The Harvest Ride 2010

A weekend of Maggies - Maggie DeBoer, Peggy (Maggie) Miller and Maggie Stone.

Hosted by Peggy Miller - who Saturday late afternoon/evening treated not only the Maggies, but also Tom Miller, Rob Andro and yours truly JD Stone to a fabulous afternoon and evening that included a canoe ride, far East appetizers, pasta dinner with caesar salad (Maggie Stone supplied), fabulous local breads, a spectacular view of Lake Leelanau, and after dinner a roaring fire in the fireplace laced with great conversation, many laughs and some semi serious discussion on where things stand with finding a cure. Oh and did I mention the five berry pie locally baked earlier that day. Scrumptuous topped with ice cream.

Then it was early to bed and very early to ride - up at 5:45. Broke the fast with yogurt, granola, some fruit, and of course hot coffee.

The group broke into two - those doing the 25 mile loop Maggie S and Peggy with some of her relatives - who kinda got to sleep in while the other group of Tom, Rob, Maggie D and JD made lots of noise getting dressed for the metric century ride trying to figure out what to wear when the current temp is 45 degrees but expected to rise to the mid to high 50's.

Knees were covered most of the day. Two miles into the ride for all routes is a grade 7 climb(that's steeper than the Jubilee climb at DV) up to inspiration point. We commenced promptly at 8 AM and it was COLD!!

Blessed with sunshine it began to warm as the sun poked through. Beautiful views througout the day. Our mini-pace line was joined for awhile by an older gentleman by the name of Douglas who rode his 26 mtb wearing sandals, and shorts with a very unique riding form.

Food stop #1 about 24 miles in - really great cookies along with the customary bananas, misc. munchies and beverages.

The route took us east of lake Michigan and then north almost to the top of the east side of lake Leelanau (North lake L) and at the northern most point was Food Stop #2.

Some of the best chili we've ever had - Rob was horsing it down and warned the rest of us not to miss it. We didn't.

From there it was south along the Western shore of Lake L (south lake L) and of course more hills. There was no paucity of hills. In fact there was virtually no flat during this ride, you were either climbing at 7 or 8 mph or screaming down hills at speeds at times exceeding 35 pmh.

Food stop #3 had the best cookies - all home made and many varieties - I had the pumpkin with cranberry and added some locally made peanut butter.

Finally we made it to the finish - changed in to civies and guess what a hot meal of browned rice, with steamed vegetables garnished with a choice of plumb , sweet & sour or terriyake(sp?) sauce, a salad w choice of dressing. Followed by home-made ice cream cones, served outside at picnic tables.

All of this was included in the entry fee. What a deal. Great views, cool weather, lots of friendly people, a challenging Death Valley esq ride, and the hostes and host Peggy and Gene-O Miller - who shared their cottage built in the early 1900's with the JDRF crew who were able to make it.