This is My Happy Place

(sign on the door of my hotel bathroom)

There is a reason that I have done the Philly bike club trip to Gettysburg four times. It is just a great way to over indulge in biking and forget about everything else for a few days. This year over 230 of us bikers descended on the town of Hanover. This is unlike any other bike gathering or tour. There is no set routes or regimented ride organization. It's more of a temporary bike commune where nothing else matters but riding, eating and having some fun.

This year I only was able to get Jack an Dorthy to join me on the trip but I know enough people in the Philly club to not worry about finding other people to ride with. I got to the hotel at 11:30 am on Friday and Jack and Dorthy were only 10 mins behind me. Once they got there Jack and I decided to go on a ride around Lake Marburg. It was a hilly 27 mile ride that was reasonable scenic. The weather was mostly sunny in the 60s so all I needed was arm warmers. Unfortunately the leaves haven't started turning yet otherwise we would seen some spectacular vistas.

After the ride I checked into the hotel room to clean up then went down to the conference to socialize with the rest of the bikers.  I decided to lead a ride on Saturday and put it on white board in the conference room to let everyone know.

Saturday morning was in the mid 50s. It had rained overnight but the sun was coming out so the roads were slowly drying.I end up getting 10 people to join me on my ride to Loganville to visit a farmers market (think Delicious Orchards only in the hills). Besides Jack I didn't know any of the other riders although I had talked to a few the night before. They all seem not to be afraid of the hills or the fact that I had modified the route to not exactly follow the queue sheet. I had done a slightly shorter version of this ride a few years ago but the farmers market was closed and I had always wanted to go back.

The first part of the ride headed past Lake Marburg again although we got there quicker with less hills. After that we broke off the queue sheet onto the modified part. I modified the route to head up to the top of the hills to get some views of the surrounding valleys and have a couple of fun downhills. This was unexplored territory for me. I had checked it out on google maps as best I could be I did not really know what I would encounter. The group spread out on the climbs but nobody really complained (much). The roads were quiet with almost no traffic and the views where good.

We did run into bridge out because Tom can lead for different clubs in different states but you can't get rid of the Tom-ness from a ride.

This bridge out was a slight challenge as the original bridge was gone and they only had the cement beams and steel plates of the new one laid down. We had to go through some gravel, climb up onto the foundation then up on the beam and walk across. Although this was not my normal group of insane riders we quickly scoped out the situation and I got a couple of people set up to hand the bikes up and down from the bridge beams and help everybody across.

After that we were on our way to buffalo valley. Now there were never buffaloes here and there weren't even many cows around so I have no idea how it got is name but I came along here mostly because of the name of the road  and the fact that it offered a two miles of downhill fun.

The view at the top was as nice as expected. I want to come back here someday when the leaves are at their peak.The downhill was worth the climbing and detour to get to it(At least I thought so). After that we had a few miles of flat before some more climbing to get to the actual farmers market. Because of a new development that was added in Loginville we couldn't find a couple or roads but figure it out and made it to the farmers market which is at the top of a hill.

The market itself is very much like Delicious Orchards with a bit of a country flair. They had a full deli, bakery and coffee shop. Jack was looking for some donuts but they only sold then in boxes of 6.

At the break 2 people on the ride meet some of their friends who got there with a different group and decided to go back with them. I forgot their names. In fact I didn't know anybodies name on the ride. I ended up referring to people by the color of their jacket or some other distinguishing feature. So Mr Italy (he had an Italian racing shirt on) and his buddy, blue jacket, stayed back while Jack, Dave orange, yellow, backpack guy, tall guy and blue number 2 came back with me. Even though I didn't know any of them besides Jack and Dave before the ride they ended being a good group of people to ride with.

The profile looked less hilly on the way back and was more wooded along some lakes and streams. As soon as we made a turn off the main road to head down toward the first lake there was yet another bridge out sign. This was the rare two bridge out Tom ride. Since I really didn't know how to detour we took our chances again. This time it wasn't a bridge that was out but an entire DAM.

Luckily the actual bridge across the dam was bikable so they must have been working underneath it. As part of working on the dam they drained the reservoir to make it easier to fix. We stopped for a couple of pictures and then moved on.

After the dam we road next to the rail trail before heading uphill again. There were a couple long climbs that weren't that steep but the group got spread out and so I stopped a few times to gather them up. Even though the profile shows less climbing on the second half of the the ride if felt worst than the first part.

The last part of the ride was through some back roads pass a haunted Halloween village and then a couple of miles over some rollers on a semi busy road. I'm going to modify the last part of the route if I do it again to see if I can find a way to stay off the 2 miles on Hanover Rd. It wasn't dangerous but I think there are better back roads that we could take.

I had one last surprise a half mile before the end of  the ride. I made a short detour for some ice cream. Half the group followed me the other half went back to the hotel. After 50 miles and 3500 feet of climbing the ice cream was well deserved. It was good home made ice cream and Jack talked about coming back after dinner(which we didn't end up doing).

After getting back to the hotel and cleaning up I attended a talk, at the hotel, given by Daniel de Visé, a Pulitzer price winning Washington Post writer who just wrote a book about Greg LeMond "The Comeback Kid". He talked for 40 minutes about bike racing and Greg LeMond. It was a very interesting talk. Although I do not follow bike racing the story of Greg LeMond is an amazing story so I will probably get the book soon.

Saturday night was the usual dinner with at a restaurant with the whole group. We sat next to a tandem couple who had done some interesting trips. The one from Pittsburgh to DC sounded like a must do so now it is on my list of possible bike trips.

Sunday turned colder and was 40 degrees and windy when I stepped out the door before breakfast. Not ideal riding weather but Jack and I still planed to do a shorter flatter ride since we were here.

We did the Horse Farm loop. Its a 35 mile loop around the horse farms in the area and relatively flat. It would have been a perfect way to end the trip if it wasn't for the WIND!!.  The cold wasn't bad once we got started but between mile 8-17 there were a lot of times that we were straight into a 25mph+ wind. During this stretch I sometimes was having a hard time maintain 10mph on a flat road and I'm thinking to myself am I really enjoying this or do I just enjoy the suffering.

Once we turned around at mile 20 it became a lot easier and I started enjoying the ride. I would like to do this Horse Farm ride again in better conditions as it would be a lot more fun. Although I was sore from three days of riding I actually felt OK by the end. Its rare I ride two days in the row so I'm always concerned about these multi-day trips but what I have learned that is as long as I follow a certain recovery routine I can usually ride the next day and only be sore for the first few miles.

Despite the cold windy condition on the last day I still enjoyed this trip and will do it again. Linda and the Philly bike club really know how to create the perfect environment for a group of bikers to relax and enjoy themselves. This trip always makes me happy and it is a place I know I will return to again. Hopefully next time I can get a few more of the insane posse to join me.