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.