Why I left Meetup groups.

I used to be an active ride leader for a Meetup group.  I was even voted member of the year!  I left because I tired of folks not showing up, showing up late (and complaining on why we had already left) and not showing up prepared for the ride that was advertised.

Today tested me.

I manage a Facebook group for cyclists with 271 members stretching from British Columbia to San Diego (and currently Bolivia!) and from New Zealand to Florida. With a wide footprint like that I don't ever expect that we will all be in the same location.

It is the 5th anniversary of the group and I thought it would be fun to go for a ride and have a picnic to celebrate.   I was hoping that maybe 10-20 local riders would take advantage of the nice weather in Oregon and join in.  The plan was to ride 40 miles on the Springwater Corridor trail and finish up with a picnic in the park.  I was supplying BBQ hamburgers with the fixings, and asked attendees to bring their own drinks and a side dish or chips.

I had 5 folks say they were coming, and 5 "maybes".  I never count maybes because maybes never show up.

I was very surprised when roll out time arrived with nobody there except me.

I wasn't going to let a bunch of flakes ruin my day.

I checked email one more time, then pedaled out on the planned route.

It was going to be a nice day for a ride!

Mt Hood is waaaay back there, it looked closer in real life.

I stopped from time to time to forage. With the warm summer weather we've had, the berries are really in full swing. It was 93 degrees today!

I'd pedal for a bit, then stop for berries, pedal a bit, stop for more berries.  I tried to keep the bike moving because I had told folks that we'd be eating by mid afternoon.  I wanted to be back at the park in case anyone showed up for the picnic.

I made it to Boring, the end of the trail.  I haven't been on the bike much this year (been crewing bike races!) and I was looking forward to the slightly downhill ride back to Portland.  About halfway back I stopped at a country store to get a Snickers bar. I figured my tiredness might be related to an empty fuel tank.  It helped, I pedaled along pretty well for the remainder of the trip.

I arrived back at the park just after 2 PM.  I wandered around looking for people I might recognize.  No luck, no email, no phone messages.

I pulled out the BBQ and lit it up.

I figured there were plenty, so I had two!

I added 3 miles to today's total after I got home and needed to run a few errands.

.........Road Bike........Rollers.......MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ........43.................0.................0...............0...........43
Jan.........304................15................0...............31..........350
Feb..........0..................0..................0...............0..............0
March.......18.................0.................0...............0............18
April.......113................0.................0...............0...........113
May.........155................0.................0...............0...........155
June..........10.................0.................0................0.............10
July..........55..................0.................0................0.............55
Total.......687...............15.................0...............31...........733