Pre-ride chatter centered around the “dogs” on Ketchum. Everybody except me had seemed to have heard about them and everybody had a unique theory to bring. Some with pepper spray; some _hoping_ the dog(s) were gone or restrained; others ready to yell at them to go home.
Kathy grabbed the sweet spot in the shade.
(click for a larger version)
Glenn explains the route to the gathering group:
The group started with 24 riders. We had a good mix of people: Several familiar faces and a few new ones; a father daughter pair dropped by to visit; and somebody who had just joined the club today (he had his printout to show me! ;).
We regrouped on the edge of town at Clear Creek School.
We took the “normal” route out through Olcott park and over to the raceway to Church Lane to Victor Pike to Fluck Mill. Pretty familiar territory for most OWLS riders. At the end of Fluck Mill we turned right to check out a part of Ketchum I had never ridden before. Then the surprise… Hills!
I was ready for the dogs; mentally at least, but nobody warned me about the hills! I honestly had not ridden this section of Ketchum and was myself a little surprised by the climb up out of Cedar Bluff. What about the dogs? All in all I counted 5 dogs. One that I was happy was restrained, two beagle mixes that just wanted to come out and say hi, a brown puppy lab that was too lazy to leave his shade tree, and another one just wondering in a farm field.
After making it off of Ketchum we turned onto Popcorn for a nice downhill all the way into Harrodsburg. After a brief rest it was time to tackle the last “big” hill up Monroe Dam road then the normal Strain Ridge route home.
All in all a great group to ride with!
Glenn Berger
More photos are available at PicasaWeb.