Tuesday, July 27, 2021

August R12: Classic Hawk's Nest

photo by G. Keenan

Now that summer's heat has arrived Pocono venues continue to offer the best reprieve.  On August 7 we return to Hawk's Nest for our August R-12 brevet with the Classic Hawk's Nest.  This is the original route that follows the Broadhead Creek up onto the Allegheny Front through Canadensis and Promised Land State Park on its way to the headwaters of the Lackawaxen River.  The starting and finishing locations remain the same as in July.  

On July 25, organizer Bill Fischer and Gavin Biebuyck completed a pre-ride of the Hawks Nest Classic Route.  They found all roads in serviceable condition and all control locations open (a welcome relief given the hit-or-miss performance of the Promised Land Exxon over the past three months).

A few course notes:

1.       One lane of Creek Rd/SR 447 is closed in Canadensis.  Please obey the temporary traffic light, the road is too narrow for a cyclist and oncoming car to safely inhabit the lane.

2.       If you didn’t have enough breakfast, at mile 19.2 (shortly after turning onto SR390 on L) First Place CafĂ© and Catering has excellent breakfast fare and convenience store items.

3.       At Eldred, the typical control location is not being used and instead there is an info control at the Hero’s Park in front of the Town Hall.  Pay careful attention to the question and ensure you select an answer based on the correct war.  Peck’s Market is open in Eldred, but if you’d like to stop earlier, the Barryville Market at Mile 61.3 (on R) has excellent baked goods and will (fairly rapidly) make you a hot breakfast sandwich.

4.       Speedier riders may arrive at the Riverside Creamery in Port Jervis before their 12:00 opening time.  Woogie’s Deli is 1 block off route at the corner of King St. & US 209/6 – they will gladly initial your card.

5.        Please note that the ride finishes at the Village Farmer and not at the Park-n-ride.

Event registration is open on the website through Wednesday, August 4 so don't delay.  

Andrew Mead
-Eastern PA RBA

Monday, July 12, 2021

Ride Report: Hawk's Nest (Bushkill Approach) 200k

Hawk's Nest Overlook (photo by G. Retseck)

Preliminary results for the July 10 Hawks Nest (Bushkill Falls Approach) have been posted on the PA Rando website.  Please review and advise any discrepancies at your earliest opportunity.

Volunteer Chris Nadovich greeted 16 riders at the start with new riders Olin Johnson and Max Shilvock making their initial appearances at a PA Brevet - Welcome to Randonneuring!

Riders couldn't have asked for better weather for a July brevet.  The skies were slightly overcast and temperatures never exceeded 80 degrees.  A few riders experienced light sprinkles on Old Mine Road but most riders stayed dry throughout the day.

Unfortunately, 6 miles into the ride Shawn Bowles had an unfortunate situation with his rear derailleur and was forced to abandon.  Fellow rider Ello Shertzer accompanied Shawn back to the start.

Sadly this was not to be the last mechanical of the day.  Iwan Barankay had a rear derailleur cable failure but was able to continue with 2 gears. (Experience note:  Avoid the limited gear options when using derailleur limit screws and anchor the derailleur cable to a water bottle cage bolt.  This allows selection of any gear on the cluster.)

The rando award for ingenuity and perseverance goes to Patrick and Cecilie Gaffney who completely wore through their rear tire near Hainesville.  4 more punctures ensued and the team used tubes, patches, boots, wrappers, bank currency and other items from their inventory and borrowed from fellow randonneurs to limp the final 30 miles to the finish.  This author (Bill Fischer) has only witnessed more resourceful tire patching when RUSA#41 completed the Alaska Big Wild Ride on a tire stuffed with grass and tree saplings.

Brad Layman blitzed the course in an excellent time of 7:28.  New riders Olin Johnson and Max Shilvock completed the ride with smiles on their faces and are looking forward to the next brevet.

Also noteable is Nicholas van der Kloot's completion of the PA SR.  This is Nick's second PA SR.  He joins a very elite group of five randonneurs who completed the Pennsylvania series this year.  Chappeau!

The earliest finishers had to navigate around a police roadblock that temporarily closed Broad St..  A knucklehead towing a 28' Sea Ray had a wheel fall off his trailer (another mechanical.....).

Special thanks to organizer Bill Fischer and his able assistant Gavin Biebuyck.  Their individual schedules did not permit a course checkout during the permissible 2-week window.  They rode the route anyway demonstrating that it is possible to ride a long route without a brevet card.

We return to the Delaware Water Gap in August with a repeat of Hawk's Nest using the traditional outbound route along the Broadhead Creek through Canadensis.  Event details and registration are on the website.

Iwan writes:

Thank you for organizing a splendid brevet. As we reached the start we encountered a fog bank on the highway which should have told us how humid the first part of the course would be and indeed before too long we were all soaking in sweat as we rode up to the USPS control. Shortly after the descent I ripped my rear derailleur cable and was stuck in the top gear. Randonneur-style I tightened the rear adjustment-screw to force it into the fourth sprocket so I had two gears 50-14 and 34-14 to choose from which turned out to be fine for 97% of the course with a bit of walking up the steepest parts of the hills.  What pleased me was how little this bothered me as I just enjoyed the much more pleasant temperatures compared to the toaster-600K recently.  Finishing in the shade with a pulled pork sandwich and some rando-banter was a fitting end to a great brevet. Congrats to Brad for an awesome display of athleticism to finish low in the 7h range and to Pat and Ceci for an impressive display of tinkering to make it to the finish despite a whole in their  rear tyre the size of Mars. And congrats to Nic for completing the PA SR series with a big smile on his face!

From Shawn Bowles:
The course was great for the 6 miles I got to ride before my bike decided to break. 
It was nice to see everyone at the start and much thanks to all the organizers and volunteers!

Indeed, Shawn.  It is nice to be riding with friends again.

Bill Fischer
- organizer

Andrew Mead
- Eastern PA RBA