiling as she rode back up toward Friendship Rd after taking her break.

After our stop, we continued west on Friendship and then turned up Wilson, Jewell and McKendree Rds. I had been worried that we'd have strong headwinds on this part of the ride, but we only experienced a few gusts. We finished the ride on Brooks Woods, Marlboro, Ed Prout, Sands and Harwood Rds with no additional problems or delays. After a nice post-ride chat at the school we all headed for home.

Thanks again to everyone for joining me on another fun and scenic ride!!

Class- CC

Distance:  44 mi. advertised; 46 mi. total with rest stop @ Mallows Bay

Members:  Diana Donahue;  Walt Roscello; Desiree Holken; Pat Walthers; Ron Altemus; Rob Smith crossed over from the B group and joined us at the Pisgah store rest stop.

Guests:  None

Speed:  ams between 12.7 and 12.4.

Weather:  by start time, temperatures were in the mid-50’s, finishing in the high 50’s.  The skies were blue, with plenty of warming sunshine.  There was minimal wind.   

It was a nice Fall late morning ride for riders not ready, willing, or able to take on Jim’s 72 mi. B paced route.  The leader’s goal of rendezvousing with Jim was missed by about 15 minutes.   Our route did cross with Jim as he was heading to the Mallows Bay rest stop.  Participants were pleased with the route distance, as it was a good fit with their personal needs.  There were no mishaps/mechanicals, although there was a near miss when a faun darted out across the line of riders cruising on Chapman’s Landing Rd.  The situation definitely had the potential of taking down a number of riders if the faun had been just a split second earlier or later crossing our path.  Should we start equipping our bikes with deer whistles?   After the ride, we waited at the start for the B riders to come in; and several members from each group joined Jim at George’s BBQ in Indian Head to celebrate Jim’s birthday over dinner.     

Starting location Brandywine Fire House

Route: Gallant Green Reversed (gentle climbing of 1242ft w/ lots of straight ways, fairly rural roads.

Ride Leader: John Gorman

Riders: all mbrs -- Novelette & John Murray, Bob Howell, and (sorta of) Robin Kyle (sadly Robin's front wheel was not present in her car when she attempted to get the bike out and had to return back home w/ out actually riding.) Well that "fill in the blank"! Hope to see you on a future ride.

Stats: starting temps near 60/finished 70 all day beautiful sunny w/ no wind, lovely conditions.

Miles- 35.7, total time 2:44, AMS 15.0 (this ride was listed as 13.5-14), so folks kept up a steady flat cruising pace in the 15-18 range all day. But we all stayed together as a group, w/ the ride leader sweeping, and the pace was natural for the riders that attended, helped by a straightforward route.

Route went down Brandywine/N. Keys/Martin/Molly Berry/Baden Naylor to a early break @ the Baden

Elm Shl(community center's restrm). So now our elevation work was done for the day, from here

we went thru Horsehead/Iowa/Woodville thru the very nice road conditions of Gallant Green to the

restbreak @ Mooreleand's Store.  Returned via Dr. Mudd/Poplar Hill/St Peters/Cedrville to Brandywine.

Only minor mechanical was a slipped chain by John, and that prevented getting into the

large chain ring after mile 15, but I'll take it getting stuck in the low gear any day. A quick bike shop

visit afterwards determined the chain protector had got loose, and no major issues. I'll keep that

tored away forfuture mechanical issues.  

Otherwise a Great Day for riding in Nov and w/ a great group of riders!! 

 

Ride Leaders: Jim and Jane Hudnall

Ride leader: Steve Palincsar
Riders: Holly Carr, Larry Peed, Alan Kurzweil, Jan & Ron Tucker, Jim McDermott, Phil Greer, Barry Winkleman, Linda Bankerd, Regina & Mike Saizan, Jay Lewis, Joan Oppel, Pat Walthers, John Early, Sam Perry, Teresa Martin, Loretta Troen, Jim & Jane Hudnall, Lou Dall'Orso, Ryan Steadman, Karen Fitzgerald
Weather: high 50s and cloudy at the start, getting up to the low 60s and even cloudier during the ride
Route: The full route is here: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3550470  40 miles, 2151' of climbing, but that doesn't begin to describe what we actually did today. 

As promised in the ride description, it was a day for something special, a trick or a treat depending on your perspective: each rider had a cue sheet (or, at least, each rider who had a cue sheet, for there were several who did not, the turnout far exceeding my expectations) with only half the cues, there being an A and a B version, each having the cues the other did not.  Riders could either pair up, A's with B's, working together to navigate the route; or they could form a group where the leaders managed the navigation and the rest followed the group; or they could rely on superior local knowledge (after all, most of the attendees are Thursday Best of Brandywine regulars, and by now most, if not all, have ridden every road in the Brandywine area in both directions) to figure out the missing directions.

If you're used to robotically following a cue sheet line-by-line, missing every other cue might at first glance seem to be an insuperable obstacle, but consider: once you've turned off Croom Rd. onto Duley Station intending to return to the Brandywine Firehouse, are there really any choices left?  You can't turn off Duley Station into Marlton, that'll take you away from Brandywine; you must continue onto Cheltenham because staying with Duley Station takes you to 301 heading the wrong way, and when Cheltenham intersects with Old Indian Head you must turn left because going right also brings you to 301 heading away from Brandywine.   Having turned left, you must go down Van Brady, as staying on Old Indian Head also brings you to 301 going the wrong way.   Really, the only decision is whether to go left on Molly Berry to Croom or right to North Keys; and of those choices only going right to North Keys makes any sense.  We could have skipped all those extra cues and lost nothing!

After the ride we had treats: Pat Walthers brought some delicious cookies, and I provided Halloween candy plus various other useful stuff (powdered energy drink, water bottles and other stuff that had come as extras in a tire order from ProBikeKit.com) which we enjoyed while we chatted.  People seem to have enjoyed the challenge and the change of pace.

We also enjoyed the brand new, smooth pavement on Mount Calvert Road.  At last! Repaving took place only a few days ago.  It's been years in coming, and I think it was encouraged by comments from the club.  We've been avoiding it for years due to the rough pavement and wheel-eating potholes on the downhill sections, but no more.