Poolesville (or...?) ride, Sunday 11/19

Tam, I do hope you reconsider and do that ride...and I'm not even going...but I'll be there in spirit!
As Catherine mentioned...social rides are great, too. As long as everyone knows the expectations, which shouldn't be hard to communicate with only 3 or 4 riders, then a ride that's "slower" than what some may be used to, or with more breaks than others are used to, can be just as valuable, and just as enjoyable, as the weekend hammerfest. When I did the Peach Tree loop the other week with my friend, Margot, I found that most of those roads allowed for side by side riding, or ... if she were to stop and I wanted to pedal, I could go up the road a bit and circle back to keep moving.
Also, re: the 'bent. My only experience with a 'bent is a friend of mine up in Massachusetts. He had a bad hip and got one, but was so stubborn, he refused to ride it. He would mount and dismount his regular bike from a curb, so he could lay the bike down sideways to get his leg over it! He did that up until he had a complete hip replacement! His recumbent still sits, unused, in his basement. So, anyway...I realize my view is hopelessly wrong and utterly biased, but I view 'bents as the "option of last resort." That when I am too battered to ride an upright bike, I'll get a 'bent. Besides...I could never ride one of those recumbent style exercise bikes at the gym....they bothered my hips. So I wonder if that would apply on the "real" bike.
R

Sigh - if I still lived in Gaithersburg I'd be there. All this talk about Poolesville, Riley's Lock, White's Ferry... well I'm not homesick, but it's tempting to think about joining you all on a ride. It's just the 3 hour drive that would get to me to get to the starting point.

On the other hand, I will be in the DC area over Thanksgiving so if you have any group rides planned for that weekend it might be fun to join you. Hills? Well we don't have ANY hills here, just wind. Though it's the next best thing - it ain't the real thing so I'm slow on hills.

Martha

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Originally Posted by MDHillSlug

BTW I'm not trying to take over the ride so if it may seem that way I apologize. I just want to ride!

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Nicole, you are officially the RouteSlip Queen! And, no, it doesn't seem as if you're taking over anything. It's great that you're so quick with the route plotting, so we're able to see all of our options so easily. (Though RouteSlip seems to be having problems loading this evening...)

We met last weekend just after 9:30 and began riding a bit before 10:00 am, right? We ended up doing just shy of 28 miles and finished between 12:30 and 1:00. A similar schedule would probably work fine for the 19th. I'm not sure yet what I'm doing with the family. (You think planning this ride has been tough? Try planning something with my parents :rolleyes: ) I did already tell them that I was most likely going riding in the morning, though. So, I guess I'm back in.

Catherine, where in NE does your friend live? Can she at least meet you at your place?

Regina, you should have seen the cute young guy I met over the summer who was riding his 'bent along the C&O towpath out past Hancock, MD. He was part of a group riding all the way from Seattle to DC to raise awareness for a cause that my sieve-brain has forgotten. He was the only 'bent rider in the group, but he sure changed the way I look at those bikes ;)

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Originally Posted by withm

Sigh - if I still lived in Gaithersburg I'd be there. All this talk about Poolesville, Riley's Lock, White's Ferry... well I'm not homesick, but it's tempting to think about joining you all on a ride.

On the other hand, I will be in the DC area over Thanksgiving so if you have any group rides planned for that weekend it might be fun to join you.

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My family leaves the day after Thanksgiving, and I have no idea yet what I'm doing that weekend. If the weather's still warm enough, another group ride is certainly a possibility.

I think I'd be homesick if I left this area. I've become very attached to various places here in MoCo, FredCo and the rest of MD.

I live down in FB and she's way off at SD and Mich Aves. She could come to my place and we'd take GW pkwy to 495, but I'm not 100% sure that the river road exit is open off the beltway. So then I'd have to go up Wisconsin or something, where she could meet me along the way. I'll figure something out about transportation. 9:30 ought to be plenty late enough for me.

For Tues-Fri of Thanksgiving week, I think I'm going to be in c-ville, so I might tackle my other beastly route alone again. But I ought to be around here over the weekend. I'll have a ton of grad school work to do but I might be able to break away for a couple hours.

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Originally Posted by aicabsolut

I live down in FB and she's way off at SD and Mich Aves. She could come to my place and we'd take GW pkwy to 495, but I'm not 100% sure that the river road exit is open off the beltway. So then I'd have to go up Wisconsin or something, where she could meet me along the way. I'll figure something out about transportation. 9:30 ought to be plenty late enough for me.

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Can you cut over K Street/Whitehurst Freeway onto Canal Road? If so, you can then get on Clara Barton Pkwy and pick up River Rd where Clara Barton hits the Beltway. Then, you just take River aaaall the way out to a 'T' instersection (I suddenly can't remember the name of the road it T's with), turn left, go down the hill and around the curve, and make the first left down to Riley's Lock.

If you do the GW to 495 thing, I think all the construction at River Rd is finished (though it wouldn't hurt to check, just in case).

I wanna ride, too!

And if I do, I'm just a few miles from your friend's house, Catherine. Maybe she could drive to my house (it's on the way; she'd just have to go up Eastern Ave to Takoma Park) and we could drive together. I've got a rack that can handle 3 bikes.

I'll do whatever ride you all want to, short, long, hilly, flat, doesn't matter. I'll just rest with Kali when necessary.

Kali: Sure I can go out Whitehurst. I'll look up that route on my map.

Divingbiker: I'll run the carpooling idea by her tomorrow (we're planning on a short lunch hour loop). I think she said she's basically at the intersection of those two avenues. You'll have to send me some detailed directions to pass on to her though about where to meet up with you. The main reason she wants to carpool is because she hardly drives around the area or know where a lot of streets are, even though she's been here over a year (as opposed to me--I've just been around since late May and drive too much). Her rack fits 2 bikes I think. The only problem for us was that we aren't totally sure if it fits on my suv (and I don't really want to go to NE). Let me know if you decide to come!

I sent you a PM with directions to my house from SD and Michigan NE.

Oy... The advance weather forecast for the 19th is calling for a high temp of 48 degrees. Let's all cross our fingers that the forecast will change between now and then!

Have we figured out a start time? Kali, what time do you need to be finished and leaving the parking lot?

I think we settled on the same time that you and I met for the last ride: 9:30, on the road by 10:00. That got us back to the parking lot a bit between 12:30 and 1:00, which should leave plenty of time for a quick shower and the drive down to Herndon. Heck, I'm seeing the family Saturday evening, Sunday afternoon/evening, and again on Thanksgiving. Yeah, they're driving all the way up from Florida, but I gotta have time to ride! :D (Somehow, it's easier to say that to family when you don't live with them...)

Oh, and... let's all remind each other to bring cue sheets... ;)

I've already printed one out.

The high temp forecast has now moved up to a whopping 53 degrees

(low 35)

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Originally Posted by aicabsolut

I've already printed one out.

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I'll try to bring copies for everyone, with and without the extension at the beginning (I've got both mapped).