The Adventurous Life: October 2016

credit: Austin Swinney

The 10th Anniversary of the Rippers Five Notches weekend was a blast! This was my 8th* time and probably the most fun of them all. Though we may have to change the name since this year's route only included 3 notches and some of us skipped the last one and rode straight to Jay's house from Franconia.

* I didn't join the Rippers until the second Five Notches ride, and I had to miss the year they rode the Five Notches clockwise, instead of the usual counter-clockwise direction.

Hellacious Hosts

The weekend wouldn't be possible without our fantastic hosts. Rich Batten, Jay Olmsted, Andrew Schmitt, and Bill Aalerud open their homes (and kitchens) to a host of tired, hungry Rippers and make us feel welcome and comfortable. It's a lot of work preparing food and beds, and then more work cleaning up after us. Thanks tons!

In addition to beds...

Rich hosted dinner Friday night.
Andrew procured a sixth keg of Allagash White and a sixth keg of Ipswich Route 101.
Bill drove up Friday night to welcome his guests, then drove back to MA after serving them breakfast the next morning to watch his daughter Claire run cross country for Merrimack College, then drove back up to NH to host dinner after the Notches ride. Whew! That's dedication, to the Rippers and his daughter.
Jay gave me a bed with a comfy down comforter, breakfasts of blueberry pancakes and egg/bacon/bagel sandwich, and acted as the designated driver from Bill's apres-Notches dinner.

Can't stay away

Bill wasn't the only Ripper who couldn't ride, but also couldn't stay away. Austin Swinney was there, hawking his hats with the Ripper logo, but couldn't ride due to a cold or something. Don Metz showed up at Bill's BBQ and shared photos of his lovely new VT house that he spent the last year building. JD had a funeral (or a wedding or something) during the ride, but showed up at Shilling for a toast before attending the dinner at Bill's.

The Ride

The Notch ride itself was fast and fun. The foliage was beautiful and the roads were quiet, smooth, and scenic. There was even a little stretch of dirt road, just for me. There were about 25 of us at the Dow Field start at 8:30 AM. We rode together (regrouping at the top of Kinsman Notch and Moosilauke) to the lunch stop at Windy Ridge Orchard. From there, we split into 2 groups; some took a shorter route home for 100km; some continued to Littleton on the 115-mile route. Because lunch was long, and rain was threatening the group on the long route decided to go straight from Littleton to Franconia, shortening the ride to 100 miles.

My new, skinny self was able to stay near the front on all the climbs. Near the end of the day I was happy to be alone at the front on Josh Kapp's wheel up another long hill. Then I realized that was Rich in front of me, not Josh. "What the hell am I doing?", I thought. "I can't ride with Rich." and I immediately went backwards as Rich pulled away. The hill climbing heroes were Rob and Rich, of course, but also Cedric, Mark Jacobson, and Mark Poirier.

When the big boys picked up the pace (25-30 mph) on the flats, I was happy to suck wheel behind Cedric, Rich, Mark Poirier, Josh Fenollosa, or Evan Mead. Of course, Rob Callahan was up there too, and took massive pulls, but I tried to stay behind a bigger wind screen. It worked too; I scored a couple of KOMs, until the rest of the Rippers in the train uploaded their rides and bumped me by a second or two. Still I crowed about it in the car all the way to Bill's house, since this is the first time I got a KOM that wasn't for a segment in the boondocks were only a handful of people know what Strava is.

That night I paid for those trophies. I rolled over in bed and both sartorius muscles cramped so hard I couldn't breathe for several minutes. I just whimpered (quietly so as not to wake my roommates) until the pain receded and I could move again.

Did you know... "The sartorius muscle is a long, thin, band-like muscle in your interior thigh. It’s the longest muscle in the human body. The muscle primarily helps flex and rotate your thigh at the hip joint. The muscle is so long, it also crosses the knee joint, where it helps flex the leg." source

On the last climb to Littleton, I watched in dismay as Rich, Rob, Josh Kapp, and Cedric pulled away from me. I decided to wave the white flag, and call it a day. Josh Kapp and I stopped at Shilling Brewery and Taproom. Fittingly, the Berliner Weisse I ordered was called Gürlimann and came with a shot of raspberry syrup. Josh ordered a manly-man Tripel, at more than double the ABV of my beer.

The Hike

Although Rich planned and led an excellent mixed-terrain ride on Sunday, I decided to hike up Cannon Mountain with Josh Kapp instead. In the summer of 2014, I hiked the 48 Four-Thousand Footers, and I'm going to do it again this winter. So I am starting to transition from biking to hiking.

The bartender on the summit of the mountain was Rick Hunt. After serving us Pig's Ear Brown Ale from Woodstock Inn Brewery (BA Score 82 - good), he told us he was an artist. Rick was a friend of Angie Bowie--former wife of David Bowie--and illustrated her books: Cat-Astrophe and Fancy Footwork: Poetry Collection.

source

Book time for hiking up Kinsman Ridge Trail from the Aerial Tram parking lot to the summit and back is 3hr20min. Josh and I did it in 3hr35min, including a stop at the Cafe 4,080' at the top of the tram. My legs are used to biking all day, but after hiking for 3 hours, my quad muscles ached for 3 days, probably due to the down hiking.

Apres-hike

A few minutes after we got back to the trailhead and started driving back home, the clouds opened up and it rained so hard that we had trouble seeing the road. Then we ran into a big traffic jam before White River Junction. In spite of the delays, we got back to Winchester for me to see 3 quarters of Brady's return to the NFL, as the Patriots dismantled the Browns. While I ate chips and watched TV, Josh hustled to WILTC to play tennis for a couple of hours.

Notable beers

Andrew provided 2 kegs of beer for the dinners on Friday and Saturday, so I didn't think to bring any of the beers in my fridge. Whoops! What was I thinking? We needed pre-dinner aperitifs both nights. Fortunately, Rob Callahan brought a four-pack of Trillium* and Jay Olmsted had a selection of other fine beers in his refrigerator. Thanks, guys. I'll remember to bring something tasty next year.

*Unreliable sources report that I declared Ipswich Route 101 tastes better than Trillium Sleeper Street. I categorically deny it. Go to my fact checking web page to learn the truth. Besides, I was drunk when I allegedly made this claim. Also... If I offended anyone by my remark, I apologize. Bring on the next debate!