Falls Rd is good but south of Cold Spring use the side streets to get to Roland Ave (Falls Rd gets extra nasty in this section (Providence St goes thru Roland Water Tower Park to get to Roland.)) At 36th St (The Avenue in Hamden) turn left. Turn right at Keswick. Turn right at Wyman Park Dr. There will be a side path on your left after the parking lot and the Jones Falls Trail head you can use this if you like (I have always found the traffic light so it should not matter.) This will get you into the Park at grade and has the easiest climbing out of the Jones Fall stream valley that I know of.

Lost at UMBC
 

I went out today to attend a lecture at UMBC (The Built Environment and Physical Activity.) Dang if I could find the building was supposed to go to. I asked for directions and they were just flat wrong so I ended up riding around for an hour. I guess it could have been worse on a day like today.

If anyone is interested in my adventure http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Lost-at-UMBC

I'm inputting the ride into my GPS now and that 2 mile climb is only 312 foot elevation gain, if my math is correct that's a 3% grade, hard but not a killer.

Barry, if I don't get up in time for the DCRAND ride, I'll be there.

I'm still coughing a little bit, but my brains are no longer draining out my sinuses. I may have lost my mind since I probably shouldn't be doing a century in and around the Catoctin Mountain Park not fully recovered. Oh well. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. <he types. while suppressing the next cough>

What are you guys wearing tomorow? The past couple of weeks its been pretty cold and I have worn polypro long johns under my tights. It's going to be warmer tomorow and was wondering if I can get away with just wearing one layer on my legs. I don't have leg warmers, so that's not an option in the morning. We are going out at 9:30-10am

Hard to say. Down into the 30's I just wear my heavyweight tights. Above 40 I wear my lightweight tights. Below 30 I wear some long underwear under my tights.

My tights are pretty warm overall. Been very happy with them.

-D

Weather.com is showing a wind chill factor so my *guess* is it is going to feel colder on the bike then reported temperatures. A rough guess is we will be riding 35-41degrees on the low end add 5 degrees if you’re optimistically voting for warmer weather.

FWIW I can get away with overdressing one half of my body as long as I can compensate with the other half.

I'm planning on leg warmers under bib shorts, base layer top (Under Armor Cold Gear), Gore lycra/spandex/neoprene jersey-jacket, neoprene booties, & Gore gloves with polypro inserts to start. Oh, and a bandana under the helmet.

NoRacer,

That is about the level of cover I plan on using. Although I don't have the leg warmers, so I plan to use thin polypro longjohns under my biking tights. I'll wear some whiking fabric under my jersey and then a LG heavy jersey-jacket over top, noprene booties & some Pearl Izumi heavy gloves. I'll probably wear my thin baclava under the helmet

No apology necessary -- true meanings getting tangled up in the ether is just one of those Internet hazards, and you're right, my post wasn't very clear!

Like saddles, clothing choices are very individual!

I have two weights of tights - both without chamois -which I wear thusly:

Bottom half:

High temp for the day 35* +/- or less....wear Assos heavy bibtights over bibknickers (toasty!)
High temp for the day 45* +/- or less.... sub shorts for knickers
High temp for the day 55* .... light tights over shorts
High temp.................65* .... leg warmers

Top half:
..............................35* +/- ............. Craft sleeveless undershirt + thermal long sleeve + wool cycling jacket + wind jacket
..............................45*.... same less sleeveless undershirt
..............................55*.. long sleeve thermal under short sleeve jersey + wind jacket
..............................65*... arm warmers

In cool/cold weather I always take the wind jacket to warm up in then usually take it off. Nothing worse that being far from home and getting cold late in a ride with nothing to put on...

You're telling me! That is exactly what happened to me today during the century up and around Catoctin Mountain Park.

Stay tuned for details.

Here's a few pictures that I took, just to pique your interest:

The Visitor Center (my Giant is on the left side of the sign)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...r/DSC00570.jpg

Crista and Chuck's Tandem
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...r/DSC00571.jpg

Some of the folks on the ride (there was about 20 of us)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...r/DSC00572.jpg

I guess you got up for the ride. How was is? I read your bug report about the ibike. that sucks. I would love to know the route you took.

I didn't get out today :( Had to work all morning. Got home at 2pm. Took my daughter to the park for awhile and then got home, got them baths, and bedtime.

I'll spin on the rollers some tonight.

-D

Here's the elevation and grade profile from my iBike:


Notice the 16 percent climbs!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...onandgrade.jpg

NoRacer - Looks like a find ride today!

We rode almost 30miles today south of Davidsonville. Nice area with a couple hills. I'm still trying to get my "sealegs" on the hills.

Here is our ride from my bike at MotionBased

Cheers

It rained a cold rain, then stinging sleet, then SNOW!
 

5AM
----
Alarm goes off. I get up, fix coffee and start getting dressed for the ride while the coffe is dripping.

5:15AM
------
Pour a cup of coffee, continue getting dressed, pack change of clothes, bike instrumentation, directions to the ride.

6AM
----
Load stuff into motor vehicle. Head to Royal Farm Store for Gatorade, PowerBars, and sausage, egg, & cheese sandwhich for breakfast.

6:15AM
------
On my way. Next stop, Monocacy Middle School, Frederick, MD.

7:20AM
------
Arrive at school--4th person there. Others arrive soon after.

7:46AM
-------
We're on our way.

