Sat, Apr 19, 2025
(~1152 miles)

It’s a month into spring and time to address some unfinished business from last summer, when I failed to complete my proposed inaugural Ride Around Connecticut certification ride for the Iron Butt Association. I’d sorted out the Android permission issues for my Bubbler GPS app (I hoped!) by now, so documenting my track should no longer be an issue. I need to get some miles in the saddle logged in preparation for the IBR coming up in June, so this would make a great early season goal to knock out. Check out that post for more photos and background of this ride. This time around is about gettin’ it done.

This weekend was available on my schedule and by Wednesday, the Saturday forecast for Connecticut seemed decent enough, with just a slight chance of rain in the north for part of the day. On Thursday, I mounted up the auxiliary tank and hydration mount. I re-jiggered the lap routes from my previous attempt to a different order and planned for an earlier start time, reflecting the lessons I’d learned back in August. Mostly to get two runs in on I-95 before the heavy traffic showed up. This would also be my first long ride with the new Shoei Neotec 3 helmet, which I’d reluctantly purchased to replace my excellent-but-leaky first-gen model. I’m looking forward to testing it out in the weather and breaking it in.

After grabbing a few hours of sleep early Friday evening, I was up around 23:00 and ended up leaving the house around 23:45, 15 minutes later than planned, but still just fine for timing. Temps were in the 50s. I was bundled up and plenty warm for the easy ride diagonally down across Rhode Island to the same starting gas station I used before in North Stonington. My ride officially started at 00:48, shooting west across the south of Connecticut on I-95.

This time, I’m keeping a VERY close eye on my Spotwalla trip page, to ensure continuous tracking updates from Bubbler. It all seemed to be working just fine, and I made liberal use of the manual ‘OK’ status messages as I hit the key corners and jurisdictions required to document this ride. It was quick progress on the empty slab and the state roads of the panhandle and up the western border of the state.

I fueled up at my northwest corner town, North Canaan just after 04:30, where I also chugged a 5-Hour Energy for my morning caffeine boost and ate a small Kind energy bar for breakfast. Even though I can make it (barely) around the state on one tank, I’d decided to just fill up at this corner on each lap, as both a stretch/bathroom break, and to avoid worrying about fuel.

At some point along that first 95 stretch, I decided to hell with my lap variation. As long as the timing worked out on the first lap, I would just plan to do the same outermost route variation for all three laps, even though there may be slightly faster main roads (on paper at least) between some of the required towns.

So after Danbury, I had kept west of Lake Candlewood on the smaller roads before joining US 7 in Gaylordsville. I also used the local roads up around Barkhamsted Reservoir to keep closer to the Mass state line by the ‘Southwick jog’, and avoiding the busier towns of Winchester and the Granbys. Enjoyed Cook Hill Road down the eastern side of the state, though it has way too many stop signs. Snake Meadow Road was another highlight, allowing me to get some leaning in. My wildlife count for the first lap included a couple deer, a fox, a racoon, and one bunny wabbit.

My fuel receipt at the one lap mark was just short of seven hours after I’d left. OK great, now I know I can repeat the same route twice more and have plenty of time to beat the 24-hour clock, even with a couple stops and the likely traffic that would start building. That would be my quickest lap of the ride.

My timing change for the start worked a treat, as my second run along I-95 was also fairly traffic-free. Once again, I made good time on the fastest interstate leg of the circuit. In downtown Greenwich, i spotted some lovely banks of forsythia in brilliant yellow bloom and pulled over to get a pic and stretch my legs a bit.

That damn traffic in the southwestern corner from Wilton up to Danbury was pretty bad again by the time I rolled through on this lap. I did see a few more deer on the Merritt Parkway as well as some turkeys further north. Hoodoo Brown BBQ in Ridgefield had some animal flesh in the smokers as I went by, and boy did it smell good to this hungry rider! I really hoped I would have the time and energy to stop and sample some on my final lap around!

In Kent, I took a few minutes to ride cross the covered Bulls Bridge and get a quick photo.

My fuel receipt in North Canaan shows my half-lap time at roughly four hours, a bit behind the first lap. Definitely lost some time in the traffic.

The traffic had lightened up towards the northwest corner, but that’s also where I caught some of the rain that was passing through the region. Nothing bad, just enough to get wet. I paused for a couple gloomy-sky photos of Barkhamsted Res as I made my second pass up by the northern border. The sprinkles were mostly gone by the time I crossed the I-91 corridor, then I hit the usual heavy traffic on the commercial stretch of CT 190 through Hazardville.

