Chapter 10-October 14th-Moon Light Ride

Every year for the last 5, except for last year, the year before that, oh and maybe the year before that, we have gone on a moonlight bike ride. Don't jump to the conclusion that it's a romantic ride. Shaun is just not my cup of Tea, nor is John, and Paula would kick my a*&. The moon light ride is an excuse to get together and have fun on the bike path under a bright fall moon.

In the past the ride usually had 6-10 riders, all dressed in very heavy bike clothes and hats. On this ride, long fingered gloves are a must. Tights are a must and something to cover your shoes to keep the cold breeze off your toes is definately required. Minimal lighting is required. Usually Shaun brings one light and everybody follows him. Butt lights are definately required. Many times it is hard to see the biker in front of you so you need the blinky light to tell you when the bike in front has stopped. Even so, even with flashy butt lights, you can really get introuble.. like when you are following Paula through a gate and she decides to stop. Butt lights don't help much when your front wheel is jambed into her rear wheel.. Jeeze.

The Full Moon in October (Fall) was the 13th and 14th. I had asked Shaun some weeks ago if we were going to put together another fall ride at night. He showed no enthusiasm, I got the hint when he said, "No Bryan, I'm not interested." Drats I thought I will have to post the ride myself. So the next day I opened my email to post it, and lo and behold, Shaun was feeling sorry for himself and he posted the ride.. Great, WOW, I'm in. Actually Shaun is 160 miles short of his goal of 2500 for the year, and he needed milage so he sucked the rest of us in on this ride so he would have company. I unfrotunately only have 1200 miles, sadly the season was interrupted in August, but that is another story which I will share with you later on the 2008 My Ride With Duke Closing Blog.

I got home that night and scrambled around for my bike clothes, and the winter stuff. I had a hard time finding a hat that would fit under bike helmet.. I hate those hats they make me look like..............well they are bad. My bike clothes were where I left them last time, under the dresser, in the closet, in a wad by the bedroom door.. Yes I have great system of storage. I was very excited, the Moonlight ride was on!!!!

When Monday arrived I got to the bike path way early before anybody else. I was so excited that I arrived 15 minutes early. Even the looks I got from the walkers as I got of of car with my underarmor top, covered by my long sleeve bike shirt, covered by my yellow vest, my yellow coat, long fingered gloves, my condom hat, my tights, and bike shoes with plastic on them, was priceless. All the stares, and then when I put my light on my helmet they actually gawked. Nobody had the courage to approach me, although a two year old waved at me, he loved it.. but he also had mismatching pair of socks on.

Well I waited and waited. Finally Paula pulled in, Shaun not far behind her, and John Y, road by on Route 8 getting more miles in. When I informed Shaun that he was late, he pointed out that it was still 15 minutes before the appointed ride time. I guess I was excited.

So we stood around and waited and waited for the mass of bikers to show up, but to no avail, just us.. That was ok. Four bikers is better than one.

The weather was terrific on October 13th, warm, for an October evening. We started off about 45 minutes before the sun set, so it was quite light. It takes about an hour to get up to the end so we hit Adams at about 6:30 and the darkness was all around. We snacked in Adams, at least Shawn was snacking, he brought picnic food, one banana. When he finished we headed back. Now the path was empty. No roller bladers, no lovers, nobody, just a dark empty bike path with 4 folks riding slowly, about 12 mph. We went slowly to ensure we didn't out run the head lights, they were all pretty dim and didn't illuminate stuff more that 10 feet

The only event that happened on the 13th was that the moon actually came out. It was almost full. We watched it rise from the trail as we pedaled back to the Lansboro parking area. The interesting thing about these rides are that it's so quiet the only noise you hear is the rolling tires through the leaves, and the whisper of the wind past your ear. Totally amazing, these night rides.

We liked it so much and since we only got 21 miles in we did it again the next night.. Except this time we started in Adams. Very close to Ms P's house. In fact as I drove by I saw her sitting on her steps already to go. Turns out she was waiting for a parent to pick up one of her day care kids. Boy you could tell she was mad when she drove up to the meeting place. What a look. It took her 7 miles to calm down.

The next night was supposed to be a real full moon and that might have made a difference if the sky was clear but alas, it was cloudy so when it got dark, it got dark. Good thing Shaun brought the big Mamma headlight that illuminated the trail up to 25 yards. My poor little light illuminated about 10 feet in front of me.

The ride down from Adams was cool. The fall foliage was in full force and the ambient light really put a display on the trees. We saw lots of Rabbits, the atypical bike path cougar cat (Paula's favorite), and a relative of a friend of Shauns. How come he's always saving snapping turtles? I kept looking around for it's mother. I figured like a bear cubs mom that some giant freaking snapping turtle would charge out of the swamp and chew our legs off. Of Course Paula and John were standing 10 feet away from this beast. (PS the claw you see is Shuans gloves, impressive aren't they?)

The cleaned the trail so there wern't a lot of dead leaves on the trail so we could go a bit faster. It's very scarry going through leaves, you don't know if they are slippery or if there is a big stick in them. Fortunately for us neither issue applied. When we reached the Lanesboro parking area, it was not quite dark.

The ride back up to Adams was quiet and dark. No moon, the clouds covered the full moon, a peak every now and then but sadly only a peak. We didn't talk much on the way back. We just kept the pedals turning.

