Five Songs of a Brevet: Tweeto's Revenge 200K (5/21/16)

With a cannon atop Cushing Street in Ashburnham
Also the site of the first Meeting House in Ashburnham, (probably moved when everyone complained about the GIANT hill)

Event: Tweedo's Revenge 200K
Location: Bedford -> Ashburnham -> Petersham -> Beford
Goal Time: 10:30
Actual Time: 11:02

Cano crura virimque, Cantabrigia qui primus ab oris
Bedvado, birota profugus, Novabritaniaque venit...

Last month, I had done New England Randonneurs' New Hampshire 200K with Emma, Andrew and Robbie.  Based on my zero training I had a great first 100 miles of that ride - and a really bad last 27. Well, I didn't want the sitting down twice in the three miles between Concord Centre and Hanscom again.

Thus now I sing the songs of my May brevet

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Part 1 - Take it Easy: Bedford to Harvard (21 Miles)

Acton/Boxboro Town Line

Only 8 of us started the 200K at 9:00 am (the 300K started 3 hours earlier).  At mile five, when we crossed route 2, was the last time I would see another randonneur for 70 miles and 6 hours.

It was a perfect weather. And, I knew it was a long ride ahead.  So, I went back to my strategy from the 2014 300K, which is the same course except for the middle portion.  Take it easy... take easy... Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy. Easy up hills; coast down hills.  Don't get too excited, don't start racing myself.  I pulled into the first Control - the Dunks in Harvard just in time to stand behind a youth soccer team. blerg

Part 2 - What Goes Up: Harvard to Ashburnham (30 Miles)

Golf Cart Crossing - Lunenberg

Out of Harvard and then thru Devens, and then the hills start.  What goes up, must come down.... Spinning wheels round and round.* each uphill I got through knowing eventually I would be able to go down hill - eventually.

There were some beautiful parts on this portion.  The whole section through Fitchburg Reservoir was awesome.  With my legs burning, I pulled into Tweeto's Market and had two of my sandwiches and some Salt and Vinegar chips I bought.

Part 3 - Me and My Llamas: Ashburnham to Petersham (24 Miles)

Alpacas in Phillipston

Okay, so they were alpacas and not llamas and I didn't take them to the dentist (but I can't find any songs about alpacas).

This is where the 300K course and the 200K divide.  This was a beautiful section through Winchendon and Phillipston.  Included were said alpacas and the Smith Country Cheese (where I stopped and picked up some gouda.)  I made my way into the control at Petersham town Common well behind my plan, but I felt great and knew I still wouldn't have to ride that much in the dark.

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Part 4 - Mary's Little Lamb: Petersham to Sterling (26 Miles)

The world's most famous lamb - Mary's - is memorialized in Sterling where the rhyme was written

The next 26 miles were going to be tough.  Over three steep hills and then the climb into Princeton.  By mile 26, I was going to need a break in Sterling, home of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." While not an official control, I still stopped at the town Common and ate a sandwich and then stopped again at Sterling Ice Cream and had a scoop of butter pecan before heading out for the last 2 hours and 30 miles.


Part 5 - Kick It In, Second Wind: Sterling to Bedford (29 Miles)

FINISHED!!! Signed revet card and new water bottle!

I left the Ice Cream stand and rode on toward Bolton and eventually Bedford.  Despite the stop and the ice cream I was still flagging.  That's when one of the guys on the 300K ride caught up with me. We chatted briefly and then he went on his way as he was riding faster than me.  But, at one point there was a long down hill and I caught up with him.  I rode behind him for a minute and then the next uphill, he started to pull away.  I was caught: Do I a) let him go again; b) try to stay with him?

C'mon and kick it in now second wind, just two more hours to go!

It was actually probably my fourth wind at this point, but I just tried to hang on every up hill and then with my extra weight on my bike (and on my bones) I would ride behind him on the downhills easily. This went on for a few more miles until two more guys from the 300K caught and passed us.  Both of us went with them.

Somewhere in the Acton/Maynard/Concord continuum, there was a split.  The two we had joined got further ahead.  And, I guess I got a fifth wind.  I spent the next mile and a half closing down the gap with them and caught them back at Route 2 and 62 - my day had come full circle.  I rode on with them and even took a pull at the front...

I lost them as they pulled away on the last two hills on Virginia, but I didn't stop and sit, so that was good.

I didn't break 10:30 or even 11 hours, but I felt good and had a great day.  It doesn't need to be faster to be funner.


* - Those actually aren't the lyrics!  Damn dog puppet from the Dot-Com Era lied to me.