It was around quarter past one, still on 190 just after passing through Somers, when I came unexpectedly up to the scene of an accident in the oncoming lane. As the cars in front of me slowed and then swerved around some people in the road, I saw that a motorcycle was involved. A man in leather was lying in the middle of the road not far from where his Harley cruiser was laying on it’s side. There were as of yet no emergency vehicles anywhere in sight, though at a glance it looked like a couple motorists had just stopped along the shoulder and were just getting out of their cars to help.

The traffic in the oncoming lane was stopped, so I immediately cut over to the opposite side of the road where I could quickly park on the camber facing the wrong direction. I grabbed my phone and doffed my helmet and earplugs to see what, if anything I could do. A woman motorist, who had apparently been first on the scene, had already called 911 and was on the phone with them, so I took a few beats to absorb what had happened. There was the bike and rider lying in the road, with a small sedan immediately in front of them with a smashed rear-end. Based on comments from the young driver of the car, the bike had rear-ended him as he had been slowing to make a turn.

I confess to feeling a bit overwhelmed, not having had any experience or training whatsoever for situations like this, besides basic first-aid and some CPR classes in years past. The woman had been talking with the rider, a gray-bearded gentleman who was lying on his back and moaning loudly in pain. She was now on the phone so I walked over to him and told him that 911 had been called and help would be there soon, so just hang on and try to remain still. There wasn’t any noticeable blood and I don’t think he was wearing a helmet, so I didn’t want to make anything worse by touching or trying to move him.

He started asking about his bike (of course), so I told him not to worry, I’d get it picked up for him, which I managed to do with the help of a couple more bystanders who had gathered from the stopped cars and bikes along this quiet stretch of roadway. We got it up on the side stand and I managed to shift it into neutral. The steering was all f’d up however, so after rolling it a couple feet towards the shoulder, we left it there for the time being.

The rider had asked that his local Harley dealer be called to come pick it up, so I told him I’d try. I gave the dealer a call and provided his name and the situation. They were friendly and willing, but apparently they need to wait until the bike is removed from the scene to a tow yard before they could really do anything, so that was that.

By now, the local police and fire department folks were arriving on the scene, caring for the rider, documenting the scene, and managing traffic. I provided what little information I could, but the first woman on the scene seemed to have a much better handle on things and now the pros were here. Once I could tell that I wasn’t really needed there, I headed back to my bike to gear up and get back on my way.

I felt a bit shaken up by the situation for a while, but gradually allowed the rhythm of the road to soothe me back into concentration on my own ride. I kept hearing the injured rider’s wails of pain and re-playing in my head what more I could have done to give the guy some comfort while waiting for the pros to arrive. Now more than ever I plan to take one of those accident scene management classes that I see offered from time to time.

My second lap clocked in at about 7h 40m, not bad considering the traffic and delays. It was only closing on 15:30, but I was really feeling weary from the early start plus the stress of that accident scene. But it’s not over til it’s over.

The I-95 traffic had finally built up by now, and there were heavy jams through a couple of the cities. I used standard avoidance procedures to work my way through the worse spots where possible, but nothing as radical as the several squids (young irresponsible sport bike riders) that came racing through the lines of traffic, lane-splitting at higher speeds in a very unsafe manner. These are the types that give lane-splitting a bad name by pissing off the cagers. 😒 One of them almost took me out as I swerved around a car coming down an onramp, coming out of nowhere between the lanes from behind me. All told I lost about 15 minutes in the 95 traffic on this final lap.

Conversely, the local traffic in the SW corner had eased up — not as bad as the last lap, but still with some slowpokes here and there. Hoodoo Browns had a line of people out the door, so I was not stopping there today. BBQ will have to wait! As a consolation prize, I did stop in at American Pie Company in Sherman to pick up a blueberry pie for home.

Just over four hours half-lap time in North Canaan. I hit more sprinkles, but the roads were soaked up here, so I must have just missed another band of heavy showers coming through the entire northern length of the route. There were LOTS of little frogs hopping around on the wet roads, which I found amusing. Also spotted an opossum crossing the road, a couple more deer, and the tail of another fox vanishing into the brush.

Traffic got lighter and lighter as people left the roads for the evening and I rounded my final NE corner and down the eastern back roads without any issues except my own exhaustion. Pulled in to the North Stonington station for my final receipt just a hair shy of 22 hours ride time for the route. I was beat!

I submitted my ride to the Iron Butt Association the next day, using the simple and streamlined online process that they prefer now. As this is a newly defined ride, it took a bit longer to receive the certificate in the mail since they need to put the logo artwork together, etc. but there was no particular hurry. Big thanks to the verification team!

Details of the new Ride Around Connecticut certification ride are now posted for any rider to attempt.