Pre 'cross nats ride in RI/SE Mass ??

[bdee]

Assuming we don't get dumped on with snow (trails are great right now, at least at Lincoln Woods) is anyone interested in an AM ride next week at either Lincoln Woods or Foxboro? Shotgun season is crazy in BR and Arcadia so I'm not really into heading to either spot. Foxboro was great yesterday for it being shotgun season there, so I figured why not head out there again? (didn't see one hunter, whereas BR/Arcadia are both full of dudes with shotguns - at noon !! ::))

Both Foxboro and LW are pretty close to Roger Williams park, and the Elite Men's race is at 3:00. Plenty of time to ride (say 10:00 ish) and head over to the races after grabbing some lunch. Lincoln Woods is a pretty quick ride (figure 90 minutes at a nice quick pace to cover almost all of the singletrack) and it's right outside Providence on 146. If anyone interested let me know. If I had to rate the ride ala the NEMBA ride classifications I'd say plan on an advanced XC ride with plenty of tech stuff.

[Scott O]

Bdee - fyi, we rode w/you guys for a while in Foxboro on Saturday and wound up seeing some hunters after we split up. They did not shoot at us fortuneately.

[imploded]

I may be up for this, depending on weather - I lack studs, so extensive snow/ice = me cancelling. I have an Outback with a 4 bike rack (locking!) on the roof, so I can drive multiple riders to the Nats if need be.

FWIW, BadDNA and I stumbled across a hunter at Blackstone Heritage, twice, at 11:00AM. Very nice guy, asked him how it was going ("I saw a bunch of hunters and not one deer"). Saw him moving W, from the Canal up through Ribbon Candy, tracking the ridge.

My uncle (an avid hunter, all seasons EXCEPT shotgun) told me over the weekend 7 men came out of the woods into his yard in Oxford (south Oxford, along the rail bed). He walked up with them and chatted, they were all working to flush deer. One shooter, 6 flushers. I hate shotgun season, all the asshats come out.

Cheers,

-Andrew

[bdee]

Well, we dodged this storm with basically a dusting at most in the Providence area. Now the forecast is calling for another possible storm on Friday night. :-\

Who knows what it will do - it's apparent the weather forecasters generally have no clue until the last minute so we'll wait and see. I'll be out at LW on Thursday AM and I may hit Foxboro Friday AM as well. I'll post the Saturday ride location and time once the crsytal ball reveals the future, errr I mean the weather people make their best guess.... ::)

BTW - I don't think studs will be necessary until after the melt/refreeze cycle starts. It's going to be cold enough this week to keep it mostly snow out there. Looks like it'll be warmer over the weekend so maybe next week it'll get icy, I'm looking forward to breaking out the nokians again. There was too much snow and not enough ice last year to really use them.

[Jisch]

I was riding at Pachaug forest during hunting season in CT one time. This was back in the white helmet with a mesh cover era. I had somehow misplaced my mesh cover so I was riding with just a pure white helmet. A VERY upset hunter stopped me and informed me in a very loud, angry voice that I was very stupid and I came close to getting shot.

I'm the king of comebacks, unfortunately it takes me an hour or so to think of the comeback. On the car ride home I was thinking, "I'm the stupid one? I'm riding my bike. He's holding the gun, pointing it at a human".

Anyway I don't ride on Saturdays in CT during hunting season just to avoid brushes with death. I have enough of those while riding without getting someone else involved.

John

[imploded]

Well, we dodged this storm with basically a dusting at most in the Providence area. Now the forecast is calling for another possible storm on Friday night. :-\

Who knows what it will do - it's apparent the weather forecasters generally have no clue until the last minute so we'll wait and see. I'll be out at LW on Thursday AM and I may hit Foxboro Friday AM as well. I'll post the Saturday ride location and time once the crsytal ball reveals the future, errr I mean the weather people make their best guess.... ::)

You really can't blame the weather guessers for this one. There just wasn't any consensus, anywhere, period. The NAM and GFS models basically went apeshit and took to wildly different tracks, with the mesoscale, Euro, and UKMET models not really building any concensus either. They went back to old school, radar and imagery forecasting and got screwed by a dry air pocket.

Two low storms are probably the hardest to forecast accurately, until you have many, many years of geospecific knowledge (i.e. "I saw a low park over Sangueay like that before, it really pumped a lot of low-level dry air into the area"), it's a crap shoot. Even with all that info, it's still a gamble.


BTW - I don't think studs will be necessary until after the melt/refreeze cycle starts. It's going to be cold enough this week to keep it mostly snow out there. Looks like it'll be warmer over the weekend so maybe next week it'll get icy, I'm looking forward to breaking out the nokians again. There was too much snow and not enough ice last year to really use them.


Sunday's snow, up here at least, packed down and turned to ice on most untreated surfaces. I was going to go check out Heritage today, but work got in the way.

Cheers,

-Andrew

[imploded]

Ryan Trebon has his own little race preview up at VeloNews:

http://www.velonews.com/diaries/rider/articles/9250.0.html

It's going to be a great race for sure!

Cheers,

-Andrew

[minkhiller]

Just over at the Durango Herald site, looks like the Dgo locals had some success at the nats' brothers at that.