Barb & Ron's Eastern PA 400k and 5th Wedding Anniversary Extravaganza

Welcome to the inaugural posting of the Double Super Secret Tandem Rando Society (which in an effort to save keystrokes shall heretoforth be referred to as simply the DSSTRS.) My name is Ron Anderson and my lovely and talented wife and stoker is Barbara and we reside in Hamilton, NJ. In my blog I will attempt to share stories of our experiences randonneuring on our tandem - the beautiful Purple Burley Paso Doble. I'll make no promises as to the entertainment value of this space, or the frequency of our postings - quite honestly I consider writing to be something of a chore, and neither Barbara or I are especially good at taking photos while on the bike. Nonetheless, I really enjoy reading several other randonneuring blogs, and I'd like to share our stories with friends, and anyone else interested in tales of rando-ing on a tandem, so here goes with the story of our Eastern PA 400k on May 24, 2008...


Did someone say May 24, 2008? Why does that date ring a bell? Oh yeah! The 24th Barbara and I will celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary! Celebrate by riding our bike for 24 hours straight, I've got to be kidding, right? Sounds more like a recipe for a sudden divorce, than a celebration. What can I say? I really know how to show my woman a good time! Besides, what better way to spend our day than riding our bike all day... it's what we love to do...
Saturday, the 24th had all the promise of a great rando day when it began with a sudden jolt of the alarm clock at 2:15am. Great weather was forecast, Tom Rosenbauer the Eastern PA RBA had a beautiful route beginning from his home in Easton, PA laid out for us, and randonneur enthusiasm was high. Barbara and I felt well prepared, having already finished the PA200k and 300k in fair shape, and the Burley was fine tuned and ready for service.


We loaded up the car and made the 1h15m drive to the start in Easton without incident, which was already an improvement over the PA 300k, when I made a wrong turn on the way and we arrived at the start with only minutes to spare before the scheduled 5am start! A hardy group of 12 randonneurs (including us) was assembled at the start, and 10 of the 12 shoved off into the pre-dawn chill at several minutes before five. Barbara and I, since we were riding a tandem, though it was sporting of us to give the rest of the group a 10 min. head start while we finished our bowls of oatmeal and powdered our noses (more likely slathered Bag Balm on our butts!) one last time before we departed. After a couple photos to commemorate our anniversary we clipped in and started our journey.


The first leg to Cherryville, PA was peaceful and scenic - a great way to start a long day in the saddle. We rode by ourselves through a mixture of rolling Pennsylvania farmland and encroaching suburban sprawl. The awakening birds provided the soundtrack to the dawn, the sky was clear with temps in the upper 40's and all was good in our little rando tandem world. There was no serious climbing in the first 31 miles, just typical PA "bumps" in the terrain, as our muscles tried to get used to the idea of spinning the cranks. The idyllic scene was disturbed only momentarily when, as we made our way up the gentle climb of Upper Mud Run we heard something skittering along the pavement alongside our tandem. For a few seconds I wasn't sure if we'd hit something in the road or possibly something fell out of the handlebar bag. We soon realized that one of our two headlights had fallen off the bike leaving a trail of batteries strewn across our path. (Our course, it was the brand new light purchased less than two weeks ago that jettisoned!) By some stroke of good luck, our light suffered nothing worse than a minor scuff or two. We gathered the batteries, put everything back together and turned on the switch to find that everything seemed to be working just fine. Somehow, even the lens wasn't scratched. Surely the rando gods were watching over us this day...


We continued our leisurely pace to the second controle (first controle on the road) only to arrive at the Cherryville Turkey Hill mini-mart to find no other randonneurs in sight! As we signed in, we learned that we were already nearly an hour behind every other rider who had taken the start. I was a bit disconcerted by this discovery (I guess our 10 min. head start for the group had worked better than planned!) It was a position we would hold for the rest of the day and night, as the "Lantern Rouge" of the brevet. Barbara was unconcerned - "we just need to worry about ourselves, ride at our own pace and stay ahead of the cutoff times at the controles." ...Always the voice of reason from the back of the tandem.


The second leg would take us straight away into the serious climbing of the day with an ascent of the Appalachians at Little Gap, past Blue Mountain Ski Resort. At elev. 1118ft, Little Gap would be our highest climb of the day. (Tom inexplicably spared us of the fearsome climb up Fox Gap in his pre-ride edits of the route - no, Tom that's not a complaint...) After some steady work in the 26t granny gear we crossed over the Appalachian Trail at the top of the ridge, and prepared to do what tandems do best - bomb the descent! I was somewhat familiar with the downhill from the PA 300k held two weeks prior, and as we picked up momentum on the descent a pickup truck passed us and provided us with a perfect read of the curves ahead. We tucked in and proceeded to set a new tandem team record for max speed -- 58.9mph boys and girls! Gotta love the downhills! The rest of the second leg was ridden over yet more pretty, lightly travelled Pennsylvania secondary roads, including long stretches on two of my favorites - Smith Gap Rd. and Cherry Valley Rd. We arrived at Controle 3 in Water Gap, PA feeling good and having gained a bit of time since our late-ish arrival at Cherryville. After filling up bottles and purchasing some dee-lish Macadamia Nut cookies we set off for New Jersey and the Delaware River crossing at Interstate 80.


