Cedar Bluffs Nature Preserve Ride

By Glenn Berger


I hope everybody enjoyed the ride as much as I did.  Yes it was a little hilly, but boy was the weather perfect and the scenery nice.

This was my first attempt at leading a Saturday ride and I was quite surprised by the turnout (33 people/bikes!).  Instead of the normal talk about how scenic this or that was I'll simply give a few observations from my first lead ride of the year.

(1)  This is a great club and I really enjoy riding with all of you.

(2)  Don't be bashful about being a ride leader.  It really is easy...here's all you have to do...print maps and hand them out and just say go.  Then just let the group mentality take over and enjoy a nice paced ride at the back and make some new friends or revisit with some old ones (I got to do BOTH ;).

Glenn instructs some of the group at Bryan Park.

(Click for larger version.)

As for the details...I don't have exact numbers, but around 7 people split off at Ketchum and Fluck Mill for the 17 mile route, but in the end some of them ended up with 32 miles.  The remainder group stayed together until Popcorn where the long haulers, around 10 or so, made a right turn and all the rest of us turned left to go into Harrodsburg and finally back to Bloomington.

Here we are at the stop next to Cedar Bluffs on Ketcham Road.

I hope everybody had great time!

Next Blog

Google made a lot of small improvements to Blogger over the winter. For me, especially, posting seems much quicker and easier.

Have you tried clicking on the "Next Blog" button at the top of the page?  They've finetuned this feature, so that it takes you to other closely related blogs. So you'll find a lot of other bicycling blogs of one sort or another just by idly following your mouse. Some are more interesting than others, of course. Give it a try!

-Allan Edmonds

Fluck Mill

By Allan Edmonds

We did a pleasant 20 mile loop down and up on Ramp Creek, through Smithville, across 37, by Fluck Mill, and back into town climbing Victor. The weather was nice and sunny, slightly cool, in the low 60s and gradually dropping through the ride.

We started out with 14 riders and 13 bikes (Glenn and daughter on tandem). The group included one person on his first club ride and several on their first OWLS ride of the season. Several familiar faces from last season back for more. We picked up a couple of extra riders along the way, and then lost a handful of people who decided "to return home another way."  When we were briefly stopped for regrouping at the Kroger on Walnut Street Pike, Stan congratulated me on getting back with over 50% of the riders who started out. We got back a little after 7:30. I wouldn't want to be much later, especially for for those who still have a mile or two to get home. By 7:35 it definitely feels like dusk.

Here we are at our regular regrouping spot at the church at Fairfax and Ramp Creek:

(click to enlarge)

We had to wait a bit for Doug and Cathy to catch up. Cathy had her computer pop off and bounce into the weeds. Doug stopped to help search for it. They found it!

Here's Doug, followed by Cathy cresting Ramp Creek:

ABC Ride

By Allan Edmonds

Saturday was the last official day of winter and it was a great day for a club ride. Just cool enough that I could wear some of my Christmas gear for the first time--knee warmers and a vest. There will be some times later this spring that will be much less inviting.

It was a ride rarely scheduled for a main Saturday ride, the Around Boltinghouse Cruise. The long option was 22 miles. No one, so far as I know, opted for the short 16 mile option. (I did that one around 10 or so years ago on a mid summer Nice and Easy: way too hot to go all the way, so we cut it off.)

We had another remarkably big group--26 riders in all--but no leader. Mike Finger got us organized. Perhaps half the group planned to do an extended version of up to 45 miles. Otherwise the rest of us did the main route in a couple of groups. As expected, the main challenge there was getting up Lenz. The sand and rough roads were sometimes a bit tricky.

The length was good for me, leaving me time and energy to do some yard work and plant our early spring vegetable garden, including sugar snap peas, kale, spinach, chard, and radishes. Now if we can just keep the deer away.

It would be nice to see a few more people step up lead an occasional ride.

The Tramway 19

By Allan Edmonds

Ten OWLS did a hilly route to the west on a fine spring evening. The temperature was in the low 60s, dropping a bit as the sunlight waned. Nineteen miles was just about right, with people able to get home by 7:30, well before sunset at 7:56. We stopped at the bridge on the Clear Creek Trail for a photo-op and introductions.

(Click to enlarge.)

In the photo are Chris, Tammy Tom, Dan, Greg, Ben, Gail, and Bill. Patrick stopped short of the bridge for a little equipment adjustment. We picked up a final rider (John) around the half-way point. Soon after that people gradually split off to head home, so that we got back to the park with about 5 riders.

We had serious climbs on That Road up to 37, two good climbs on Rockport around the Independent Limestone Company, the familiar climb up Victor as we headed back toward town, not to mention the steady climbs up Schacht Road and the finish along Sare.

