Saturday was a wonderful day around balto for riding. I did "some" of the hills in Catonsville(40 miles). I read your post about riding in huge packs of riders. 20 riders, 3 abreast sounds slightly dangerous to me. I am not chastising just observing. I don't know how y'all do it. I tend to ride alone most of the time....mostly due to scheduling conflicts. When I ride with others, I get to talking and not paying attention. Can cause a bit of trouble. I never ride in packs. I don't even know how? I am sure there are 'rules of the road' but am clueless. The idea of crashing because someone else FU bothers me. I see huge packs of riders and am always in awe.

Derath: I was there for many years and am only now coming out of the cloud. Enjoy them now as they will be gone. I just sent the oldest back to college this wknd and the middle off to camp Pendleton, CA. My youngest is headed to college next year. I took up mnt biking when my kids were born because it was the one sport that exhausted me quickly. I live next to patapsco st. pk. so I woke very early, rode like crazy for 2-3 hrs then came home and made them pancakes for the kids.