OOF on the 4th of July

 

Ann & I got out before 7 AM on Saturday and rode from Sandy Hook to Ovens of France (aka OOF) in Woodbury.

Sunrise in Southbury

 

Saturday afternoon, Ann & I drove to Connecticut, after we rode down to Wallingford from Rutland. The following morning we were both up really early so we headed out at 5:30 AM for a ride to Ovens of France in Woodbury.

Ann's first ride to OOF

 June 22, 2024

Prior to meeting Ann, one of my favorite weekend rides was to Ovens of France in Woodbury, CT. We would eat French pastries, drink French Roast Coffee, and then ride back to Newtown. Today, I introduced Ann to this gastronomic riding adventure.

Double Header

On Saturday I met up with the Newtown Lunartics for the weekly ride to OOF, aka Ovens of France.  I brought the Trek because I am still getting used to and wanted more time in the saddle before relegating it to its intended purpose as an indoor training bike.  Scott brought his neighbor Rich, who needs to start training for the Bloomin Metric in two weeks.  

Run to the Hills, again

 

Back in Connecticut and riding to OOF again with the Lunartics!

Re-OOFed

This yoyo fall weather we are having is getting crazy. Originally we were going to ride Ovens of France Saturday morning at 8 AM but it was a bit too cold for everyone's liking so we pushed back to 11 am and it turned out to be lovely day and cold enough for bib shorts.

OOF with Gavin

I think after a couple of days and being extra careful around my wife, wearing a mask, and staying away from here as much as possible and not having any symptoms I think I have dodged the COVID bullet. Gavin and I decided to ride to Ovens of France Friday morning. Since the Jamis was in need of a gearing overhaul I replaced my rear tire on the Waltly with a replacement that I bought while I was in Chicago but had it delivered in CT by accident.

Starting to feel like Autumn

The seasonal change appears to be upon us and it was a chilly ride to Ovens of France this morning. It was foggy down in the Housatonic River Valley but broke when we started climbing out. We took the shortest route today because Gavin had somewhere to be.

Cold and slow to OOF on the CAADx

I had on winter kit for this morning's ride to Ovens of France.

Summering with Buddha

I took Friday off and decided to go on a big ride up into Litchfield County. I would first ride to Ovens of France for a danish and then ride north to Morris to visit the Buddha Ariyamettaram Temple and then continue north into Goshen. 

Originally the forecast was for thunder showers by mid afternoon but that changed to the evening so I was able to delay my start to later in the morning. When I has leaving the house I had my arm warmers and a base layer underneath but it must have been 65 degrees because it was so warm in the sun that I went back in and took everything off, except of course my new Team RWB (Red White and Blue) jersey.  

One thing to note, their hours have changed. There was a line of about 4 people outside but everyone had face coverings on were staying 6 feet apart.

It was worth the wait. I got the biggest Chocolate Almond Croissant, too. It was a meal!

After another breakfast I started riding the backroads towards Middlebury trying to hit roads that I haven't ridden before to add to my Wandrer total.

It was a perfect day and the views from the ridges were breath taking

One thing I love about my new Garmin Edge 530 and the Climbpro feature. It tells you the grade, how far you have to go on the climb and how much there is left to climb. It only works on routes that you have loaded and are following.  On this ride I was heading up Hickory Lane and there is new color that I have never seen before, a maroon band. 

Garmin needs to add another color this - black, for anything over 20%. It seems though the grade calculation appears to be exaggerated. The maroon color says the grade is over 12%. Unfortunately, Garmin Connect doesn't let you see the grade after your ride.

Looking at Ride with GPS on this section, the max grade is 12% but if I remember correctly Garmin displayed the grade around 15%.



That portion of the hill in front of me does look pretty steep!

One routing faux pas was that I didn't know this road turns to dirt and there was no alternative so I took the Bondeye on a first road for the first time since I bought this bike.



If figured since I was climbing and going slow that I wouldn't have a problem and I didn't.



Another great view, this one from Benton Road in Morris



My bike is called a Voodoo Bondeye. Bondeye is short for Benevolent Deity, met another Benevolent Deity today, Buddha.




The ornate artwork for this temple was amazing.



I can't believe how many times I have ridden past here and not have noticed this.



From the Temple I rode north on Rt 63 through Litchfield and onwards to Goshen.

What I found totally ironic about this route was that there were 9 climbs calculated by the device and the 8th one was right before Goshen. That meant that is literally downhill all the way back to River Road in Southbury with the last climb being from the Steel Bridge to the Boulevard.

In Goshen I had lunch at the Shell Station on Route 4 consisting of a bottle of Powerade Extra with Salt and Vinegar potato chips. Then I road Route 4 and eventually turned south to head back to Southbury.

A few miles down the road I discovered another mistake in my routing which had me on another dirt road.  The funny thing is that I looked at my Roubaix to Brew dirt road map and thought this would be OK. I missed something, obviously. One thing I have found with planning routes with Ride with GPS, is you really need to view the course step by step because it seems to make decisions for you that you may not agree with.  I don't think this dirt road was the fault of the RWGPS routing interface, but I have had other issues.

By 3 PM the clouds were starting to role in.

