June 10, 2012

Gypsy Stats:

Elapsed time:  6 hrs 26 min

Riding time:  3 hrs 24 min

Total distance:  154.6 miles

Ave speed:  45.4 mph

Beemer Stats:

Total distance:  158.6 miles

Ave speed:  45 mph

Fuel consumption:  49 mpg

Gas price:  $3.40/gal for 93 octane with a $0.30/gal discount from Redner's

Winter wheat has turned golden

When I raised the side stand after backing out of the garage this morning, I found a loop of our new 100 ft garden hose, which had been lying in the driveway, hooked on the end.  I put the stand down and kicked the loop of hose off and took off up the drive with a slight unaccounted wobble (loose stones?).  I pulled out, rode to the the stop sign at Grist Mill Rd, stopped, checked mirrors - what's that green snake behind me???  There was my new hose stretched out behind me on the road.  Seems when I kicked the loop off the side stand, it managed to hook itself on the center stand firmly enough that when I took off it stayed attached.  That unexplained wobble was the the tug the hose gave as I ripped it off of the hose bib (it had, of course, been hooked up).  As Dave pointed out later, if I had wanted to hook the hose on the center stand firmly on purpose I probably would not have been able to make it stay.  Still, what a boneheaded start to the day.  Of course if that's the worst that's in store for the day, there's a great ride ahead...

Corn in tassel

 It's a warm summer morning in southeastern Pennsylvania, temps in the upper 60's heading out at 7:15 under a blue sky.  Field corn is a bright dark green and knee high in the Oley Valley and the winter wheat is already golden and soon ready to harvest.  I even saw one stand of corn in tassel but I suspect that it must be an early season sweet corn, not field corn; it's way too early for corn to be in tassel.  But with the dry conditions this spring many farmers got in to the fields to plant very early.  Then the warm weather followed by timely rain gave the corn a huge head start.

Approaching the mountain on Rt 501

Heading out, I had put on a pretty wide-range, medium temperature outfit, meaning summer LD base layer, Gerbing electric jacket (not plugged in), suit with liners, and summer weight gloves.  I stopped for gas at the Redner's Quick Stop at Rt 73 and Pricetown Road and soon had the Gerbing jacket off.  With the bright sun and temperature of 68 and rising, it was definitely summer riding conditions.  By form-up I was shedding the suit liner from the jacket, as well.  

For breakfast, we headed up the back way to Haag's Hotel in Shartlesville for the Sunday breakfast buffet:  family style seating, buffet service, good Dutch cookin', all you can eat for $8.  Can't beat that with a stick.  It tends to attract a lot of bikes, especially in June weather but we were early so it was no problem finding a parking place and there was still plenty of food.  In addition to the standards - ham, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, potatoes, SOS.... - Hagg's serves apple sauce,  a big bowl of tapioca pudding, and shoofly pie.  It took us an hour and half of chin wagging and coffee to accomplish it, but we managed to leave with full bellies.  By this time, the lot was filling up with a collection of interesting bikes, several vintage R bikes, one with antique plates, and a fairly new F800ST, which we stopped to admire.

Dappled light and day lilies blooming at the road side

Well, afternoon obligations loomed and we only had time for a quick loop over the mountain this morning:  so west across the top of the county, up over Blue Mountain on Rt 501 into Pine Grove, west on Rt 443 to pick up Goldmine Road (newly repaved!) up over second ridge to Tower City, north on Rt 209 to Joliet and the cut-off down Mollystown Road to Ravine.  By this time, temperatures were in the low 80's, the weather was fine and afternoon was approaching, meaning...theyyy'rrre ouuut.  The road was starting to fill with "occasional riders".  At one point, I got caught behind a couple of Hardley riders who seemed to think the speed limit and yellow speed signs on curves applied to motorcycles.  Rt 895 at 45 mph; go figure.  Well, they get the four of five too-hot Sunday afternoons each summer to pile up the miles on their bikes; we get the rest of the year.  Time to head home:  over Rt 895 to Deer Lake, down Rt 61 through Port Clinton (obligatory nod to Hermy's in passing), and over the back way through Hamburg to Windsor Castle, and on to home.  Nice 150 miles and home in time for that 1:30 obligation.

The Valley and Ridge Province of SE Pennsylvania

2012 - Memorial Day Weekend in Blain

Loop around back roads near Blain and over Doubling Gap

May 26, 2012

Gypsy Stats:
Elapsed time and riding time:  1 Hr 27 Min
Distance:  51 Miles
Ave Speed:  35 mph

Into Carlisle and back plus larger loop on numbered roads

May 27, 2012
Gypsy Stats:
Elapsed Time:  4 hrs 49 minutes
Riding time:  3 hrs 3 minutes
Distance:  135 miles
Ave speed:  44.3 m ph

Beemer Stats:
139.4 miles
45 mph
49 mpg




I have always been in the ride-it-there-and-ride-it-back school but this weekend I wanted to take the family and dogs to Perry County to visit and was hoping Cousin John might show up with his bike so we could get a ride in.  So, for the first time, I loaded the bike in the back of the pickup truck to take it along.  Loading single handed was a bit of an adventure, especially with the truck parked slightly downhill; after cresting the top of the ramp, the bike wanted to take off downhill into the bed just when my feet were transitioning from ramp to tailgate (I walked the bike up the ramp under power).  By loading cocking the front wheel, loading at an angle in the bed, and nudging the back over to the side a might. I was able to get the bike in with the tailgate closed.  Four ratchet straps secured it from moving.

