Ride Reports March 2008

Quick Tour of Mountaindale
January 12, 2008 by Mike Procario

Twelve riders were waiting at Whittier Elementary School for the arrival of Catherine Badger who was to lead her first ride today. Unfortunately, Catherine is under the weather and I had to substitute for her. The group was so excited about the chance to experience Catherine's charm and cycling acumen, that the disappointment on their faces was palpable when they learned that I would be leading the ride. I handed out the cue sheets and we headed off under clear skies with calm winds and temperatures in the 40's.

The ride attendees included Mike Procario, Harry DeMoll, Jon Disbennett, Craig Pollack, Jeff Johnson, Brian King, Dawn Hough, Ted Lindsey, Chuck Wilson, Terry Eskuchen, Ray Gable and Bill Smith.

The group held together for only a brief period until Team Testosterone disappeared down the road. We regrouped to cross Route 15, but the hills on Lenhart separated the men from the boys again. As we rolled north on Old Frederick Road, I lost sight of Team Testosterone in front of me and the training wheel set behind me. It was a big group, but I still spent miles riding alone.

We made a rest stop at 7-Eleven on Angleburger and Route 15. Where we had our first failure to find an available restroom. Some of Team Testosterone decided to take a shortcut up Putman Road rather than take the planned route over Fish Hatchery. Apparently, it was a good shortcut because when the main group arrived at the intersection of Fish Hatchery and Putman Road, they were waiting for us.

We experienced another restroom failure at Mountaindale General Store, but we made it back without incident. Nine of us completed the ride all the back to Whittier. The less dedicated headed home early. I am sure that nobody would have bailed out on Catherine.

We had no crashes, no flats, one chain problem, and a minimal number detours off the route, so I will declare it a success.

Lights and Pizza
January 23, 2008 by Bill Smith

My what a chilly ride last night! The frosty souls attending last night included Bill Smith, Catherine Badger, Chris Borkman, Simon Frechette, John Gantnier, Henrik Olsen and Mike Procario. We departed in 33-degree temps and finished with cold toes and fingers, after 26 miles, in 27-degree temps. After a quick battery stop at Rite Aid, we were on our way. The traffic poured south on New Design Rd as if, as John said, "they're giving away gas". We eventually merged into traffic and headed south with the hordes of gasoline consumers. The ride leader dueled just a wee bit with an inconsiderate motorist at Corporate Drive, as we cyclists took our lane and the inconsiderate, nonturn- signal using "cager" made his way in front of and around us to make his right turn.

As we turned onto Elmer Derr Rd, Sheldon Shealer left us a message on the leader's cell phone reminding him that it was actually a cold night. Armed with this new information, we continued through the Elmer Rd tunnel and over to Jefferson for some miles on pitch-dark Richard Remsburg Rd and hills to warm us.

As we approached the warming climb up Mountville Rd from Jefferson to Adamstown, a kind motorist reminded us that we needed to "get a (fookin') car". That was very kind of him, as we thought he might do the same; the vehicle he was driving resembled the ever-so-popular P.O.S. that we see driven by the biased and undereducated redneck yahoo stereotypical road-hogging anti-bicycle gasolineover- consuming fellows of our area. Then we visited Doubs, and as the "Fun Meters" dropped along with the temperatures, we decided it would be a nice idea to head north and back home. Another kind SUV driver felt it necessary to encourage us in our quest to exercise by reminding us that we should "get off the (fookin') road, you (fookin') retard" at New Design and Manor Woods roads. We thanked the kind man as he sped away for thinking of us. I told him to "have a nice day" (really). I wondered why last night's motorists were in such a collective bad mood. Could they be worried about the stock market? We reached the end of the ride as visions of hot baths and showers danced in our head.

Let's do it again next week.

Littlestown Breakfast
Janaury 26, 2008 by Bill Smith

Today, Ray Gable, Catherine Badger and Vicki and I (on our tandem) rode from Taneytown to Littlestown PA for breakfast.

