Southern New England - New York MPG Meetup

[sheepdog 44]

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/6119544

I updated the route to go around a poor section of road. This minor change will net better mpg and make the route more enjoyable.

[brucepick]

Topic #1: route change
Thanks Robert! (AKA sheepdog44)

Any chance you could print up copies of the new cue sheet for us? I'm up outside Pittsfield now, don't have a printer available here. I think the route change for a smoother road is a good thing. Probably safer and more legal to read paper directions, vs looking at a smart phone for the same info.

Topic #2: adding a midpoint fueling
We could, if you guys are very interested in it. I think the fuel qty at the midpoint would be so small, any fill variance or error will be magnified way out of proportion. How about a mandatory stop there, just to note your mpg from whatever gauge you may have? If you have no gauge/computer, just stop to keep it all even, and get moving again.

Topic #3: my question re. rescheduling start time due to rain
Nobody responded to my question on that. So, to avoid confusion, we start at 12:00 noon as originally planned. At this point, there's not enough time for people to recalibrate their schedules if they were to learn of a change at this point, or tomorrow some time.

See you all tomorrow!

[Formula413]

I couldn't do much earlier than noon really, maybe 11:00 at the earliest

[brucepick]

Noon it will be.
I hope to get there a bit early, especially if weather is decent. A good opportunity to swap stories with whoever else might show up early.

[brucepick]

Event Results

Three of us made it to the event: myself, Alex (Formula413), and Robert (Sheepdog44). FordFiestaS unfortunately had a schedule conflict. Hopefully we'll do this again next year with MORE PEOPLE DRIVING!

EVENT SCORES

Raw MPG numbers:

Robert Acavedo
56.8 mpg (Insight's FCD)
Alex
46.9 mpg (Civic's FCD, adjusted based on history)
Bruce
44.61 mpg (based on average of pumped qty and ScanGauge quantity, which were within 7% of each other)

Percent over EPA scores:

This is the mpg number from above, divided by the car's EPA estimated mpg for combined city/highway driving. Minus 100% to show the % increase over the EPA estimate.

Noteworthy: ALL of us beat the EPA!

Bruce:
44.61/25 = 85% over EPA. Woo-hoo!
Robert A:
56.8/47 = 21% over EPA
Alex:
46.9/41 = 14% over EPA

[brucepick]

Robert (Sheepdog44) points to our destination, Mount Greylock, visible from Pontoosuc Park where we met to start our run. Greylock appears smaller in the photo but is in fact the tallest mountain in the area. The one to the left, with the steep left slope, is closer, so appears larger in the photo. The return trip from the peak was about 13-14 miles. Not a straight line of course, but that gives you some idea of the distance from our start to the distination.

[IMG][/IMG]


Here we are, ready to depart Pontoosuc Park. Robert (Sheepdog44) by his red Insight, Alex (Formula413) by his Civic Hybrid, and me behind the camera. You can see my lightly modified Accord.




We stopped at a scenic pull-over location, about 2/3 up the mountain. It was a gray drizzly day but we had a nice view from this location.




At the summit. Behind us is the base of the summit tower. Photo by a helpful stranger. Unfortunately the focus is on the tower; we look a bit fuzzy.




Summit lodge and tower. You can see, the summit is heavily fogged over.




A closeup of a terrain model of the area, located at the summit.




It was very windy, apparently not uncommon up there. The porta-potties are secured by more than their own weight. Just so you know, this is a serious hill.




A closeup of the summit tower, taken when we had a slight break in the cloud cover. You can see the light in the tower.




High altitude flora near the summit.




This is the view from the summit, towards the valley below. "What valley?", you say? It was there - through the fog that was the only distance view visible from the summit!

[sheepdog 44]

Greylock is actually the inspiration for Herman Melvilles "Moby Dick." There was a very relevant quote inscribed on a rock at the summit. It seemed very fitting for that cloudy day.

The inscription on the rock reads as follows:

"As the light increased
I discovered around me an ocean of mist,
which by chance reached up to exactly the base of the tower,
and shut out every vestige of the earth,
while I was left floating on this fragment
of the wreck of the world,
on my carved plank in cloudland;
a situation which required,
no aid from the imagination
to render it impressive.

Henry David Thoreau

Reference to a visit to Mount Greylock from
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River"

[Xist]

I like how you have three Hondas, all different models!

[Formula413]

I have a pic from the road up the mountain but it's too big to attach here.

[brucepick]

Originally Posted by Formula413

I have a pic from the road up the mountain but it's too big to attach here.

Alex, I remember you have a photo I was hoping to see here.

The trick is to upload your photo to Photobucket or whatever cloud storage you might use. Then you reference that link in a post here in this thread. When writing your post you use the "picture" icon and it gives you a place to enter the web address for the image.

Or you could email me the photo.
brucepick1 [at] comcast [dot] net

That would work.