There's seven big climbs on this ride:

- Catoctin Hollow Rd
- Park Central Rd
- Iron Springs Rd
- Cold Springs Rd
- Old Pen Mar and Pen Mar Rds
- Garfield Rd
- Putman Rd

Unfortunately, we could not do the climb on Park Central Rd. It would have been the next climb after we stopped in at the Catoctin Mountain Park Visitor Center. The Park closed the road due to severe icing.

Areas we travelled thru:

Mountaindale
Cunningham Falls State Park
Foxville (detour around Park Central Rd)
Sabillasville
Across the Pennsylvania line to Blue Ridge Summit
Charmian
Fairfield
Marshall
Lunch at Nan & Pap's on South Mountain
Michaux State Forest
Rouzerville
Pen MAr
Cascade
South Mountain State Park
Garfield
Mountaindale (again)
White Rock
Sunset Hill

While on Iron Springs and Cold Springs Roads it started to rain, then sleet, then snow. By the time we reached lunch break, my jacket and helmet was snow covered. Yeehaw. :rolleyes: It sucked! Now we were wet and on top of a mountain and many of us did not come prepared with waterproof clothing. We thought it was going to be nice! Luckily, by the time we finished lunch, the sun made an appearance. But, it was still chilly up there.

A few miles down the road we hit the next climb. After that, and along with some solar loading, I warmed up.

As soon as they are uploaded, I'll supply a link to photos taken by one of members of the DC RAND club. They'll include some of the climbing in the snow.

Here's the link to the DC RAND photo's from today's ride:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wabeck/...7594568275462/

I'm the guy in the Rabobank colored helmet with a red bandana underneath of it.

An epic!!!!

That has got to be the most beautiful cycling in Maryland if not the entire east coast. The Civil War Century does a couple of those climbs but not all of them. I once passed a motorcycle descending Catoctin Hollow...boy was he surprised!

Congrats on surviving a great ride and cool pics!

Thanks, galen. There were some climbs that I thought would never end. You look up and think you see a flat coming up, put your head down for a couple of seconds, look up and again and it's still going up.

These are great climbs and the reward is the descent. When you are coming off the mountain, the descent just keeps coming. This is when I grab the wheel of the tandem, as Chuck and Crista are not squeamish about descending at all. The three of us scream down the hills.

On a couple of the climbs, someone else would have the wheel of the tandem. Chuck & Crista would start their descent and they'd get a gap. I try to jump, but no matter what, there's no way I can get on their wheel. You must be on their wheel and accelerating with them or they're gone. Fun stuff.

One of my best rides out there was a 75 miler I did on my tandem with a very accomplished stoker. It was in the early fall and we were by ourselves. She was tour guide and used parts of a BBC ride and also just made it up as we went along. That day we climbed Catoctin Hollow and Park Central. We descended Rte 77 feathering the brakes at about 55 MPH.

Here's the last item of my report that was missing... a map:

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/19918

The elevation profile won't be completed by Bikely until tomorrow sometime--they state 24 hours.

According to GPS on the scene, the climbing for this route is 8900ft, which concurs with my iBike.

Nice

THC, did you do this ride? How was it?

I did most of that ride a few years back with the BBC, except it was only 85 miles with the same elevation gain. The first climb is about 2 miles into the ride as I recall - a real ballbuster. My buddy Dave Little only brought a 23 for a low gear and had to resort to weaving across the road! But the most hilarious part was this guy on a titanium recumbent. We hit the first climb and there are about 30 folks on the ride. Dave and another guy attack the hill. I am riding temp, figuring I don't know the ride so better to conserve. Well, the guy on the recumbent just plain runs out of gear about 2/3 of the way up the climb and.... falls over in the middle of the road!

EDIT: Actually, now that I look closer at the map I think we went up Hamburg Rd. first.

Don,

I met one of your Team in Training members this weekend at the Bike Doctor in Easton. I was in their picking up some things and she 'taller gal' was in with her Cannondale. Nice chatting with her. Do you have a link to the club or any info?

If you go to my TNT page and click the link in the upper left corner that says Visit Team In Training, it will take you to the Maryland Chapter. If you decide this is something you would like to do, allow me to sign you up, or put my name in as a reference. This way I get a credit to my fundraising efforts. Thanks for asking!!

The woman you met at Bike Doctor, did she say she was riding the Tahoe ride in June? Blonde hair? or Brunette? I'm trying to think who comes over from the shore? I know we have two, but the shore riders have been training over there for the past two weeks.

Very tough ride. You were blowing snot balls on Thurs and ride this on Sunday! Didn't look too pleasant. I got a kick out of Pauls Pix w/ the Chucks. Did he complete the ride? Those are some serious conditions for cotton tennis shoes. It was really cold and windy down low I can only imagine what it was like up top.

^^^^^^^^^^
The ride was Saturday. I felt better. Today's a different story, but I commuted in to work on bike anyway.

Pauls Pix w/ the Chucks?

Some folks did not go to lunch. They wanted down off of the mountain asap. Everyone else who made it to lunch finished the ride. Also, there were options to shorten the ride. I think some people took that option, especially when the weather started to turn (whimps!) ;)

There's a pix in your link of the dc rands ride. One of the guys was wearing a pair of tennis shoes(cotton) called chucks(taylors). They are a comfortable, sitting around a fire type shoe. For us old guys: they were THE best basketball shoe 40 years ago(before leather). Not exactly a cold weather, long ride sort of shoe. I will be impressed if he made he whole ride