This weekend the club changed plans at the last minute and ended up doing a short ride on Sunday August 29, 2004.  We were planning an early long ride but the weather didn’t cooperate.  It was raining fairly hard and we ended up waiting until around 11:45 am when the rain finally stopped.  It was still cloudy and there was the potential of more rain, but it was nice enough to do a local ride. 

Bob, Pete and I attended this ride.  Since we didn’t want to get too far away from home in case the skies opened up again we just rode around town.  Bob and I hadn’t eaten lunch and apparently Pete was ready to eat another one, so we all agreed to head over to Penn Station.  We went through side streets until we arrived at Penn Station.  We all had a sub and a drink.  I had fries with my sub and Pete had a bag chips.  I think Bob just had a sub without fries or chips.  As usual the subs were great.  Penn Station has the best subs around, in my opinion. 

After lunch we kind of took a round about way home.  We wanted to get in a few more miles of riding, but again with the weather situation we didn’t want to get too far from home.  We sort of wound around going east for a while then north then west and back south again.  We were kind of heading toward home with a lot of small side trips along the way.  I can’t remember our route exactly, but we did ride through a subdivision east of Rochester Road between Walton and Tienken.  We went through the parking lot of the recently remodeled North Hill Elementary School.  We also rode on the new bike path that has finally been completed on the north side of Tienken just east of Rochester Road.  For quite a while this spring and summer this whole area has been under construction that there weren’t any bike paths. 

After we crossed Rochester Road there is a small shopping center that we rode through the parking lot.  Continuing west there is an apartment complex that we rode through.  We had to go back out to Tienken since there isn’t any backside exit.  We also went into a complex that I believe were condos.  Bob thought there was an access to the Paint Creek Trail (PCT) inside the condo complex.  We ended up at another dead end.  We had chain link fence on our left stopping us from going further west.  The only way out was to back track the way we came in, or go over the fence.  We picked going over the fence.  The fence was about four feet high and it was the type with the pointy chain going all along the top, not real friendly for climbing.  The other negative thing about this fence was it was very wobbly once you were on top, which made it difficult to jump over without snagging on the pointy parts.  We each lifted our bikes over the fence and placed them on the other side.  Normally hopping over a fence this low wouldn’t be a big deal, but the unsteady nature of this particular fence made it a risky venture.  Luckily we all cleared the pointy chain top and made it to the other side without hurting ourselves.  Pete did land hard on his right leg, which is the one he had surgically repaired.  He let out a grunt and a small grimace, but no loud shriek so I don’t think he hurt his leg either. 

Once on the other side of the fence we were in another multi-dwelling community and Bob took off looking for the access to PCT.  Pete’s chain popped off when he placed his bike over the fence, so I stopped and waited for Pete to put the chain back on the front sprocket.  Once Pete was ready to go again we had lost visual contact with Bob.  We rode north down to the end of the complex street but we didn’t see any trail.  We didn’t see any bike tracks in the grass so we assumed Bob had just gone around a building and back up the street on the other side.  Pete and I did come across a single deer eating at the end of this street.  We rode I little closer to get a better look at the deer and we were probably only forty feet away and the deer wasn’t afraid of us at all, it just continued eating as we rode away.  We phoned Bob to find out where he went, he confirmed our suspicion and was back out on Tienken.  We rode that way and met Bob and continued to the next condo entrance.  This one did have a path leading to PCT and from here we got on the trail and took it to Dutton Road.

To get to Pete’s neighborhood we must go west on Dutton and deal with the famous Dutton Hill.  As we approached the hill Bob asked me if I was going to ride up it or not today.  I responded that if he was going to do it so would I.  Dutton is a dirt road in this area and it is mostly shaded from trees on both sides.  The road surface was still damp from the early morning rain and it was a bit slippery with loose stone and water.  I was a little unsure about attempting the Hill under these conditions.  I had ridden up this hill a few times, but Pete and Bob had yet to concur the hill.  Well, we got past the mailbox on the right which is the normal spot to start walking.  Bob was still going and I was right behind him.  Pete was a few feet back and he was still going as well.  We all three made it to the subdivision street on the right.  This makes two new members of the “King of the Hill” club. 

From here it is just a short ride to Pete’s street.  Bob and I stopped in at Pete’s for a cold pop before we headed home.  Following are the statistics from this ride.  Total miles 17.5, max speed 22.0 mph, average speed 9.5 with a total time moving on bikes of 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Thanks for checking in.

David Lindquist