Barbara is never a big fan of bridge crossings whether in the car or on foot, and the I-80 crossing of the Delaware is no exception. It can be a bit unnerving, with fast traffic, including heavy trucks passing at speed just a few feet away with only a hip high concrete median to separate you from certain carnage. Oh, did I mention the watery grave below, if you were to fall the other direction? Perhaps I'm being too dramatic - we crossed into New Jersey without incident and headed for an out-and-back section through quiet park lands along the more northern section of the Delaware River.


We passed through heavily wooded Worthington State Park and into the Delaware River National Recreation Area before passing historic Millbrook Village. Temperatures remained on the cool side, despite the hour of the day thanks to substantial cloud cover, increasing breezes and a well shaded roadway. Neither Barb nor I felt any desire to shed our tights or long-sleeved wooleys. After a sharp climb and descent (a real tester on the tandem) we continued our trek to the northernmost point of the route at the Flats Deli in Hainesville. NJ. We rode this same out-and-back stretch in the PA 300k and found the road (NPS 615) to be a real slog on the tandem. The road surface was slightly broken and the rolling hills were endless and we were steadily, almost imperceptibly, gaining elevation as we headed north. This Saturday, however, was to be a different story... the repaving project that had begun two weeks ago was now completed, and we were left with a beautiful, smooth ribbon of fresh blacktop to guide us northward. Even the strengthening northwest wind did not seem to hinder us as we made fair time over the rollers to our turn around in Hainesville at mile 94.


Barbara and I were greeted at the Flats Deli by the ever-encouraging RBA Tom Rosenbauer decked out in bike gear and ready to ride. Again, all the other randonneurs had already passed through the controle and departed by the time we arrived but we still had a fair time cushion in hand over the cut-off. Barb and I split a turkey sandwich and set out to retrace our route back past Millbrook Village to the Water Gap with Tom joining us on his Merlin XL. The northwest wind had turned into a tailwind, and we were now steadily losing elevation. The miles passed quickly under our wheels as Tom and I chatted about all things cycling. Tom peeled off at his car, and Barb and I continued to retrace our route south to another I-80 Delaware River crossing and Controle 5 the Water Gap Diner back in (you guessed it) Water Gap, PA.


Hey, this post is getting pretty long winded, huh? Like I said at the beginning, no guarantees as to the quality or entertainment value of the writing herein...


Barbara and I had previously planned to stay and have a sit down dinner at the Water Gap diner, and we proceeded to do just that. Two roast turkey dinners (complete with stuffing and mashed potatoes) later we were refueled for the long haul and ready to roll. For the first time all day I felt the need to peel off my tights and expose my way-too-white legs to a little sunshine. We left Water Gap, the halfway point of the ride, before 5pm with our plan to finish the ride in 24 hrs. looking right on target.


We backtracked over our morning route over scenic Cherry Valley and Fetherman Roads heading southwest to Saylorsburg (the flea market looked interesting) where we turned northeast on Route 115 toward our second highest climb of the day at Wind Gap, PA. We again engaged the assistance of our granny gear to take us to the top of the pass with a minimum of grunting and groaning aided nicely by the 15+mph tailwind squeezing us through the gap (thus the name Wind Gap...) We traversed yet more picturesque PA farmland and suburbia on our way to Controle 6 in Martin's Creek, PA as the sun grew ever lower in the sky. As we arrived at Controle 6 we were told by the clerk/hostess at Ahearn's Country Cafe that we had just missed fellow rider Maile Neel who had left shortly before our arrival, after sitting a while for a meal and conversation with RBA Tom (Tom must have logged quite a few miles on the Audi on this day!) We knew that Maile was riding alone, and we tried vainly catch her before nightfall so we'd both have some companionship while riding in the dark, but she was riding strongly and we were never able to close the gap.


We left the cafe shortly before dusk to tackle the last significant climbing of the ride before crossing the Delaware River at Belvidere for our second excursion into New Jersey on the day. We paused for several minutes before walking across the bridge to don our night riding gear and turn the lights on, as we crossed the river just at sunset. We enjoyed a tailwind and the views to the west in the quickly fading sunset as we made good progress down Route 519 toward Controle 7 in Bloomsbury, NJ. (Note to self - breath through nose while riding alongside grassy fields at dusk unless you purposely want to ingest a little extra protein in the form of swarms of gnats!) As we rolled into the Citgo in Bloomsbury at 930-945pm night had fallen heavy, and although all the serious climbing was behind us, 76 miles and the real work of this 400k lay ahead...


