Ken Bonner wrote an e mail message for the discussion list after the 300. It can double as a ride report. Title courtesy of Richard Blair (though Wim Kok may own the copyright).

Damned Dam 300
by Ken Bonner

A large THANK-YOU to Deirdre and Bob for organizing another interesting brevet! For those of you who did not ride this brevet, you missed some good climbing, low traffic roads with good pavement and lots of sunshine.

The much dreaded Dogs, lots of Dogs warning, caused me to ride with 5 kg. of freshly ground hamburger meat and 3 bunny rabbits to divert the doggy fangs from my legs. Fortunately, the dogs were locked behind a steel fence that sparked like a welder's torch as the nice doggies tried to chew their way through the fence to reach those whirling calves. Knight and Day were the
beneficiaries of the hamburger and bunnies (honest, they promised to treat the bunnies well -- or did they mean they would be served well done? - hopefully the former :-))

Knowing that randonneurs are easily bored, Deirdre and Bob arranged for some drilling and blasting to discourage riders from following the designated route - Keith Fraser and I were undaunted by the many large fluorescent signs proclaiming the official route CLOSED, but when the road exploded in front of us, we thought perhaps we should back-track and accept an official
reprimand for not following the route instructions. (We did try to follow the route, Deirdre, but after the explosion, we were further dissuaded from following the official route by a very determined man with a shot-gun - I think it was a shot-gun, but it could have been a bazooka as it had a trigger and the barrel looked big enough to crawl into -- who said he would arrest us if we proceeded any further - actually, I think he said something like "Make my day!")

The unexpected detour left us in high spirits (having just avoided death) so we did not mind the extra 8.326145 km detour, not even the uphill portion.

Keith Nichol was a welcome sight at the end. He told us how he really, really wanted to ride the 300, but circumstances would not permit him to do so. To deal with the stress of not riding, he had just finished eating his 3rd whole apple pie and 4th large Coke. He was also working on a Camelbak of
orange Gatorade as a chaser. Thus, even if he had to miss the ride, at least he did not have to miss fine rando-dining!

Many thanks to Bob & Deirdre for organizing this event; and for the cheerful work of the volunteers (Harold Bridge, Barb & Dave Gillanders; and, Keith Nichol.)

Ken

April 29, 2007