Ride Reports January/February 2008

Thurmont Breakfast Ride
November 17, 2007 by George Ruszat

The morning was crisp without Friday's breezes
To Monocacy Middle came Bill wearing the family's sneezes

Betsy and Harry both arrived by car
Their dwellings being from places afar
But Harry was cold and needed a vest
Was supplied by Betsy - Oh - she's the best!

And Joyce pedaled from a distance away
A ten mile warm up to begin her day

From around the corner came Ray without Jenn
Didn't see much of him in the lead while I was at the end
Arriving at 8:59:45 was ole no flats Mike
I think he loves his Steelers as much as his bike

Koman came for his first winter ride ever
Braving cold, wind and hills - a heroic endeavor
Catherine got lost on her way to the school
But sporting the 60's satin jacket - true meaning of cool

And up on their steel Jamis steeds rode the intrepid three
Proudly mounted were Dottie, Chuck and yours truly

Thus the magnificent eleven came to Thurmont - a ravenous bunch
Eagerly devouring Country Kitchen's excellent brunch

On the return to Frederick with stiff wind in out face
An enjoyable ride albeit a somewhat slower pace
A thirty mile ride from beginning to end
What could be better than to ride with a friend
Or ten - Amen!

Piney Mountain Ride
November 17, 2007 by John Fauerby and Lynne Rosenbusch

It was a cool grey morning. Not uncomfortably cool, but cool enough to look forward to climbing. The air was dry. The clouds stretched across the sky in uniform grey. It was a perfect day to Hit The Peaks. This was a 73-mile ride that went over four peaks and hit the peak of the fall foliage. What more could we have asked for?

Jeff Johnson joined ride leaders Lynne Rosenbusch and John Fauerby on this mid November day. The ride stated at 8:10 from Thurmont. We headed north and encountered the lowest point on the ride on Creamery Road just after the bridge and before the slow climb to cross U.S. 15 going into Emmitsburg. Shortly after crossing U.S. 15, we went past the new Emmitsburg fire station.

Up to this point of the ride and it was to be on the rest of the ride, the color of the leaves on all the trees was at its peak. With the grey sky and the light browns of the harvested fields, the trees brightened everything up with brilliant yellows and glowing reds. We reminisced about the old days when all the leaves would have been faded by this part of the year and would have mostly fallen from the trees.

We headed north into Adams County. After a rest stop in Arendtsville at the Getty, (no shirtless, shoeless, sockless boys on this cool grey morning) the ride took a serious turn as we headed up the gradual climb through the gap in Bear Mountain. We started the 3-mile climb to pass over Piney Mountain. This climb took us up through the various elevations where John found plenty of time to observe the color of the leaves in the orchards. In the orchards below 1300 feet, the leaves were still mostly green. Above 1300 feet, they had turned to brilliant colors. Jeff proclaimed that this was a steep climb. This was his first time to bicycle to the northwest of Arendtsville. So as not to be confused, the range of mountains we were climbing and going to spend most of the afternoon in is the South Mountain (notice that the name is mysteriously not plural). However, let this be repeated, we climbed the Piney Mountain portion of South Mountain. We then descended into the valley between the two ridges of South Mountain that is between Piney Mountain and Big Flat.

We turned south and noticed that we had finally found trees with no leaves. We slowly descended for about four miles passing by the former Chambersburg Reservoir. The earthen dam has been removed, trees have been planted within the last couple of years where the long lake used to be and where now is a curvy, narrow stream. We passed by Caledonia State Park that has a new visitors center. By this point, the tree leaves were again at their peak and we were in Franklin County.

We went up a gradual four-mile climb on the Rocky Mountain portion of South Mountain next to the Rocky Mountain stream. When we reached the top, we turned left into the town of South Mountain that is not to be confused with the mountain. We rode past the large Restoration campus with its large brick buildings and wondered if this was where people recovered from TB by sitting and hiking in the sun producing vitamin D which fought the terrible disease in the by-gone era. We were going to stop at the store in the center of town, but it has closed. The hotel was open, but it's not the type of place we would go into. We continued up the gradual climb on the east side of the town until we reached the highest point of the ride and turned onto Old Forge Road for the long 9-mile descent. That is one of the prettiest places around. We finally reached Rouzerville and took a late lunch stop at the AC&T. This place has lots of room inside, is clean and open, has everything we want, has excellent quality, and only the service is a little slow, but polite.

After lunch, we headed up the mountain on Old 16 and turned onto Buena Vista. At the top of this final short steep climb is the long and tall rock fence separating the road from a few houses. We then glided into Washington County. We traveled parallel to the railroad tracks through Cascade back into Adams County. We then went past the Mason Dixon Marker into Frederick County and mostly descended for 9 miles to complete the ride at 4:30.