Capital Trail 4-8-14

One the 8th of April, 2014 16 Groupers met at the Jamestown Settlement on a damp breezy morning wondering if it was a good idea to take a bike ride that morning. It had rained the evening before and earlier that morning. The ground was damp and you could cut the air with a knife and thought you had washed it. But the overcast skies gradually parted and allowed only mild cloud cover—that was good news for the pale-faced riders who had forgotten to apply sunscreen. This ride is one of the easier rides, the path is pretty flat all along its length to Chickahominy Riverfront Park. A few rode over the Chickahominy Bridge to the end of the open trail and noticed that the continuation of the trail looked to be finished for a good stretch. The closed sign stopped us law abiding types, but the continuation of the trail is to be opened on May 10 for the Cap2Cap bike ride. I note that Marti Malabad will be leading a ride in Charles City later this month—when the trail between Chickahominy Riverfront Park and Charles City is completed this summer, we will inaugurate that ride also. But the law abiders turned around and headed back toward Jamestown. At mile marker 2 of the trail, we took the Jamestown HS spur and rode up to the Williamsburg Community Chapel for lunch at their gourmet café. Clean, relaxing and quiet—until we got there—it was a great spot for lunch. Everybody behaved themselves so the Tuesday Group went one more week without embarrassment—even Bill B. behaved. Bruce J. wanted to take the Route 5 shortcut to the Powhatan Creek Trail to check it out. Brian led the group on the safer trail spur back to the Capital Trail down to the Powhatan Creek Trail. The Powhatan Creek Trail winds though the woods, over numerous wooden bridges, and provides a few hills to test us after our pure flatlander biking. Bill B. left us here to make tracks for the ferry. After completing the ride back to the Jamestwon Settlement, a few decided it would be fun to take the 8 1/4 mile ride around Jamestown Island. Margaret P is to be commended—she wasn’t going to go but just rode for a while. She rode the whole way and was leading the pack at the end. Folks were edgy about the traffic, so no ice cream today. Brian is on a diet so he didn’t push it. And Phyllis wasn’t there to enforce the Tuesday Group Ice Cream Mandate. Another great day enjoying being outdoors with great people.

Brian

To view Bill B's pictures: https://plus.google.com/photos/117475145040031402609/albums/6000702745010620113?banner=pwa&authkey=CLq9vZq9pb65wQE