Riding on a New Engloomy afternoon

Just another cold Sunday morning leading to another abortive attempt to ride to Oven's of France. I waited till noon to head out and since I was solo, I headed north with a vague idea of the route I wanted to ride.  I left my house thinking it was a lot colder than it actually was and by the time I was halfway to Bridgewater I had to shed clothing.

Sunday Afternoon Delight

My original intention for Sunday was to go on a big ride but that meant waking up early and instead I decided to sleep in. I procrastinated all morning: updated my blog detailing issues of riding this past week, drank a lot of coffee, and put away some laundry. Sometimes, you need to do just that. Finally, I headed out at around 2:30 PM after making some final adjustments to the Jamis - I decided to go with a Fizik road saddle.

New Shoe Day!

My new cycling shoe dilemma is over. Earlier this spring I bought a pair a Pearl Izumi road shoes but when ever I wore them my feet would go numb.  I tried everything: thin socks, no socks, super loose, and nothing worked so I took them back.

A month ago, I went to my local bike shop, Brookfield Bicycle Center, and they ordered me a pair of Shimano Road Shoes. I was told that Pearl Izumi's run narrow and Shimano's, that they ordered for me were generally wider.

Riding the Rose of New England

I had to go to a wedding being held at the Norwich Inn and Spa in mid October. Since we were spending the night I, of course, I brought my bike.

Our accomodation was nice and it gave me the perfect staging area to prepare for my ride without disturbing my wife. I wanted to ride both sides of the T(h)ames River. In Connecticut, they pronounce it the name with Th as opposed the British who spell their river with the same letters but the h is silent.

Dante's Inferno

Having just gotten back from vacation and wanting to ride something different Mike suggested we do section of a ride that a friend of his did the previous weekend.  The friend rode 130+ miles but Mike only wanted to ride around half that distance and then go back to his house to cool off in the pool and drink some beers since it was going to be a scorcher of a day.  The route that he picked had us leaving from his house and heading up to Millerton, NY and then coming back on the Harlem Valley Rail Trail and then back roads back to his house.

Of course, as most of my cycling friends know, when I see an intended route I am liable to make changes to it and of course I couldn't help but change this one. I modified the route so that we would go north of Millerton, ride up to Boston Corners and come back on the new section of the HVRT that just opened this spring (Millerton to Boston Corners). I always have a cycling agenda.  

On the way up to Sharon we met up with Steve, on the right, who told us he lives on Westwoods Road No 1. If you have ever ridden this road you will recall that it's brutal, dirt road climb up the backside of Skiff Mountain. Steve told us that he usually drives down the hill and parks at the bottom so that he doesn't have to climb back up after big ride. That's pretty smart.  Steve was meeting a friend in Sharon who was going to ride Deep Hollow into Millbrook.  We parted with Steve and Mike and I continued north.

A chilly Sunday morning spin around the Saugatuck

Headed out at 6 AM Sunday morning for ride with Gavin around the Saugatuck Reservoir.  It was definitely not warm enough for shorts but with winter tights, a base layer and my Cannondale Performance Softshell, 15 minutes into my ride I had to open the zippers, it is the best riding jacket!  It takes me approximately 30 minutes to ride down Route 25 to the Burrito Shack where I have met Gavin before for rides in southern Newtown, Monroe and Easton.    

Gavin rolled in a few minutes after me and he had a few layers on as well.  I was going to plan a route but then just decided to wing it.  Gavin, on the other hand programmed one into his new Garmin Edge 510 so I followed his lead.  Despite the cold temperature, it was a great day to be out on the bike.

We worked our way through the back roads from South Newtown, past Guskie Pond and through the corner of Monroe and into Easton.

Quick stop at the Hemlock Reservoir to take in the sunrise and marvel at the water because it was like glass.

There were surprisingly very few cars on the road at this time.

My new rule is to ride with the Lake 303s in any temperatures less than 40 degrees

Gavin still had his fair share of snivel gear on

From Easton we headed up into Weston and on up to Old Valley Forge Road

It was amazing to see how low the reservoir was when the last time I rode through here, mid summer, it was at capacity

This June

It was so low, the river wasn't even flowing!