Half Baked Bike Commute

Bike Commute #22 started out like every other ride to work, leaving the house at 5:30 AM, I couldn't see nautical twilight as I pedaled out of the Housatonic River Valley towards the center of town, that's how dark it was this morning.  I met up with the Newtown LunArtics for a little ride along down Route 302.

Dawn Patrol with the Newtown LunArtics from Mark on Vimeo.

Gabby's selfie actually came out with me in the background!  The reflection from his blinky really makes things look eerie!

Photo Credit:  Gavin Arneth

After I left the guys on Hattertown Road I took my usual route down to Norwalk via Newtown Turnpike.  In Wilton, after passing my childhood home, I stopped to chat with the new owner of Whitney Darrow's home.  Whitney was a famous cartoonist for the New Yorker Magazine who died in 1999.  All I remember of him is trick or treating his place for Holloween,  The new owner seemed to know few of his neighbors so there wasn't much catch up there.

 

I got down to the office early and it was an awesome day.  At noon, the office complex had a big BBQ for all the tenets and the food was awesome.  Then I was heads down, working on various things, when at 4 o'clock I looked up and out across the office floor to the windows and saw it was dark outside and pouring rain.  Quite a few people knew I had ridden in that day and asked what I was going to do.  I said what choice do I have, got to ride home.  

The one think I did notice on the radar was that it wasn't raining at home but then a colleague of mine, with a pickup truck offered me a ride home which I accepted.  Wouldn't you know, 10 miles north of the office it's bone dry and it never rained the rest of the evening either.  Getting home early did have a benefit, I could now replace my worn out tires on the road bike.  A couple of weeks ago I got a punture in Southbury while riding back from Ovens of France and to protect the new tube I lined the tire with a dollar bill.

Because of that dollar bill, I was able to get 2235 miles out of my Serfas SECA Survivor series tires. Not as good as the original set of Schwalbe Luganos, which I got 3200 miles out of. I had a little credit on Amazon so I purchased another set of Serfas SECA tires and these have a blue stripe in them making them kind of matchy, matchy with the Cannondale.  Well, at least they are blue.

The best part of my bike commute

Poverty Hollow from Mark on Vimeo.

Midday Hot & Steamy Mountain Bike Ride

I had heard some rumblings that there is another new trail at Upper Paugussett.  Before I could hit the trail I had to pull the Spot out of mothballs and give it a tune up.  After my endo last spring the Spot needed new brake cables and a new seatpost.

It poured like crazy Saturday morning but knowing that the Gussy is real sustainable singletrack that it would be fine for a quick rip.  I went in from Echo Valley and easily got up Poly Brody to the trail head.  Rocks were pretty greasy from the rain so I figured I would take it easy.

Ride Before Work: WTF is Wrong in Woodbury

The LunArtic's Friday ride to the Oven's of France in Woodbury had an extra stop to make.  Apparently a disgruntled citizen of that fair town has a gripe with the town that has prompted him to create a lawn sign, similar to all the big W's seen along Route 6, only his adds two more letters for WTF: Woodbury Wastes Tax Payer Funds.

Detour de Connecticut

After 5 years of procrastinating I finally rode the Detour de Connecticut.  Maybe it was a good thing that I waited this long because in the past it was always held in the spring and from past accounts of the ride it sounded like it always a miserable day of riding. Saturday's forecast was for 70s and a little overcast clouds which made for perfect riding conditions. You couldn't get better than that for this type of ride.

With the long weekend I was planning on test riding a fat bike and ride all my favorite trails in the area but the forecast for rain dashed those plans, so if I really had one day to ride, it might as well be Saturday and I better make the most of it. 

Salem Mazzawy, Detour de Connecticut event coordinator

The night before, I loaded up both Garmins, loaded the GPX course to Google Maps and created cue sheets.  I loaded food into my barrel bag, spare tubes, etc, in the frame pack, and in my trunk bag was first aid it, another bottle of water, and other essentials. Beside my iPhone, salt pills, and a backup cue sheet I had a can of Salt and Vinegar Pringles.

Brendon Mahoney

There were 57 entries on Bikereg but probably 35 people showed up by my estimate.