Who Wants to Stop at Just 100 Miles Anyway?

 

"Hey, I'm renting a place on the Cape in Brewster for vacation.  Interested in riding out there with me?"
"Sure, but only if we ride all the way out to Provincetown."

Eh, why stop at 100 miles (162 km) when you can just go 130 (209 km)?  So went the conversation between me and my riding buddy, Jay.  My friend Richard has developed a very unfortunate triathlon habit and bowed out of long rides with us this summer.

After some last minute complications we agreed to meet up for a 6 AM rollout.  The plan was to ride to Ptown following the Outriders' Route and get Jay there well ahead of the 7:30 ferry back to Boston.  After a rather mediocre night's sleep, I was up quite some time before my alarm was due to go off.  Everything was packed and ready.  I had even made a breakfast sandwich the night before that just needed to be warmed up.

I really do need to figure out how to get a solid night's sleep before big rides.

Richard texted us very early wishing us a good ride.  We both responded, so there wasn't even any stressing about the scenario where one of us overslept his alarm.

The biggest negative of the early morning wakeup was I woke up my oldest daughter.  She's visiting from Jerusalem.  The prospect of a week's family vacation on the Cape was a real treat.

For some reason I didn't ask Jay if he wanted to roll out a bit earlier than planned but there you go.  I went out, he came by, and we were off.

It's that early in the morning. The sun is just rising and there are no cars.

The streets were fairly empty as we rolled out.  Temps were on the chilly side, but just barely warm enough to not need arm or knee warmers.  I had them plus a jacket in my trunk bag.

For the first leg of the ride my concern is always getting through Dorchester to Quincy before the traffic picks up.  The route is mostly on 203 and there are long stretches with no shoulder.

Suffice it to say, we were through and over the Neponset with no problems.  The bits where we were riding directly towards the sun were concerning, of course.  If the sun was in our eyes it was also in the eyes of anyone driving behind us!

In retrospect our mistake at this point in the day was not starting to drink & eat early enough.  It's a long long day, and you do not want to get into any kind of deficit.

That's a lot of wild turkeys

Since we hadn't been drinking too much we had plenty of fluids on the bikes. So we stopped at Wamsutta Park instead of riding a few more blocks to a Cumberland Farms.  That's about 30 miles into the ride -- and having so much water on board should have been an alert that we were not drinking enough! 

On a side note, the parking lot was FULL of pickups with boat trailers.  I often stop here while cycling to the Cape and I'd never see so many.

Wamsutta Park in Halifax.  Note my three water bottles and the trunk rack full of food & spare clothes. I was also carrying shorts & a tshirt in case I bagged out at some point!

After eating and drinking a bit, we got back on the bikes and continued along.  There's a lovely stretch after Hanson on the way to Plymouth.  On many rides I've found cell phones along the road and had some whacky experiences trying to return them to their rightful owners.  On this ride I found a Keurig coffee maker!

I was managing my caffeine needs with the GU "liquid energy" packs.  They have about half a cup's worth of caffeine AND 400 calories.  Earlier this year I had pronounced them as "vile", but I've since changed my mind.  

Obligatory photo of Plymouth sign 

We made our way through Plymouth and on the other side we stopped at Mayflower Convenience for more fluids.  They don't have public restrooms as it turns out, so next time I'll press on to another store not too much further along the route.

Gallon of water to split, some Gatorade, and crackers w/ peanut butter.

Jay borrowed a large under the saddle back from Richard. He had a third bottle there.

The next segment through Plymouth to the bridge featured THE WORST pavement of the day.  Someone decided to pave the road with "chip & seal" style pavement.  This is supposed to be the Claire Saltonstall Bike Route to the Cape and it's got one of the most bike hostile paving.  It was really rough and covered with a loose fine gravel.  Not a lot of fun.  Even less for Jay who was riding on more narrow higher pressure tires.  For more on chip and seal see "Why Chip Seal Is the Absolute Worst Surface for Road Riding"  Or just google " Chip and seal cycling" for some NSFW cyclists' comments on it.

"To what do we owe this enmity? For one thing, it hurts: Crashing on chip seal is like sliding into a body-size cheese grater. Loose chip is harder to see than black ice, and about as terrifying when you hit it. And it’s messy. Chip can stick to tires and cause flat tires. Plus, the asphalt layer is designed to melt in hot weather (to reseal cracks), which makes little balls of tar fly up from your tires and stick to your frame (try WD-40 or peanut butter to remove).

And if none of those fates befalls you, you’re still consigned to a buzzy, hand-numbing ride that is actually slower because of the surface’s greater impedance. Because it’s cheap, and transportation budgets are stretched, we’ll probably see more chip seal in the coming years. But that doesn’t mean you have to like it."

Chip Seal: not a fan.

Well, anyway, we made it through it eventually.  This segment of the route also has a lot of rolling hills that kind of take it out of you.  It's about 15 miles of up and down and it's where the ride starts to feel like a real thing.

Just before the bridge we took a quick bio break at the McDonalds. They were advertising spicy egg McMuffins. I wondered if they would make a vegetarian one...