One From the Vault
That time I sat on a tank in Croatia, 2009

Bikespedition-2009 Video

Realized after posting Iceland, I had never posted this one from years ago, either.





Music is Cracker "Eurotrash Girl", picked for no reason other than it was funny.

Bikespedition – 2009 (April 23 – August 5)

Bikespedition-2009
Miles: 1501
Countries on Bike: Greece, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia
Countries on Foot/Train/Plane: Serbia, Switzerland, Liechtenstein (Sweden and Iceland)

From April to August I visited Europe in a wild trip

Part 1 – Greece A: TEFL Shuffle (April 23 – May 23)

In Greece, Section A, I visited the ruins of Athens and my lifelong goals of seeing the Akropolis and Mycenae. I also got my certificate to teach English as a Foreign Language at TEFL-Corinth. At the Corinth Canal, I bungee jumped from the bridge.

Part 2 – Greece B: Across the Peninsula (May 23 – May 31)

In this week I cycled across the Peloponnesian Peninsula. From Corinth I visited Akrata, Patra and Ancient Olympia. Then I cycled to the Killini port to catch a ferry to Kefalonia.

Part 3 – Greece C: Rolling with the Turtles (June 1 – July 7)

For one month I volunteered with the Mediterranean Loggerhead Sea Turtle. I spent nights walking beaches and marking their nests while tagging sea turtles that had come onto the Kefalonian beaches to nest. Days were spent working in the environmental center in Katelios and visiting hidden beaches that were only seen by turtles and volunteers.

Part 3a – Boat Rides (July 7 – 9)

I had to take three boats through three countries to transport Schwarzfahrer and myself from Sami, Greece to Split, Croatia.

Part 4 – Croatia (July 9 – July 25)

I road from Split to Zagreb while visiting three national parks – Krka, Plitvicka Jezera and Paklinica. I saw the old cities of Split, Trogir, Sibenik and Zagreb (highly underrated) and bungee jumped for the second time – off the Sibenik Bridge.

Part 5 – Train Rides and Proverbial Rides (July 25 – July 28)

Took a train from Zagreb to Sofia. Unfortunately I didn’t make it to Sofia, since my passport was stolen in Serbia. Then spent the next 3 days in Belgrade.

Part 6 – Alps, Falls and Home (July 28 – August 5)

I traveled by plane to Zurich. Where I visited Liechtenstein and the Rheinfall and visited my friend Raphael. Then by plane traveled home through Sweden and Iceland.

A complete review can be found in my special bikespedition-2009 blog. But highlights can be found below.

In 1501 miles cycling, 14 boat rides, 15 tram/subway trips, 8 train rides, 2 international bus trips I visited 9 countries: Greece, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Sweden and Iceland.

I slept in 22 places: 2 hostels, one apartment, 11 campgrounds, 2 hotels, a cottage, on the deck of 2 boats, a room over a tavern, on a train and in one friend’s apartment.

I also did countless hours of hiking – both for the turtles and my own edification. I kayaked over 50km, rowed and used a Croatian wooden boat each for a hour. I swam in 4 seas and 2 rivers. I also took 11 rides hitch hiking.

The highest point I attained (other than aboard planes):
1. Mt. Enos, Greece 1628 meters (5,341 feet)
2. Gaflei, Leichtenstein 1509 meters (4,950 feet)

Highest point I reached on bicycle
1. Lubovo Pass, Croatia 975 meters (3,198 feet)
2. Boske Ostanje Pass, Croatia 925 meters(3,035 feet)

Longest Day Cycling
Patra – Olympia 85 miles (137 km)

Worst Day Cycling
Duga Resa – Zagreb

Toughest Day Cycling
Paklenica National Park – Outside Gospic (Including the Boske Ostanje Pass)

Best Trip
1. Plitvicka Jezera National Park, Croatia
2. Argoloid (Mycenae, Nemea, Nafplio and Argos)

Toughest Climb
1. Boske Ostanje Pass, Croatia 925 meters
2. Akrokorinthos, Greece 609 meters

Best Campground
Camp Cikada, near Plivicka Jezera, www.cikada.eu

Worst Campground
Worst – Argostoli Beach, Greece
Worst for the Money – Camp Jezera, Murtar

Best Bike Mechanic
Pantelis - www.panbike.gr

Top Speed
38 mph (61km/h) on the Krka Loop Ride

Silliest Thing I did
Flip over a turtle

Most Frightening Moment
1. Sliding down the cliff while trying to climb Mt. Enos
3. Bungee jumping the first time
100+ km days
7

5 things I’d do again
1. Plitvicka Jezera National Park
2. Krka National Park
3. Bungee jump over the Corinth Canal
4. Kayak in the Ionian Sea
5. The whole idea