Back at Adams, I was pretty happy that the weather was so warm. It was a great ride, and we had a good time. Maybe the next time we do this (3 or 4 years from now) we will get to see the moon.

Great ride Shaun, I hope you make your goal.

Chapter 9 - August 2nd, 2008- Hello, Hello. Where the Hell are You?

What good are cell phones when you can't call anybody because they have them off, or you don't know their number. It's like throwing a bottle with a note in the water, and watching it drift off. You don't know where it's going, how long it's going to take to get there, or what you should do while the bottle floats off. The start of yesterdays ride was like that, Shaun and I were the bottle with the note though. The note was sent out to the rest of the group, while Shaun and I bobbled around Lenox Dale.

In more modern terms, the Group left, I stopped and went back to check to make sure I locked my car ( we were in Lenox after all.) and by the time I turned around the only one left was Shaun (ever faithful) . No problem, we could catch them we thought, we turned right on East Street and endevored to catch them. When we got to the Lenox Dale bridge we found nobody, nada, no Old Guy bikers or biker ladies. We were adrift in the Flotsam of Lenox Dale, riding up and down the street, looking, wondering. Where the hell everybody went.
The problem came when self doubt crept into our minds, there is an alternate route to down town Lenox Dale and we figured they may have taken that and were waiting at the bottom of the hill. So Shaun did loops looking for them.. I assigned myself at bridge to wait and see if they came the other way. After, what I thought was forever, we finally decided to call Paula. Paula always carries her cell phone, and it's one of those fancy waterproof ones, so she would surly have it on. Wow we were close to finding them, all we had to do is call Paula. So Shaun whats her number??? No clue. Great. So I called home, got her number, then called her. Phone was off. Great!!! Shaun left a message, saying "Paula, we are going to Lee, hope to see you there." About that time Nicki came over the bridge and rescued us. Turns out that they were up the road around the next bend, trying to call me on my cell; which was in the car back at Lenoxdale. (Well it was going to rain, and after last storm, the phone hasn't worked well yet.)

So what lesson did we learn out of that? Well I learned that I have remember Paula's cell phone number, and that I have to make sure she has her phone on before she leaves Parking lot. And I also have to learn not to get seperated in first 2 minutes, or I will be on my own for the 50+ mile ride. Truth be told if I were on my own down to Lee I would have come back because I had no clue as to the route.

Ok now the philisopical thoughts. Cell phones have only been around for about 10 years, and you know I can't remember how I operated without one. I've come to depend on it for a communication tool. I get so much accomplished at work by being contacted on my phone. Friday at 3:30 I got a call from work that I was able to resolve from the comfort of my wifes car while she was flying down Holmes Road. But what good are they if they are off, or somebody doesn't give you their number to call. Is there a 411 for cell phones?? Wonder how much that costs, might be a ton, and i'm not sure that Duke is worth that much. Just kidding Duke your priceless. So I've decided that I'm going to take my phone and be apart of the new age, even though there are no towers in Dalton, or Sandisfield, I'm going to have it on, ready to recieve new calls from lost bikers. Just Ride!!!

The route was down to Sandisfield then back to Monterey, then down the hill to Lee. Great ride, tons of climbing. We started at teh Lenox High School. Ten people, Debby McI, Karen Mills, Mary Lou, Paula, and Nicki, Duke, Shaun, Dudly, Elmar, and Bryan. Once again 5 couples, non married to each other. Interesting still, but a great group.

It would have been a perfect day except for the fact that it was going to pour. I asked Duke last week to move the ride to Sunday because Saturdays forcast rotted. But he told me that what's a little rain. Typical Duke.. I didn't bother explaining to him that I hate cleaning my bike, that I really hate eating grit from road tires, that I really hate hitting pot holes that are full of water and you think is only an 1" deep and find out when you hit it that it's 6"s deep. And worst of all I really hate it when my chamois gets wet and it feels like a loaded diaper. At least what I think I remember what a loaded diaper feels like. But no matter we rode anyway, Just Ride is the mantra.

You know, as a blog writter I am finding it's much easier to get most of the material in the parking lot before the ride. This weekend was a typical example.

Those of you who are reading this blog are probably experienced bikers, and understand that the lycra bike shorts get thin with wear. You know thin enough to see through. In fact a number of years ago there was a gentle man that rode with use whose bike shorts were so thin he might as well not be wearing them. It was very tough to ride behind him, yet nobody would tell him that he was wearing see through shorts. Finally somebody, I can't remember whom, told him and that's all that it took, gone where the shorts, (well not then but the next ride.) Well I found out today that Mary Lou has been biking with a pair of thin shorts for awhile and somebody finally told her, she was naturally embarrassed. She bought new ones. You can check the new ones out in picture. Nice aren't they. She was quite embarrased about it and she was wondering why nobody told her. So she thought she would save $ and wondered if turning them inside out would work. Nah it didn't. But then she had better idea, go out and by black under pants. She said that didn't work out either.. Ouch..


