Ride Reports June 2006

Spring Century
April 28th, 2006 by Bill Smith

We had a nice turnout for this early Spring century ride. There were Mike Adams, Dr. Chris Borkman, Randy Buxbaum, Laura Chaffiotte, and Bob Koning. We started out in Thurmont and headed north into Emmitsburg before turning west into Fairfield. Our first food stop was in the little village of South Mountain PA (mile 40); then it was 23 more miles over the hills to the Little Italy Restaurant in Aspers. We consumed various amounts of various selections—much different than a usual century, where one does not do a sit-down lunch stop. Then we swung wide of Gettysburg and back into Emmitsburg before returning to Thurmont for 103 miles. The weather was just a might chilly, but pretty nice for an early Spring day.

The Easy Way to Gettysburg
May 6th, 2006 by Laura Chaffiotte

View pictures from this ride

Jeff Johnson and Brian King met ride leader Laura Chaffiotte at Monocacy Middle School at 7 am. It was a little chilly, but after several hours the sun came out to warm us up. We met Jeff's long lost brother, John Johnson on the corner of Rt. 140 and Toms Creek Church Road. He had cycled there from Mercersburg, PA. We rode up to Gettysburg and back through Emmitsburg. John ventured out on his own again to return back to Mercersburg via 140. By this time it became apparent that ride "leader", Laura could not find her way out of a paper bag. Brian was kind enough to guide us home.

Apple Blossoms Ride
May 7th, 2006 by John Fauerby

George Ruszat, Pauletta Otis, Terri Baker, Dan Bernazani, and John Munns joined ride leaders Lynne Rosenbusch and John Fauerby at Emmittsburg's Silo Hill Parkway for a perfect ride on a beautiful day through the battlefields, farmland, and orchards of Adams County, Pa. This sophisticated group stayed together the entire ride having never-ending conversations. This was an action packed ride beginning two miles from the start when nine deer decided to stop grazing in the field to our right and head us off a quarter mile down the road where they crossed the road in full view of all to head to their homes in the forest to our left.

We passed through the Gettysburg Battlefield, found a newly paved Business 15 with great bicycle lanes that took us to the McDonalds. We cycled through the heart of Gettysburg and out the NE side to follow the quiet Hunterstown Road past numerous old farmhouses, each with a sign out front stating that they were Civil War hospitals.

After about 15 miles of flatlands, we entered the hilly portion of the ride with awe-inspiring views of apple and peach orchards with the mountains in the background. We saw a few white blossoms, but really had to be observant. After heading over a gap on Bear Mountain, we coasted into Arendtsville for lunch at Ventura's II Pizza. After lunch, we headed through more orchards where we saw migrant workers quarters, passed by the Adams County Winery, and watched soar planes glide near the Mid Atlantic Soaring Center. Everyone completed the full 65 miles and said "Let's do this ride again in the fall!"

Ride of Silence
May 17th, 2006 by Brian King

View pictures of the ride

The Frederick Pedalers hosted the first annual Frederick Ride of Silence May 17th, 2006. The Ride of Silence (http://www.rideofsilence.org) is a nationwide event that pays tribute to those who have been killed or injured while cycling and demonstrates that cyclists can safely share the road with other vehicles.

In 2003, Chris Phelan organized the first Ride of Silence in Dallas after endurance cyclist Larry Schwartz was hit by the mirror of a passing bus and was killed. This first ride at White Rock Lake drew 1,000 cyclists through word of mouth and email communication over a period of only ten days. There was no registration, no fees, no t-shirt. Local media reported the ride to be incredibly moving as these cyclists rode in silence, occasionally wiping away a tear or patting a friend on the back. Chris thought the ride was a one-time deal, however as word got out other cyclists began to contact him with a desire to do the same thing in their own communities. A short three years later, 2006 Ride of Silence events took place in over 270 cities across the US and internationally.

Sixteen cyclists met at North Frederick Elementary School on Wednesday the 17th to participate in the first year this event has been run in Frederick. As we took turns introducing ourselves, we mentioned if we were riding in special memory of someone who had been killed or injured while cycling. There were many in our group who personally knew someone that had been involved in a serious cycling accident. It just underscored the reasons we were there – to pay tribute to fellow cyclists and to raise awareness of cyclists out on the road.

