April 8, 2024 - Honesdale, PA, loop

April 14, 2024

April 8, 2024 - Honesdale, PA, loop

Start: Honesdale, PA
End: Honesdale, PA
Miles: 19.1
Feet climbing per mile: 77
Record of the day's ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/162317457

I had found the previous day's ride to be challenging and exhausting for several reasons: five and one half hours of sitting in either a train station or on a train, all the climbing that sometimes required me to walk, the traffic on Dingmans Turnpike without a shoulder, and the stress of riding in the dark. This was my first multi-day trip in six months and I was not in great shape. While lying in bed before going to sleep I wondered whether I could be ready for the cross-country trip I've been planning for this summer. Although I had been doing all sorts of planning of that trip, I had not yet bought my airline ticket to Portland.

During the night I had a dream about both chainstays on my bike completely broken near the bottom bracket. The chainstays on my bike have no cracks that would indicate the beginning of trouble, so I presume the dream was a reflection of my feeling of doubt regarding my readiness for the cross-country trip.

You might recall that both of my seat stays had previously actually cracked all the way through, but the repairs by David Brorein I described in Gear Update - October 15, 2023 have continued to hold.

I had planned to ride a 42-mile loop (2 CW Honesdale, PA, Loop). Starting at 10:30, I thought that I might be able to return in time to view the solar eclipse which would start at 2:09 and peak at 3:24 with 95% coverage. As you'll read below, I soon changed my plan.

The previous day I was wondering what would be the biker's analogue for a sailor's sea legs. The obvious answer is road legs, but that didn't seem right. After start to walk up a steep hill just before having ridden one mile, I knew the correct answer was climbing legs. The 42-mile loop I had planned to ride had 84 feet of climbing per mile, and I was doing a lot of walking early in the ride. I decided that I would continue to ride as long as I was mostly climbing and then turn around and enjoy mostly descending for my return.

Starting at about mile 4.1, the gravel of Bryn Mawr Road was not as bad as the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, but it was the sort of road on which I don't like to ascend and on which I like to descend even less.

Bryn Mawr Road

At mile 4.5 a fixer-upper caught my attention. I also noticed that to my right was the beautifully-paved Carley Brook Road, and I saw that I could soon connect with that road.

At mile 4.7 I saw an even more interesting fixer-upper, this one with an adjacent shelter for camping.

At mile 4.9 I saw a bunch of lazy cows. Cows are always lazy, right?

At mile 5.8 my attention was drawn to a tree that has been through a lot.

Carley Brook Road continued to be beautifully paved.

Carley Brook Road

I was surprised when my foot came off my left pedal. I thought that if it were to happen again I would stop to inspect the cleat. But then I applied my policy of zero tolerance for anomalies and discovered that the left cleat was broken. At mile 7.2 I replaced the cleat with one of the two spares I was carrying.

Before

After

After mile 9.2 I would have started a lot of descending, so that's where I turned around. I saw that I could avoid the gravel of Bryn Mawr Road by continuing south on Carley Brook Road and then Bunnell Pond Road and Cliff Street which would bring me back to Honesdale.

If I had the sort of pond that I saw at mile 13.1, I would be in it every day warm enough to swim.

I arrived in Honesdale shortly before 1:00 and decided to have lunch before returning to my hotel. The pierogi menu at Laurel's Hometown Cafe caught my attention.

I'm accustomed to having pierogis with sauerkraut, mushrooms, or cheese, but never any of the varieties on this menu. I chose broccoli cheddar, spinach feta, mac and cheese, and reuben. I enjoyed them all but would have preferred sauerkraut, mushrooms, or cheese. For dessert I had a miniature apple pie (not the pierogi apple pie).

I arrived at my hotel shortly before 3:00, changed my clothes, and went outside to view the eclipse. Unfortunately it was so cloudy that I saw the sun for less than a second. I took the picture below at 3:27, just three minutes after the eclipse had peaked at 95%.

I continued to hope to see the eclipse so I continued to watch until 4:35 when the eclipse would be over. (Did I really stay out there for more than an hour after taking the picture above?) The picture below shows what I saw when I looked through the eclipse glasses.

The handle for my shower was wiggly, so of course I attempted to fix it. Unfortunately tightening the screw that secured the handle made no improvement, probably because the opening in the handle in which the shaft in which the screw was inserted had been enlarged through use.