Sunday, November 15, 2009

Informal Ride to Hendricksville

By Allan Edmonds

Thanks to new club member Marion K for initiating an online proposal for a moderate informal club ride last Saturday afternoon. A total of fourteen riders showed up, including newcomers and old-timers. Tom R fell naturally into a leadership role, getting us organized. As previously suggested by email we agreed to do the club's Hendricksville Ride to Rosie's, a little over 30 miles.

So off we went. On the way out of town we passed Joe W's group of six or so returning from their late morning ride.

We headed out 7th Street and Vernal Pike, as usual. For some reason I had a version of the route that took us on Howard Rd up to 43 in Whitehall rather than staying on Vernal. Everyone agreed to do it that way for a change. But we did have an extra hill climb that way. But the subsequent climb on Gardner headed back toward town dwarfed that.

We occasionally got a bit spread out. But several regrouping stops kept everyone together. We averaged right at an OWLSish 13 mph on the bike or about 10.8 including stopped time.

This was a nice group, not out to set any records, but succeeding to get out to enjoy a relatively warm, late autumn afternoon. Let's aim for more of these moderate weekend afternoon rides whenever the weather cooperates!