Covered Bridge Metric Century

[Team Isherwood write-up]

While attending the ETR 2005 we picked up a flyer for a Covered Bridge Metric Century in Lancaster, PA happening just a few short weeks later. The Lancaster Bicycle Club hosted their 27^th annual ride which included just a few riders short of 3,000, offering 3 different ride lengths. They offer a metric century (62 miles), a 1/2 metric (32 miles) and a 1/4 metric (16 miles) of flat to rolling farmlands. The longer the route the more it goes from flatter to rolling. The longest route includes 7 covered bridges and along the way you will pass many horse & buggies. They have numerous water/food stops and a tasty lunch stop plus food, drinks, vendor tents, and ice cream with a DJ when you finish the ride.

We arrived and stayed the evening before in a hotel just 1/4 mile from the ride start and rode our bikes to the start of the event the next morning. Since it was to be a hazy, hot, and humid day we took off soon after all teams arrived. There was also a single bicyclist, Al, a guest of Phil & Julie's, who rode with us.

Shortly after our departure, another single bike rider who also owns a tandem from Pittsburg, Dave, drafted on our wheels while offering good conversation & company. He had lunch with us and we all departed for the last 28 miles of our metric century. The covered bridges were too numerous to keep count in one's head but were spectacular to look at and ride through. Farmlands and horse & buggies were also too numerous to count but made the view during the ride beautiful. As we rode past some churches we noticed odd looking parking lots with dozens of cars. The cars were all the same color, black, which we came to find out was due to the Mennonite religious restriction which allows them to drive cars but they must be non-flashy in appearance. As we all arrived safe and tired from our ride, we enjoyed music and food with our old and newly found friends. Oh yeah, did we mention that Mel & Barbara from Tandems East were there with their vendor tent, and they even brought their doggie, Sasha along.

We plan on doing this ride next year and since we know about it well in advance now, we will post it on the DOGS website as a Non-Dogs Event and we plan on seeing if we can get a block of rooms reserved at one of the two very local hotels. So, yes, you will be receiving more information on this wonderful event!