[DVBC] Ride Report

[Doug Bower]

Adam,

Contact the Media Boy Scout Troop 430. Boy Scouts that are trying to
obtain the rank of Eagle Scout need a project, and have performed many
projects at RCSP.  Troop 430 has a very good rapport with the Ridley
Creek State Park.

Doug  

-----Original Message-----
From: dvbc-list-bounces at list.dvbc.org
[mailto:dvbc-list-bounces at list.dvbc.org] On Behalf Of Adam Levine
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 3:30 PM
To: dvbc-list at dvbc.org
Subject: [DVBC] Ride Report

On Saturday, against my better judgment,  I planned to meet Ira at 10 am

Sunday for a ride of indefinite length. We agreed that I could turn back
if 
it seemed too cold, and this morning I invoked that clause of the
agreement 
at about 9:35 am, when I called to tell him I wasn't going. "It's not
that 
cold!" he insisted, (and I guess 28 degrees isn't that cold if you're an

Eskimo-cyclist), and he managed to talk me into accompanying him after
all, 
with the same turn-back clause in effect.

By the time I rode the 3/4 mile from Media to Moylan, my hands were
already 
chilled, but my toes were warm, thanks to a pair of Dave
Hartrum-recommended 
chemical toe warmers on top of my socks. My hands warmed up on the first

uphill climb, and as we rode along I thought, "This isn't so bad." I
figured 
I could go as far as Ira wanted, which he said was about 35 miles, and
we 
headed out through Ridley Creek State Park (mostly devoid of people and
dogs 
today), through Cheyney, eventually ending up at the Chadds Ford in
Wawa.

The winter landscape was barren, with ice on any standing bodies of
water, 
ice in Ira's beard, ice in our water bottles (which were so stiff they
were 
nearly impossible to squeeze).  The sun shone weakly, providing no
warmth at 
all. As we headed back home from Chadds Ford, my toe warmers stopped 
warming, and we both began to get ice in our hands and toes as well.
Those 
of you who rode with me on Wednesday nights this past year know how much
I 
love downhills; but I quickly learned that downhills, in this kind of
cold, 
are too bone-chilling to be fun.  We would warm up on the climbs and get

chilled on the decents, and eventually the climbs stopped warming my 
extremities and all I wanted to do was get home.  In retrospect, I might

have worn an extra layer, and we might have stopped at the Wawa to warm
up 
mid-ride, but any way you look at it it was a cold day out there for
fingers 
and toes. We ended up doing about 40 miles, about 40 more than I
expected to 
do when I got up this morning.

I hate to have to admit this, but I have a greater motive for the
following 
self-flagellation: I fell again as I tried to negotiate the gate at the
top 
of the park, near 352.  This time I did take my right foot out of the
cleat, 
but managed to fall to my left.

No real damage done, to body or bike -- but the reason I mention this is

because I have always hated that bypass, and when I fell in the rose
thorns 
a few weeks ago I wondered what it would take to get the Park to put
some 
paved bypasses around the gate, much as they have at the lower end near 
Barren Road. I mentioned this to Ira, and he said that this had been 
discussed by the club a few years ago--something about getting the Park
to 
pay for materials and the Club would provide the main labor -- but
nothing 
had been done in the end.  I would be glad to head a committee (even a 
committee of one) to reinvestigate this, and will be the first one out
there 
with my shovel if the Park lets us do the work. Such a bypass would be a

service to every one of the many cyclists who have to negotiate that
spot 
(and many of us probably go by there 100 or more times a year).  And 
certainly, my self-interest in this matter is evident. I have fallen to
the 
right, fallen to the left; next time I'm afraid I'm going to fall head
over 
heals.

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