What is the biking ediquate of telling somebody about thin shorts? Well I guess there is a rule. Guys tell guys and Gals tell Gals. The rule makes sense, I would never tell Mary Lou that her shorts were so thin that they were transparent. If I said something I would be labeled a pervert. So Shaun told me the rule. You know Mary Lou I feel for you. A couple of months ago I put on some shorts that I modeled in front of my wife, asking if they were see through and she said they were fine. ( I think she wanted me to squeeze a couple more rides out of them before I plopped $45 dollars down on another pair of Pearl Izumes.) At the end of the ride, Shaun comes up to me and says "Bryan, don't wear those shorts again. They are too thin." I was totally embarrassed for two reasons. One my buddy road behind me on that ride, so now I'm totally embarrased that she didn't say anything and two Shaun waited to the last 5 miles to tell me. Great. So I feel for you Mary Lou, I know all about the thin short syndrome, and don't worry if I notice that your shorts are thin, I will tell you.................

I guess everybody was in good mood, because the parking lot discussions, continued with Deb asking me to post a Man Wanted ad. You know it's not a bad idea.. Deb is terrific biker and has her own bike, so a new guy wouldn't have to buy one for her. I spent part of the ride trying to find out her man requirements and didn't get past "Breathing" You know, that interesting, Deb needs to add "must be dancer" because Deb can flat out dance. Well Deb I don't know the type but if you want to be a little choosier (and no Elmar isn't available.) let me know.

Finally we all decided to check out Karens new shoes. They are truly girly shoes, baby blue. Cute. She got them at Performance Sports if you need a pair. Oh buy the way, check out her wound from the earlier blogs, healed. Yes!!!!





Then finishing off the whole lets talk before we ride thing, Shaun and Duke decided to tell everybody a story about the last Thursday night ride. For those of you who weren't there it started in Hinsdale then went up to East Windsor Road. A great down hill. Shaun and Duke said there were two Irish Setters racing them down the hill. The guys and the dogs were doing 35 miles per hour and Shaun was totally impressed. As you can tell from the picture, Shaun and Duke were trying to explain how they ran, I guess you should have been there to believe it.

This was all just in the parking lot. I was writting so fast I couldn't get ready. But finally we left, not quite at 9. I already told you about getting lost. So when we finally grouped up we had lost a lot of time.

The ride to Sandisfield was nothing but up. We left Lenoxdale, then went down to rt 20 in Lee, did the rt 102 thing, then cut through Oak and Spruce, to rt 102 again, to Rt 7 in Stockbridge. At Monument Mtn HS we hung a left and cut over to Rt 23. From there it was all climbing all the way to Sandisfield/Monterey. I've heard that folks in Great Barrington start from the town and climb up to Sandisfield, and they call that the 11 mile climb. It's not very hard, but just takes forever. We climbed and climbed. I wondered when we were going to stop for a break. Finally we did, in Sandisfield. The picture shows the group gathering around a bunch of signs, but we pretty well knew where we were going, up. This is route 57. Pretty scenic, I would have taken more pictures, but everybody just kept pedaling, and I hate stopping and then having to pedal like hell to catch up. So I only took a few pics.

One other thing about this ride made it interesting. John C. was on his Pan Mass Bike Ride. We sorely missed him and thought that we should show how much by adding a picture of a barn in this Blog for him. What turned out to be a nice thought turned out to be a battle of which barn should I take a picture of. All Shaun and Paula did was complain to me that I didnt get the right barn. But I didn't care, I knew what I was looking for and this is it John. We were thinking of you. All of us.

When we finally got to Monterey we took a long needed rest. We all were wondering if the store was open. As you can see it was. It's pretty neat place, but they didn't have much pastry. but that didn't matter we spent most of our time looking at people anyway. In this picture you can see Paula and Mary Lou resting up. The rest of the group stood next to the store and replenished their water supply. Every time I come to this store, I wonder where Dukes Green haired buddy is.

What is it about this store? It brings out the weirdest people. Dudly brings out a purse he carries. Well let me tell you when Deb saw that purse she decided to scratch Dudly off the Man List. Frankly I thought the purse was kind of cute. Then Dudly starts talking about how he wants to milk a Lama. OMG what's up with that? Milk a Lama. Chet should have been with us, Chet likes Lauma's too, but I don't think Chet has a purse.

We were close to home and the rain about now. As soon as we left the store the rain started. It poured at times, and the road was very wet. It slowed me down that's for sure. But the others didn't seem to care, both Nicki and Duke broke 51 mph on the down hill. Holy Catfish Batman I was doing 45 and panicing. You go guys, but you remember that the Tyringham Ambulance Squad ain't the hottest.

Even in the pouring rain the ride was great. The last 15 miles it was every man for him/herself. It was pouring the roads were treacherous, and the potholes deep. I stopped in the middle of a down pour to take this picture. And everybody kept going but Shaun, he waited for me and escourted me back to the start. It was fitting, because he and I were alone at the beginning and we were alone at the end.

I should tell you that Shaun road an additional 14 miles to/from his house. You go guy.

The following pic is the Rooster.. See what you missed John???

Chapter 8 - July 6, 2008 - No Whining as Ride Leader

Alissa told me that there is a rule pertaining to ride leaders, you aren't alowed to whine about the ride; you can't whine about the climbs, or the roads or the potholes or anything. Let me tell you that rule is unfair and it almost killed me. The route was one of the hardest I've done in a while. To prove it, I took a picture of Karen at the end of the day (thanks for allowing it Kap.) She's a strong biker and she was pooped. It must have killed her when we pedaled by her house about 4 miles before the end of the ride. How tempted was she when she went by, she wouldn't say, couldn't catch her breath. Then before we even started, Alissa also nagged on me about driving my car from home to Wahconah, 2.7 miles. Last time a ride started there I drove the 2.7 miles from home. This time I got an email from Shaun warning me that I would catch hell from her if I drove. He was right, she barely stopped pedaling and she was on my case about driving my car, which I didn't thank God. Talk about a bike Mom.