Our silent procession made a 7.5 mile loop by heading out Motter Avenue and Opossumtown Pike, then turning left at Thomas Johnson Drive and heading down Taney Avenue, crossing 7th Street on our way down to Rosemont Avenue. We traveled briefly on Rosemont under Route 15, then turned down 2nd Street and rode past Baker Park. We turned around at the Talley Recreation Center and came back past Baker Park the other direction down Carroll Parkway before turning down West College Terrace. We crossed West Patrick and Jefferson on our way toward West All Saints for a crossing of Carroll Creek before turning down Church Street to ride through the center of town. We then turned up East Street and returned to North Frederick ES via 9th Street and Motter finishing just before dusk.

We had a safe ride that definitely accomplished both goals as riding in silence gave us time to think of those who’ve met with misfortune out on the road and we certainly made an impression on the many people who saw us traveling the 7.5 mile route around town.

We were grateful to have print media coverage for this ride. There were stories and photographs of the ride in both the Frederick News Post and Gazette.

Keep an eye out next year as this will likely become an annual event on the club’s calendar.

Read Karen Gardner's May 14th Frederick News Post article promoting the ride and bicycle safety in general.

Read Katherine Mullen's May 24th Gazette article about the ride.

You can also read the International Ride Report that details the events conducted in other parts of the U.S. as well as several countries including Australia, Canada, China and England.

Loopy for Lewistown
May 20th, 2006 by Brian King

After cycling over to Lewistown ES for the ride start at 9:30 AM, no one else showed up so I rode home and cut the grass. Accordingly, this is a tractor ride report as opposed to a bicycle ride report.

The understated 15hp Kohler engine growled to life and I eased my John Deere LX255 out of the shed. Ah - a perfect day for cutting the grass. I made a quick stop at the ‘fuel shed’ to top off the tank. I’m still getting used to the much bigger lawn at our new place and the copious amounts of petrol needed to trim said lawn. With the price of gas these days, I spend more greenbacks filling up the three gas cans for lawn equipment than I used to spend filling up the entire tank in my SUV a few years back.

For a first pass along the driveway, I drop the cutting deck down to 2.5 inches because I don’t like to see grass growing over the edge of the asphalt. Once that’s done, I have to crank it right back up to 3.5 as the grass is still growing more than 6 inches a week in spots and I leave too many clippings behind even at 3 inches.

The first area I cut is around the barn out next to the road. I always do this area first as I can knock out that entire section without the need to cut in any areas with the push mower.

Next comes the area directly in front of the house. There are plenty of small trees and overhanging bushes so I periodically hop off the tractor to tidy up with the push mower. It’s slow going here as the grass is especially thick in the general vicinity of the septic tank. Funny how that works . . .

As I work my way around the side of the house, I’m glad I finally got all the old posts pulled up from the fence the previous owner had to keep their dog from straying. It’s much easier to navigate a yard without metal spikes protruding up out of the ground every six feet. This merges nicely with my Zen theory of yard design that all landscaping improvements must make cutting the grass easier.

I have an encounter with some local wildlife when a catbird dive bombs me for getting too close to her nest as I’m cutting an area behind the house. That’s a new nest I hadn’t seen before. I’ll have to see if I can set up a perch inside the house for our cats to keep an eye on the hatchlings.

I make a mental note that I’ve still got some trimming work to do back in the orchard as I see peaches, apples and pears starting to come in on the dozen or so fruit trees we have on our property. There will be more fruit than we’ll be able to use ourselves so keep an eye out as you drive down Utica Road as I’ll likely put some out at the end of the driveway for anyone to enjoy free of charge.

Now that all the lawn is cut comes the not-so-fun part – scraping all the excess grass from under the deck. It doesn’t help that I have a wimpy little 42 inch mulching deck. Unfortunately I can’t put a bigger deck on this tractor due to the engine HP limitations. As it’s our first year at this new property I think I’ll go the whole season to see if I really want to jump up to something bigger.

Overall a very nice ride for the day. A ride time of 4 hours and 32 minutes at an estimated average speed of 3.4 mph yields a distance of 15.3 miles. Wow – that’s almost like riding the tractor all the way downtown and back!

To spare you the pain of reading another one of these next month, please come on out for the Loopy for Lewistown ride in June. I promise it will be much more exciting than this.

Big Flat
May 29th, 2006 by Brian King

View pictures of the ride

Bill Smith, Laura Chaffiotte and Brian King set out for Hagerstown to join the Antietam Velo Club for their annual Memorial Day ride up to Big Flat in Pennsylvania’s beautiful Michaux State Forest. At the ride start we met up with John Johnson from Mercersburg and Mark Hagemann who had recently joined the Frederick Pedalers Yahoo Group. We had no illusions that we would keep up with riders who belong to a group with ‘Velo’ in the name so we introduced ourselves at the ride start then let them clear out before leaving ourselves. Not unexpectedly we never saw them again the rest of the day.