It was a wee bit chilly - about 28 degrees - when we left, but we did have some strong sunshine that helped a bit. After only a couple of miles we caught up to two other cyclists from Taneytown on Walnut Grove Rd who were out for some cold-weather mileage as well. Ray decided, just before entering Pennsylvania on MD194, that it would be a good time to test his flat-repairing skills and his birthday present (from four months ago) - a CO2 cartridge pump. He had happened upon a rock in the roadway on Ruggles Rd. After a tiny bit of fiddling around he was successful and we were on our way.

We reached Dutterer's in Littlestown in plenty of time for breakfast. I had the number nine (eggs, bacon, french toast). Vicki had some other number, and I remember that she consumed toast and scrapple. Catherine ate a nice little pile of scrapple too, which received rave reviews from both ladies. I don't remember what Ray ordered, but his plate was cleaned first. I thought that the food was really good. From there we ambled on a 6-mile loop north and east and then back into Littlestown; from there we headed south again, via a brief detour around a closed road (Boyer's Rd), using roads from the club century of two years ago, and back to our autos.

I think the high temperature was about 40 degrees. We were in the sun for all 33 miles, except for a couple of minutes at ride's end. This was Vicki's coldest ride ever undertaken. We all liked the route and plan to do it again in warmer weather.

Lights and Pizza
January 30, 2008 by Bill Smith

Two very good things about last night - one, it was not as cold as the previous week and two, the motorists, while generally harried and unfriendly, were better than the previous week.

We explored the Middletown valley last night. Our riders included me, Chris (fixie) Borkman, John (Tulsa) Gantnier , Corey (pre-cal c) Rabideau and Bernie (Floyd) Sellers. We started out pretty easy and Bernie was nice enough to keep to the back with me as I struggled to pedal my milk truck up the climbs. As the night wore on, however, Bernie seemed to catch fire, as he led us up, over and down the hills with enough vigor that we may test him for steroids next week.

Corey broke a rear derailleur cable in Jefferson, just before the Mountville Rd climb. As a stopgap measure, we pulled out the broken cable from the front brake and shifter assembly, shifted and held his derailleur onto a middle-range gear, and then we unbolted his front water bottle cage and re-bolted it back on to hold the cable taught. That allowed him to continue riding the full ride, but as a three-speed bike instead. He still hurt us on the climbs. Well, I don't think he put the hurts to Bernie.

We ended with about 26 miles at 13.5 mph - typical for us in the cold weather. Several skunks were smelled, but none were spotted. Corey and I split a hot pizza afterwards. Dr. Borkman went home to enjoy spaghetti and an evening in the hot tub. Topics of evening on-bike discussion included how much some of us hate working for a living, how bright the stars were last night, Corey's skiing expedition in Canada, Bernie's halfironman plans, and what life would be like for pedestrians if bicyclists treated them the way motorists treat bicyclists.

Culler Lake
February 3, 2008 by Terry Eskuchen

The Sunday afternoon ride was blessed with beautiful weather. Seven of us started from Culler Lake in Frederick at 1:00 PM. Besides me, there was Betsy Lapadula, Brian King, Dawn Hough, Craig Pollack, Ray Gable and Catherine Badger. We headed out Oppossumtown Pike, got to Hansonville and turned onto Mountaindale. At Bethel we split up. Catherine, Ray and Craig chose to go straight for a longer, more difficult ride, while they remaining four of us turned onto Bethel, eventually connecting with O'Possumtown. We ended up at Culler Lake with exactly 20 miles. It was a wonderful ride. Thanks for all of you that came out and joined me.

Bagel Ride
Led by Stephen Walter February 9, 2008 report by Bill Smith

Steve Walter was met on a cool, wet morning at Rose Hill Plaza by Lynne Rosenbusch, John Fauerby, Jeff Johnson and Bill Smith. We started out on an easterly route out MD144 and south to Ijamsville. Steve likes this route because it is hilly. Steve likes all hilly routes. Steve also likes to take his friends on hilly routes. So, like lemmings, we followed Steve on his hilly roads. Fortunately, we got a rest when Bill Smith’s front tire went flat twice in a span of one mile.

