November Accidental Century

 November Accidental Century

With pandemic hitting its long-feared autumn/winter surge, we decided to rent a house on Cape Cod.  While I love living in a condo in town, the shared ill ventilated common spaces have been a source of anxiety.  I’ve got a couple neighbors who don’t wear masks -- and even if they did, aerosols from their apartments would clearly enter the common areas and then my place.  Additionally, my kids have some vacation time coming up and spending some time in a large house seemed like a great break.  Of course in the back of my mind I was thinking about bicycling from my home to the Cape.  I’m aware of all the privilege this represents.  We’ve still got our jobs, we can do them remotely, and so far we’ve all been healthy.

Anyway, my wife asked if I was thinking about riding to Brewster.  Hey, she knows me!  I set some weather related ground rules: the temperature had to be above 50F (10C) with no rain in the forecast.  I’ve been getting out to ride regularly, and cold wet rides are miserable enough for an hour or two.  Looking at the map I vaguely estimated the ride to be about 80 miles.  I had extended my weekend long ride up to 66 miles, so I figured I was good on that count.

The forecast was very good for mid November. Cloudy and almost 60F.  Since it was only going to be about 80 miles I didn’t set an alarm. I would wake up when I woke up and eventually get out the door.  It was nice to get a full night’s sleep before a big ride and to take my time with the final prep for getting out the door.  I had fully packed my touring bike for the ride.  In addition to food (clif bars, nut butter, PB&J sandwich, four water bottles, gatorade) I made sure to include warm weather gear in case the forecast was wrong.  I had heavy weight gloves, booties, a thick fleece gaiter, and a winter cycling jacket.  This made for a pretty heavy rig.

I got out the door on the late side, almost 8:30 AM.  But what was the big deal?  It was only going to be about 80 miles.

By the time I got to Dorchester I was overheating, so I stopped to remove my fleece helmet liner and swap out my long finger autumn weight gloves for short finger cycling gloves.  As I rode along it just kept getting warmer.  I removed my arm warmers and then finally my Pearlizumi jacket.  I was in shorts, jersey, and knee warmers on a 67F sunny autumn day.  I felt very very lucky that conditions were so good.  Even the wind was generally either a tailwind or non-existent. 

I tried to eat and drink by clock not due to hunger or thirst.  On a long ride you want to stay ahead of both.  The calories you take on board early in the ride are critical later in the day.  I had been doing a very bad job of this lately on my longer weekend rides, coming home thirsty & famished.

Taking a break in Halifax, note those full panniers

It felt like really slow going on my touring bike.  You didn’t jam it up hills, you kind of urged it.  The roads were fairly quiet.  Blissfully so in many places.  I got to the bridge a little bit on the late side.  I got off the bike to enjoy my PB&J chased by my Gatorade.  It was about 2 PM and I was feeling the time pressure.  The sun would go down a little after 4PM.  As I was walking over the bridge I heard a car beeping.  It was my family!  What can I say, it was wonderful to see my youngest daughter smiling and waving to me.

On the bridge just before my family passed by

The narrow road through Sandwich center was dead quiet.  It was wonderful  And really almost everyone I interacted with all day (at a distance) was in a great mood.  It was a very different vibe than you get when you bike these same roads in the summer when they are packed with tourists, vacationers, and frustrated locals.

Somewhere along here I figured out there was no way my mileage estimate was accurate.  It could have been while riding on the service road and looking at a sign on the parallel highway, Route 6.  Well, there was nothing to do except forge ahead (OK, I could have called my wife to pick me up or even used the bike towing service I’ve got from the Better World Club, but nah).

As I passed the open market in Barnstable I made a quick inventory of my consumables. I still had a Clif bar, a packet of Skratch labs sports drink mix, an Rx Nut Butter packet, and one full bottle of water.  No need to stop.

This stretch of the route was terrible.  It was on 6A and there was a fair amount of traffic and too many of the drivers were not cutting me any slack.  It was past 3 PM and I just wanted to finish this segment before sunset.  Finally, I got to Setucket Road even as the sun was dipping into the horizon.  I felt immensely relieved to be off of Route 6A and on a very quiet tertiary road.  I pulled over to rotate that last full water bottle into my front bottle cage and text my family.

As I rode along I got to Slough Road and its intriguing sign -- pointing the way to the Cape Cod Rail Trail.  Normally, I would take Setucket to its end, hop back on 6A for a couple hundred yards, and then take Tubman up to the rail trail in Brewster.  I had experienced enough 6A for one day and narrow/hilly Tubman wasn’t too appealing.  So, I took that right on Slough.

The road was absolutely quiet and almost as good it was recently paved.  It felt good to sit up, pedal no handed for a bit, and stretch.  My shoulders were getting a bit achy and I kneaded them as best I could while riding.  As I rode past kettle ponds I thought to myself, this was a longer stretch than I had anticipated.  Finally after some friendly police & construction workers let me walk through a closed section road (it was being repaved and the heat from the new asphalt was delightful!), I got to the rail trail.  IN HARWICH.  So, yeah, I had just tacked a bunch of miles onto my day.  The tradeoff of riding on such quiet roads was probably worth it.

Finally on the rail trail. It got a lot darker. 

It got DARK on the rail trail.  I turned my headlight on high and pointed it up to try see more of the upcoming path.  Eventually, I crossed into Brewster.  And then I heard my name shouted from the side of the path! It was my wife!  There was a path through the woods to the road our rental was on!  She offered to drive me up the lengthy steep hill, but I declined.  And thankfully so -- my bike computer came out to just 0.05 miles over 100!  So, I completed my accidental century ride.  I felt alright. A bit sore here and there.  I did go to sleep a bit early (I got an excellent 11 hours) and I felt fantastic the next day.  

They say Sir Isaac Newton developed calculus while decamping from London during the plague. It's unlikely I will make any similar breakthrough, but it's wonderful to be here.

A few observations from the day I don’t want to forget:

Some new bike lanes popped up, Not yet contiguous, but a step in the right direction.

The pandemic is not a thing on the south shore. Full parking lots.

Many Trump voters are not shy. There were interesting pro Trump displays

One Trump voting pickup driver was careful & courteous. Shout out to you!

Trees w/no leaves let me see A LOT more kettle ponds than I knew were on the route.

Too many newbies on the rail trail had no lights. Or reflectors.

Woolie boolie socks are the best!

Paul McCartney's "Mull of Kintyre" coming on for the beautiful S turns before the bridge.