Covered Bridge Ride

The Lancaster Bicycle Club sponsors a Covered Bridge Metric Century every August. Riders have a choice of 15, 31, and 63 mile routes (quarter, half and full metric centuries).

I did this ride in 2006 on my tandem trike with Jim as stoker. I thought it would be fun to try it on my regular bike. There were about 4100 other riders participating (don't know the breakdown by ride length). I did the metric century and there were enough riders on that route that I was almost never out of sight of other riders. I left my house at about 5:45 am, started riding about 8:10 am, finished at about 3:10 pm, hung out for a while, and got home by about 5:15 pm (it's about a 210 mile round trip from Pennington, NJ to Lancaster, PA!)

The rest of the story is in the pictures below.

	The activity around 8 am at the start of the ride in the Greenfield Corporate Center. The blue tents are the registration tents. I had planned to be there by the time registration opened at 7:30 am, but I ran into a backup of vehicles with bikes at about 7:25 am and it took more than a half hour to go the additional two miles!		More of the activity at the start at around 8 am.
	I saw these guys as I was getting my bike ready (attaching the cue sheet, etc.) I said I hoped they hadn't had any business yet. They said no and they hoped they didn't have any at all. Unfortunately that was not to be the case. I saw one fellow lying on the ground, conscious, with another rider holding his head from moving, and a police car protecting him from traffic. I believe they were waiting for an ambulance. A bit before the lunch stop, I went right around a corner and saw many ambulances, a fire truck, etc. on the side of the road. I learned later this was a fatal accident. According to the report, the rider went wide around the corner, off the road, and over the handlebars, resulting in a fatal brain injury. Later I saw a woman that had fallen at the edge of the road. She did not seem to be in any serious difficulty.		Shortly after the ride started I saw the first of many buggies.
	Lots of people ride faster than I do!		More riders that have passed me.
	Covered bridge number 1. Note the arch shaped truss. I believe this (and the similar one on the right side) carries the load of the bridge while the triangularly braced uprights carry the load of the cover whose purpose is to keep weather off the load bearing parts of the bridge.		We also went over an uncovered bridge. Actually, quite a few of them! The thing that caught my eye about this one is the arch shaped truss similar to those used in the covered bridges. However, this one is iron, not wood, and so doesn't need a cover, just some paint!
	Covered bridge number 2 is at the bottom of this downhill.		After bridge 2, we had an uphill and at the top was this house with a wonderful view of the valley on the opposite side of the road. The family was out watching all the cyclists go by. There were quite a few places where locals were watching the riders. Many were close enough to the road that you could wave and say hi.
	The view across the valley. It was a hot, hazy, humid day!		Some of the riders going by as I was stopped to take the previous photo.
	A little later, I passed a group of cyclists stopped and talking to a local (also on a bicycle). Pretty soon they passed me, with the covered bridge riders going left here and the local heading down the gravel road. During the ride, I saw a number of locals on bicycles.		Covered bridge number 3.
	After a bit more than 34 miles, I came to the lunch stop. Here's the food line from my spot in the line. There was a fellow doing the metric century on a hand tricycle. I believe that's him just at the right of the photo.		I finally made it to the food. There was a choice of a Subway sandwich: Italian (what I had), turkey, or veggie. Also, you could make a PB&J (skipped that), bananas, grapes, oranges, cookies, and trail mix.
	This was on display at the lunch stop. Apparently the locals on bicycles are not Amish, perhaps Mennonite.		Covered bridge number 4. This is about 15.5 miles from lunch and 4.5 miles from a water stop. By this time it's a little after 1 pm and the heat and humidity are getting to me. I rested two or three times in roadside shade before getting to the water stop. The high in Lancaster, PA on the day of the ride was 91 F.
	At the water stop, I rested in the shade for about 15 minutes. Also, the route after the water stop was much shadier (since it was no longer through corn fields). I was feeling better and posed for this photo in front of covered bridge number 5.		A little farther along, there was a lemonade stand (also homemade cookies).
	Here are Abby and David. They must have been raking it in on this really hot day!		This buggy is coming through covered bridge number 6.
	The buggy was followed by riders.		At the end of the ride (the same place it started), snacks for all riders included Turkey Hill Ice Cream! The reason it says "all riders" is that just behind me is a tent that served lunch to the quarter and half metric century riders.
	There was some shade by a small river. That's my bike leaning on the tree in the middle of the photo.		To the right is the lunch tent for the quarter and half metric century riders. To the left is Lancaster Bicycle Club merchandise for sale.
	Local bike shops also had merchandise for sale. After having some ice cream and hanging out for a bit, I returned to my car and drove home.		The track of the ride as recorded by my GPS receiver overlaid on a topo map. Made with GPSVisualizer.com.
	The altitude and total climb profiles calculated from data recorded by my GPS receiver. Even though the altitude variation was only about 350 feet, there was a lot of climb due to the many small hills. (The altitude profile may look like noise, but the constant ups and downs are real!)