I really don't know how to start this Blog. When I write one of these I usually have a game plan on what I want to highlight, explain, or comment too. For this Blog, I don't know what thread I want to weave in because todays ride was pretty tough, I think I fried my brain climbing out of Bancroft. Either that or I got nailed by a slug off the back of Pat's bike. Also it was so hot the little note pad I keep in the back pocket of my jersey was soaked with sweat and I couldn't read it when I got home. Another problem is that Duke is gone for the next couple of weeks so the usual puzzel that makes the ride fun was missing a key piece. Duke is in Italy bonding with Carol. What I don't get is why he needed a vacation. He's retired and that means he's on vacation all the time. At any rate the trip should be interesting for him. I wonder if he got to rent a bike over there and climb some of the roads made famous by the Giro. Nah, he's probably sipping on Red Wine Beer ( is there such a thing??) practicing his Eyetalian, and ordering pizza!! I have to admit without his enthusiasm to lead rides, the weekend rides were in sereous trouble, he has some great rides in his mind, and the most important thing is that he knows where those rides go. Todays experience about ride leadership made me appreciate Dukes effort all the more.

I really didn't want to post the ride. I didn't want the responsibility. I spent days wondering if I should post a ride. I waited and waited for someone else to do it. I didn't feel qualified to lead a ride, heck I have no idea where one road goes to another. Oh I'm a good follower and I can manage 20 milers, but a 50+ miler I would get lost after 20 miles. So I hesitated for days. Finally, after getting a couple of emails about what is going on with rides, I decided what the heck I will post a ride and ask for directions along the way. Besides that's what Duke does. And if I get grief from the group JUST RIDE!! All I can do is get lost. So I posted the ride and asked for help. Sure enough I got a couple of emails right away, Shaun said not to worry, and Paula said she had a map. That was a nice gesture from Paula but she forgets one thing, I'm an old guy and I need reading glasses. Do you see how small the print is on that map!!! And whats up with a 11x14 book? Where am I supposed to carry that thing? You know Paula is to maps like John Yuill is to maps, so I've decided to name Paula a Yuillette. Congratualtions. When John comes back you can get lessons from the master. Oh and you will have to get Software that Prints out elevations.

So now Shaun arrives with Alissa, the Creers, and John Chaves, all in tow. With Shaun is a Que sheet. Wow, and he even has options, one 52 miles and one 48 miles. Yeah Shaun!!! But I still can't read the bloody thing!!! Does Geratric mean anything to you two youngsters??? Let me tell you, your eyesight it the second thing to go and I'm on my 5th thing that's gone( Not counting hair.) So what does that tell you. OK, enough of that, how did I solve this delema of abdacating ride leadership without telling anybody? Easy, I just let Shaun lead the ride out of parking lot, and by doing that he's the defacto ride leader. You go Shaun. The group that he lead out of the lot is a great group, a good group to ride with. In fact as I pedaled up Middlefield road at 3 mph, I figured I was the weakest rider. Pick out the guys in the picture. Paula, John C., The Animal, Karen, Shaun, Alissa, Jim, Nicki, Pat, and Dudly.























We didn't make it 299 yards before John C, got a flat. If you remember the last time we left this parking lot, Paula got a flat, now John. We didn't have to wait long, Shaun only took 14 minutes, but that encludes the time he biked to John. Did he do a good job John? Not only Shaun a good defacto ride leader but it's nice to have somebody who likes to change tires.

You know, as a ride leader it's my job to choose the route. So I decided that I was tired of all the 60 mile rides and thought I would do a shorter one. You know, go to Middlefield and come home. How easy is that? Pretty good really, all we have to do is climb up Middlefield Road and then come back down into Bancroft and find away home. Cake I thought. The only issue is finding a way out of Bancroft and get on route 8, to rt 20 then to Lee then vola! Back home, how cool is that. This ride leader stuff is easy. So off we went, we climbed Middlefield Road. Not a bad climb it was cool and in the shade, we climbed about 800 feet from Dalton to Middlefield. Thats ok. The only problem is that when we got to top, in Middlefield, the store was still closed. No pie stop!!!

This was the point that Jim and Nicki decided to go back home, they road down, and climbed back up from their house. Three miles past this point. They offered that we should ride down and fill up with water or beer. I was sorely tempted but as ride leader I had to show some responsibility and so I gathered the troups and suggested that we continue to Bancroft. It was at this point that I descovered that I didn't pass the ride leader test. Jim pointed out that there were no water stops from here on. Fifty Miles without a water stop.. OMG I didn't figure that in the route. Sigh, where's Duke when you need him, he knows more about pie stops than anybody I know.

Without solving the delema we started downhill into the small town of Bancroft. This is a 4 mile down hill into the bottom of Massachusetts. No kidding, Bancroft is in a hole. A beautiful hole but a hole non-the- less. At the bottom of the downhill there is beautiful bridge. that we all had to stop at on the way down. Oh and there were other points of interest on the down hill. I took this picture of the weather vane for for John, I'm sure he was watching the road and probably doing 50 mph.. John if you look closly you will see an indian for the weather vane. Pretty neat, huh. Oh and it's on a garage, not a barn. I got a pic of a barn for you too. This is a brown one as you can see. It's in Bancroft if you want to go back and check it out. It's just as you climb out, you know that long, long, climb. The hard, long climb.

