Dare I think it? Is it too early in the week to think it? Sunny skies, temperatures above freezing, dry roads?And by Friday, we were confirmed, not exasperated. I got to the house early to try to find a parking spot (one of us could park behind Laura in her driveway,but ONLY one), drove into a snowbank to try to crunch it down to park there... and got stuck. Luckily, Christ C came along with a truck and ties to pull me out... and I parked somewhere else, where I COULD get out. Ron S and Ed C also came to leave from Laura's, and the five of us rode to the Pennington start...
Hell, yeah, let's dream for a few days and pretend like we're going on a bike ride on Saturday.
Let's plan on a 10:00 a.m. start from the Hopewell YMCA on Main Street, across from Ingleside, in Pennington. Plan on 40-something miles. For an extra 11 miles, meet me at my house for a 9:30 a.m. start.
Check back here on Friday for confirmation or exasperation.
... which is no longer a YMCA. Sean I and Barry Y were waiting, and as we were about to leave, Marco B drove in; he'd gone to the REAL Pennington Y, and came down just in time to find us. And as he was suiting up, Celeste and Eoghan (say "Owen"; it's Irish, and the Irish will not be hampered by silly rules of spelling phonetically) rode up - so were were ten to do this route.
Laura picked the comparatively late start in hopes that much of the ice on the road would be melted, and much of it was, but there was still enough to shrink the shoulder in many places; on that first long stretch along Pennington-Rocky Hill I remember traffic backing up behind us, and I remember my relief when we turned onto Province Line. We didn't have ice on most of the roads, but there were a number of places where the melt had crossed the road and re-frozen. Two of our number slipped on the ice; no injuries, but one had a picturesque tumble into a snowbank, and another went over, but got his foot down before there was any injury either to his corpus or to his pride.
And so to Lambertville. We went up to Mt Airy to visit the cows, then on to Alexsauken Creek Road, which is one of my favorites for the visuals; I refer to it as "fifteen minutes of vacation". I finally got a picture (you'll see it below) of an old firetruck that is returning to the elements in someone's front yard; it was too good in the snow for me not to stop.
Stopped at Rojo's (not enough space at Lambertville Trading for this big crowd), where I got pictures of bikes in the snow, one atop about an 18" pile. Then back up Rocktown-Lambertville, where Eoghan was teaching me what it REALLY means to go up a hill (I was impressed, and hurtin'. I'm still impressed. I won't admit I'm still hurtin'.). At top, Barry had a tire out, which required many of us to fix (including Eoghan's needle-nose pliers - you'll see his steel bike with the leather saddle and big bag below; Eoghan is not one who holds that lighter means faster). As we turned the corner, Ron had a chain drop that got swallowed by his spokes; we had to separate the chain to get it out (which we could do by hand, thanks to the Wipperman link - I'll do a "stuff that works" post on that soon). He was soon up-and-running again, and we got back to Pennington by the straight route.
Anybody up for Winter Larry's ride tomorrow?
Pics:
Below, Eoghan's beautiful ride: Berthoud saddle (and probably Berthoud bar tape), big bag, lugs, three colors of paint: yummy.
Suiting up at Pennington:
Laura, laying down the law about something-or-other:
At Ridge Road. I liked the house in the snow.
(I really like the one below of Celeste, and it was dumb luck; I could barely see the image on the back of the camera.)
Below: Chris, about to demonstrate his superior bike-handling by stopping about two inches from my knee.
Below: Mt Airy, with me taking a picture of Ed taking a picture of me, the obligatory picture of Laura taking a picture, the cows, and heading out.
Bikes in the snow at Rojo's, below:
Below, Barry's bike ON the snow:
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