bailin' on the long ride

 At 71, I've developed a number of those thousand shocks that flesh is heir to, as my ol' pal Bill put it, and a number of the medications I now take reduce my strength and stamina, so I haven't been doing rides longer than about 30 miles... and most of 'em have been much shorter than that.

But friend Ricky G saw a ride that Laura OLPH had posted, and noted that it was routed right past both our houses. He's also not been riding the way he once had, and he had an Idea. 

Ricky said something to the effect of, "Look, the ride is 40-plus miles. But how about I drive both our bikes to the start, and you and I can do the ride up to near home... and if we feel like bailing at that point, we can get in your car, and you can drive me to the start so I can get my car?"

Well, that sounded just the ticket. Ricky went on to say that we might feel like we could do the whole thing, and we wouldn't have to decide to do anything about it until we were actually on the ride.

It sounded good to me. We signed up, and Ricky brought me to Mercer East lot, the ride start, this morning.

 We ran into Marty and Bobbi, doing their own ride from there.

 A number of the folks I used to ride with regularly were there, and it was good to see them and ride with them again (Tom H, Laura [of course], Eric H, and others). But, first, the route wouldn't load into my GPS (there may have been something wonky about the way the route downloaded). And then the pace was faster than I could maintain, although I did reasonably well for the first twenty miles or so.

By the time we were a few miles away from the stop at about mile 30, I was cooked. I told Ricky I was planning to bail at the stop, the way we'd planned. Ricky agreed, initially.

We stopped at James Brew, the local cafe, to which I should give more business than I do.

 After the stop, though, Ricky decided he was going to do the distance. I thought about it for less than a flash, but I knew I was done, and went home.

Ricky has been referring to my getting to the top of Cadillac Mountain before he did when we were in Maine (the story of the ride is about halfway down the linked post). I told him after the ride that I may have done the climb, but he did the distance.

bar harbor trip: second post

 

This is the second post about a trip to Bar Harbor that several friends of Laura OLPH made with her this year; the first is here.

 As soon as she heard about the trip, The Excellent Wife (TEW) decided that on one of the days, she wanted to go to Campobello, the summer home of FDR, one of her favorite presidents. It is in the only international park in the world, co-supported by the US and Canada. The driving distance (a little over two hours) and the necessity of a passport to pass into Canada made this an all-day event, and the only other taker was Rickety's wife, Cheryl (the rest of the group was doing a gravel ride, and Rickety, very sensibly, did not want to have taken his bike all the way up to Maine, and then given up his best chance to use it!)

 On Campobello, there was a small chance that we might see whales or seals, especially from the lighthouses (there are two), so we proceeded to the first.

 

Too much fog. We went to the other:

 

Too much fog here, too. There's another of those land bridges that connects the island to the main at low tide; TEW resolved to come back after the visit to the Campobello compound. (The pictures above could have been reference photos for Myst, one of my favorite PC games.)

At Campobello, FDR's summer home:

 As I noted, TEW is a big fan of FDR, but to me, the house was mostly just a historical house. But we did see seals in the water, although they didn't appear in the photos.

We went back to the other lighthouse to see about whales.

 Still too foggy... and I declined the opportunity to go up and down those stairs in the photo (you can barely see them), claiming my aging knees, and the ludicrous price of $10 Canadian for the opportunity.

On the way back, we passed this excellent gas-station-turned-antiques-and-junk-shop:

 And the next day, Wednesday, we went up Cadillac Mountain on bikes. While some took e-bikes, Rickety and I were among those who decided to try it on our road bikes. Laura OLPH had developed a 30-something mile route, with some lovely views on the way.

 But, of course, the thing about Cadillac Mountain is the climb and descent. You can see my ride info here: the mountain is, as near as makes no difference, 1500' of climb over three miles. At the age of 71, I did it. 

I wanted a picture of my bike, the Yellow Maserati, at the top:

The gift shop at the top (of course there's a gift shop at the top) has key chains indicating the height; Laura bought them for Rickety and me as medals for having achieved the goal.

 The ascent was hard, and the descent was frightening. I'm not a great descender at the best of times, and this was to be a three-mile descent, on a road with tight switchbacks, that I barely knew. I rode the brakes nearly all the way down, feathering enough to avoid overheating the rims. And clearly, since I'm writing this now, I finished the ride!

There may have been something else that happened on that Wednesday, but I have no room to remember what it may have been.

On Thursday, TEW and I decided that just the thing would be a slow, easy ride, on our own, at a lovely, disconnected part of Acadia Park on the Schoodic Peninsula.

 

We had lunch in nearby Winter Harbor, a town with far more locals than tourists. It was an excellent day.

And nothing else worthy of your attention went on for this trip. We had a quiet day Friday, and drove home Saturday. And now back to real life. 

uptempo trolley ride

 

Friends Bobbi B and Marty A do some routes for the club that leave from Village Park in Cranbury and follow the Trolley Line Trail (is that in West Windsor?) out and back; Marty makes sure to add a few miles so it's worth actually getting out the gear and packing up the bike. They lead it at a pace that;s comfortable for some of the less-fitness-obsessed club members (ahem!).

I had the idea of starting a ride ten minutes earlier, and going at a slightly faster pace on that same route, with the idea that if anybody was having trouble keeping up, they could ride at a more relaxed pace until Marty and Bobbi's ride caught up with them. I asked Marty and Bobbi about it, and they were agreeable. So I posted it.

I got two takers, which is plenty for this kind of ride.

At the start:

 

So, at about 8:50, off we went. Nancy was eager to go, and showed the pace from the start; Vinod and I stayed a bit back (I was still tired from the two days before). It was a great day, there was little traffic out, and few other users on the Trolley Path.

I'd downloaded the route without checking it, and we had a little GPS-wants-a-U-turn business at the ed of the Trolley Trail, but we got that sorted, and headed back to take the stop at the park in West Windsor. We were there about ten minutes, when Marty and Bobbi's ride came in.

 The Excellent Wife (TEW) had signed up for Marty and Bobbi's ride, and Bobbi got that great picture of the two of us, above.

I was confused about the route getting out of the park, but Nancy got us back on track. Marty had added miles to the route by going through a neighborhood in Plainsboro (I call these, "real-estate tours"). I was so set on getting back, I almost missed the turn, but Nancy pointed it out. It was a pleasant detour, and I may use it again.

I'm not sure if the "leave a few minutes earlier and go at a faster pace" thing worked on this ride, and I don't know if I'll do it again. But it was a pleasant day.