Good Day Sunshine!  The promise of a lovely fall day brought out a lot of folks.  The B ride drew out Linda and Paul Bankerd, Sharon Miller, Jim McPherson, Broderick Pascal, Bill Loewe, Sheila Harron, Freddy Telleron(?), Danzie Seward, Larry Peed, Kenny Mundy, Sam Perry, Eric Petersen.  A couple CC riders ended up with us as well (good for you!). We made it down to Goose Bay without incident and on heading back, I convinced a few folks to go to the end of the road with me to see the views of Chapel Point and the Nice bridge.  On our return, we bypassed Rose Hill and went up Valley Rd instead, for a nice modification.  We still had Bumpy Oak Rd, so we did get a small hill workout.  My avg on the return was 14.9, a good solid B.  With the detour and modification, the route was actually closer to 40 miles. No one seemed to mind.

The C/CC group joined the B ride and had some fun in the warm weather. What A great Day to ride. Thanks for riding with Calvin and JulieAnn. Those who came out know what happened, we all  were pushed to our limits.  

Leader:  Darin King
Members:  Blake Altman, David Kemp
Metrics:  http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1013202

What a gorgeous day to enjoy the still-vibrant fall colors!  We journeyed over some of Charles County's "speed bumps" (says David!):  Chapel Point, Popes Creek, Old Sycamore, and Bel Alton-Newtown (~1800 ft of climbing).  Good camaraderie made the miles fly by as we finished up at 18.3AMS...a solid A+ pace.  The back-roads had a suprising light traffic load for such a beautiful Saturday morning.  No incidents to report.

Ride Leader: Holly Carr

Leader was Jackie Schoch and riders were Randy Schoch, Holly Carr, Daryl Lowery, John Riconda, Vicki Garlock, and Richard Harrington.  It was a great ride except for the wind.  On the way back from White Plains we had the head wind again.  Second week in a row with this strong head wind.  The weatherman said it was going to be light wind well we should had him on the trail.

Co-leaders Mike and Regina Saizan rode with Larry Peed, Tom Roberson, Jon Agazzi, Joan Oppel, Steve Palincsar and Sam Perry on this beautiful brisk fall day.  We were fortunate that the Nor’easter snowfall that hit several states north of us missed our area.  From the beginning of the ride to the end, temps were in the 40s, the sky was blue and sunny, and the 12-15 mph winds created a cool breeze.  The 34-mile route took us on very familiar roads, including lower Molly Berry, the rolling hills on Baden Naylor, and the climb on Floral Park.  On our return, we approached the parking lot on Brandywine Rd from the east via Missouri Ave instead of our normal west approach.

During the first 20 miles of the ride the group pretty much stayed together.  After our rest break at the WaWa on 301 and McKendree, the group rode together the majority of the time, except for Jon who picked up his pace on the home stretch.  There were no mechanical problems... we had a great day!

It was a sunny day, crisp cool air (40 degrees as we left Bryans Road at 10 am, 47 when we returned at 1:30) contrasting with the warmth of the sun. It's hard to overstate the importance of the sun: it was cooler today than it was on Saturday, but it was lovely, a joy to be outdoors, while Saturday was as miserable a day as one could possibly imagine.

The group was a small one for such a pretty day: Larry Peed, Roger Cubbage, Paul and Linda Bankerd, Richard Harrington, Sharon Miller, Loretta Troen and Karen Morgan and leader Steve Palincsar.

The theme of today's ride was views of the Mattawoman Creek / Mad Woman/Old Woman Run. Not knowing for sure how it would feel, I planned the ride to stay close to home so we could cut things short at several places. We took Pomfret to the IHRT and followed Mattawoman Creek down towards Indian Head, taking a short break at the portolet at Bumpy Oak (where Linda Bankerd shared her improvised binder-clip-field-fix for sunglass lenses that won't stay in place with Karen Morgan), toured the neighborhoods south of the trail at Blair en route to Mattingly Park and the waterfront along Mattawoman Creek, stopping at the park and the portolets at the end of the road.

We took Mattingly to Indian Head, then Strauss, Hawthorne and Chicamuxen to Smallwood Park and took another break at the Mattawoman Creek. Passing up another shortcut opportunity, the group took a novel return route along Sweetman and Bicknell to Pisgah Marbury and Mason Spring where we experienced some gentle undulations (in truth, that's all they were, really) on the way back to Hawthorne and Chapman's Landing and some more undulations there.

The group stayed together, and although my computer is no longer giving accurate AMS readings, the Pace Arrow seemed to indicate a Used2Bee average in the mid-to-high 13s for the entire 32 miles.

Sharon posted photos on Facebook:

This short notice ride brought out Ruth Anne Cumberland, Richard Harrington, and Sarah Clements. Steve Palincsar also joined us at the start but did his own version with Loretta Troen.  I forgot I did not have cue sheets for the route, but we all stuck together and managed just fine.  Great sunshine and just the right amount of miles to while away the afternoon. Ruth Anne, Sarah and I met at BJs after for a snack, since they still had ice cream!  Thanks to all for joining me. 

 

Wow, what a great turn-out for my ride!  Members John Choate, Ken Meredith, Jack Gardner, Jocelyn Herrington, Timothy Love, Darin King, Jon Agazzi, Carol Harris, Liam Healy, Diane Harris, and Glenn Daniels joined me along with guests John Clark and Ken Buca (sp?).

It was pretty chilly and cloudy when we started but it soon got warmer and partly sunny.  It was a beautiful day for a ride.  Liam found out he was suddenly riding a three speed as his back derailleur cable broke.  However, he didn’t have too much trouble keeping up with the group in fact the group split at the hill on Floral Park road and he went with the front group.  The ride leader stayed with the back group and we had an uneventful ride to the rest stop at Merkle.  At the rest stop, Liam found out his back cable hadn’t broken but had only slipped out from the bolt.  He was able to repair that quickly.

After the rest stop at Merkle the group more or less stayed to together for a while but then split again.  The rear group took a quick second break at the Wawa before the completing the 8 or so miles remaining to the start point.

The ride leader had an average speed of 16.4 MPH which is still well within the “A” range.  I’m sure the front group had a much faster average.

I owe a big thank you to Ken for routing us around the bridge that is still out on Baden Naylor road.  Congratulations to Jocelyn on completing her first “A” ride – she did great!

We had a very enjoyable ride.

Leader:  Darin King
Members:  Cathy Wilson, John Kady, Mike Blaine
Metrics:  http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1004592
Pictures:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.554792571203410.143056.147336598615678&type=1&l=4a5d43e140

What promised to be a cold ride turned into a windy (and cool) ride.  Cathy and John drove down from McLean to join Mike and me for an extended version of the popular Casey Jones Express ride.  The first 15 miles was a fast-paced, downwind affair, giving everyone a chance to warm up for what we were about to face.  Hurricane Sandy didn't leave much debris for us to navigate, so we were able to focus on maintaining a smooth paceline.  As the route evolved from easterly to westerly, the sledding became increasingly difficult.  Thanks to Mike for pulling us along.  Cathy and John are very capable "A" riders, though John feared he may be holding us back.  We assured him that this was not going to be a day to hammer out any record times.

After a brief stop at Trinity Church Hall, we set out to tackle the remaining 17 miles.  There are still plenty of gorgeous fall colors to enjoy!  Once we traversed Allens Fresh, we turned north and faced about 10 miles of ~20mph headwind...even Mike ran out of gas!

We had a safe ride without mechanical incidents, got the heart pumping, and met some new-to-me-and-Mike club members.  Success!