Rando Rambles

   Route / Event:   Karen's Challenge  / 400km Brevet [  Ride Log  ] Asleep(?) at the BMotel 3AM approx. Blenheim, Ontario Photo credit: Stanley Zhou I pulled into Tim and Brenda's place in Lasalle Ontario in the early evening. My gracious hosts had agreed to put me up for the night, given that our brevet the next day was departing at 5AM nearby.  Given that I lived two hours away by car this arrangement saved me getting up and leaving my place during the hour of the wolf . The ride would be a 400km loop from Essex out to Port Stanley on the north shore of Lake Erie, and back, and we'd have all of 27 hours to complete it in order to be credited completion. "Great news" said Brenda as I pulled my bike into their garage. "Tim's decided to ride with us tomorrow after all!".  "That's awesome!" I replied excitedly. It only took a few seconds though to realize that this otherwise exciting bit of news completely disrupted my packing strategy. ...

   Route / Event:   Refined Sons Foolish 300  / 300km Brevet [  Ride Log  ] The four pre-riders: Michel, Fred, Chappy, John Image credit: Chappy The birth of a beer -vet Good Friday 2023, and what a good Friday it would be -- because here I was unloading my bike in a dark parking lot; signs that another season of randonneuring is here. Today four of the Huron Chapter's finest (or most foolish) would be scouting a new route ahead of it's use in a brevet event the following day. The route was a 300km loop from the west side of London, out to Sarnia, then Chatham, and back to London. For a ride this distance to go on the record, a rider has to run the course, passing through all the checkpoints, in under twenty hours. To date I had completed only one 300km brevet in my randonneuring past and it remained my longest to date. Yet here I was kicking off a new season with a ride of this magnitude. Foolish indeed?    Uncharted territory I felt attache...