Off on the scouting ride

[Oss]

Should be fun
report later

[Hooter]

Good luck OSS! Those can he fun, I've done a few of those. But, once out of all the times I've been the one planning the route, things didn't turn out so good.

I rode a 60+ mile route and all was good. Inland lakes and along Lake Michigan. I'd been this route b4 and it always was fine. This was on a Thursday that I made the ride. I knew we had some new riders in the group so it wasn't too challenging.

Saturday morning came and it was a nice day. People were ready to ride. The ride was going great till we hit the shore of Lake Michigan. On Friday MDOT had tar and chipped roughly 3 miles of the route. FRESH TAR , nice shiny  bikes and new riders. Long story short, I caught hell from all sides. People were pissed and I understood why. In the area of the tar and chip there had been no signs placed indicating this was going to happen.

I was as popular as a fart in church. The only saving grace was a young female rider  (new) and her father that came to my rescue telling people that there had been no warning about the road issue. They lived right in the middle of it. Even on saturday  there were no signs.  I won't make excuses, there aren't any, but it made me feel like crap!

[MarkT]

IIRC WD40 takes that off.  If you have to get aggressive with sticky stuff the pro strength Goo Gone removes anything.

[3fan4life]

Good luck OSS! Those can he fun, I've done a few of those. But, once out of all the times I've been the one planning the route, things didn't turn out so good.

I rode a 60+ mile route and all was good. Inland lakes and along Lake Michigan. I'd been this route b4 and it always was fine. This was on a Thursday that I made the ride. I knew we had some new riders in the group so it wasn't too challenging.

Saturday morning came and it was a nice day. People were ready to ride. The ride was going great till we hit the shore of Lake Michigan. On Friday MDOT had tar and chipped roughly 3 miles of the route. FRESH TAR , nice shiny  bikes and new riders. Long story short, I caught hell from all sides. People were pissed and I understood why. In the area of the tar and chip there had been no signs placed indicating this was going to happen.

I was as popular as a fart in church. The only saving grace was a young female rider  (new) and her father that came to my rescue telling people that there had been no warning about the road issue. They lived right in the middle of it. Even on saturday  there were no signs.  I won't make excuses, there aren't any, but it made me feel like crap!

TRUE DAT!

Unless you can ride a route the day before the ride (and that's not 100%) you can't be positive that there won't be any surprises.

You can only do your best to plan a good yet safe route and keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well.

[old2soon]

Was Ride Captain on a poker run from my local dealer and after riding it the first time I suggested we run it the other way round. 5 of the 6 stops were left in and left out!  Even now whether I go in the cage or on the Phatt Ghurl I try to eliminate left turns. NOT always a success but I try. RIDE SAFE.

[The emperor has no clothes]

Evan, hope the scout ride went well. It's going to bittersweet reading about the Columbus Day Ride this year. But, too many other new places to check out.

 For anyone that hasn't been to the area. You will enjoy the country and the riders thoroughly. We had a great time last year. 

[Oss]

Serk or anyone who likes to map stuff out here is the route i did today

First up 9 and over the goat trail on the Valkyrie over bear mountain bridge, the Palisades spur and over the big  mountain on rt 6  then just one exit on rt 17 west (exit 130)
from there north on 208 thru farm country and we start to climb the ridge
at about mile 63 just over the top there will be a left turn pull off onto an awesome overlook
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawangunk_Ridge
  at top of Shawangunk  range then at walden we make a left on 52
another left on 42

Today I was having so much fun - was it a DDT moment? - that I just stayed on 42 south several miles past 17, huh? and found a cop      hiding and pulled up to him to ask where the heck the turn for 55 was  He was pretty helpful and after a fist bump sent me on my way

It seems there is a sign that says 42 north and I should have taken it  Oh well just a 20 miles detour on a perfect day.

All was good and I took it a few miles to 55 (left)

A few miles later I found the road I wanted us to ride which is Claryville road which becomes Frost Valley then Oliverea Rd (19 to 47) and goes past Slade Mountain, which is the highest mountain in the Catskills   This road runs through deep woods along streams the whole way both up to Slade and past to the end

Here is the link to hiking. We aint doin that tho
https://www.nynjtc.org/hike/slide-mountain-highest-peak-catskills-loop
 If any wild bunch want to have a great road experience this road is the bomb.  I will do 40 but you can do double that if you have the balls and skill in some places (the spots without the 15 and 25 mph sharp turn warnings lol ) Deer abound however and also a wild turkey was in my way at one point
At the end I turned right on 28 and a left on 42 to climb for mile after mile until I reached 23A which takes you past Hunter Mountain, the famous ski mountain  Colors here will be PEAK on Columbus weekend, hence the ride to this area

23a east heading onto Tannersville is a cool road with sweet drops into town, y'all will like it

Today I took 23 over the Rip Van Winkle bridge and then 82 to the Taconic  (no speed appreciation awards today) the 70 miles home

 This will be the BIG ride and will be the Saturday if all works out
This will be an 830am eat breakfast and gas up first ride as lunch wont be till 1pm or so once we hit Hunter area
Have had only one person say they are definitely in for this ride.  Sure hope to see a bunch of the vrcc then.  

Oh, total miles should be around 250 from my house