Sloggy Solo Ride to Provincetown

 After the Blazing Saddles century (and the unforgiveable lack of vegetarian food at the post ride spread despite their pre-ride publicity, oh, I'm still salty about that), my next big ride was the following weekend.  It was my annual ride out to Provincetown to meet my family for our vacation.  You'd think the prospect of a 130 mile/209 km ride would be enough to induce me to take it easy during the week and taper a bit.  But, you'd be wrong.  I was already on vacation and I wanted to do at least a short ride every day to at least get my ya-ya's out.

Silhouette from the end of the day at the Provincetown border

My friends Jay and Richard wanted to join me for the ride.  The forecast looked kind of bad, so I told them it would have been a bad idea.  Thus, I was out for a long day on my own.  Possibly with bad weather in the offing.

As it turned out, the forecast was for a 50% of thunderstorms most of the way the whole day.  I don't think a drop of rain fell on me, though the clouds were quite threatening at times and the ground was quite wet in places.  Oh well.

I managed to get a decent night's sleep.  This was much better than last year.  I had experienced a run of cycling events with little to no sleep the night before.  It kind of spooked me, so I've made a few changes.  Most importantly I work to recognize the butterflies I feel before an event as excitement and not nervousness.  I also dropped making certain pre-ride jokes which had become a stupid pre-ride ritual.  We ride at dawn! And the like.

Everything was packed and laid out the night before.  Coffee maker ready to go, breakfast, filled bottles for the bike, etc.  I do have a literal checklist to ensure I don't miss anything.  And I run through it early in the evening the day before.  Well before bedtime.  The whole idea is to prepare completely with minimal stress.

I woke up a couple times during the night. "If it's 4 AM, I'll just get up. Oh, it's 1:30".  I did take advantage of this to get some sips of water.  Nice to start the day not quite so dehydrated from sleeping.  Anyway, I was up with my alarm and not before for once.  After breakfast and getting dressed I was out the door just a bit early.  It was dark out before 6AM.  Having my powerful Magicshine headlight with the extra long life battery was a comfort.  I could run it on low before sunrise and still have lots of burn time if I needed to turn it on because of rain.  I left my PlanetBike secondary light on blink.

The cluttered cockpit of my Diverge. Lights, reflector, bike computer, speaker and top tube snack box.

It was warm and humid enough so my jacket and arm/knee warmers were in my trunk bag, available if it got cold & rainy.  The spin out of Boston was quiet.  The roads were nearly empty.  Taking 203 through Roxbury and Dorchester can be nerve wracking later in the morning.  Before everyone wakes up and without traffic?  It's just a straight shot to Quincy.

Extinction rebellion climate emergency stickers

An empty J-way and adjacent bike path

The ride through all the south shore was uneventful.  I stayed on top of hydration and eating, knowing that the calories you take on board early in a long ride are the ones you're burning later in the day.  I also kept the pace down.  On a long ride you just want to stay in "zone 2" and keep it nice and easy.  Keep me in Clif bars, water, and caffeine and I'm good to ride forever, right?  I have to say I also felt the miles already in my legs and immediately regretted not tapering before the ride.  One day off the bike was nowhere enough.

A photo of my bike from a very quick pit stop in Halifax. Top tube bag, trunk bag, and three, count 'em three water bottles (two with water, one with coffee or hydration beverage)

There were threatening clouds to the west and a hint of blue to the east.

It was nice to take it slowly in many respects.  I stopped and got photos of things that interested me.

Horses!

I bet 500 quatloos on the newcomers. 

I had no idea the route went through Carver.

It's the Bavarian Way, you wouldn't understand.  Or "Have you ever heard the German band? Nein, that is the name of the song!"

Kind of amazingly the three bottles on the bike were enough to see me through to Plymouth.  I took my first long break of the day at a convenience store where I bought water & gatorade.  I brought a cable lock with me, so I didn't have to wheel my bike into stores if I didn't feel like it.

Refills for my bike bottles. Plus some for enjoying right away.

There's a whole lot of rolling terrain from Plymouth the canal.  And several of the fun "Claire Saltonstall bike route to the Cape" signs.  I ran across a smart phone by the side of the road.  What the hell happens around Cape Cod that there are so many of them lying around?  Anyway, this one was totally trashed.  There was no chance of reuniting it with its owner.  I put it on top of my my trunk rack so I could throw it in the first available garbage.

Clare Saltonstall Bikeway to Cape Cod. Is it the four inches to the left of the fog line? Maybe.

Another lost phone by the side of the road. So weird.

I had finished my bike bottle of coffee before arriving in Plymouth and I was thinking about getting more.  So, I kind of fixated on the Dunkin Donuts by the bridge.  And in addition to a coffee I could get ... an egg and cheese sandwich!  And lo it came to pass.  I got to Dunks and there wasn't even much of a line.  Pretty cool.

Saddling back up I was over the bridge and on the Cape. It always feels like that's the start of a whole new ride.  After going through Sandwich and getting onto the Service Road I was greeted with an exciting development.  They're building a bike path next to the Service Road!  It's part of a gradual push to have bike infrastructure going all the way from the canal to Provincetown.  It's going to take quite some time for all this to happen.

Bike path on the left under construction. Definitely not yet rideable.

After the whole lot of up and down along the Service Road I got to Shootflying Hill and then Hyannis.  While traffic was a bit heavy, the drivers were fairly careful.  And then finally, I got to the start of the bike path on the Hyannis/Yarmouth border.  Whew.  Also coming soon -- they will be pushing the start of the bike path further west closer to Shootflying Hill.  It will be nice to cut out some of the miles and certainly the traffic of the dip down into Hyannis.

