Terry Wild Goose Chase ride

[withm]

Wow! What a fun weekend we had. We met at the Blackwater NWR Visitor Center and then headed over to the kayak launch just a few minutes away. We were treated to a gorgeous sunny day with just enough light breeze to keep us from getting too hot. Unfortunately I got sunburned instead despite a liberal application of sunblock.

We saw several bald eagles, and you can actually see one in this pic. It's the black blob in the 2nd tree from the right. It's hard to take a photo like that from a floating boat - the boat bobs up and down and well so does the camera. But it gives you an idea of the beautiful setting.

The rest of the photos show Mr. 7Rider, 7Rider, DivingBiker, Kalidurga, & my friend Annette - not necessarily in any order, nor do they all show in any one pic. We got pretty spread out.

The bike ride was great. I had no problems with the route markings but I guess if you ride 18-20mph maybe you did have to make some turn on short notice - but the cue sheets seemed to be pretty good so you do have warning that a turn might be coming up.

But no Porta potties at the rest stops? What's up with that?

It is true that the food at the rest stops did not include much in the way of real food, but I did actually eat my first shot blocks - cran-raspberry and was surprised to find they weren't bad. I did not sample the drink mixes they were offering because if I sacrificed an entire water bottle to something that was not palatable I really would have been an unhappy camper. The bananas were good, but some bagels and peanut butter would have been better than the candy bars. By 30 miles I was really hungry and found a granola bar in my bike bag. It must have been in there for months cause I nearly broke my teeth biting into it. Just a little bit stale.

OK so potties and food notwithstanding, the ride itself was in a fantastic setting. I just kept thinking if the sun had been out what a beautiful day it would have been. One of the Friends of Blackwater volunteers had a spotting scope set up on Wildlife Drive and we were invited to stop and take a closer look at whatever he had in his sights. We saw a white pelican, along with more eagles, blue herons, ibis, egrets, and a bunch of other birds. Oh and a couple snakes. (OH! and we had a close encounter with a couple local fishermen with a trashcan full of huge snapping turtles). Had it been a tad warmer and sunnier I would have stopped a lot to take pictures as there were some really wonderful settings in the marshland. Sadly the last 10 miles or so were fraught with drizzle, rain, and headwinds 15-20 kt so by then all I really wanted to do was finish.

I rode the 43 mile ride with DivingBiker and we traded some diving stories along the way. She was very patient waiting for me to catch up when we hit the headwinds and I appreciate that. She also adjusted my rear der cable so the bike would stop shifting by itself every once in a while, which made the rest of the ride much less stressful for me. With only 156 miles on the bike - the cables were stretching out a bit and it really needs a little more adjustment. And I was able to produce a tie wrap to secure her broken spoke. By the end of the ride we both had noisy bikes. We never did figure out what my bike noises were but tomorrow I'll get it up on the stand and take a look.

We both ran into other friends from the DC area so that was fun too.

I have to give great praise for Georgena Terry for even putting on this ride. They donated over $18,000 to the Friends of Blackwater from the proceeds of the ride. That's incredible! Well done!

The door prizes seemed endless - and a lot of people did not stick around to participate in the give aways. That made better odds for those who did. I won a pair of Voler bike shorts! Woo Hoo! Some people gave their tickets to those of us who stayed till the bitter end, and I guess some of those tickets were winners. The new Goretex jacket they gave away had a $400+ retail price but wow - what a very well designed jacket. Don't remember the name of it but how many $400 bike jackets are there? Yikes! The Isis bike was won by a girl who had just bought a Madone recently. She looked totally shell-shocked at winning. Nice bike too!

But all I want to know is how did I miss the deep fried pickles? That sounds pretty bizarre and I don't know if I'd be game enough to try them.

I had a great weekend and would not hesitate to do this event again. In fact I would even plan a weekend in May or June, or in October and ride the Easton-St. MIchaels-Tilghman-Oxford loop on Saturday, go to the winery in the afternoon, and ride Blackwater on Sunday. Just need to find a free weekend.

Great fun meeting you all!