| Date | October 14, 2007 |
| Hosts | Central Bucks Bicycle Club |
| Where | Tinicum Park, Erwinna, PA |
| Who (else) | Barbara and Ron Anderson, Michelle and Rich Dittmar, Barbara Flint and Neil McPhee, Brenda and Larry Isherwood, Bud McIlvain (single), Lisa and Jim Osborne, Pete Sklarow (single) |
It was an early morning 6 a.m. start with several of the northern (and L.I.) teams meeting in Califon for a little NY bagel nosh before hitting the road. The weather looked promising with a bit of early morning chill (40+ degree). This became even more apparent as we descended into the Frenchtown area and could see what looked like a large white serpent draped across the landscape below, but in actuality was the cool air suspended over the much warmer Delaware River.
We arrived early and were directed to park as far from the start as imaginable. After a bit of grumbling and whimpering, we emerged from our warm vehicles and were greeted by the cool, damp morning air that we all agreed would probably improve significantly once the sun had a chance to warm things. We did our usual check in, checked out the goodies, picked up cue sheets, and headed back to the cars to get ready to ride. The five D.O.G.S. teams gathered at the start with four teams heading out for the metric ride and one team for the 50 mile ride, in anticipation of our first hill climb to generate some core heat. We found our first hill not too far out. However, we were rewarded even sooner with our first covered bridge, which came at the 0.8 mark.
It was an incredible day of beautiful country roads, covered bridges, stone houses, covered bridges, horses, fields, and more covered bridges... everything you might envision in this region. The ride offered everything from long challenging climbs to delightful rolling terrain and even one or two downhill screamers. The rest stops were well-placed, with a terrific assortment of food, drinks, and even a tech tent for those who encountered flats or other bike problems.
Although we did not find our two new PA tandem team friends at the beginning, we did run into them at our last rest stop, which gave us an opportunity to chat about the ride and future D.O.G.S rides and events. We also had chance to see Pete riding his single bike with some other single bikes. After this, we hopped on our bikes and headed the 12 miles back to the start and topped off the day with a barbeque lunch provided by the Central Bucks Bicycle Club. We grabbed our lunches and a picnic table and sat around happy to have the hills behind and the food in front. All in all it was another fantastic event and we agreed that there's still lots of fall rides ahead.