The first few miles of the bike path cuts through a golf course.  So it's a bit substandard and narrow.  Yarmouth also places these weird gates that force cyclists to dismount to cross roads.  It's super annoying.  And has to be an ADA violation to boot.

Dismount and zig zag. So annoying.

I got to the little park just before the trail head of the actual Cape Cod Rail Trail.  It has a bathroom, so I took a short break.  I was running low on water by this point, but I figured I could ration it out until I got to Orleans.  Now this was a dumb dumb move.  There are at least two stores I could have stopped at to top off on fluids and I really ought to have done so.  There is no reason to ration out water around mile 85 of a 130 mile ride.  If anything I should have been going overboard on hydration.

Seriously taking a break. My shoes were a bit wet.

After eating and drinking a bit I got back on the bike and resumed my ride.  Somewhere along here I was passed by a guy wearing a New England Randoneurs cycling jersey.  There's always someone going further and faster than you on any given day.  I was pretty sure he was that guy for me.

I also ran into a kid and an adult on one of those electric one wheel things.  They rode behind me for a bit and we chatted a little.  It was fun riding with someone -- and I noticed I did pick up my average speed a bit.  It really would have been better to have had my friends with me.  The two one wheel people dropped off at the roundabout just shy of Brewster.  

The two e-unicyclists behind me

I also ran into the guy in the Randoneurs jersey again.  Sure enough he had started in Belmont -- and he had dipped into Woodshole.  He was also riding to Provincetown.  I didn't ask how many miles that was going to shake out to be but it had to be close to 200.  He was riding quite a bit faster than I felt like, so I bid him farewell.

The rail trail wasn't too busy

I was hitting the last of the water in my bottle and closing in on Orleans.  There's a bottle filling station there across from the Hot Chocolate Sparrow.  I stopped and filled all three bottles.  I also mixed up some Skratch Labs hydration drink from powder.  It was really good.  I drank the whole bottle.  I should have made up a second one.  My family texted me -- they were planning on stopping at the Hot Chocolate Sparrow.  Unfortunately, they weren't going to be there for another half hour.  So, I pressed on.  

After all waiting at Lecount Hollow Road was the PB Boulangerie!  I was really focused on getting a kouign amann.  Or at least an almond croissant.  I really tried to enjoy the stretch from Orleans to Wellfleet.  It's got some gorgeous marshes.  And wonderful views.

Still, the PB Boulangerie.  Would there be a queue?  Of course, but how long? 

Yes, I did pick up the pace a bit.  I got to the PB -- and the queue was not down the ramp!  It was about as short as you could hope for.  I parked my bike and counted my blessings.  Maybe there'd even be a kouign amann!  Well, no such luck.  I did grab a cold gatorade to hold against my head while I was waiting.

Somehow the sun had come out and the temperature had climbed to around 80F/27C.  And I was at 110 miles into the day.  I was really feeling it.

I ordered an almond croissant (the last one in the store!) and an iced coffee.

The last almond croissant

I sat down outside and drank the gatorade.  I was not about to spoil the taste of the croissant by mixing it with blue gatorade.  I'm not a barbarian.

A surprise: my family stopped at the PB to see me!  Also, how was my day going?  I didn't get a photo with them.  I was pretty off, I'd have to say.  My wife asked if there was anything I wanted to ditch from the bike.  Why I didn't give her the cable lock, a few Clif bars, and such I don't know.  At the least I could have shed a couple pounds off the bike.  She was kind enough to ask what mile I was at and then repeat really loudly "wow, 110 miles? Of course you aren't feeling fresh!".  Loud enough for the tables next to me to hear.  Nice to have some humblebragging by proxy.

One odd thing that was happening to me was my jersey was chafing my arms.  It was really weird since it was a recent H2B jersey that's one of my high rotation jerseys.  I've worn it on lots of rides and it's the same cut and size as my other H2B jerseys. Fortunately, I had some "butt butt'r" packets with me for just such a contingency.  I think the takeaway is you never know what kind of weird irritation or problem even an old piece of cycling gear will cause on a very long ride, and you need to be ready.

When planning the ride I had thought to take the Outriders route and really enjoy Pamet Marsh.  Well, I was not feeling too fresh, so I decided to take Oceanview Drive to Gross Hill Road to Gull Pond Road and then hit Route 6 & thus the H2B route.  That's the same option I did back in July with a group of friends.

Oceanview Drive is one of the most beautiful sections of road anywhere.

It's a bit of a climb up Oceanview

Not fresh as a daisy.

The view on Oceanview. It's something else.

Then it was onto Route 6.  Which is not one of the most beautiful sections of road.  There's a wide shoulder, but traffic is moving at highway speeds and it's LOUD.  My legs were shot. I didn't feel like I had much left in the tank.  But I soldiered on.

The green arrow marking the route. And the turn off Route 6

Finally I came to the turn to get off of Route 6.  Whew!  Off the busy road and onto a nice quiet rural road.  There were a lot of turkeys hanging around the road.

Lots of turkeys all over the Cape.

Soon enough I hooked back, crossed under Route 6 and got to 6A.  Up the last couple climbs and the tremendous view of Beach Point and Provincetown beyond it.  I spun out the few miles, got my photo at the town line -- and I was done.  Whew!

Just a bit more climbing

A shower, pizza, salad, lots of water, and some salty broth later and I felt a lot better.  Next time: a bit of tapering and try to do it with some friends.

Done! Good thing I put on the sunglasses; there were a ton of bugs in the air!