As usual county roads were in rough shape in several stretches, with Tramway being perhaps the worst. For whatever reason, Rockport was classed to through traffic from Tramway onward, resulting in a bit more traffic than usual on Tramway.

First OWLS ride of 2010

The Owls met at 5:45 on Tuesday at SOCC for the first ride of the new season.  The weather was in the mid-50’s with enough sun to keep us warm.   A total of nine riders completed the 17 mile, mostly flat ride at an average speed of 13.5 mph.  We rode through neighborhoods to route 446, then out Knightridge to Holly Lane and returned by the same route.  We made it home with plenty of light remaining for those who had a few miles more to ride home.

(Click to Enlarge)

Report by ride leader Tom Reynolds.

ANNUAL BBC BANQUET

We had our annual End-of-Winter banquet and business meeting at Chapman's on Saturday evening, March 6.

By decision of the executive board and in a departure from recent practice we charged a nominal $5 per person. (The actual cost is closer to $20.) This helps people take RSVP a little more seriously, and it also is more in line with our non-profit status.

There were approximately 90 people there, including several guests from agencies that received BBC grants this year.

Social Director Autumn McCoy opened the evening with a welcome and some announcements. Mark Villanova offered an invocation.

After dinner co-president Jennifer Miers presided.

She introduced several club members who said a few words about the different ride opportunities this year: Saturday touring rides (with short medium and long options, including century possibilities at least once a month in the summer), Sunday NiceNEasy rides, Tuesday/Thursday Training Rides, Wednesday women's rides, Tuesday/Thursday OWLS training rides, and, something new, Saturday afternoon Slow Spokes rides.

Jennifer Smallwood, chair of our Grant Committee introduced representatives of the various groups and agencies that received funding through our grant process, and those people shared a few words about their grant plans. It was actually quite heartening to see the kinds of "micro-financed" activities going on in the community from our grants. We'll discuss this more in another post. For now, let's emphasize that it is the income from RAIN, the Ride Across Indiana, that has allowed us to develop our grant program, which fits very nicely in with our non-profit status. In particular it is the income from jersey sales, developed by RAIN director Joe Anderson and Barbara Anderson, that has funded our grants.

Then we moved to election of officers. Secretary Keith Bobay introduced the slate put forward by the nominating committee. The following were elected to one-year terms:

Keith Vogelsang, President
Mark Villanova, Vice President
Kathy Cummins, Secretary
Joe Anderson, Treasurer

We would be remiss without mentioning the retiring officers: Co-presidents Jen Miers and Mark Napier, Vice President Tom Whitehead, and Secretary Keith Bobay, and thanking them for their effective service to the club this past year. In addition here are some of the people who  served in other capacities in 2009:

Adopt-a-Road initiative: Jen Miers
Nice 'N Easy rides: Ron Brown
Women's Rides: Jen Miers
Touring Director: Mike Finger
Blog editor: Allan Edmonds
Website: Mark Napier, Keith Vogelsang
Web Re-design: Klaus Rothe
Safety and Education: Cathy Meyer
Advocacy: Keith Vogelsang
Grants: Jennifer Smallwood
RAIN director: Joe Anderson
Membership: Tammy Berger, succeeding Jim Lang
Nominating Committee: Keith Vogelsang
OWLS organization: CE Taylor
Electronic map development: Jim Schroeder

(Let me know if I've inadvertently omitted someone who should be on this list.)

Finally Cathy Meyer introduced the evening's speaker, Raymond Hess, Senior Transportation Analyst for the city of Bloomington, bicycling commuter, and trained League of American Bicyclists instructor, discussed issues of bicycling safety. Interestingly, he pointed out that of all bicycling crashes, only 17% involve motorized vehicles. Of those, fully half are the fault of the cyclists. He then proceeded to discuss the most common issues in bicycle/car interaction.

The Season Begins

Saturday March 6 marked an auspicious beginning of a new ride season for the BBC.

In the morning around 24 riders did the ride to Muscatatuck and Beyond under the able leadership of Touring Director Mike Finger. Although he says he didn't get an accurate count, he assures us that with 95% probability everyone made it home safely. Kathy Smith reported on Facebook that she did right at 31 miles and returned home with a warm glow.

By afternoon the temperature was about 50 and a dozen riders came out for the inaugural ride of the new Slow Spokes group and did a 20 mile out and back to the Waterworks, averaging about 10 mph on the bike.

A special thanks to Anndra Morgan, Jodi Pope-Pfingston, and Marion Kreifeldt for organizing this new family-friendly, new rider-friendly, group.

So all together we had around 36 riders out on the first nice Saturday in a long time. Great!