To Wrentham Outlets and Back (via Norfolk)...

Another Humid Day

Today was another humid day, but not as hot as yesterday. There was even the threat of rain, which never materialized. I headed south with no plan in mind. Along the way I decided to bike past the Wrentham Outlets just so I can say "Yeah, I've biked to the Wrentham Outlets...". Right across from the outlets I made a right onto a hidden back road (Nickerson) right off of route 1a. Well, it's not that hidden because I saw a Naragansett Bay Wheelman route marker ?

NBW Route Marker

   painted on the road. I followed these arrows for a bit as they were pointing in the same direction as I was going. Upon further research I learned that I was riding along the 50 mile leg of the NBW-128: Diamond Hill Two ride. A little while after that I saw more NBW arrows in Norfolk that turns out to be the northernmost section of the NBW-088: Scramble Metric ride. The Scramble Metric is the NBW Route that comes closest to my home.

Climb up Brandywine

The neighborhood behind us is having a neighborhood being built behind it. So far it is causing an increase in drivers speeding through an otherwise quiet neighborhood where there are lots of kids playing in the streets. Eventually is it supposed to have its own entrance on Populatic Street. I don't think that will solve the traffic issues as Populatic Street doesn't really go anywhere. Anyway, I had recently driven through the neighborhood checking out the nice $500k+ "affordable housing" homes and I noticed that they had paved the roads all the way through to Populatic (much to the disappointment of all the local mountain bikers). The end was gated (still just construction vehicle access I guess) so one couldn't drive through. However, one can easily jump the gate with a bike. A road bike.

So, for a change of pace, instead of coming my usual approach from the East, I cut through the neighborhood. Well, it turns out that it is roughly 200+ feet of climbing over just 1 mile. There were two parts to climbing through this neighborhood. Each climb was a quarter mile in length. The first climb had a 5.6% grade. The second part, which connected to the older neighborhood, had a 8.5% grade. Nice way to finish up a ride. At least I had a nice descent back to my home. :-)