I was the last rider out of Bancroft because of all my pics, and as last rider I was out of ear shot of Alissa, I swore, and whinned and complained the whole way up. Man was it painful. But not as painful as hearing Alissa yell at me for whinning.

While Painful it was interesting, there were some amazing sights to see. Check this house out. I wonder if the guy got a deal at WalMart on Paint. Boy you can't miss this house. Check out the houses wall too. The reason that I could see this house was that I was doing max speed of 3 MPH climbing at this point. Everybody appeared to be suffering but Pat and John. Paula was really off her pace, and Karen and I just worked our way up. I thought badly for Paula, she partied to harty last night and was paying for it. Hey what am I saying, I did too, and oh my, it is painful. Sweat didn't come out of my glands, beer did.

It was long haul to route 8 but we all made it. The sun was up now and it was now getting hot. Funny thing about that though, Paula said that rt 8 was full of slugs, and that they were flying off her wheel and on her legs, and her shoes, UGH.. She said that she tried to get a big one off the back of Pats bike shirt. Jeez I hope I don't have any slugs on me, I never saw them, YUCH!!! But I found out later that there were Slug guts all over my bike.. Yech..

The ride on rt 8 was fun, it was down hill most of the way to Becket where we found County Road. County Road is only the prelude to Yokun Pond Road. Yokun is a decent road with some small tough climbs. As this Newt found out, he must have run out of Goo.




Yokun is famous for Duke declaring "that there are no more climbs ahead" only to encounter 2 huge ones. And the down hill.. Yea a huge down hill. This descent is one of those that is so steep that as soon as you release your break you pick up 10 mph speed and then accelerate to even faster. It's the scariest descent that I've ever been on. I really took my time to the bottom. It was truly scary.

At the bottom of the hill we regrouped. It was there that Paula descovered that she had been ridding and climbing for 30 miles with her breaks on. She was biking yesterday along route 8 and had 3 flat tires. And I guess when she put her tire on she didn't center it correctly because the break was rubbing the whole morning. Poor Paula, no wonder she was dying on the climbs out of bancroft, she was riding with breaks on. Amazing.

It was here the group mutnied. They decided to break from the perscribed directions of the ride leader and went for water. So we took route 20 all the way into Lee to stop at Gulf station. Wow, we needed that and it was a nice stop. Poor Dudly, got a Power Aid, about a liter, and he descovered that there was a sale, buy one get 2 free. Poor guy hauled them all the way back home. And John, yes John is getting into the rides now, he came out with a bathroom rating. He was very pleased to find that the Shell station had Purell hand soap and it got the grease off his fingers. Yes John we will give it a 4. It didn't get a 5 because it didn't have a hand dryer.

The pedal from Lee to Dalton was hot and boring. We just did it a couple of weeks ago, and it hasn't changed at all. This time we avoided the dirt road because of recent rains, I think that I would have rather walked the road to give my legs a break.

The ride ended as it started, In WHRS parking lot. We started with 10 folks but ended up with 5. Everybody split off when they got close to home.

Next week I'm already panicing about what ride I'm going to do. I can't wait for duke to come home.

Oh and John, the obligatory animal picture at the end...

Chapter 7-June 28th 2008- The Pothole Ride.

Before I start on the the Pothole Ride I have a point of interest that I would like to share with the group. Last Thursday, on the planned Thursday Night Ride, Duke bailed out because there was rain in the air. In my 7 years as a member of the BCA, I have never, ever seen Duke skip a ride because of rain. Well my friends, mark an X on your calender for June 26th,2008. Duke skipped Rogers ride, 27 miles to 5 Corners where rain ended by the Old Forge and back in the sunshine. Duke, Duke, Duke.. What happened to JUST RIDE!!!!

The Pothole Ride an annual ride that goes to/from Shelburne Falls. Distance from West Cummington was 60.61 miles, mostly down hill going out, mostly up hill coming back. The whole purpose of the ride was to see the Glacial Potholes or Kettles are fluvioglacial landform occurring as the result of blocks of ice calving from the front of a receding glacier and becoming buried partially to wholly by glacial outwash. Glacial outwash is generated when streams of meltwater flow away from the glacier and deposit sediment to form broad outwash plains called sandurs. When the ice blocks melt, kettle holes are left in the sandur. When the development of numerous kettle holes disrupt sandur surfaces, a jumbled array of ridges and mounds form, resembling kame and kettle topography.[1] Kettle holes can also occur in ridge shaped deposits of loose rock fragments called till.[2] I hope you understand this better than I do, i'm totally confused. At least that's what the encyclopedia says. All I know is that we thought they were worth the trip. And what a trip.