Loaded the bike in the pickup truck with the tailgate closed

The best unloading location, behind the barn backed up to a bank to minimize the ramp angle left the truck parked on a slight downhill.  It definitely took two to unload under these conditions, one to drive and one to provide some motive power.  Luckily, Josh was there to lend a hand.  I had been studying some of the back roads around Perry County on the iPad map-of-maps and had picked out a couple of loops that I wanted to investigate.  According to Josh, these were not all paved, especially going up into Tuscarora State Forest.  I headed across the valley on Book Rd, then down Hidden Valley Rd, eventually coming out on Rt 233.  As Rt 233, Doubling Gap Road, is one of the Blue Mountain crossings in the area, I gave it a run over and back, turning around in the village of Doubling Gap on the other side of the mountain.  It was a nice ride but, as indicated by the map, pretty straight running a diagonal up the side of the ridge.  Seems in this area Blue Mountain is a pretty straight ridge with no ravines or hollows to twist and turn around while traversing the contours.

A break in the end-of-day storm in Perry County

Back on the north side of Blue Mountain, I tried riding Laurel Run Road from end to end since the map showed it running up valley parallel to Hidden Valley Rd, then curving around to meet the top end of Fowler Hollow Rd (the road the farm is on).  This started out as a good run with only two surprises:  exiting a fairly sharp turn at speed to find a two track wooden deck bridge which had to be negotiated fairly accurately; and the sudden change from paved to gravel road without warning immediately after cresting a rise at speed.  Well, that's why you're supposed to be paying attention.  In general, the gravel was well graded and packed, readily negotiable without a GS, but it slowed the going to about 30 mph and wound its way into some pretty desolate sections of Perry County.  I had always seen Perry County as predominantly farm country and it is down in the valleys.  But cresting out on the gravel road at 2100 ft I could definitely hear banjo music.

Laurel Run Road eventually worked its way back to civilization at the top end of Fowler Hollow Road.  I ran down the pavement to the junction of Fowler Hollow and Book Roads and parked the bike at the Red House.

A quick recon of some of the other back roads I had been interested in truck proved that they too were unpaved.

Clear roads in Perry County

Since I was in Perry County and Tim and Dave were still home in the Reading area, we had agreed to meet at Fay's in Carlisle for breakfast at 9:00 on Sunday morning.  This gave us each an hour+ ride to breakfast and a great eating destination.  I headed out at 8:00 up over Waggoners Gap (Rt 74) and got to Carlisle with time to buy gas, find Fay's, and a little to spare.  We didn't dawdle over breakfast since Tim and Dave both had to be back to Reading by early afternoon.  By 10:15, full of steak and eggs, we were hading back up over Waggoners Gap.  I was leading (for a change) since I knew where we going (for a change) and was getting tired of following slow Corollas through the countryside.  Based on my exploration from the afternoon before, I was able to quit the numbered roads and divert up Hidden Valley road, pretty much unencumbered by traffic.

It was a misty-moisty day

We made a quick stop at the farm to see if Levi had shown up with his bike to join us (he hadn't) then headed out, sticking pretty much to numbered highways and pavement.  This took us out over Rt 274 to Rt 75 towards Willow Hill, where Tim had to deke off to the Willow Hill turnpike exit and make tracks for home to be there in time for family activities.  Dave and I ran Rt 641 north over the next ridge (a come-backer), then Dave had to turn around and head back to Willow Hill and turnpike for a quick run home.  I completed the loop up the valley on Rt 35 and down Rt 850 over the ridges.

It was a misty-moisty morning with gray skies and low hanging clouds.  Temperatures dropped into the low 70's and at one point I stopped and added back the jacket liner layer.  In the run up Rt 35 from Rt 641 to Rt 850 I saw two vehicles coming in the opposite direction - an old pickup truck and a man on a horse - and passed three going in my direction - three kids on bicycles.  That was it.

So, riding cut short by family activities on a family oriented weekend, but the concept of trucking out and riding local loops proven out.  Both times I was able to load the truck single handed; both times I needed help to unload (nearly dropped the bike trying to get it down the ramp at home).  Managing a bike in the back of a truck is definitely a two person job.  But maybe one of those hitch mounted ramps systems...  I feel more farkle coming on.