By Allan Edmonds
Bryan Park Pool Parking Lot was more crowded than usual this Saturday at 8 a.m. We had our usual large group of Saturday riders, more than enough for the two separate rides that set out to a certain amount of kerfluffle. But we also had a big city-sponsored garage sale filling up the lot across Woodlawn, with buyer vehicles parking in “our” lot.
Stan goes over plans for the Clay City Ride.
Stan Ellis, leader par excellence of the Clay City almost-a-century ride, got things organized, distributing maps, deciding the main stops, including food stops, etc. About 8:10 we all set out, with eleven of us heading east on South Downs toward Nashville, doing a small, common, variant of the club’s Nashville Ride (Old Hilly Hundred route), but taking Owl Creek (naturally enough) down to Helmsburg Road. The other larger group headed out 7th Street toward Spencer.
When the OWLS group was crossing College Mall Road we encountered Rudy Savich heading west, late, toward the park. That put him at least a ten minute deficit to the main group.
Ron dropped back to work on a squeaky brake. Although we learned later that he continued the ride, he never caught up and eventually decided to take a more leisurely break in Nashville.
Some of Lanham Ridge was quite rough. I was holding on for dear life. It was only later at the turn onto Owl Creek that noticed I had lost my trusty old CatEye computer which I had had for the last nine or ten years, with not even a battery change. The mount broke last year and since then I had been using a different mount in which the computer fit rather loosely. Oh well. These things happen. Its odometer showed something over 15,000 miles.
It seemed like it might rain, so we were anxious to get to the Shell Station in Nashville before it started. But we never got more than a little spittle…not really a sprinkle, even. Even so the temperature remained in the low 60’s for the whole ride, and more than one rider went with the temptation for coffee over Gatorade or soda. Ken bought a bag of doughnut holes at the shop next door and shared them around.
We then headed out for Bear Wallow, the first time ever for some of our group, and the first time in the south-to-north direction this year for any of us. At the top of the long steady climb we briefly regrouped and took a photo of some of our group in front of the wallow.
We returned following the standard route to Bean Blossom, then in on 45, with a detour on South Shore Drive. We covered the 52 miles in a little over 4 hours, including stops.
As for the Clay City crowd … [to be continued when I hear more]