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

[aicabsolut]

That loop looks fine to me.

I'm not saying later hills aren't hard, but a snack before them helps the fatigue problem. Be my guest chugging on up that first hill without me

Usually, I'll leave 7:30-8am for a ride. But if I can snack in the car, I could leave home a little earlier than that. Going way out to NE and back northwest would make my drive hellish--I'll see if I can convince Morghan to just drive herself (I don't think we can take both bikes in one car anyway). At any rate, I could see potentially an hour or more for the drive. So 9ish might be safer. But really, I used to get up at 5 for horse shows, so I could deal if we need to get going earlier. Just work backwards from when Kali needs to leave. I'll figure out transportation for us DC kids.

[7rider]

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

[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. 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

[Kalidurga]

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.

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.

[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.

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.

[Kalidurga]

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.

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).

[divingbiker]

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.