As usual the group was waiting for the ride leader. Never again will I ever comment on people being late to start when ride leader two wheels it into parking area 3 minutes before start. At least he remembered his pants this time. (The picture after this one is proof.) The group was small, 10 of us, Paula, Julie Ryan (she just got back from riding across US (Virginia to Oregon, 3000 miles. Wow!!) Karen Mills, Deb McI, Mary Lou, Ken K., Willy, Don Briggs, Duke and I. [Segway: We should all be proud of Karen, she did 35 tough miles last night. She climbed 143, did East Windsor Road, and back up 9. And then she comes out and does this ride. You go girl!!!] The ride started up rt 9 nicely. The group just tooled along up to 112. The morning was cool so the climb up to Goshen was ok. And as usual when we regrouped in Goshen, Willy was missing, he doesn't like the slow pace, 15-16 mph and has to tool along. When we started down Rt 112, we found him chilling along the side of the road waiting for us. Rt 112 is a roller, it did have some neat things to see. Poor John C. always misses the rides without the red barns and the walls, and all the green.

The group turned into Ashfield, and turned on rt 116. Boy was this nice, newly paved, no potholes and it was all DOWN to Conway. Plus it had some interesting Barns for John.

In Conway, Julie decided to show us how to ride and went straight down hill. It was great if you were going straight. We had to chase her down and get her refocused on the Shelburn Falls Road. Julie, I know you pedaled out west mostly by yourself and aren't used to groups, but if you ever ride with us agian, a rule to follow is never get too far behind or ahead of the ride leader. Willy knows this rule well. I can't tell you the number of times he dissappears. And how would we have felt if you dissappeared and we couldn't find you? So Biker Lady, head up, no zoning, and watch for turns. :) Deb McI and Pat have some experience in this, right ladies.

At this point the ride got a bit more interesting, we were chugging along climbing up Shelburne Falls Road, when a group of 4 Ladies Amherst joined in. They were heading for Shelburne Falls for Lunch. They apparently ride to eat, just like we do. But instead of pies they eat at McCuskers, a health food store. While we were climbing, there wasn't a lot of chatting with them, but whe we creasted hill we started introducing ourselves. One of the ladies, Deb from Amherst and Paula struck up quite the conversation. It was very intertaining, Paula was complaining about all the climbing, when Amherst Deb, told Paula that she was too young to complain, and asked her age. Paula replied and Amherst Deb called her a

Spring Chick; and just wait till the year comes where you wake up and things weren't going to be melting they were going to start falling off.

Willy later confermed when you hit 50 what don't work leaks. Amherst Deb then explained to Paula, that she has to just do it. I tell you I was dying. Amherst Deb told me that she was 53 (Editors Note: No Way!!) At any rate, she rode with Paula and I all the way into town. A very nice person and poor Paula was still grumbling about the melt away comment all the way back home. [Editors Note: These ladies would fit right in with the My Ride With Duke crew. They rode 60 miles yesterday from Amherst. Good for them. I have a feeling that this OG would have trouble keeping up with them.]

Oh since I'm thinking of Paula, I have to tell you about her bell. A couple of weeks ago she got a bike bell for her birthday. Well the wife and I gave it to her becasue she had a habit of going buy me and not saying anything. Always scares me when she does that. So for her birthday we gave her a bike bell (from Walmart of course, nothing but the finest for Paula.) Well I guess she didn't like it. Today the bell kept dinging over every bump. This lasted 34 miles before she ripped it off and pitched it. It was hilarous, and the best part of this is that since I can't hear very well, I didn't hear a thing. Yep I would say I got even......

Oh by the way, McCuskers has expanded to enclude a sitting room.
It's very nice, and they obviously are doing quite well inspite of my warnings about organic food a few years ago on the dissadvantages of health food.

After visitiong McCuskers, where we left the Amherst ladies sitting comfortably outside enjoying lunch, we tooled over to the Pot Hole site and spent some time watching the pot holes grow. Not very exciting but pretty. It was a nice break.

Shelburn Falls is an interesting place.
It's really a very nice town and it's full of artists. Who would have figured that along rt 2 in Western Mass, a town like this exists. A local Glass Blowers art-- This shop had an artist that liked twisting wire. How cool are these sculptures or wire hangers or what ever they are? And I wonder how many people sat in these hands over time.

Finally we had to leave, we spent a long time doing the tourist thing and I think it was because we all realized that the down hill getting to Shelburne Falls would be uphills leaving, 30 miles of uphill.

Although there are many beautiful scenes to take pictures of leaving the Falls, I did't take a single one. I was way to tired to even lift the camera and besides I couldn't see a thing through all the sweat in my eyes. We headed back west out on Wilder Road and just kept going to the Cematary. The Cematary was the goal because Duke told us that when we hit the cematary we were almost there. Well a couple of interesting things flashed through my mind. First one was, which cemetary? There are 100's of them along this road, every little turn you make is a cemetary. And then when we finally find it, what is "almost there"? Almost where, back to start, at a Pie Stop? Another typical Dukism for the records.

Well for the record he meant we were almost in Ashfield. The Cemetary marked the end of the long climbs out of Franklin County. It was a welcome relief, we stopped and rested with all the other folks buried there. Lucky the roads were shady or we would have joined them. I think at one point Karen would have thankfully joined them. It was very hot on those climbs.

When we finally all recovered we headed for Ashfied, there was a band gretting us [if you look closely you will see a small stringed instrument masqarading as a banjo and he has a harmonica in him mouth like Bob Dylan. And just for record, while it was interesting watching, I would save my $$$$.] as we passed him once, then missed a turn then passed him again..