As the AVC riders know this area like the back of their hand and weren’t using a cue sheet, Bill took one from the CVCC web site and added some tweaks to improve the directions. From Hagerstown’s Paramount Elementary School, we worked our way north to Shippensburg for the first rest stop while keeping a watchful eye on the hills to the east that we would soon be climbing. In Shippensburg we were amazed to find gas at $2.69 a gallon. We contemplated turning back at that point to retrieve our vehicles so we could fill our tanks for under $50.00 but decided to push on. John turned off as he had cycled to the ride start and now needed to head back to keep things peaceful on the home front. It was not long before we turned west on Baltimore / Shippensburg road for the 10 kilometer climb to the top of Big Flat Ridge.

We stayed together for the first few kilometers, and then everyone settled into their own climbing pace for the remainder of the 1320-foot ascent. In case there was any doubt which way was up, Bill graciously led the way and accidentally arrived several minutes before the rest of our gravitationally challenged group. He was nice enough to take pictures of us as we each reached the summit which I’m sure will show that although we survived the climb, we didn’t have a lot left in reserve. We paused briefly at the top where the Appalachian Trail crosses Big Flat and quickly reached a consensus on the merits of low gears.

Then came the payoff for our climbing effort – the two mile high speed descent back down from the ridge. Newton’s Second Law of Motion held true and as the heaviest rider in the group, Brian quickly pulled away from the pack and reached a top speed of 55.0 mph while Bill’s wispy aerodynamics brought him down the hill at just over 50 mph. Mark encountered some high speed wobble and topped out around 35 mph with Laura keeping pace beside him.

Once we were all safely down the hill we continued on down Route 233 to Caledonia State Park where we stopped briefly for a bladder break. We decided not to explore the park in search of the camp store but continued on to the last scheduled rest stop at the convenience store in South Mountain, PA. It turned out to be very inconvenient as the store was closed for Memorial Day. D’oh! Luckily we weren’t all on empty so we soldiered on to a well stocked Exxon Food Mart in Waynesboro. After topping off our fuel supplies we easily cruised the final eleven miles back to the finish.

We weren’t surprised to find the AVC riders long gone although our time wasn’t too shabby either at 4 hours and 45 minutes averaging around 15.5 mph for the 73 mile ride. Never one to leave well enough alone, Bill is going to revise the cue sheet some more to make the next time an even better ride.

Bicycle Touring in Mallorca
by Ann & Fred Abeles

Last year some biking friends suggested that we look into Mallorca (Majorca) for a bicycle tour. Mallorca is the largest of the Spanish Balearic Islands, located in the western Mediterranean off the coast of Spain. Checking the web, we found a bicycle tour of the island offered by Bike Tours Direct (www.biketoursdirect.com, 1638 Berkley Circle, Chattanooga, TN 37405, phone: 877 462 2423). This looked like the perfect option, 7 nights, self-guided, about 30 miles per day for $718 per person. We booked the trip for April 20 - 30, 2006, including an extension of 1 day before and 2 days after the tour (for an additional cost of $425). We paid a total of $1861 (exchange rate at the time was $1.22/E) for the two of us for the tour and extra days. Because we were bringing our own bicycles, this total did not include the rental fee for bikes ($75 per bicycle per week) but it did include full breakfast and dinner each day, including the extra days.



There are no direct flights from the Washington, DC area to Palma, Mallorca so, after checking various flight and ferry combinations, we used a travel agent (Dan Travel, 800-775-4922) to book the round trip via British Air to Heathrow and Spanair to Palma for a total of $780 for both of us. By having our flights booked on one ticket, our luggage could be booked through and we only had to pick up boarding passes at Flight Connections in Heathrow rather than go through ticketing again. Additional expenses included $108 for parking at Dulles and about $300 for alcoholic beverages, lunches, entrance fees, etc.

On Mallorca, the tour was operated by Eurobike (www.eurobike.at) and went extremely well. There were 29 of us, all German, Austrian or Swiss except for Fred and me. Because we were the only English speaking couple, the tour guide, Stefan Lindemann, arranged to meet with us a day early to go over the general tour materials as well as the specific maps and cue sheets for each day’s ride. The maps gave us a good overview of the route we would follow and the cue sheets were very detailed. In addition, he told us, all of the turns along the route were marked with a distinctive posted or painted arrow indicating the correct way. Everyone was booked into the same starting hotel on Friday and there was a general orientation and bike fitting beginning at 9 on Saturday morning. Because we both speak a little German, we also attended the general orientation which gave us a chance to meet our fellow riders. Several were surprised to see Americans on the tour and wondered how we had discovered it (on the web, of course!). Each day we left our luggage at the hotel front desk to be delivered to our next hotel. Then we were free to ride at our own pace to the next destination. Stefan also arranged a meeting point for each day, where riders could meet with him if they needed some assistance. Fred and I brought our Dahon folding bikes but the others used the rental bikes which were 21 speed hybrid type bicycles, very adequate for the occasional cobblestone path or gravel trail.

