First Ride of the Season: April 28th, 2011

CANCELLED!!

Dog-Gone-It, but the weather forecast just is not cooperating. The road is wet, the fog is in the valley, the forecast for storms seems to indicate an earlier approach of rainshowers.
I think it is best to just cancel the ride today.

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The weather continues to be a challenge, but I am setting up the standard, local, old-favorite just to get us out and get this season underway!!!!!!

Last year at this point we all had done quite a bit of riding. This year I have heard that some off you have not even been on your bikes at all yet....... (but the skiing has been soooo great!!).

Let's do the old regular ride -- West Side Road and Passaconaway, starting out of the public parking lot behind the Eastern Slope Inn in North Conway. Let's start at 10:00. We should be done before the predicted rain and possible storms come in in the afternoon. This should get the wheels turning.

Time: 10:00 - Ready to Ride.
Arrive early enough to get the cobwebs off the bike, the tires pumped and the chain lubed. I will have a pump and lube if you need them.

Miles: 19 to the Dugway Picnic area on Passaconaway Road. You may ride further if you like, the road is clean, but the gate is closed and the road beyond the gate is littered with tree debris.

Bring: Beverage, lunch and/or snacks to enjoy overlooking the Swift River from the picnic area. Most of the way back from there is downhill or flat, with a warm tailwind to get you back to the car.

See you there!

2011 Cycling Season

Hi ThursdayBikers!

Welcome to the 2011 Cycling season! It was great to see so many ThursdayBikers at the Velo Club Party at the Moat yesterday!

I typically post the Thursday rides on the blog on Tuesday night, but with difficult forecasts I sometimes need to wait until Wednesday night before I can plan a ride around the weather.

Last year the group had already done 3 rides by now (but the skiing was over…)!! We rode every Thursday in April, starting April 1st, but, we did not ride any Thursdays in June. Everything always seems to balance. I guess we can look forward to great riding in June this year!!

I have not set up a ride for tomorrow, April 21 because the weather looks a bit too cold and windy for our first grand opening ride of the year. Perhaps you can use part of the day to prepare your bike for the upcoming season? (or- do a short ride to prepare you seat for the season??)

To start getting excited about riding and exploring, here are some fun rides that will be included again this season:

Lupine Ride in Randolph and Jefferson
Bethel to Bryant Pond Loop
Wing Road/Hazen Airport Loop in Jefferson
Franconia Notch Bike Path
Vermont Side of the Connecticut River
Franconia/Sugar Hill/Bath Loop
Littleton via River Road
Lost Nation Loop

Some new rides I plan to put together for this season:

Brownfield-Fryeburg rides which will include the new 1.5 mile section or the Mountain Division Rail Trail in Fryeburg (to be started this spring!)
Parsonsfield-Cornish
Dunn Notch-Grafton Notch

So, pump the tires and lube the chain! See you next week!!