Anyway, it was time for one of the most frightening bits of the ride: GOING OVER THE BRIDGE

It's a narrow windy walkway high above the canal.  There's speeding traffic next to you.  So much fun.

We made it to the other side.  Took the photos.  And mounted up for the second half of the ride.

The traffic leaving the cape was C R A Z Y.  Fortunately, it was very light on our side of the road.  We had a smooth ride through Sandwich up to the access road that parallels Route 6.  Even better, we had the new bike path to enjoy.  Super low stress and easy sailing.  Just a lot of fun and a chance to easily ride side by side and talk without shouting.

Some day there may be a separated bike path going all the way from the canal to Provincetown.  As of now, it ends well shy of Hyannis.  We got on the access road, continued to Shootflying Hill Road, and then into lovely Hyannis.  This is another tough bit traffic wise.  Not Dorchester bad, but generally ugly, with a whole bunch of loud traffic going next to you.  Most of the Boston to Ptown route I know by heart.  This segment is still fairly new to me and I was depending on the green arrows that get painted for Outriders.  I almost missed one -- and later on, past the steamship authority/hospital -- I did miss another.  Fortunately, we rejoined the route pretty easily.  Then, we got to the Yarmouth/Hyannis border and the very start of the Cape Cod Rail Trail.

Outriders' green arrow showing the way

The very start of what will be the Cape Cod Rail Trail off Higgins Crowell Road

We were kind of low on water and were disappointed to find that the water fountain in Falmouth was non functional.  We did stop to eat a bit and use the clean indoor bathrooms. I was definitely starting to feel pretty grubby.  Just splashing cold water over my face and neck felt great.  

It said this in Yarmouth, but it was not the finish line!

I had about one water bottle left and I knew that wasn't going to be enough to get me to the bottle filling station in Orleans.  We were going to have to stop before then, most likely at Ferretti's Market in Brewster.  It was pretty smooth going.  The rail trail was not too crowded.  When we got to Ferretti's it turned out there was a new fountain/water bottle filling station on the path!  NB, there's another new one just off the path at Nickerson State Park.  We stopped at Ferretti's anyway, agreeing that we needed some Gatorade.  It turned out they only had large-ish bottles left.  As Jay and I sat and talked we each ended up draining and entire bottle.  Additionally, we each drank a bike bottle of water!  We were thirsty and didn't even realize it!  Following all this fluid we felt quite a bit better even if it was sloshing a bit on the inside for a few miles.

We were starting to feel a bit pressured for time. Our pace hadn't exactly been blazing.  Jay was holding off buying tickets for the 7:30 ferry, but I was sure he did not want to take the 9:30 ferry.  Or crash at our place and catch an AM boat for that matter.

Somewhere past Nickerson State Park each of us hit 100 miles for the day.  I was getting so tired I didn't even take a photo to mark it.  The fatigue felt more like it was from the bad night's sleep than the ride per se.

My wife and kids arrived on the Cape around this time and we started intermittently IM'ing about when and where to meet up.

As we were approaching the end of the rail trail in Wellfleet we discussed a couple important items. Would we try to stop at PB Boulangerie?  Which route would we take into Provincetown, the more scenic but challenging Outriders Route or something easier that put us on Route 6?  Given how the service is and the typical long line, we bagged out on the Peeb.  How tired was I feeling?  I couldn't say the word "boulangerie".  Please bear in mind that I speak a pretty rough French and boulangerie is most definitely in my vocabulary.

Not looking our best at the end of Rail Trail.

We also elected not to do the Outriders Route. Instead we'd take Ocean View Drive (gorgeous) to Gross Hill Road/Gull Pond Road (pretty nice too) to Route 6 (suboptimal).  After six miles on Route 6 we'd hang a right to Highland Light.  We were so close to the finish at this point.  We stopped in Truro, did some IM'ing, bought a ferry ticket for Jay, and mounted up to finish the ride.  While we were going up Ocean View Drive there was some crazy traffic -- the likes of which I've never seen there.  Cars were parked all over the place turning the small two lane road into a one lane road.  Pedestrians were walking up the road.  There was some kind of surfing contest happening.  And only one cop to direct traffic.  It was nutty.

Made it!

I did a really bad job coordinating with my wife.  She was waiting at the Harbor Hotel - the old finish line for the Harbor to the Bay ride.  Jay saw them and asked if I had zipped up my jersey.  Of course I had - for the photo when we crossed the town line.  And like an unimaginative exhausted cyclist, I didn't ride side by side with Jay for the photo.

Mary had intended to drive us into the center of town, but Jay and I just kept going.  "We have to keep going into town!"

After some whacky riding down Commercial Street we made it to The Aquarium to get a veggie burger for Jay's trip home.  I had mine later when I sat down for dinner with my family.  We got Jay to the wharf for the ferry and got his burger into his hands.

It was a great ride.  Next time, I'll figure out the pre-ride jitter sleep thing and we'll do a better pace.  Thanks for reading, keep the rubber side down.