Newtown Lunartics Pandemic TT ride to OOF

It was Gavin's idea that we ride to Ovens of France Time Trial style by leaving Cover 2 in 1 minute intervals. Scott went first followed by myself, then Gavin and Michael brought up the rear.

Photo Credit: Scott Davidow

We should have started after the traffic light in Sandy Hook because I had to wait for the light to change.  Towards the end of River Road I saw Scott heading up Purchase Brook Road. Nearing Brown Brook Road, Scott was within eyesight and I could see Gavin, too.  

I didn't stop to take a cow picture like Gavin did. I made it a drive by photo opportunity. Scott had pulled ahead of me on 172 but I got closer to him on Transylvania Road, maybe within a 100 yards. Turning onto 317, though, I lost sight of him again. It was like he vanished.

Photo Credit: Scott Davidow

I was the first one to arrive at Ovens of France. Two minutes later, Scott shows up and tells me that at 317 he got confused with the route and started going to the Haute Dog way when he realized his mistake and turned around.

There was a car show taking place at Ovens of France today and surprisingly none of the car enthusiasts were wearing masks. OOF had a two person policy for entering the store and some guy either decided to ignore it or didn't care. It was hard to be socially distant because the customer section at Ovens of France is really tight. Outside, were able to be socially distant while sitting around the big table.

Photo Credit: Gavin Arneth

We left Ovens in the same intervals again and upon returning to Cover 2 I got there first again! Turns out Scott took the bike path on Rochambeau Bridge.  Scott should get the Douglas Corrigan award. He's the guy who in 1938 was supposed to fly from New York to California but due to navigational error ended up in Ireland.

Spring Gravel in January

Gavin and I left from Cover 2 at 7:30 am. Originally I was planning on an all day ride of about 70 miles but Gavin didn't have that much time so I had to knock off 30 miles from the route.

First things first, we had to stop at OOF (Ovens of France) for breakfast. We did, however hit a few dirt roads before riding through Soutbury, though.  After breakfast we headed to Scuppo Road for the first serious climb of the day.

Before hitting the dirt portion of Scuppo I noticed that the old trolley bed had been graveled and so I rode down through a gated access way to check it out. Turns out a contractor was hired to repaint the water tower and to bring in equipment and materials they had to improve this section of the bed.

Dirty discoveries in the Berkshire Foothills

I set off Saturday morning on a scriptless, local gravel exploration to try some new stuff and explore dirt roads on the Roxbury/Woodbury border that I seldom ride. I actually had a route planned but it was much longer than what I time for as I left later than I had originally intended. I waited for it to warm up a little more. With the sun higher in the sky and the temperature at 32 degrees, I rolled out.

I took my usual route from the house to Roxbury in which First Dirt is less than a half mile Sanford Road. Headed over to Black Bridge by cutting through the winery and then climbing up Walnut Tree to make a short, dirty descent on Lester Road. Unfortunately, Black Bridge is a fun descent down to the Pootatuck River.

Lake 2 Lake with an unauthorized stop at Ovens of France

This year's Lake 2 Lake was moved to the fall so it could coincide with one of LOF's adaptive waterskiing clinics that was being held at their new location, the Southbury Beach. It's not really a beach but it's on the water and the ideal location for what they do. As with past years I once again helped get the word out and planned the routes, which were 100K and 50K routes.

It was a crazy start because the driveway is a 25% grade to the road that you had to walk. It was really foggy but the temperature was hovering around 60 degrees and you know that once the fog burned off it would be a glorious day and it was.

Unlike previous years, this route headed up Purchase Brook to Brown Brook and on into Roxbury. We broke out of the fog just before the climb on Brown Brook but once you got to the top Painter Hill at Topland Farms could you really appreciate it.

The best view on the ride was from Painter Ridge.  

The first rest stop was at the Murals after you turned onto Route 47 from Route 109. At 20 miles, it was the perfect point for a stop to get some food in you and top off the bottles.

We then headed up Route 47 towards New Preston. This section of road is a flat climb to Route 202 and a stretch that you can really hammer on. Then it was down Rt 202 and up Flirtation Avenue to Lake Waramaug.  

Apparently Brendan, pictured above, as well as Scott, have never ridden around the lake before and it was on their bucket list. 

The lake this morning was like glass.

The climb up to Warren was equally nice and then ripping down Rt 341 was refreshing. After turning onto Rt 202 we climbed up and then turned off onto Looking Glass Hill and climbed some more.  I had some reservations about this section but it wasn't that bad.  Then we rode over to Rt 209 and then to rest stop at Bantam Lake.  

At the rest stop we decided there was no way we were going to ride through Woodbury and not stop at Ovens of France (aka OOF) so when the route turned onto Transylvania Road we parted ways with Brendan and headed down to OOF.

Photo Credit: Gavin Arneth

I finally got to try the Sausage and Cheese baguette and it was delish! The French Roast was also a good pick me up.

The detour added a mile to the ride and a little extra time but it was totally worth it! When we got back to the beach I broke out the beer and we had BBQ hamburgers.  Brendan also won the free bike!

Photo credit: Scott Daviddow

Looks like someone in his family is getting a new bike

Photo credit: Scott Davidow