The final two legs of this 400k would take us on a largely out and back course from Bloomsbury, NJ south to the penultimate controle in New Hope, PA then turning around and retracing nearly all of our route back to Bloomsbury before breaking off, and heading west across the Delaware yet again to our destination in Easton, PA. While the route should have been relatively easy given the mostly flat profile of the roads we were riding (including a long stint on NJ Route 29,) the psychological toll of riding away from the finish on roads we knew we'd have to retrace in the opposite direction, combined with the mounting fatigue from the day's effort and the chill of the night air combined to make this a pretty tough 76 miles. It didn't register in my brain until later, that as we stood at the Citgo (Controle 7) in Bloomsbury we were just a few miles across the river from our final destination. Sometimes ignorance is bliss! Barbara, however, had a better understanding of the situation and the flat ride south on the Jersey side of the river, along with fatigue and increasing saddle discomfort made the penultimate leg of our trip pretty tough on her.


As we headed south from Bloomsbury it wasn't too many miles before we saw a single set of lights that obviously belonged to a randonneur heading back toward us. It was fun to see another rider out riding in the night (remember we had ridden alone all day long,) but it was also somewhat discouraging to realize how many miles and hours this rider was ahead of us. This lead rider (I still don't know who it was) would be back in Easton by midnight or shortly thereafter, while we still had 5 or 6 hours left in the saddle. A few more miles along the road we saw the awesome sight of a large group of 7 or 8 randonneurs all heading north with their lights ablaze. As we made our way toward New Hope the rest of our group appeared one by one, heading toward the barn and most many miles ahead of us. We made pretty good time on Rt. 29 - I felt good while Barb was having her difficult patch, and I did my best to keep the Burley powering along on the flat road. Just a couple short miles before reaching our penultimate controle we saw the last member of our merry band ahead of us and starting the journey back north - it was Maile. She passed with a wave and shouts of encouragement as always. This was perhaps as close as we got to catching her in our half day pursuit.


We arrived at the Eagle Diner in New Hope, Controle 8, at about a quarter past midnight. I called Tom on his cell phone, as I had agreed to earlier, to update him on our progress, as well as the rest of the group. I told him we'd stop for at least 1/2 an hr. to regroup, and don't look for us until around 4am. It felt good to get in out of the now cold night air, have a bite to eat and try to gather ourselves for the final 40 miles of our voyage. We hung out until just about 1am before paying our tab, adding extra layers of clothing and setting out into the night. I'm not quite sure why, but at the start of the day's ride, almost as an afterthought, I decided we should throw our balaclavas in the trunk bag. At this moment we were very happy to have them with us... We pointed the Burley toward home and shoved off.


The final leg to Easton was, without a doubt, long, cold and tough. The terrain, as I mentioned earlier, was benign, but the fatigue of the days efforts was really beginning to show. The meal we had eaten at the Eagle somehow didn't translate into energy for my heavy legs, and I was feeling discouraged at the thought of all the other riders who had finished already or were nearly done. Barbara was feeling better than she had on the last leg now that the tandem was pointing home, but she was really feeling her saddle in a bad way at this point. But, there is only one way to the finish - just keep those cranks turning over. Sure, it was tough to stay focused, and we had to take numerous "hiney breaks," but we did our best to keep the bike moving forward and gradually watched the miles tick off. Mini goals - made it to Stockton - made it to Frenchtown, a seemingly endless stretch on Route 29 - Milford is next - got to make it to the end of Route 627 - tear open a pack of Clif Shot Bloks and share them... The mood on the Burley was quiet, but we were steadily, if not quickly, getting the job done - together. When we saw the Delaware River bridge between Phillipsburg and Easton we knew we had made it. The short steep climb up College Ave. was nothing but a formality - one last hurrah for the granny gear. We pulled up to Tom's front porch at 4:38am, mission accomplished! 400k medals earned!


Ride statistics --

Total mileage: 253.5mi

Total time: 23h 38m

Time on bike: 19h 20m

Avg. speed: 13.1

Max. speed: 58.9mph

So, that's the story of our Eastern PA 400k. I hope you've stayed with me through this rather lengthy story and found it interesting. Despite my misgivings about writing, I did enjoy putting together this account, and reliving the day in my mind. I think it will be important for me to sit down and write up any future stories soon after the day's events while details and feelings are still fresh in my mind, just like I did today. I hope to post a post script to this article sometime in the next week, perhaps adding a few photos gleaned from other sources, and adding some links to additional information pertaining to the Eastern PA 400k.


Special thanks to Tom Rosenbauer for taking the time to organize and put on a beautiful ride. Thanks also to Tom for having us all at his home (at all hours of the day and night.) Thanks to Tom's Mom for helping out at registration - you seemed to be enjoying yourself - perhaps there is an assistant RBA position open!) Further thanks to Tom for always, always having an encouraging, positive, supportive demeanor.

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Extra special thanks to my wife and stoker Barbara without whom this story wouldn't be possible. It has been an extraordinary five years and I look forward to the next fifty. In the Fall 2006, when I first ran the idea of trying a couple brevets on the tandem by you, I was kind of shocked that you said yes. Now I couldn't imagine riding them alone on my single bike. Riding the brevets on a tandem adds a whole other dimension to the experience that I wouldn't want to pass up. Happy 5th anniversary, I LOVE YOU!!!

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