Over The Hill

I drove up to Milton NH to meet with the “Proud Prouty Peeps” charity bike team.  We are training for the Prouty century in July and needed a few more long rides to get the stamina and training in.  The plan was to wind ourselves up into Maine and get to my Dad’s place, break for lunch and then take an alternate route back.  The group today was my sister Shelby, her husband Dave, his brother Dan and Dan’s fiancé Jess.  Dave and Dan are identical twins.

It was a really gorgeous day, basically perfect biking weather.  A light breeze, gorgeous skies and nice landscapes consisting of rivers, streams, lakes and mountains.   I was trying out my new patriotic jersey which unfortunately turned out to be less comfortable than my boring Pearl Izumi white jersey.  No real surprise there because whats better than Izumi for cycling clothes?

I also was trying HammerHeed to mix with my water for hydration.  This is long chain carbohydrates plus electrolytes.  I went with bubble gum flavor and I can’t say I enjoyed that very much.  It did seem to hold off the hungry horrors however, so I will try it a few more time and see if it holds up.

The ride was just the right length at just the right time in our schedule.  We had a few mechanical difficulties and there were a lot of hills at the end that taxed us, but I think it was all good.  A few more long rides and we will be ready for the Prouty!

This was my first ride of the season with the North Shore Cyclists club.  The 25 mile loop contained some very scenic views of the coast from Manchester to Gloucester.   I was still recovering from the marathon and my bike is in serious need of tuning so I opted for the shorter 25 mile distance.

The following pictures were taken with my latest point-and-shoot experiment, the Fujifilm FinePix XP30 14 MP Waterproof Digital Camera with Fujinon 5x Optical Zoom Lens and GPS Geo-Tagging Function.  I was very unhappy with the quality of the camera even though it is basically indestructible.  I had to do a lot of post-processing on the images to make them presentable.  You can read my full review here if you are so inclined.

If you are interested in the cue sheets and ride information you can find that at the clubwebsite at this page.

It was an absolutely stunning day for a ride through Topsfield with the North Shore Cyclists.  These pictures are from the 35 mile loop through Topsfield, Boxford, Byfield and West Newbury.  If you are interested in this ride you can see details here.  This is one of my favorite weekly road trips.