Harpenden Ride Report 30/08/09

After a seat post adjustment for Di we all left Harpenden to find the ford over the River Lea ,this starts in Luton a few miles away and flows down into old father Thames.

As we headed through Sauncy Wood past Shoot Lodge we had probably twenty odd young pheasants running along in front of us unsure of their bearings diving left and right leaving one blasting down the middle of the road before exiting into the undergrowth.

At Peters Green we were at 150M, the highest point of our ride and then onto Breachwood Green where the Luton Airport flight path passes through. After Neil’s chain was put back on course and Henry’s seat post was raised we glided through King’s Walden to Preston where we stopped for lunch at The Red Lion. This is a community public house where curry seemed the order of the day for most except Di who had a grilled Mackerel which went down very well.

While enjoying lunch the wind picked up a bit and the sky lost the mornings slight brightness it had. The next village was St Paul’s Walden before we came across one of the highlights of the trip. At Easthall Farm we came across a weather forecasting station on the farm fence comprising of a stone held by a wire with an explanation of what the weather is depending on the state of the stone as below:

CONDITIONS	FORECAST
STONE WET	RAINING
STONE DRY	NOT RAINING
STONE CASTS A SHADOW	SUNNY
STONE DRY AND WARM	VERY SUNNY
STONE WHITE ON TOP	SNOWING
STONE MOVING	WINDY
STONE HARD TO SEE	FOGGY
STONE BOUNCING	EARTHQUAKE
STONE MISSING	TORNADO (STONE HAS BEEN STOLEN)

At that moment in time we had a dry/moving stone which was just about right so the BBC can do away with all the fancy computerised forecasting and get a stone.

Heading over the River Mimram and around to Ayot St Lawrence the home of playwright George Bernard Shaw at Shaw’s Corner, the last leg of our journey through Gustard Wood with very light drizzle then back over the River Lea to Harpenden Station.

23 Miles

Two seat post adjustments

One derailed chain

One interesting stone (open for debate)

Our next ride is to the London Skyride on the 20^th September

Campaigns

Harpenden Ride Report 30/08/09