My 70th Birthday Ride
The idea of bicycling through the night and into the next day started about 5 years ago when I was returning from the LAB rally in Wellesley MA. I had read a suggestion in rec.bicycles.rides that Long Island was a good place and reason for an all night ride. Traffic is usually light at night, the LI expressway has a service road that allow bicycle, the main east/west highways all got to the very end of either fork and it about a hundred miles ride.
On my way home from Wellesley, I bicycle to New London and got on the ferry to Orient Point. My intentions was to ride all night an be at the Hoboken ferry the next morning. About two hours into the ride a big thunderstorm could be seen to the west. I managed to find a motel with a room being refinished that was rented to me.
That ended
the idea of bicycling all night there. I considered the idea of riding the train
to New London but the scheduling was not a perfect fit.
The following link is a quote from Bicycle Magazine about my use of GPS on that tours
http://www.billcotton.com/bike.htm
Delaware and Maryland both have wide shoulders on their roads. I plotted three routes, however my plans to return by the same route, since most of the return was planed to be at night.
The ride
started at 4 AM on Thursday June 13. and I arrived home at 8:19 on June 14. 40
hours and 19 minutes of biking. My GPS got waterlog and stopped recording at
170.8 miles, 11.6 moving average, 14:44 minutes of moving time and 2 hours of
stopped time. I estimate that the total stop time was about 4 hours, giving me
about 36 hours in the saddle. For the 340-mile total miles of the ride, my
average speed is less than 10 miles per hours. A reason for the low average is
that I was riding at night in the rain for quite a bit. One-mile per watt seems
a good rule of thumb.
I have a
10/20-watt system and I use the 10-watt light for about 4 hours. After the
battery expired, I use the 40-hour LED flashlight that project about 3 watt. I
was in the granny gear on flat roads at times. http://www.billcotton.com/MY_rides.htm#LEDlight
Leigh Webber agreed to keep my company until an ETA of 4 PM in northern Delaware for a meeting he had Thursday. We agreed to meet at 42nd and Market, a cross road on the East Coast Greenway cue. Leigh arrived at 5 am with two rear pannier and I arrived at 5:03 with two front pannier. We stopped for breakfast in Wilmington after finding the Trainer dinner closed
Near Smyrna DE Leigh having done 90 miles from home said he better turn back. I suggested that we would have to get to US 13 to fine food. SR 9 is almost barren of food stop. We found a dinner on Route 13 and SR 8.
While
looking at Leigh's Delaware bicycle map, we notice that Bicycle Route 1 has
signs, Rather than go back to SR 9 or ride Rt 13 to Dover, I decided to try
Bicycle route 1 and return to my cue further south. Leigh went north on 13 and I
follow SR 8 to pick up the signed route. Bicycle RT 1 has only one sign per
turn, unlike the S route in Pennsylvania, that has two sign before the turn an
one after. About 30 minutes after leaving Leigh, it began to rain hard,
apparently, the rain followed me south and I was in rain about 250 of the miles
that I rode.
I put only the top to my Gore-Tex suit on, with the hood over my helmet; it liked being in the shower and almost as much fun.
I follow
the signed route for about 50 miles, the route pass a Uncle Willie Truck stop as
it crosses US 13 near Killen Pond, my third food stop.
Either I
miss a Route sign or the sign had been removed. I found my self on US 13 near
Greenwood DE. I used my GPS to lead
me back to the route that I planned to follow. I used Beach road, SR 16 to get to SR
30, my route. I let the route feature of my GPS guide me through each turn and a
constant rain. It got dark at about 135 miles and the GPS would beep and light
up before each turn. At about 165 mile I found another Uncle Willie truck stop
for my forth food stop, about 9 pm.
At
171 miles, moisture from condensation inside the Ziploc bag that I use to
protect the GPS from the rain, got into the keyboard of the GPS, the GPS
features could not be changed. Since it was in a beep mode I had to remove the
batteries. I rode on into Fenwick Island as I considered what to do. SR 54 into
Fenwick Island was under repair and only two lanes and no shoulders.
Without the GPS I couldn't reverse the route and follow that, and I didn't print a reverse cue, and the current cue was wet and hard to use in the dark. I rode as far south on the island, one reason, to do the miles that I had planned and also to use up time as I waited for traffic to get lighter on SR 54.
I notice a Dunkin Donut that was open all night as I entered Fenwick Island. On the return I stopped for a Bagel and cream cheese. While waiting it rained bucket for about half hour. I left the shop about 11:45.
I decided
to Use SR 1 for my return. It merges with US 113 near Milford and meet SR 9, The
road that I use on the trip down to the Dover area.
SR 1 has
wide well maintained shoulders and is a direct route to travel on.
My homemade 10/20-watt system is a maximum of four hours I have a white Led flashlight that give a soft light barely enough for night riding. http://www.billcotton.com/MY_rides.htm#LEDlight
The 10/20 watt light died about 3 am and I switched to the led and a slower speed. Daylight was about 5 am. I arrived at SR 9 and after a few mile I found a bait store that had a breakfast menu, about 8 am..
SR 9 run forever, I was in New Castle about 2 pm, I rode on to Wilmington to a McDonald for my next food stop about 3:30 pm.
The
hardest part and when I was beginning to fatigue some was at the Philly airport.
I was home but 20 miles to go. I gave a hard look at SEPTA's Eastwick station
but rode by. At Island Road, I got an Apple Fritter donut and the sugar high
kicked in about Spring Garden and powered me home.
Totaling up my miles for my birthday ride, I find that the ride down was 183 miles, (the GPS stopped at 170.8 just outside of Fenwick and I continued to Rt 50 in Ocean City) the ride back as I describe above is a direct route, 68 miles to where I left Rt 9 of the go trip at 88 miles, so my total for the ride is 340 miles, a triple century. Maybe next time with no rain, I will get the 400 miles.
I think
that the ideal over night ride in DELMARVA Peninsula. I would plan the
night portion of the ride to use SR 1 and SR 9. SR 1 has wide shoulders and goes
from Dover to the southern end of Ocean City. Combine with SR 9 Starting in
Newcastle DE; the ride is over one hundred miles.
Next year with 8-amp hour of battery power I plan to complete 400 miles in the 40 hour of riding.
Return to Bill Cotton's Homepage