A ride for some Fall color...

[Uncle Fester]

Hey there everyone!  I took a short ride today, and I thought I'd share the pics... I took a bunch of video, but photobucket evidently limits video files to 100mb, and mine were just over!  Dern it!  (160mb or so)...  Here's the pics... fresh off the Sd card, and not arranged or anything yet, I'll just post a link to the album for now...

http://s384.photobucket.com/albums/oo284/UncleFester1/Trips/Around%20home%2020SEP08/


Cool!  Ididn't know I could modify a post that's been responded to!  If y'all like, you can scroll down and read a more proper ride report, but it doesn't have all the pics, so the link above stays... enjoy!

[happycommuter]

Huh, leaves are changing color already?  Well they are up there - gorgeous!  Gravel roads, ponds -this is good stuff.

[CraigF]

Nice.  I need to get out with my camera and ride for fun, not just my commute to work.

[mikeinvaf16]

fall colors already?? it must get cold up there pretty quick! i see from google maps that you are outside of albany. i past thru there many years ago and really liked that part of the country. great pics! we need to start a ride report competition!!
mike

[Uncle Fester]

mikeinvaf16
It gets a little chilly here in the north east in autumn...  Usually when I go hunting up around Long Lake, NY, it drops to 0-15 degrees at night, and it's oh so wonderful to have a warm sleeping bag!  It's GREAT!  About 40-60 during the day, and chilly at night, great! 
Yep, just east of Albany.  I'm 20 miles from NW Mass, and 35 or so from SW Vermont... 
It's been in the 35-45 range here this past week, we had to go cover some outdoor plants due to frost warnings.  The place I took the pics today is a little hight elevation, and starts to change earlier, but I've seen some trees changing since mid August!   
If you get up this way again, let me know, we can go for a ride.  I'd love to share these great twisties with some fellow NH riders!   

CraigF
Doesn't riding to work make it fun?  It did for me!  Although I tended to be a little rushed, since I'd end up taking turns onto other roads to enjoy on the way to work without leaving earlier! lol! 


If a ride report competition will get more folks to take their cameras with them on their rides, then YEAH!    I'm looking to get a new camera and mount for the bike, because what
I'd really like to do is share the actual ride with folks, the lean, and the sounds, the movement.  For example, I had a crane swoop across the road only a few feet from my head, as it took off from a pond on a ride on my Rebel over to Vermont!  There's no way to stop and take a pic of something like that.  I saw a doe pass in front of me today on my ride, you can't capture that when youhave to stop and get out the camera.  I'll also keep my current camera in the saddlebags just for a backup, and so I don't have to reposition the bike camera to take other pics...   

Here's what ya do...  Get an inexpensive digital camera, they're all over at Wally World and what not these days!  Toss it in your saddlebags, along with an extra set of batteries, and you'll always be set!

OK, I've added titles to the pics on photobucket...  I wish I could have uploaded the video!  Anyway, so you don't have to scroll all the way back up to the top of the thread, here's some of the pics...

First stop, Little Bowman Pond (Taborton, NY)
This stop was behind the church up there.  It's a very old church, and here's some trivia...  The services were held in German until the early 1900's!  Can you guess the main settlers of the area?  lol!

Close-up of the NH...


A bit more scenery here...


And here...


This shot shows more of the gravel parking lot of the church's social hall.  This is where theyhold Sunday School, and have their "world famous" church fair every August. The church itself is on the other side of the road, along with the parsonage...
Sorry, no pics of the church and parsonage, though that would be a great subject for another ride.... Churches of the area... great buildings, center of the town, and all....


Moving along....
Second stop, along Dutch Church Road (County Road 41) in Berlin, NY.  This swampy area on either side of the road offered a good off road parking spot, and some fall colors...

Park the bike...


Another shot of the bike... notice the cool stump in the background, I parked it here just for that natural feature!


