Wild Goose

[Cataboo]

OMG Owlice, I probably saw you! It was an absolutely beautiful day to ride, a little less wind might have been nice.

V & I had planned to get started to do the metric a bit later to let the sun warm up, and the rest of that - After V's camelbak leaked all over her helmet and bike gear, and dealing with that, I don't think we got started till 10 or so... We missed 1 turn, and then with the last turn onto Southside not being marked on the cue sheets, I think we ended up doing about 68 miles. At one point, my crankarm fell off, so we had to search around till we found the wayward crankbolt to put it back together. That ate a bunch of time, and V & I both are into photography, so we did take quite a few picture breaks.

So we were bringing up the rear as well - we passed a woman whose tire had exploded and a friend was coming to get her a few miles from the end. She was in the goose chase jersey? Or at least similar colors - and I think we passed her & her friend on a bridge earlier when they were looking in the water at some bald eagles.

But anyways - I guess at the last turn, there was a group of say 3 women looking at the map at Race thinking something was wrong - V & I rode up and we all decided to backtrack to Southside - I think there was a blondish woman by herself behind the group who was asking if we were sure that the turn was a left onto Southside or not? On a more upright bike I think. Was that you?

The volunteer at the 2nd rest stop was amusing us describing how someone's bike had been leaned against one of the dock pillars and was blown over into the water - and some kayakers came along to help extricate the bike because it sunk under water.


Saturday was beautiful as well - the wind was a bit stronger, but I still had a great paddle.

[owlice]

we passed a woman whose tire had exploded and a friend was coming to get her a few miles from the end. She was in the goose chase jersey? Or at least similar colors - and I think we passed her & her friend on a bridge earlier when they were looking in the water at some bald eagles.

Yup, that was us! We saw six bald eagles at that one spot, five mature and one immature.

On a more upright bike I think. Was that you?

Indeed it was, windburned cheeks and all.

Wow, you and your friend had quite the adventure, what with a leaking Camelbak and a crankarm falling off!!!

I saw one sag vehicle at the second rest stop -- parked -- and never saw another. This was my first supported ride, and I am *really* glad we ended up with our own support because had we not, my friend with the exploded tire would have been out there by herself a lot longer than she was. I would have thought there'd be at least a sweep sag at some point, but I never saw one. What if you hadn't found your crank bolt? What if my friend's tire had exploded 15 miles earlier?

I really enjoyed the event and the lessons that I took away from it are:

• check the cue sheet against the map
• make sure to have support outside of the supported event
• bring chocolate/trail mix, because if any is provided, it will be gone before I reach the rest stop
• wind is a pain in the cheeks, and so is my saddle!

[ny biker]

I saw one sag vehicle at the second rest stop -- parked -- and never saw another. This was my first supported ride, and I am *really* glad we ended up with our own support because had we not, my friend with the exploded tire would have been out there by herself a lot longer than she was. I would have thought there'd be at least a sweep sag at some point, but I never saw one. What if you hadn't found your crank bolt? What if my friend's tire had exploded 15 miles earlier?

Was there a phone number for SAG support on the cue sheet? There usually is.

Offhand I can think of two organized rides that I've done where I frequently saw SAG vehicles on the road. But I know they're available if I need them.

If I had to have my own support, I would never ride anywhere ever. The only people I could call live 300 miles away.

[withm]

The only phone numbers on the cue sheets for for 911 and the local hospital. I did see a couple marked sag wagons, but the sag support appeared to be pretty meager and there was no way to contact sag suppport unless you could make it to a rest stop. I did pass several people with flat tires and we offered assistance but were turned down. We did help one woman who had dropped her chain and could not figure out why the rear wheel wouldn't turn.

I was disappointed that the promised fruit was not offered at the rest stops (unless it was all gone before we got to each one?) One stop was out of water. OUT OF WATER??? go figure? And what's with all the white bread mushy PB&J? Ewwwww. It seemed that some, if not all, of the rest stops closed too early to help the later riders. I heard several reports of riders finding rest stops totally abandoned when they came through.

My biggest complaint was that you had to do some serious origami to fold the cue sheets to fit standard cue sheet holders. Making a cue sheet isn't rocket science, but maybe they need a real cyclist to format the cue sheets to make them more efficient, and make page turning co-incide better with rest stops. Proofreading the cue sheets against the map to be sure all the directions and street names are correct would be very useful.

Cue sheets need to have a contact phone number, a note as to when rest stops would close, and be formatted to fit cue sheet holders, or to be more easily managable if just clipping it to a cable. There were lots of lost cue sheets on the side of the road.

Problems notwithstanding, it was a beautiful sunny (but windy) ride in an area with very little traffic. We saw bald eagles, Sika deer, a fox and a few dead snakes. And lots of wolly bear catapillars. Did not get a chance to visit the butterfly garden at the nature center but I've seen it on other visits at various times of the year when it was teeming with butterflies.

And then there was the wind..... plentiful wind, and sometimes it seemed to come from all directions. Saturday we had gusts in the 30-35mph range, and the Sunday gusts were in the 20-25mph range. Never a dull momemt.

[owlice]

Was there a phone number for SAG support on the cue sheet? There usually is.

No; at least there wasn't for the metric century, which is the cue sheet I had with me. Wasn't on the map, either.

Offhand I can think of two organized rides that I've done where I frequently saw SAG vehicles on the road. But I know they're available if I need them.

If I had to have my own support, I would never ride anywhere ever. The only people I could call live 300 miles away.

I usually ride by myself. By "own support," I mean being able to call a friend or a cab or take public transportation. Unless I'm riding my usual trail, I often call/email a friend to let him/her know where I'm riding; I call/email that "trailkeeper" when I return, with the hope that if I don't do so, the friend will at least let law enforcement know in which creek/lake my body is most likely to be found.

