April 17 ride

[kenyonchris]

Did the Sea Otter Classic on Saturday. We signed up for the 45 mile ride, but DH messed something up in his headset, so we spent an hour in Monterey waiting for the bike shop to open so he could get it fixed, turned out to be a missing compression ring from when he put it back together (in the dark) at the hotel out of the bike case. We caught up to the end of the pack at the bottom of the hideous climb back up to Laguna Seca. It was a truly hideous climb...but happy to say that we both made it up...he hammered it up and would stop to wait for me, I would slog on past.
At one point I gasped, "Thank God. A little downhill. But why am I still pedaling?" He says, "That's not downhill. Its just less uphill." THAT is a hard day.
Day off yesterday, today we are doing 17 mile drive.

[withm]

Did you have an encounter with the dog on Burton Farm Road? The event organizer called the police to monitor the situation and have the owners pen the dog.

That ride is in my back yard so I am fortunate to know the roads, and the pitfalls of some of them.

I had heard about a dog problem at one of the rest stops, but had forgotten about it by the time we got to that part of the ride. But, since a couple of us had time constraints, we skipped that littled loop, stayed on Burbage another 1/2 mile or so, and picked up the route again at Blackwater.

There is a house on Burton Farm with a big kennel out back where the dogs always bark, but from the confines of the kennel. I've never encountered the dogs outside the kennel when I ride in that area, but I do have a friend that will never go down that road again because she once had a dog running free over there.

I thought about soliciting TE people to come join this ride, but there were so many complaints about last year's ride I was afraid to suggest anyone venture across the bridge for this one. I already had houseguests for the ride, and a full weekend planned with unrelated events, so would have been a poor hostess. Maybe next year we can pull together a biking and kayaking weekend a little later in the spring.

[kmehrzad]

I thought about soliciting TE people to come join this ride, but there were so many complaints about last year's ride I was afraid to suggest anyone venture across the bridge for this one. I already had houseguests for the ride, and a full weekend planned with unrelated events, so would have been a poor hostess. Maybe next year we can pull together a biking and kayaking weekend a little later in the spring.

Hmmm, what were the complaints you heard from last year's ride? I thought it went fairly well. I know there was a new route due to road construction, but thought they did a nice job going around it. I did have two BIG dogs chase me last year somewhere about 3/4 into the 50 mile ride. One was at my heels and I pedaled my heart out to get away (reminded me of my childhood days when I had to outride the dogs in my rural neighborhood).

Pulling together a biking and kayaking weekend sometime next year (or in fact, later this year) would be awesome. Several of us are talking about doing just that during the weekend of the Wild Goose Chase ride in October. Have you registered for that ride out of Cambridge, MD?

[withm]

Hmmm, what were the complaints you heard from last year's ride? I thought it went fairly well. I know there was a new route due to road construction, but thought they did a nice job going around it. I did have two BIG dogs chase me last year somewhere about 3/4 into the 50 mile ride. One was at my heels and I pedaled my heart out to get away (reminded me of my childhood days when I had to outride the dogs in my rural neighborhood).

Pulling together a biking and kayaking weekend sometime next year (or in fact, later this year) would be awesome. Several of us are talking about doing just that during the weekend of the Wild Goose Chase ride in October. Have you registered for that ride out of Cambridge, MD?

Last year there were MANY complaints about the poor road conditions & road choice, to handle 700+ riders . The food seemed to consist of white bread and peanut butter only. And the biggest complaint was not enough porta potties leading to lines of 30 riders or more at each potty. They did much better on all counts this year, save for the junk miles on Rt. 1. I can't remember if it was last year or the year before that the potties at one rest stop were delivered 2 blocks away from the actual rest stop at Selbyville. Talk about confusion!

I'll be at Wild Goose again this year, with kayak. Last year I missed the paddling due to a funeral, but did make it in time for the ride. Paddling over there is lovely.

[Aggie_Ama]

We did 30 miles, DH was sweet and came along to keep me company before hammering off to do intervals. The rain and thunderstorms flirted with us but never materialized. It was sticky humid though. I kept myself sane but looking at the pretty wildflowers and baby animals on the ranches.