The first day we biked from our hotel, El Cid in Can Pastilla, a beach suburb of Palma, to San Jordi. The trip began with an easy 5 mile ride along the beachfront promenade and then turned inland, past farm fields and olive groves, before returning to the coast to view one of the watch towers built by early inhabitants of the island, the Talaiot. We continued on a zig-zag route past windmills, salt lakes and on to the resort/hotel, Club Colonia de Sant Jordi in San Jordi. We felt quite special as we were greeted with flowers and complementary champagne on our way into the sumptuous evening buffet. I commented to one of the other bikers that this was like being on a cruise but with better activities. On our second day we first biked to the Botanicactus, a botanical garden near ses Salinas with one of Spain’s largest cactus collections. Other highlights of the day’s trip were the stone bridge “Es Pontas” near Cala Santanyi and the beautiful inlet at Cala Figuera. We then had a fairly straight route with some hills and many lovely vistas on our way to Porto Cristo where we spent the night at Hotel Felip on the bay.



Monday we headed inland, first visiting the market in Manacor and then heading over the steep pass and into Petra. We opted to take the scenic gravel trail over the pass where the views were beautiful but we had to walk our bikes over the steepest part. In Petra, the birthplace of Serra Juniper, founder of San Francisco, there were over a hundred bikers relaxing in the Placa Fra. Juniper. We stopped for lunch near Petra and then headed down to Can Picafort on the north coast. For the next two nights, Monday and Tuesday, we stayed at the Hotel Platja Daurada in Can Picafort. The hotel/resort is a favorite for cyclists as they had 4 specially equipped garages for bicycle storage. Tuesday was an optional day with a chance to bike through a large bird refuge, S’Albufera de Mallorca Natural Park, and on to Pollenca and Alcudia. Since I am an amateur bird watcher, I coerced Fred to spend more time in the bird refuge with me. Then we biked through Mar del Plata and visited a fascinating bike shop filled with lots of team jerseys and biking outfits. Finally we biked into the old walled city of Alcudia. After touring the little town, we settled into some comfortable chairs in the square and enjoyed coffee and the town sights. Several members of the tour group stopped and joined us in the afternoon sun.

On Wednesday, we had a beautiful ride past orange groves and fields of poppies and daisies as we biked inland to Inca. There we loaded our bikes onto a trailer and were bussed into the mountains to the monastery at Lluc. Our bus passed large numbers of cyclists biking up the mountain to the monastery. These mountains are a favorite training area for serious cyclists including those training for the Tour de France. After touring the grounds and museums we then were bussed through the tunnel near the summit on the road to Soller. At that point, we got back on our bicycles and biked down the mountain, stopping at Fornalutx for a fabulous paella dinner, and then on to Hotel Marina in Porto Soller for the night.

The next day we took the old trolley back up to Soller and where we boarded the historic train, the “Red Rocket” to Palma, about 1 hours’ ride. In Palma, we were met by a guide who gave us a tour of some of the high points including the Catedral de Mallorca.. This huge cathedral was first started in 1300 following the conquest of Moors. It was built on the site of an earlier mosque and was finally completed about 1900. The interior, especially the main altar area, was extensively remodeled by the Spanish artist, Antoni Gaudi in 1904 - 1914. The huge rose window is the world’s largest. After touring the cathedral, we walked through a bit more of the old city and met Stefan with our bikes just outside the old walls. From there we had an 8 mile ride on the bike path along the waterfront back to our hotel in Can Pastilla. That evening, during dinner, many of us agreed that this was a well planned and fascinating bicycle tour. Several members of the group had opted to keep their bicycles for a couple more days in order to see a bit more of Palma. We also were happy to have more time to see Palma. Friday we took the bus into the old city and toured museums, the Arab Baths (the only remaining structures from the Moorish era), the Museum of the City of Mallorca, and a little gem, the Casa Museum of Torrents Llado, a wonderful artist from Mallorca. Saturday we biked back into Palma and spent the day biking around the old city, enjoying the labyrinthine streets and interesting sites. Finally we biked back to the hotel and packed away our bicycles. We had time to relax over coffee along the strand, watching the surf sailors fly with the wind across the bay. We both felt that this had been a wonderful and well planned bicycle adventure.