Pastries & Coffee 200km brevet pre-ride

Luis Perez and I did the pre-ride for the DC Randonneurs ACP 200km Brevet yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the route.  It was his first time on many of the roads, while for me I have been on most of the route many times.  He enjoyed the rural and quiet aspect of much of the route and I really enjoyed sharing the roads with someone new, riding familiar roads in late winter and searching for signs of the coming spring.

Spring changes fast this time of year.  We only saw one bunch of daffodils blooming on Saturday and several Forsythia almost in bloom, but you’ll see more yellow from both by next Saturday, especially on sunny south facing farm hillsides.  It’s also said that Osprey’s are always back in the Chesapeake country by March 17, so keep an eye out for them on the ride, especially around mile 42 or so along the bay on Fairhaven Road.  We saw a lot of hawks and heard the peepers along the B&A trail as we finished in the dark.

The start is at Big Bean in Severna Park, a mainstay stop for our local Severna Park Peloton club.  They are opening 90 minutes early to host us for this event, so please buy and try something.  The oatmeal breakfast cookies are a favorite.  After winding out of Severna Park and off of the Broadneck Peninsula, you get to the first signs of horse farm country at mile 7.5 on Severn Chapel road.  Much of the first half of the ride is fairly rural like this, along with suburban incursions.

As the route heads south and skirts the western edges of the Annapolis area, you cut across or along several large roads, including Riva, MD-214 and MD-2.  Be careful of the fast cars on these roads as you cross and turn.  Just before you turn south on Muddy Creek Road at mile 27, keep an eye out for the sheep farm on the right.  We stopped and admired the big woolly ram and the scampering lambs!

Muddy Branch and Rt-2 are both high speed N-S roads in southern Anne Arundel, but the time on Muddy Branch is early and the shoulders on that stretch are wide.  After a short climb up MD-255 to Owensville, you turn left and traverse my favorite series of roads in the county.  The names change as you go south (Owenville-Sudley>Sudley>Nutwell Sudley>Franklin Gibson), but the narrow winding road is lightly travelled and scenic. Turning off Franklin-Gibson onto Fairhaven, you finally reach the edge of the Chesapeake.

The control at Honey’s Harvest (mile 46.6) is another favorite local destination, with a good store and great sandwiches.  The egg sandwiches use fresh fried eggs and the biscuits are fresh.  Stock up at this southern point of the ride and head N and W for most of the next 57 miles.

The southern loop of the route connects back to the outbound route at Rutland road and we made our next stop a few miles later at the convenience store at the crossroads of MD-424 and MD450 (mile 77).  Nice store with inside and outside tables.  A few miles later brings the sprawl of development at the Rt-3 crossing.  There is a McDonalds just off the route to the right on Rt. 3 and a Starbucks in the Giant on the other side of Rt. 3 on the left.  This area is busy mid-day on a Saturday and we were happy to just ride on through.  We rode with the traffic, staying the middle lane at the light where it says “Waugh Chapel Road”, but you can also use the cross walk on the left side of the light.

Watch for hawks as you go by the old Naval Academy Dairy on Dairy Farm Road, then you are quickly into the roads and trails around BWI.  You’ll see many new developments for the rest of ride all of the way back to Severna Park.  They will make some of these busy roads even busier once they’re all done!  Weekends aren’t too bad though and the route does a great job sticking to the better roads or mostly those with shoulders.

From the BWI area, there is an out, up and back into Howard County almost to Ellicott City.  With yesterday’s West wind, it was really uphill and into the wind all the way to Ilchester Road.  Save some legs for this section of the ride (mile 95 – 103).  The good news is you are now at the highest elevation of the ride and head almost back to sea level in Severna Park for the rest of the ride.  The fast ride down Lawyers Hill and the last real climb on Ridge Road get you back to BWI and a suburban ride back onto the Broadneck Peninsula and the B&A trail to the finish.  It’s a great 127 miles and I appreciated Luis’ company as the day turned from early cold to decent sun warmth and back to cold.

A few safety pointers:

Some shoulders still have a lot of storm debris, so keep your eyes up!

Watch out for fast traffic when crossing busy roads.

The route goes past two of Anne Arundel’s trash and recycling transfer stations (Nutwell-Sudley Road in south county and Burns Crossing Road in Millersville).  Spring Saturday’s bring out folks pulling trailers of refuse that aren’t used to pulling trailers, so be extra careful and also watch for debris and glass on the roads near these sites.

Montgomery Road near the turn on Landing Road (mile 100) has had some recent milling of the surface and work seems to be ongoing, so be extra careful.

Watch for potholes as usual, but we didn’t see anything too bad on sections where you would be at speed.

I hope to see a big turn out on Saturday and hope you can enjoy the route as much as we did!