Goose Chase 2016

It had been a year since our last ride - the Goose Chase the spring before. We had a big crew signed up for the JCC ride in the fall of 2015--it was to be a wine tour in the Leesburg area--but we got rained out by a storm with high winds that forced them to cancel the ride.

For this Goose Chase, we had Lisa, me, Chris Garris, Deidre, Marcelle, Sherri, and Sally (in that order in the pic). This was Chris's first big ride - Go Chris! :)

We started out with Kayaking on Saturday (Lisa, me, Marcelle, Chris, and Sally). This time we skipped the tour with crazy Susan and braved the wind and the waves ourselves. We saw just one eagle and a few red-winged black birds. Something large flopped out of the water under Marcelle's paddle, and we saw a few water snakes and turtles. The sun even came out (something it hadn't done for almost 2 weeks!).

Lisa, communing.

Saturday afternoon, we poked around Cambridge.

This Living Art space inspired a brief revival of PBR-speak. 

On Sunday, we hit the road. I did a quick 18 mile stint by myself in the morning but got back in time for the group pic.

Excellent pics courtesy of Lisa.

This pic does such a great job of showing the wind - in the grass and in the postures!

Really nice light!

Anacostia 2015

This ride in Anacostia was an adventure a la Deb Lane. I need her to fill in the details, because it's been a year and I have a terrible memory. We rode a loop on a designated bike path that turned out to be shorter than we thought. So after 15 miles or so, we packed up the bike and moved to another part of the city - near where Alex had her community garden, but I can't remember the name of the neighborhood. Deb L. help!  We parked and rode to Union Market (before first trying to ride to U Street Market, which set us several miles off course. But that's ok. we got there eventually!

Goose Chase 2015

 

Our first Goose Chase - an all women's bike ride in Cambridge, MD. Marcelle's first 60 mile ride (I think). Lisa was in and out on this ride. Two flat tires! Terrible luck. Sorry Lisa!

We Kayaked at Blackwater Paddle and Peddle on Saturday.

Our tour guide, Susan. A memorable character!

Susan knew where to find the bald eagles. There are two in this tree. Two nests are to the left. 

Red wing black birds everywhere.

Here we are "rafted up" for about 30 minutes to hear Susan tell us about how she was "raised native" which amounted to being raised like everyone else (esp. since she didn't know her native heritage until she was 13. What?). We heard about her family life and her mother's orgasms, but nothing about the native history of the area that was promised in the tour. Last tour with this organization!

Positively serene just sitting in the stillness and listening to the wildlife.

IDK. I kept taking this same pic over and over. It must have been better in person!

And then we hit the road!

The marshland was expansive. I'd never seen anything like it before. It was brilliant green and went as far as the eye could see.