Out of Ashfield there were some small climbs to rt 116. Where we turned onto the Lama Farm road to take us over to rt 9. This is where we lost Willy, Deb and Mary Lou. They finally got tired of slow pace and took off. The only evidance we have of their survival is that their cars were gone when we got to the lot. Back to the Cut Over.

This cut over was terrible, half dirt and half asphalt, the dirt part was actually smoother than the asphalt. When we regrouped at rt 9, Julie came up to the group and complained that the road made her head hurt. I thought that was pretty funny, how would her head hurt from the road, her brain must be loose, she is from Adams you know, and she did just pedal to Oragon, East to West. What's up with that anyway Julie, why East to West. Rare that people do that. But I admire you for it.. I would love to do it, probably never will.

The ride down route 9 was ok. Rt 9 is a bit uphill and everybody is tired at this point and want to get back. Fortunately it was cloudy so we weren't exposed to the sun the last 10 miles. I have to admit I was pretty whipped when we got back. It was a great ride and we saw a lot of neat stuff.

We missed John Chaves, but we thought of him, we passed this yellow barn on 112 . You can't see it but the weather vane is another cow. In fact it is just like the one we saw last weeks ride.

And finally the obligatory animal that you don't see amongst all the red barns and the green trees, and the green fields.

Duke as usual the Pot Hole ride is one of my favorite. I was glad to share it with you.. Have fun in Italy next week and we will try and get alone without you. Oh and by the way, Karen, great job..100 miles total from last night to the next day.

And and Julie, welcome back, you pedaled a dream.

Oh and Deb from Amherst, you should know Paula has a nick name, OG. You are going to have to ask her what it means. Modesty prohibts me from spilling the beans.

Chapter 6 - June 7, 2008-The PMS Ride

I was going to name this ride Twin Lakes 2008, but a better title was offered from Alissa. Being somewhat polictially correct I was worried that the ladies would get upset, but I was assured that since this title was suggested by Alissa I would escape the wrath of the multitudes. The title is appropriate for today's ride because for the first time in my 6 years of riding there were more woman riders, than men, 9 women, 7 men. I couldn't resist I had to get a group picture, and I couldn't do it at the bowl because everybody was milling around, so I waited until Billy could get everybody in one spot. I know I know,but he did a good job look at the pic. Unfortunaly I don't have the capability to look at pic and type at same time to name the people, so you will have to pic them out. The group picture was beside the Arlo Guthrie Church, it's a pretty good pic. In the group you will find, Nicki, Pete, Duke, Barbra, Paula, Karen, Mary Lou, Deb Mc-I,Bill H., Pat, Alissa, Shaun, Dudly, Ken, and a newbie, Mary Anna. [I love newbie's. Dudly invited her because she is going to do a centruy in August and she needed to train. From my perpective she's ready. Strong rider and doesn't care about how many barns there are.] In the picture Shaun isn't visible. He is at the end fixing Debs bike. Always the bike guy and boy scout. Boy Scouts are good to have around. Not to mention that he is a good guy to have around because what ever was wrong he fixed it. He also contributes to my blog by suggestings ideas. The only trouble with that is that I'm always stopping writting then pedaling my ass off trying to catch up to the group.

This ride started at 8:30 early because of impending heat and thunderstorms. It was supposed to get to 95 today and we wanted to beat that. So Duke planned it for 8:30. I have no idea what the temp was at the start but I know it was foggy and it was warm enough to wear a sleeveless shirt (showing my muscles off. But forgot to put sun tan lotion on and ended up frying. So at end of day my puny little muscles ended up looking like bacon, nuked for 15 minutes, really crisp.) When Duke posted this ride he also said it was going to be a flat ride. Well it was to a certain extent. And that extent ended on the ride back up 183. But thats the finish lets go with the start.

It was a nice trip down to Great Barrington. The sun was still hiding behind the fog and it was just perfect temperatures. We toodled through town with little difficulty. Stayed on Route 7 for awhile then turned and from this point on, I was totally discombobulated. Even though I had been on this route before, and even though I had my GPS I had no freaking idea where we were. Shaun and I saw landmarks that we recognized but if you asked us to lead the ride, even with GPS I wouldn't have been able to do it. We went through Great Barrington, turned on to the road that leads to Eisners Boys Camp, . This is good road, as you can see Mary Lou and Barbra enjoyed the shade. Since I'm hard of hearing, I didn't hear what they are talking about but I would guess that Mary Lou was probably telling Barbra that Mary Lous husband put her bike in the car the night before so she wouldn't wake him up when she left for the early ride.

We spend a few miles wandering the back roads checking things out. Even though John C. wasn't with use he wasn't forgotten. Nice barn huh John? Oh and I understand that you are asking when the jokes about the barns are going to end? Maybe next ski season John, just maybe. I can see a barn patrol award. The cruise director could fix that right up. And just to let the readers know that there good barns and bad barns, and some have more character than others. Thanks to John i'm into barns.

After a few miles of twisting and turning we finally made it into Conneticut. I could tell because when we made a turn we managed to surrounded this car with Conneticut plates. The driver was looking pretty bewhildered with 16 bikers going evey which way. Usually this wouldn't be an item of interest except that Deb decided to say we were sorry to the driver by stating "We are from Massachusetts, we have no idea what we are doing." You kill me Deb. What was funnier was that the driver agreed with Deb.