5 Things I’d do if I could do it over again
1. Not get my passport stolen
2. Not reschedule parts of my dream trip
3. Learn psi vs bar
4. Ship 50lbs back to the US
5. Bring a better tent

5 favorite views from the trip
1. Anywhere in Plitvicka Jezera, Croatia
2. Overlooking Myrtos Beach, Kefalonia, Greece
3. Sitting in the park at the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens
4. The stars in Mreznicki Brig, Croatia
5. The gorge we went through on the train ride back to Belgrade, Serbia

5 most annoying people (or groups)
5. The French people sitting on the stairs at Perahora who got pissed when I wanted to walk down the only way to the site.
4. Family who made me walk the speed of their 5 year old most of the way down from Manta Pec in Paklenica.
3. Serbian Guy at the Information booth in Belgrade Train Station who told me there were no ATMs or Bankomats in Belgrade.
2. The guy who stole my passport.
1. The American woman who had to be talked into the 3 more euros to go to the museum at Olympia. Site – 6 euros; Site+Museum – 9 euros. She didn’t want to waste 3 euros to see the best collection of marble statues in Greece. And, she probably wonders why Europeans think Americans are idiots.

Money I made it home with
7 CHF - $6.56
180 ISK - $1.43
30 SEK - $4.19
10.45 HRK - $2.04
15 euro cents - $0.21
167 SRD - $2.89
Total - $17.32

Best Picture:
Akrata Beach Sunset

From Vrachati - Akrata

Best Pic of Me:
1. Boske Ostanje Pass, Croatia

From mmm...maybe not

2. Bungee Jump at the Sibenik Bridge, Croatia

From One Short Ride

Silliest Pic
Monkey Men

From Katelios

Best Group Picture
Atreus

From Argoloid 2

Alas, I have now returned from the trip and look to the next step in life.

Tino Pai,

Jesse

Almost a Canoe (7/21/09)

From Karlovac

ME PADDLING

They apparently don’t have another name but “wooden boats.” But, they rent them here at Kamp Slapic. So I rented one for an hour. They are kind of like Adirondack Guide Boats – just without the rowing part that makes the Adirondack Guide Boat awesome. So you sit in the back and paddle. It,s like trying to steer a truck by pushing the sides.

I saw the river here. And I got to run one small rapid – Jesse Bear was knocked from his chair (not into the water though)!

Well for self propelled boats I now have:

Kayak;
Canoe;
Dragon Boat;
Rowboat; and,
Croatian Wooden Boat.

From Karlovac

RIVER

Chasing Waterfalls - not sticking to rivers or lakes that I'm used to (7/19/09)

Plitvicka Jezera National Park

From Plitvicka Jezera

TOP TRIP
Plitvicka Jezera National Park, Croatia
Trip: AutoCamp Korana – Plitvicka Jezera National Park
Cycling: 8 miles
Hiking: 4 hours
Rowboat: 1 hour
Cycling in Croatia: 392 miles
Cycling on Bikespedition-2009: 1302 miles

As I took the tourist boat along the largest lake in the park, all I could think was “Wow this would be cool to travel on kayak.” Along the edges of the lake there were a great many waterfalls, as the water from the higher lakes came down to this one. However, the tourist boat didn’t get real close to them.

When I got to the other side of the lake, I saw that they did rent boats. They were rowboats! Now, if you have seen the guys in the shells on the Charles, rowing looks like hard work but it doesn’t look like the actual process is hard. Well, you’d be wrong. I got an hour on the rowboat for 50 kuna (€7, $10). What I really got was about 40 minutes as it took me 20 minutes to figure out how to begin to do it. (kept going in circles and almost dropping the oars). Once I did get it, it was great. Now, I won’t be trading in the UNS Aral Sea for a rowboat anytime soon, but still.

Plitvicka Jezera is a series of 14 or so lakes in the mountains of Croatia. The Korana River runs into these lakes at around 550 meters above sea level and then drops over beautiful waterfalls into the next, until you get to the last lake which is like 300 meters above sea level. These waterfalls create travertine build ups as the limestone and dolomite react with water and carbon dioxide. This means that the waterfalls are dynamic, constantly drying up and creating new falls. I’m a waterfall fanatic; Plitvicka is to that what Hawaii is to surfers.

I got out of Camp Korana by 9:30, as I had planned and a short bike ride took me to Ulaz 1 (entrance 1). I got in line to get into the park at 10:15. I got into the park at 11:05. Now, I’m pretty sure what took so long was people’s stupidity. There were two signs while we were in line that boiled down to: “Kuna only, no Euros” in four languages Croatian, English, Italian and German. The French in front of me apparently ignored the signs or couldn’t make out the Italian well enough. Because they kept trying to pay in euros! It took the Italian family behind me 2 or 3 minutes of yelling at the French family in Italio-franglais to move out of the way for those of us who had brought Kuna while the husband was going to the exchange counter.

