Sunday, April 14th Cross Ride

[schouten]

Hey Folks,

Any crossers want to partake in a trail ride? Weather forecast is dry!

I'm thinking a single ride (smaller than last weeks expedition to Harbour View) that heads up Colquitz/Interurban, explore Hartland, and then rip down through Thetis. Should get us a good trail/road ratio. I've not ridden this route before so it will be an exploration for me. Other suggestions welcome. 7:30am Fairfield Starbucks, 8:00am Switch Bridge?

Ron

[Dolly]

I am in. I have to get back by 11:30, so may turn back early if needed.

Dolly

[schouten]

Excellent. 11:30 sounds very doable.

[JTyre]

Show those trails who's boss, Dolly, And Ron, nice flares.



p.s. I'd be joining you, but I gotstogetsomeroadridininbeforedaFondo.

[Alan]

Ron,I'm also going to ride my road bike tomorrow. We'll catch another epic adventure soon.
Hope you and Dolly can speak the same language, like this...

[Rolf]

I'm on the road tomorrow too. Enjoy the forest! (And that sweet new bike, Dolly.)

[schouten]

You're road bike cheating on us!!

Dolly, where will I meet you?

[Dolly]

Let’s keep it at Fairfield Starbucks at 7:30, get caffeinated, hurl insults at Rolf and John, and see if Alan is really even in town.....I heard he had ducked off to Thetis....

[schouten]

Roger that.

[JTyre]

Looking forward to your ride report, Ron and Dolly!

The regular Sunday crossdressers more than held their own on the road, especially L3 who jumped cold onto a hill sprint without batting an eye. Ace is Ace, high speed and unflappable. Ann always rocks.

To be honest though, we're all worried about Rolf. After Mattick, he surged *WAY* ahead of the peloton, not to be seen except once coming out of the bushes looking , and then again in a playground enjoying his own company.

[Rolf]

I never set out to ride off solo today, but there's something about not going cold turkey.



Staying ahead of the group gave me a nice, panicky hunted feeling which kept the motivation to pedal high. But more importantly, it let me hit a bunch of crossy bits along the Sunday route: Lochside from Mattick's to Hunt, beautiful Centennial Park (above), Interurban from Wallace to Prospect etc.

And then I was all...



Road riding sure is fun with all its swoopy speed and coasting along in the draft. But the whole Sunday speed-dating thing is new to me. I understand how it stops us from ending up four abreast, and it's fun to mix up one's ride company—but the convos are necessarily so short that it starts to feel like a Chamber of Commerce mixer. There's little opportunity to get past sometimes-banal small talk.

Or maybe I was just missing my cross buddies.

[LouiseF]

I also need some time to adjust to the new Sunday formation. At times I felt the pace was high enough that a regular pace line would have suited me better - less time gasping at the front. I did get to chat with more people than usual, which was nice. But the downside was definitely "....oh yeah? me too! Let me tell you about.....oops, gotta go!" This was proceeded by a surge to catch the person who had moved up ahead which I had not smoothly followed b/c of enjoying my conversation. I figure I wasn't the only one having this problem b/c I found the ride decidedly more surge-y than during the old partner-riding style.

[JTyre]

Speedily, or not:

[schouten]

Hopefully Dolly will agree, buy I thought the ride went great. My first time into Hartland and it definitely warrants further exploration. I want to run the route more and become a better navigator though. So easy just to follow the guy in front of you

Logan's park has a fun, short trail (logan's run?) and we stumbled through some nice little connectors.

[Dolly]

Yes, Hansel, what an awesome ride. I especially liked popping out into a very nice elderly lady's back yard in the highlands as she was setting up for her garden tour. She wanted to keep us as "fixtures" for her tour! Did you see the candies stuck to her house?

I am taking breadcrumbs for future navigation... trail-forks sucks!

Gretel.

[schouten]

I am taking breadcrumbs for future navigation... trail-forks sucks!

Very prudent thinking Gretel. Although the committee of turkey vultures might think otherwise...