At about mile 30 we arrived in Canann, Ct. When we passed a dairy farm a sign was flashing, 10:30, 86 degrees. Oh My God.. 86 degrees!!!! I knew it was hot but this is rediculous. We decided to pull into our tried and true rest stop that we always stop in over the years had been upgraded to a fancy rest stop with Dunkin Donuts. The only disadvantage of this place was that the pie selection was limited, but Duke didn't care he found the Dunkin Donuts counter. And wouldn't you know it, he announced that Dunckin Donuts Chocolate Eclair donuts are better than Table Top Pies. It looks like he's enjoying it to me.

Because of the heat we stayed a long time at the stop, it was here that Pete started feeling the effects of the heat. He didnt look right but he assured us that he was ok and when ready off we went. In retrospect we should have gased him up but ended up not being able to aford the fuel..



The ride around the lakes was as pretty as usual and shady, which was the most important part. I didn't take any pics because the road was so slick from humidity that I didn't want to take my grip off the handle bar.

At the other side of the lake, we did our only real steep climb. Poor Pete, got cramps and that must have killed him. Ouch. We finally met up at the top and took a long break for Pete to recover. While on top I took advantage of the break and took a picture for John C. How about this barn John, a typical Conneticut barn. and guess what it's white, not red.

From here it's down hill to Rt 7. Well not straight down hill a few rollers and these rollers did Pete in. At this point we knew he wasn't going any further, the only question was where he should stay while waiting for ride back. We decided that we were close to Scheffield and he should stay there so with a bit of water and time he mounted up and road down to Sheffield. And next to a nice little store that's where he ended his ride. [Poor Pete I'm just glad he's ok, Shaun went back and picked him up. We have all bonked at one time or another and this was Petes turn. The best part is that he's ok. And will be able to ride with us again.]

We spent a lot of time at that store, trying to figure out what to do about Pete, and trying to figure out what to do about the fast guys. They were biting at the bit to get back but they waited for awhile then finally took off, well poor Dudly made it a 100 feet then POP!!! Flat tire. He drug his bike back to shade with Pete and changed his tire. He was now stuck with us. This stop really delayed the time on the ride, we discussed Pete, the plan was for Shaun to come back and pick him up, which he did [see I told you he was nice guy.] We discussed Bill taking other folks, back soon and what route they would take, Shaun recruited new BCA members while fixing Dudly's bike, see Shaun can repair and talk at same time. We discussed our route, yep we discussed a lot of stuff at that ride. Oh and I almost forgot a young studly biker showed up and started to bond with the ladies. I think the ladies all enjoyed talking to him. Where do I get one of those tatoo's???

From here the ride back was tough, it was freaking hot, and we went up hill all the way. My GPS registered 785 feet in Conneticut and about 890 feet at the Bowl. Even though not much it was painful. We road up Pumpkin Hollow Road, Up Division Road, Up Rt 183. Back in Sheiffield, Duke announced that we were going this way because they were back roads and in the shade. Well yes, they were in the shade, unfortunately the sun sets in the west and we were heading north so the shade ended up on the wrong side of the road. And we rode in the sun all the way back. Well Duke, it was a good plan, the sun just didn't cooperate. Finally heat got to me, about 2 miles before the bowl all I wanted to do was get off the bike. I had to get off the bike. I did and luxurated in the shade along the road. Poor Paula, she took care of Pete this am, and then she was hanging around wondering what was going to happen to me. I made it, thanks Paula for looking out for the OG. I have to hand it to her, she's a lady Shaun, she and Shaun took care of everybody that needed help.

All and all it was a great ride, I would do it again. Even with the heat, it was 95 degrees in Pittsfied. Thanks duke where we going next week. Oh and if it's as hot as this, count me in.

Oh by the way no GPS statistics, because I forgot to turn off before I put bike into the car. The GPS registered 52.3 MPH, which was Car Speed, and added car miles.. Sorry. Memo to self, turn off GPS when Ride is over. This GPS thing rots, last week I took it off bike and put it on roof of car and forgot it. Drove off. About 2 hours later I started looking for it and had to go back to Wachonnah High School to find it in middle of parking lot. I think I'm going to stop brining it. It's usless excet to tell me the elevation, and that's depressing, and Duke hasn't gotten us lost yet.

One last thing. John, you missed the Cow Weather Vain. Don't worry I got it!!!

Notes having nothing to do with Ride:

Karens Leg is healing.
But she will have a scar I'm afraid. Wonder if any hair will ever grow there again?

Dave the Horse:
By popular demand, Laura sent a picture of Dave the horse. Its the grey one. And no, the house isn't sinking, it's California, what do you expect?

Oh and by the way, Mike, her husband, reports that she is out bicycling every chance she gets. Hummm wonder if she is really thinking the Thursday ride is harder than it is??

Studly Dudly:
In the last couple of weeks I've been showing injuries with bandaids. This one is a cut on Dudly's leg. He isnt hurt badly but he refused care. He was being very manly with sweat, grease, and blood on his leg.

Somebody Call Paula

The group found a stop at Hoositonic. And Shaun managed to find a grate that isn't condusive to parking bikes on. At first I thought it was so hot his bike was melting into the sidewalk, but it turned out to be a grate for water flow. Shaun has enlisted Paula to become BCA Manager of Grate Control. Apparently she has been pretty efficient because 30 grates have been turned in the county to date. Who knows how many bikers have avoided injuries. Way to go guys, but as Shaun Demonstrates, you missed one.