Monday Coffee on the Towpath

@cmj7gh 173919 wrote:

Freezing Saddles has been forcing me to get my rides out of the way early in the morning before work. I’ve gone a few times for a morning ride on the towpath and have started bringing my gear to stop and make coffee on the way. It’s such a great ritual that I’ve been wanting to invite others along!

I’ll be heading out there this coming Monday (2/5) and will plan to hang out at the concrete platform under Chain Bridge from 7-8am. I’ll bring my camp coffee stuff and enough coffee beans to make extra to share (BYO cup!), but you’re welcome to bring your own stuff or bring coffee from home too! If there’s interest, I’d love to make this a regular gathering.

I put more details (including directions to the meeting spot) on a Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/210011806225377/

(Afterwards I’ll probably head back across Chain Bridge and continue my tradition of trying unsuccessfully to ride up that darn twisty hill on 41st street. I’d love to have company / an audience for my inevitable slow topple!)

If you PM me your Google email address I will give you access to the FS calendar, and you can post this there, too.

(And I’ll be happy to give you advice on getting up 41st St. I commuted up and down it for several years.)

I will sometimes do this route in after the daylight comes back. But I usually have to be at work by 7 so it would be a rarity that the timing would work.

You decided to make your first attempt of the ascent on a day when there was ice on the ground. I have to believe this is somehow the result of Steve O being there.

@Steve O 174151 wrote:

Photographic evidence:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16755[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]16756[/ATTACH]

In defense of cmj, there were some tiny slick spots on the 41st St. switchback, which made it impossible to maintain momentum if your wheel happened to catch one. His did.

@cmj7gh 174141 wrote:

Thanks to Steve O and Josh for joining me this morning and providing an audience for my promised slow 41st street topple!

We checked the boxes of being outside before work on a Monady and making coffee, but I have a few things to work on for next time:
* Find a more efficient way to boil water, or bring hot water in a thermos with me. preferably both.
* Make it at least 10 degrees warmer, or turn the wind off. preferably both.
* Make the ground less slippery, or make me a better bike rider. preferably both.

I’m going to try to keep this up as a weekly thing, and would love to continue having company – especially when it is warmer outside!

Hey Cmj are you the Chris I met at Clare & Don’s on Thursday? Don’t want you to think some stranger is tryna follow you on strava…. Cool thing you’re trying here….

@Nadine 174166 wrote:

Hey Cmj are you the Chris I met at Clare & Don’s on Thursday? Don’t want you to think some stranger is tryna follow you on strava…. Cool thing you’re trying here….

Nadine is a total stalker.

@cmj7gh 174425 wrote:

Just an update that I do plan to keep this up. In an effort to stop spamming this forum, I figured out how to make a recurring Facebook event, so I’ll post future updates there: https://www.facebook.com/events/2044054158943741/

Also this coming Monday should feature improvements in all three dimensions that I highlighted before:

• Find a more efficient way to boil water, or bring hot water in a thermos with me. preferably both.
  Check! I’ve invested in a Jetboil stove which claims that it can boil water in 100 seconds, which is approximately 1/10th of the time that my DIY alcohol stove took last week…
• Make it at least 10 degrees warmer, or turn the wind off. preferably both.
  Check! Looks like it’ll be around 40 degrees on Monday morning. If the rain holds off, it might actually be pleasant!
• Make the ground less slippery, or make me a better bike rider. preferably both.
  Maybe! It shouldn’t be icy, but it’ll probably take more than a week for me to git gud.

Keep “spamming”… I think this is excellent content.

I’ve heard great things about the JetBoil system for boiling water, they are very popular. I’ve also heard its not the best for regular cooking since its kind of hard to regulate the temperature.