But hey, if you need a phone number of someone local to call in a pinch, I'm in Maryland, which is a whooole lot closer than 300 miles!

[Cataboo]

Oh well, nice to have sort of met you, Owlice! I did offer your friend an innertube - I had a spare tire in my car,which wasn't very helpful. Depending on how badly her tire was torn, you can sometimes slip a dollar bill or piece of paper or something like that on the inside of it to make it rideable.

I'd seen a ton of eagles when I was out paddling, so didn't stop to watch the eagles with you guys.

I will say that we did leave late, so I tried to not to be too irritated with the meager amounts left at the rest stops. The first rest stop was out of water, had 2 of those drink bottles, 1 bagel,and like 10 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches when we got there -they were shutting down. The 2nd rest stop had a good stock of stuff left and the guy running it suggested we stock up - he also said that he was supposed to be closed, but was staying because more cyclists kept showing up. I had my backpack with me, so a spare peanut butter & jelly sandwich went in for both of us and some of the drinks just in case the 3rd stop was closed or depleted when we got there and because there was going to be about a 30 mile gap without rest stops.

And yeah, I'd have been pretty screwed if we hadn't found the crank bolt. I never saw a sag wagon the entire day - last year I did see the sag wagon 'cause it stopped to help Zen for a bit. We had the 43 and the 62 mile cue sheets with us - and neither had a sag wagon number. I could have sent V on to the 2nd to see if she could have gotten sag help. I was inventorying the contents of my backpack and bike bag trying to think of something else I could use while we were looking for the bolt. I guess I'm going to have to start carrying a small bit of duct tape. I always have it in my kayak day hatches, but not my bike bags. I'll loctite that crank bolt in so this isn't a problem again. For some reason, I decided to take my carbon bike that I hadn't ridden since the spring (probably because i hadn't ridden it in that long and decided that I had to get some miles on it )... which meant it hadn't been checked/use as regularly as my litespeed. We were being eaten alive by mosquitos where it happened, so I'm glad I didn't have to sit there and wait for a rescue.

The cue sheets were a big mess, I thought. I had the 42 and the 63 ones that I'd printed out from the weblinks that they were emailing us. V had the ones that they gave out at the event. The ones they emailed us had no emergency numbers on it (i coulda figured out calling 911 on my own) - but multiple steps that were on the event day cue sheets weren't on the ones I printed out. So I just put mine away as unusable and we followed V's.

I'm not sure if I'll be doing this again next year - I don't think I'm cut out for organized rides too much, and I'll just plan on a weekend near blackwater with some friends.

[divingbiker]

Well, I guess there are advantages to being a relatively early-rising underachiever. There was a lot of (mediocre) food and drink at all 3 rest stops, and the 43 mile ride cue sheet didn't have any errors. We were having Starbucks in Easton by the time you finished, I'd guess.

Too bad about the mechanical problems.

It was a nice ride, but I'll most likely do a weekend of kayaking and biking on my own with a few others next year, too.

[withm]

Saturday some of us rode to the Spocott Windmill and Old Trinity Church. Though there was a mistake on the cue sheet, and no warning about the 1/2 mile or so of brick/cobblestone road, it was a nice ride. Although it was blowing about 30kt or more...

The windmill is a fully operating windmill and while they were operating earlier in the morning, the wind picked up too much and they had to stop. When I visited windmills in the Netherlands a few years ago I learned that if the sails spin too quickly they can heat up and ignite from the friction. Bye bye windmill. So they can not be used in a big wind, and the trick is to get them shut down before the wind gets too strong otherwise it's very difficult to get them to stop.

We split up so Divingbiker and I could go ride on Wildlife Drive, and Kmehrzad and V went on to the Trinity Church.

Here's the windmill. You can see our bikes leaning up against the one-room school house. I thought about putting a dollar into the well to wish for less wind but didn't think it would make a difference so I used it to fund my ride down Wildlife Drive.

While the Wild Goose Chase had some shortcomings, it was still a great weekend and the only thing I would really want to change would have been the wind.

[kmehrzad]

Nice pics, Martha. Thanks for posting. Yeah, the wind was pretty brutal; give me a hill any day.

[Cataboo]

Some pics of over at Blackwater:

(this was actually Friday evening, but we rode on that Sunday)

[HillSlugger]

Wow, stunning lighting on that first one!

[Cataboo]

Wow, stunning lighting on that first one!

It was sunset and the clouds were rolling in. Poor DB had to stop the car a couple times so I could get pictures.

[Sylvia]

I came out from California to do this ride (brought my Bike Friday) and had an absolute blast. Blackwater is just amazingly beautiful. I had never been to this part of Maryland before and the weather was near perfect for the ride (little windy in parts) on Sunday but absolutely perfect on Monday.

I got a chance to ride the Wildlife Drive with Georgena on Monday, and she really is the most down to earth person. She is just so cool!!

Here are some photos.


Attaching my top tube bag, containing a recharge battery for my iPhone. The iPhone mounts to the handlebars and acts as a bike computer. I was showing Georgena my whole setup. I'm a computer nerd as you can see.




Here we come...



Riding into the sunset.



Finishing ride in front of the Blackwater visitor's center.

[Cataboo]

Wow. I didn't know people came from so far away to do the Goose Chase. It's great that you got to ride with Georgeana. It's too bad we didn't manage to meet up with you!

[Sylvia]

Wow. I didn't know people came from so far away to do the Goose Chase.

Georgena said that there were five of us that came from California. Two from Sacramento (where I and my sister are from, we both came), two from San Francisco, and 1 from Southern California.