jimmuller 

Ow, Top, your hurtin' us! Hope you heal up fast! Sharon says she is saving up a hug.

jimmuller 

Bump!!! We are still planning to ride Apr 20, departing from the Dennis parking lot (off rt 139, exit 9 off rt 6) no later than 10AM. Earlier if possible but we all know that is never possible!

spiker

Well had today been the day it would have been an interesting ride. Warm enough, mid to upper 50's. No wind, highly unusual for spring day on the Cape. Light rain off and on but mostly drizzle and misty 9am until 2pm. Wouldn't have been the worst ride ever but one for the dedicated.

Here's hoping next weekend is an improvement over today. Forecast a week out says rain again but predicting weather a week away on Cape Cod is all but meaningless.
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jimmuller 

Alas and alack, the weather gods are against us. Unless things change drastically in the next day or so we will not be riding the CCRT on Saturday.

So we need some votes. We cannot make Top's preferred day Apr 27. However we can make May 4, 11, and 18. There will probably be more rail trail traffic later in May.

So let's see a show of hands here! What day would you prefer?

pastorbobnlnh 

Fortunately I'll still be in FL on May 4. Unfortunately I'll be flying home to NH on May 11. And finally, I'm really bummed that I'm committed to church activities on May 18 & 25!

Prowler 

otg 

I'll be keeping an eye on the weather. I seem to behaving good luck weatherwise lately. I had tickets to the Red Sox Monday (the day of the Marathon), and the forcast was bleak. I ended up getting a sunburn at the ballgame and watched the finish of the marathon in relatively good weather. Could it happen 2 weekends in a row?

top506

A little windy on the Cape today but all in all not a bad day. I hope SOMEBODY rode this morning.

Top

spiker

As Top said it was a bit windy Saturday, not unusaully so. The sun even managed to pop through the clouds around 4. I got out of work at 3, on the bike by 3:20. Did my shakedown ride - front door to the rotary in Dennis and back - 18 miles. Thanks extension. The forecast for Saturday changed 3 times just today. AM showers to sunny back to AM showers.

jimmuller 

So let's reboot this and try again. At the instigation of @Prowler we are going to ride the CCRT on Saturday, May 11! Dennis trailhead, rt134 off rt 6. Aiming to be there 9:30. See you all there!

pastorbobnlnh 

Y'all have fun! I'll be winging my way back to NH after nearly three weeks in FL sunshine. Talked to a riding buddy yesterday and he said the sky spit sleet at him on Wednesday's ride and it was so cold he couldn't feel his feet long before he got back home! Nasty northern New England spring weather.

oddjob2

Yikes, isn’t this the beach where we turn around?

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cu...at-i-know-well

top506

That's Lecounts Hollow. Newcomb is a couple or 4 miles up Shore Rd.
They all though the sharks were a great tourist draw until they began eating the tourists......

Top

jimmuller 

Absolutely. On our last ride there several of them came up the beach after us but fortunately our bikes were faster once we hit the pavement.

Prowler 

I'm pretty tired of waiting for a decent run of weather so, damn the torpedos.... I'm on the road Thursday morning to ride the
Farmington trial. Friday may or may not be a washout. I may get a ride in early - shining sea trail. Saturday looks just fine so that's good. Planning to ride the new western leg before 9:30am the meet whomever shows up at the Denis trail head. If I ride the original route to Wellfleet alone, it won't be the first time.

I may drive home Saturday night or stay over if Sunday looks good. Drive partway down the coast road and ride something else then home. If the weather wants to be unpredictable then two can play that game. I need a road trip. The Nishiki is ready and willin.

otg 

I'm riding Saturday, see you then.

ScottRyder 

I'll be joining you as well but like in past years I'll be meeting you at Nickerson State Park around 10:15 or so.

If anybody has purchased my book please bring it along and I'll sign it for you.

Scott

Prowler 

This finally worked out and worked VERY well. Thursday, RickRob and I cycled the Farmington Heritage trail from the Red Oak Hill Rd trailhead to Westfield, MA (31 miles one way) and had a great time. The weather turned out to be much better than expected and the very light weekday trail traffic added to the fun. I'm having a lot of trouble getting tired of this ride. I'm ready to do it again! We talked to a guy riding his '85 Bianchi with 22mm section tires. He said the alternate Farmington River Trail was great too and the unpaved section was no problem on 'skinny' tires. I'm going to ride that loop next time.