Ambling south and then curving over to a spot just north of Adamstown, a very bizarre weather phenomenon occurred. He clouds parted, the sun shone brightly, the temperature rose to 55, and John Fauerby took off his tights. Fortunately, underneath were his shorts. Steve took us back into Frederick and to ZiPani’s via a route that was surprisingly not hilly.

Bill's Pre-Birthday Ride and Birthday Ride
February 16 & 17, 2008 by Bill Smith

Feb 16
Since we were looking at the possibility of wet precip the next day, Ray Gable, Catherine Badger, Harry DeMoll, Craig Pollack & I did a slightly-shortened version of the birthday ride today. The original ride was planned for 50 miles; we knocked it down by 5 miles to 45.

As we watched Harry struggle with his tight shoe covers we saw Betsy Lapadula and Terry Eskuchen heading north on Opossumtown Pike - we did not expect to catch up to them. Off we went finally, as Harry's shoe cover struggle ended in victory.

As we got to Bartgis Rd at Sundays Lane we saw Terry and Betsy beginning to work on fixing Terry's flat tire. Ray and Catherine rode on ahead to check the route for glass, debris and roadkill while Harry, Craig & I pitched in to repair said evil flat tire. Just as we finished, Ray & Catherine returned with a full report - the road ahead was clear of debris. Off we went again - The Three Bicycle Repairmen had done their duty. (We're going to be featured in a calendar next month - look for us in Cosmopolitan Mag).

We climbed Gravel Hill Rd the hard way - from west to east - into Woodsboro, then headed up MD550 and then north over the Legore Bridge. Then we wound our way over to Thurmont and ate at the Kountry Kitchen (KK). Craig and I will attest that the cinnamon-apple pancakes where about 33% too massive. Harry's "soup" looked more like stew. Ray enjoyed his lunch and so did Catherine. The ambience at the KK was as lovely as usual; the music ranged from Country to Western ("both kinds of music"). We schlepped our way back to Frederick, strangely having never experienced a tailwind on the entire ride.

Feb 17:
Well, the shortened birthday ride went of f today, featur ing a reappearance of some of the "Bicycle Repair Men" (catch their latest gig Friday evenings playing the spoons (and tire irons) at BikeWaller's Saloon). We spent a couple of minutes fixing Terry Eskuchen's front flat tire again - very strange (same tire as yesterday) - it went flat while she was cycling to the ride start, so she loaded said bike into her car and drove to the ride start where we repaired it. Our ride today featured a special guest appearance by Jenny Gable - still reeling from sickness - Jenny retired early, not feeling up to 30 or 40 miles. We all hope you get better soon, Jenny. Husband Ray, not reeling from any sickness, continued on in stride, knowing full well that Jenny could not possibly rest easy knowing that Ray wasn't out on his bike getting miles. Those who hung on for the full forty miles (ten less than advertised because the rain was coming our way) were Simon Frechette, Jeff "Bike Lust" Johnson, the aforementioned Ray Gable and Terry Eskuchen, Vicki and me on our tandem, Steve Walter and Betsy Lapadula. Another special guest appearance was put in at the start by Mike Procario, who stopped by to say "hello". Mike is also a little under the weather.

We ambled north to Mountaindale on Putman Rd, then blasted on the downhill and across US15 to make our way to the Thurmont Sheetz for a quick stop for some food and drink (and a very important potty stop.) Quick most definitely describes this stop, as it was very chilly, very cloudy, and looking like rain any minute. We took the straight way back to Frederick down Hessong Bridge Rd and the ride was history.

Special thanks to Steve Walter for the nice birthday card (yes, Steve, AARP is in my near future) and Betsy Lapadula for a deliciously huge oatmeal raisin cookie which remained uneaten for a very short time.