July 29 rides

[sbctwin]

At about the 6 mile mark I came upon a bird (barn swallow) on the side of the road. I stopped to see if it was hurt. It was okay it had recently left the security of its nest. The two of us spent a few minutes checking each other out and I think it quickly realized I was not going to harm it. It sat on my finger for about 30 seconds before it decided to test its wings and off it went to a tree on the other side of the road. It was a beautiful encounter and one I shall cherish.

What a wonderful encounter. I pray for a day when a bird will alight on my finger or hand. I tell the birds in my yard not to be afraid of me, but as soon as I show up they fly away...oh well.

I had a pleasant 47 mile ride this morning. It was a beautiful day for a ride. I went my usual ride from the house, but instead of turning west at the point of the mtn, I turned east and headed up through the benches of Salt Lake valley. Lot's of climbing. I am slow going uphill, but I chug away at it. I was hoping to retrace my ride I did for the Bike 2 Kids last Sept, but I made a wrong turn somewhere. Oh well. The ride home wasn't on the roads I would have mapped out, but there was a lot of downhill back to the house. All in all, a good ride.

[redrhodie]

Makbike--I had a brush with nature, too. A butterfly flew down my top on today's ride. Felt something, and was glad it wasn't another bee. Carefully pulled the edge of my top, and she was off unharmed!

Rode my regular 18 mile loop in lots of summer tourist traffic, but kept my head clear and didn't react to the stupid guy who screamed at me from the top of his lungs just for a laugh. Take the good with the bad.

[tygab]

We did an unsupported metric century club ride today- clocking in at just under 67 miles.
There were 24 leaving for the various routes and somehow I ended up at the back. DH waited for me, and then we got cut off from the group by a choo choo. By the time the gates were up, no one anywhere. DH was quite mad about this and he is a mellow guy so it must have been the hot weather. We then continued on missing a turn and adding about 2 miles to our route. The ride had started in a town we were less familiar with but went into the towns we ride all the time. So, we got ourselves back on course. He was in such a mood that I just let the pedals work it out of him and finally he decided it was ok, and chirped up to me again. From that point on things were good!

We ended up going on the very loop we often take from the home, but there were a few new roads thrown in, and added on the way back "The Hills of Harvard." In this area, Harvard MA is quite well known for hill riding but we never had done any of them before. Now I understand, these are some awesome long climbs [up behind the Fruitlands for any locals].

Oddly, the ride write up claimed this was 2400 elevation gain along the whole course but we were very suspicious of that from the get go, since my GPS lat/lon points are topo corrected by Motionbased, and we knew the loop we ride was already more than that. But, so be it. End result: 4k of climbing. WOOO HOO! What fun, we did 6700 ft in a weekend! That is a lot for us.

Anyway, it was a nice ride, a little hot and humid at points but we kept up the fluids and intake well. Finished in 5:10 moving time which isn't fast but considering the route not so bad. Most of all, did not have any bike issues or rain or anything else I don't like to encounter (dogs? mean cars? etc).

YAY! Now we mostly rest before our PMC weekend. Maybe a short midweek flat ride or some swimming...

[mudmucker]

YAY! Now we mostly rest before our PMC weekend. Maybe a short midweek flat ride or some swimming...

Good luck and have a great event ride ! So far looks like the weather will behave.

I used to live in Shirley in the mid-90's when I worked in Boston. At that time I didn't have my road bike with me because I just moved from a town that didn't really have paved roads where I was (Shutesbury) so I had the mtn bike. I used to mtn bike with the super knobby tires through Ayer and around Harvard, Lancaster, and back to Shirley. That road by Fruitlands is very pretty. The whole town of Harvard is certainly one of the prettier towns in that area, and was the only town around that reminded me of Western Mass where I'm from.

[Fredwina]

Well, after sitting in church behind the lady with a little too much perfume, I need to clear out my sinus. I read Alpine Rabbits post, and was Inspired.
I started out buy going by La/Ontario International Airport
Sorry This isn't an international flight. the only international Airline is Aeromexico:

here's one of my biking buddies "office" parked for the weekend:

This ranch is just to the south of the airport:

The vineyard is still in use:

I then went to the Chino airport. it's an only World War II Training center. To get there, I had go through some large scale Diary farms. That cleared out my sinuses! I saw some llama, but I was busy trying to out sprint a Stray dog, so i didn't think it would be a wise idea to take pictures.
There is an airplane museum at the chino airport:


A lot of time, The museum will have Pilots doing dogfighting in Biplanes. Not today.
iT was getting hot, so headed home. I ran across some more of my biking buddies in their "offices" (Black and white cars with flashing lights on the roof) meant to get you all some photos of the chino Hills and some local architecture here in Cucamonga but it was getting hot. About 40 miles in 2 1/2 hours

[mimitabby]

62 miles today. DH & I went to do a metric century; close enough i guess. I wanted flat, he added some mighty hills; and as a result I have my new record speed of 38 mph.

We rode from home to Auburn and back taking various roads to keep it interesting.

I am happy to report that they are painting bike symbols on a lot of the streets near where I live. "share the road with bikes!"

[Flybye]

I have my new record speed of 38 mph.

Congrats

[Crankin]

Hi Tygab,

What other towns did you ride in, besides Harvard? Can you believe that I did the ride up to the Fruitlands on one of my very first road bike rides? I used to live very close to there and I have lots of good routes in Harvard and Bolton which in some places make you feel like you are in Vermont.
Good luck next weekend and maybe then we can ride!
Robyn

[Alex]

40-something miles in Park City. Lots of nice climbing and some screaming downhills. Our reward for climbing up to the Utah Olympic Park was being able to watch the aerialists practice. It's quite something to see them land in a pool instead of on the snow!

Alex

[tygab]

Hi Tygab,

What other towns did you ride in, besides Harvard? Can you believe that I did the ride up to the Fruitlands on one of my very first road bike rides? I used to live very close to there and I have lots of good routes in Harvard and Bolton which in some places make you feel like you are in Vermont.
Good luck next weekend and maybe then we can ride!
Robyn

I read that, and man you are one tough cookie to tackle these hills so early and on a hybrid!

Other towns were the usual suspects for us: Ayer, Groton, Dunstable, Pepperell, Hollis, less familiar ones: Boxboro, Acton, Littleton, Harvard...

definitely will be riding with you after we get over to the new house.