Friday morning, I arrived on the Cape early and parked in North Falmouth. Its been several years since I rode the whole Shinning Sea trail so I was due. Another fine ride on a very gloomy and quiet Friday morning. Mostly by myself. It was overcast and cool but expectations were for no rain until mid day. Setting off on that 10 mile scoot to Woods Hole by 8:30am meant no worries about rain. Pretty much. As I got to Woods Hole it started spitting quite a bit so I looped around the ferry slips then back north. Shortly I was back on the east side of the peninsula and lost the rain. Great and relaxing ride.

Saturday morning I opened up a nice place called the Red Cottage Restaurant in old Denis. Had Gran-Blueberry pancakes which were the best way to start the day out. Ouch, they were nice. I then rolled on down to the CCRT trailhead on Rte134. Sorted the bicycle and headed west to explore the newly opened CCRT extension. An extension that crosses the Bass River and connects to trail sections that had been in place but just local for several years. Now its a very nice 5 mile ride to the new dead end. Even in the rain. Yup, it was raining as I turned to head back east. But lightly and expired as I returned to the Denis trail head. Frog was there getting his 194? Westfield scorcher ready. Lovely bike. OTG showed up followed by Jim Muller and his lovely bride Sharon. Jim took the group photo with his remote control drone quadcopter gun ship and will post that soon (with me cropped off the end, if we're lucky). The sun was out, the sky had, as we say here in Pennsylvania, "enough blue to make a Dutchman's britches" and just got clearer as the day progressed. A GREAT DAY on the CCRT. Another trail that continues to be lovely no matter how many times I ride it.

Hopefully others will provide more detail of the day and how many whales, seals, crocodiles and sharks they spotted in the ocean off Wellfleet. Tailwind going back to the cars just put the icing on the cake. I packed up then blasted west and almost made it home on dry roads, but..... Today was a good day to not be in New England - cold, rain, wind. Ugh.

otg 

It was a great ride, we did not see any whales out at the beach though. Woke up Sunday morning to the sound of my furnace running. I even saw some freezing rain while I was out driving in central Mass. in the early afternoon. We obviously picked the right day to ride!

jimmuller 

We did indeed have a nice day. I wanted to post some pics earlier but haven't had the time.

It was a dark and stormy might. No, wait, that was last year. This was a bright and peaceful day:

L to R: otg, me (looking at my Dick Tracy watch to operate the 3-d camera on my 16-gun drone), my sweetie Sharon, Prowler himself (the one and only), and Frog. We were missing Top506 who apparently survived an unknown injury. Some suspect that his death fork finally lashed out but missed. Usual attendee Spiker was also missing.

Scottryder and his friend Susan met us at Nickerson State Park.

L to R: Frog, Scott, me, the shadowy Prowler, and Susan. Scott was showing us how big the shark was that had attacked him on the trail a week earlier.

All the bikes in a row:


Frog's bike was far and away the most interesting, a 1941 frame he had built up to be as close as he could get it to a 1936 club-ride roadster:


A quick run over to the ocean. Danger! Danger!


On the return we enjoyed sights we never see riding earlier in the year:

You can never have too much snacks and violets.

It was a spectacular day.

spiker

Congrats on picking the nicest day of the year. Sorry to have missed it. All my Saturday's in May were booked.

ScottRyder 

It was an incredible day!! I didn't take many photos but here's two:



My friend Susan took this one. It never gets old with this type of weather.


Frog wins the prize for the coolest bike and the best fashion!!




A nice little memorial at Newcomb's Hollow Beach where the young man died last year from the shark attack. Two beaches up from where we always have our photos taken.



Scott

ascherer 

My wife and I will be on the Cape June 12-16 if anyone fancies a ride. Looking forward to checking out the extension. I may seek out a bit of dirt/gravel, so if anyone has some recommendations I’d love to hear them!

Prowler 

Gonna use the "wayback machine" Mr P*****y? Or did ya mean July 12-16? 😊 I wish I could join you but alas.......

I sure enjoyed the new section, even in the light rain. Note: the 'new section' is new about half way to the west then connects to another old section that skirts the golf course, thru the trees to Higgins-Crowell RD. A fine ride all the way.

ascherer 

Thank you, Sherman!