Well, once in it was worth the long wait. The park has set up “itineraries” for the park. So from Ulaz 1 if you take Itinerary C you can see all the lakes and most of the waterfalls. I hiked along “C” from the Ulaz to the port from the Electric tourist boat that takes you across the largest lake. Then, I went up a smaller trail above the falls from some great views down into the canyon.

I then retraced my steps to the port. There I got a beer and some French fries to go with one of the sandwiches I’d brought. At the next table, I ran into the German family, with whom I’d toured Barac’s Caves two days before. They too had stayed an extra day when it rained on the day between.

Then it was time for my trip across the lake. It’s quite odd; I haven’t been on a boat that wasn’t a kayak in years – other than that ferry over Lake Konstantz, but I come to Europe and I’ve taken the ferry from Killini to Kefalonia, Argostoli-Luxori and back, Kefalonia to Patra, Patra to Ancona, Ancona to Split and Skradin to Skradinski Buk; and now number 8 (“There is now a ferry involved.”). When I saw people in rowboats I took a ninth across to Ulaz 2 where they rented the rowboats and a tenth to get back on Itinerary C.

While the whole park is absolutely beautiful, it is the winding boardwalk trail through this middle section that takes the cake. Amongst old trees, waterfalls that look like something on a Hollywood soundstage appear. Each one you think is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen, until you see the next one.

The itinerary winds up with a trip through the woods on the panoramic train/bus. It’s a bus with little cars like a train and 360 degrees of windows. Unfortunately, it’s similar to taking the Greyhound through the hills of Western Pennsylvania – just trees. How can you keep them on the farm, when they’ve seen Paris?

I hopped on to Schwarzfahrer and went back to the AutoCamp. I then planned to upload pictures at the internet café, only to run into some Croatians who wanted to discuss America and Iraq. The beers flowed for a while, then there was the rakia – but that’s a whole other story.

Tino Pai!

Jesse…

From Plitvicka Jezera

From Plitvicka Jezera

Krka Loop (7/10/09)

From Krka

TOP TRIP
Location: Krka National Park, Croatia
Distance: 38.6 miles
Difficulty: Moderate/Hard
Sights: Krka National Park

Upon return, I called it the most beautiful place, I’d ever seen in my life. From Cikada Camp it is an easy ride to Skradin. Just a few miles down the road. But just before Skradin, the road drops into the canyon. In the next one mile you lose about 200 meters down a hair-raising hair-pinned cutback road.

Now in Skradin there are two ways to the first set of waterfalls – Skradinski Buk. The first way is a beautiful 3 km bike trail that follows the canyon up to the falls. The other is the free boat. While a pure bikespeditioner maybe should have taken the former, I chose the latter. The boat is a peaceful churning up the Krka River. While it was packed and some of them what can best be described as drunk shirtless Croatian white-hats (I believe the Brits call them chaves) complete with the one fat friend who should have worn his shirt, it was still gorges!

From Krka

The boat lets you off in Skradinski Buk (really fun to say: just like it’s spelled). You walk through some beautiful pines and open onto the falls. And, as Paula from Cikada described, you can swim in the wash of the falls. On one end of the swimming area are smaller falls where you can stand.

From Krka

Afterwards, I took the “educational trail” around the falls. It leads you past the original hydro-electric station (started only 2 days after Tesla’s at Niagara). This station made Sibenik one of the first electrified cities in Europe. There is also a working mill – unfortunately they didn’t hand out axes like the guy at Palmer State Forest did.

After the trail, I walked back to Skradin along the bike trail. Then it was off to the upper falls – Roski Slap (equally fun to say). These falls were not as big, but I think there was a larger drop in its largest falls.

From Krka

I then continued along the roads shown to me by the Polish guy at Cikada Kamp. The road down into Kljucica is especially exciting. It is one mile of 10% grade. I reached the top speed of 37.5 mph (the fastest Schwarzfahrer has ever gone), only to have to slow to 13 to make a hair-pin turn. Unfortunately, now you have to do the same up!

On my return trip I topped 1000 miles for Bikespedition-2009!

Josko and Paula and those who are in the apartments at Cikada met me on my return. (I was the only camper). Josko had a special order for me – Croatian stuffed peppers. I don’t know what’s in the spices but… mmm…mmm…mmm!

Tino Pai!

Jesse…