On Saturday morning, with the chance of showers greatly diminished, and perfect temperatures with almost no wind, I headed north on Iron Horse, then east on Creekside. At Angel’s Pass Park (I think that’s the name… (off Factory Road), I met up with Beavercreek Troop 71 scouts and rode along with them (pursued the leading peleton) to Xenia Station. They all loaded up the scout trailer with camping gear for our night at John Bryan State Park, but I (nobody else did) opted to ride fully loaded.
While the bulk of the troop & leaders rested & lunched at Xenia Station, I rode south about 5 or 6 miles till I met the 4 guys doing the 50 miler. They started about 7:30 and headed south on an out & back leg to make it the full 50 miles that is required for the bicycling merit badge. I joined them as we returned to Xenia Station and ate lunch, then headed toward Yellow Springs. We took the “back way” off the bike path into the park with its challenging hills, then set up camp and spread out doing stuff that scouts do when camping… video games, card games, playing on playground equipment, riding here and there, hiking, hanging out & talking, etc.
After a really big supper, a night under the stars and a way more than enough breakfast, we headed back, retracing our path except for the 50 miler leg south of Xenia Station. The 50 miler scouts were real hammerheads, pushing hard all the way. I kept them in my sights till the outskirts of Xenia, and then just let them go. Couldn’t haul my load as fast as they could go. Nice lunch at Xenia Station. Again far more in the spread than one could even unreasonably expect to be eaten even by a hard-riding bunch of scouts. Temps pumped up, and I was glad to have had my hydration bladder on my back to replace my sweat. I let the hammerheads go from Xenia Station to Angel’s Pass Park, and cruised at a more liesurely pace. I left them as they unloaded the scout trailer and began loading cars with their stuff. The last 8.6 miles home was even more liesurely than the leg I just finished. The shower was calling, and I was ready to answer. Two nice days of riding.
