Saturday 9/17 C Ride: Goshen Cummington Chesterfield 46/36

[Chris Stratton]

Although last night's wonderful ride and party marked the end of our formal weeknight rides, the Saturday C rides will be continuing into fall.  Thomas Brothers is joining the Saturday C leadership team bringing lots of enthusiasm and new route ideas, plus the potential that we'll be able to double staff many rides such as this weekend's with both a route leader and a sweep.

The Saturday 9/17 C will ride a 46 mile 3600 foot route through Goshen, Cummington, and Chesterfield

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40947058

This route should be a lot of fun, plus it's a great example of input from many sources coalescing just in time.  We started with a clockwise idea Tom wanted to pursue to Cummington, but starting from Pulaski it was looking a bit long.  We looked at various ways we could cut it down, then just as things were looking grim, Tim Cary announced the route of this weekend's B ride, featuring an outbound leg that provided a refreshing new solution we might steal to use as our homebound leg.  I was on the verge of making that our route when Tom pointed out, why not ride it the other way around?   So that's what we're going to do: ride counterclockwise following the B ride out of town on a set of Route 9 bypasses we've shamelessly stolen from them, then go up to Cummington versus where they head south into the gorge, and wrap up our ride by enjoying the big descents through Chesterfield.

Primary refill opportunity will be the Creamery Co-op grocery store in Cummington just before mile 22.  The Goshen store is just a bit off route at mile 14.4, but that's earlier than would typically be useful for anything but an emergency, though we can divert there if needed.  Finally we'll go right past the Chesterfield Store at mile 32, but since it's pretty much downhill from there to home, it's unlikely we'd need that.

Hope to see you at Pulaski Park at 9 am this Saturday!

Chris

[Chris Stratton]

Saturday's weather looks to be nicely clear for the C ride to Cummington, though cool enough initially even down here in the valley to make tights over summer stuff worth considering - and perhaps more so in the hills.  At least we won't be burning through fluids so quickly now.

We'll be rolling out a few minutes behind the B ride since we're initially on the same route, so if planning to join the C ride partway out please look for familiar faces and make sure to jump in with the intended group.

I must also confess to having misread route notes, it turns out there is a short unpaved section of the Old Goshen Road climb, so it's been suggested we make a group decision after Village Hill if we want to press on through that, or instead hop on route 9 from there until we can leave it again on East Street.

On the return at mile 26.5 we may similarly choose to bypass Capen Street with Clark Road at the cost of a small re-climb.

In double checking the cue sheet this evening I found and corrected a couple of slightly misplaced control points, nothing that would cause lasting confusion but it could be worth re-downloading the route.

See you tomorrow,

Chris