Six Lighthouses Ride in South Portland 10:00am B/2/38

Thursday, July 28th, 2022

For this Thursday... Field Trip to Portland! 

(As of Wednesday at 2:00:  There is still room to sign up!)

Club Member Vince Pelote has organized a ride for us in his home town area of South Portland, Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough, Maine. The ride will travel by 6 lighthouses and will include a section of the Eastern Trail in Scarborough. The ride is mostly on pavement, the section in Scarborough Marsh is hard packed dirt, relatively short and OK for a road bike.

After the ride, Vince was able to reserve tables outside on a deck for 20 participants from 3:00 to 5:00 at the restaurant in the marina next to where lives: "Bistro 43".  We will get the Happy Hour specials and lunch menu. Because space is limited, can you RSVP to me as soon as possible if you want to ride and to get a seat?  Can you get back to me by Wednesday early evening if you want to join in so that Vince can finalize the restaurant reservations? 

There are bathrooms, changing rooms and showers at the marina.

Info on the ride:

The ride is 38 miles, club code B/2/38. Not a hilly ride (1200 feet of gain)

Bring snacks and lunch.

Meet a the Bistro 43 parking lot at 10:00 am, Ready to Ride. It is located at Spring Point Marina near Bug Light in South Portland, the address is:  

1 Spring Point Drive, South Portland, ME

The website is:  https://north43bistro.com

RSVP to Marianne:  marianneborowski@yahoo.com

The ride will start from there and follow a loop with out/backs starting along the shore to see all of the lighthouses. 

Here is a map of the ride:

https://strava.app.link/CIaSHpLbtrb

...or try this if the other doesn't work:  https://www.strava.com/activities/7415980307?share_sig=24EA886B1657200583&utm_medium=social&utm_source=ios_share

Weather cancels the Thursday Ride again

 Thursday, July 21, 2022

With thunderstorms predicted after noontime and the hot weather, I think it best to cancel the ThursdayBike ride this week.

 I am looking forward to a better forecast for biking next week! 

RIde Cancelled for July 14th due to the weather forecast

Thursday July 14th, 2022

Because yesterday's Tuesday Dirt and Pavement riders met a soaking 15 minute downpour (but followed by sunshine and blue sky), and then I got wet again later that afternoon as I biked to retrieve my car from the service shop... I think it best to cancel this week's ride due to the chances of rain and thunderstorms over most of the day.

Update on The Bus:  Dan was able to get it all set and registered so it made its debut on Sunday, transporting 16 cyclists and 16 bikes from Bethel to Woodsville. Of the group 15 are from Washington DC and one is from Albany, NH. They did 3 days on the xNHAT,  1 day of hiking. They finished today and received their Celebratory Embroidered End-to-Ender Patches!

Dan will still take us on a bus ride so that we can enjoy a one way trip back. Stay tuned, this may happen next Thursday!

ThursdayBike: A test of a new shuttle bus and one-way ride back from Jefferson to Gorham. 11:00

UPDATE as of Wednesday afternoon:

Unfortunately....Dan cannot bring the bus to do the loading test and the shuttle for us. After preparing the bus for inspection, and painting it, too, he brought it to the DMV today for the inspection. Turns out he needs the DOT to do the inspection, not the DMV, because of the conversion of the school bus to an alternate use. The DOT does inspections once a month, and that will be in 2 weeks.  When the bus is all set and inspected, we will try to set up a shuttle trip again (maybe a VT side of the CT River ride, one way!)

The plan for this Thursday will still be to meet at the rail trail parking lot on Route 2 at 11:00 am for a ride up the Presidential Rail Trail. We can look for the beavers that have been very active in the ponds, and check out Rollo Falls and then have a 10 mile downhill ride back to our cars. 

ThursdayBike Returns:  July 7, 2022!   

I am going to start up the ThursdayBike rides again!

This is a unique Thursday Ride:  Dan the Shuttle Man, who is a shuttle driver for The Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail, has a new shuttle vehicle: a renovated school bus. He wants to test the bus and his inside bike rack system before his first official clients later this month. The bus can take 16 passengers with their bicycles. 

For using us as his test case, he has offered to give us a shuttle, for free, so that he can evaluate the rack system that he built. 

On THURSDAY, July 7th, meet at the Presidential Rail Trail Parking lot on Route 2 in Gorham at 11:00 am. We will load up the bus with the bikes and us, and Dan will transport us to Jefferson up on the hill to the general store/gas station where we have often stopped for a lunch break. He will drop us off there and we will enjoy the excellent, scenic downhill ride back down to Israel River Road, Valley Road, and the take rail trail back downhill to our cars in Gorham.

A stop a the Big Day Brewing Company would be a good apres-bike celebration?

A hybrid or gravel bike is best for this ride, mountain bikes will be OK, too. 

The ride is about 19 miles, here is the map:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40079997