Where I just came from... (Looking down Dutch Church Road toward Taborton Road)


Where I'm headed... (farther down Dutch Church Road to Plank Road County Road 40)
There's a bit of paving going on right now, and Plank Road was covered in crushed stone.  I can ride it, no problem, but I wasn't really in the mood, so I turned around there, and headed back up Dutch Church Road...


A bit of that fall color...


More color... mostly the red of the maples right now.. A very little bit of yellow from the birch...


Another shot of color...


Not enough yellow in the leaves, so Golden Rod will have to do...  The breeze was blowing the stuff around, so the shot isn't quite in focus...


Third stop, also on Dutch ChurchRoad, on my way back to Taborton Rd.
Still mostly green, though, so here's green...


The reason for the third stop was a sign.  My favorite kind of sign...  I had to capture at least one of them!
These signs are posted all over these roads!  They are a beacon for motorcyclists all over the area, and I wasn't the only one on those roads today. 


Here's a crude map of the ride...


Here's a short video I was able to get into photobucket... It was the last stop, by the road sign...

[luckylindy]

  Another great report and pix Uncle.  I've been too busy with work and cleanup from Hurricane Ike that I haven't had time for a pleasure ride lately but your report has me longing for a ride into the Ouachita Mts. in Arkansas.  They explode with color in Oct.  Cant wait for a good ride on those twisty roads.
I can tell you are riding NH the way it should be.

[Uncle Fester]

Lindy wrote:

Another great report and pix Uncle.

Thanks for the kudos, man! 

I hadn't thought they were all that good, and certainly far from riding up Pike's Peak, like Deadly, your (Luckylindy's) coverage of a  long trip to the Honda Hoot, or the rides to Patagonia over at advrider.  I do what I can, and I try to get out on the bike just about every day.  It's my relaxation.  True, I do have more time on my hands being a single guy, and an unemployed student.  I've been trying to figure out what to do with my life, and I have to say, work sucks.  I want to ride, so I've been trying to think of a way to do both.  I'll figure something out.  Maybe a book of New England rides or something?  Who knows.  I do know that you guys are a great audience, and I love all your feedback! 
Thanks again!    They may be short rides, but I ride every day, or try to! 

Some feedback, do the maps help convey the ride better? I'm trying to assume that no one has ever heard of the little places I end up, and I thought a map of the route might be a help.  Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? 

[gammer]

Nice.  I need to get out with my camera and ride for fun, not just my commute to work.

Ditto.
I also need to find some folks to go riding with.

Nice pics Rick.
BTW, did you go by yourself or with some friends?

[Uncle Fester]

99% of my riding is solo, gammer.  I just don't have many local friends who ride.    The good thing, is I stop when where, and how long I want to.  If I see an interesting stump, I can slam on the brakes and go back to it without worrying about another rider.  The other side, is, there's no one to hold the derned camera for me to be in any of the shots!  As you've seen, it's a bunch of shots of my bike and scenery, nothing to prove I was actually there!  lol! It seems I'm never in a place where there's a convenient log at just the right spot to put the camera.  Perhaps I'm just not seeing the opportunities, yet. I really like riding solo, it's a relaxing thing, with no one else to report to, or to alter the plan.  I'm the only one who alters the plan, and I do it at most every intersection.  That said, I do ride with others once in a great while.

Yo Lindy!  Get yerself out there, and post a RR on them thar Ouachita Mts. in Arkansas, pal!  Sounds good!

[CraigF]

I'm going to try to get out for a leisurely ride soon.  Unfortunately my job has me on-call every other week, and I'd hate to put myself too far out of pocket when I'm on-call. 

If I ride with my iPhone headphones in I know if I get called (though it's impossible to take the call while moving--wind noise is just too bad).  If I throw my Timbuk2 bag over my shoulder with my laptop and Sprint card then I can stop anywhere and log in an fix the problem.

Hmmm, maybe I'm out of reasons.  :)