Monday, June 3, 2013

Pedal to Preserve

This past weekend Chris, Ron and I spent a few days around Lancaster PA. We went mainly to do the Pedal to Preserve Ride on Saturday but decided that as long as we are going to travel out for that ride we might as well spend some more time exploring the area.

We went out on late Friday morning and got to the area around 1pm. We decided to do a ride called the Climbers Delight. The terrain out in this area is mostly rolling hills with no really big climbs but this ride hit some of the longer rollers. It was a nicely designed ride because you go up a series of easy roller over over 5 miles then have a nice mile long down hill. This happen a few time during the ride. The only issues was the 90 degree heat which made the 37 ride feel a little longer.

This area is nothing but farms and rolling hills which is a scenic place to ride but when it is 90 it is a hot place to ride. It also don't smell so good in the heat. When we pull out of the parking lot where we started we were hit by one of the foulest stenches I have smelled. It smelled like a cross between a rotting deer carcass and a overflowing portal potty at Woodstock.

As I looked to the right I saw the source of the smell. I saw a large tank being pulling a couple of horses spewing out brown liquid on to the field. So what we were smelling was literally hot shit being spread to fertilize the field.

After the ride we headed to the hotel for good shower then out for a family style dinner. If you like meat and potatoes there is a lot of good food here. Dinner usually does come with salad and a few other vegetables but the main meal is fried chicken, roast beef, sausage, potatoes, stuffing. The food was good and we had a nice conversation with the other people at the table. 

Saturday was the Pedal to Preserve ride. This was a 51 mile ride that again had a really nice route. It was less hilly than Friday's ride and cooler since we started early in the morning but it got hot quick. My only complaint about the ride is the rest stops didn't really have any food. They had apples at one stop and bananas at the other but that was about it. I had hear the rest stops didn't have good so I had brought enough stuff with me.



The food at the end was very good though. They hot dogs, ice cream, cookies, and omelets and a lot of other stuff. We spent about an hour relaxing after ride before heading back to the hotel. Since we started early we were back to the hotel by 12:30 pm. We spent the afternoon in the town of Lititz where they have a chocolate factor, a pretzel factory and the oldest Moravian church the country.



We when to a buffet for dinner and stuffed ourselves again before calling it a night.

On Sunday we did a quick 30 mile ride around the Lititz area. The was again more rolling hills and farms. The only point of interest was a building that was built to look like a 13th century castle but it really wasn't that nice looking.

This was a nice area to ride and I learn a little more about the Amish and their way of life. You can't ride along the road with out seeing one of the buggies or some of them on scooters. The Lancaster Bike Club has a nice set of cue sheets with a lot of scenic ride in this area. If you are out this way you can use it to take some good rides on your own. I'm sure I'll be back in this area again hopefully when the weather is a little cooler.




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