It's interesting to follow the evolution of CRW rides. Many rides are conceived by someone, and led by the same someone forever. Some get passed down to future leaders and take on a life of their own.
The Apple Pi ride is a good example. This was created by Pamela Blalock and John Bayley. It originally started in the Bedford Library parking lot. Its start was moved to the Bedford VA Hospital grounds because of conflicts with the NEBC rides. This was extremely convenient for me, since I live about 1/2 mile away from the start, and when they stopped leading it, I was happy to carry it on. I was at the time a ride leader without a ride to lead, since the last original ride I had created was back when I lived in Malden and traversed the industrial parks of Woburn. Somehow it never caught on. When I moved to Bedford, I needed a more rural ride, and Apple Pi fit the bill nicely. The name (also courtesy of Pamela and John) was derived from the fact it passes lots of Apple Orchards and that the arrow shape was in the form of the Greek letter pi. This never fails to confuse those unfamiliar with mathematics or whose name is not Demetrios.
I adopted the ride somewhere around 1998, after flirting with other CRW classics like the Groton Country Tour of Jeanne Kangas. For a brief period I was permitted to lead a Lindy King ride out of Maynard. This was an honor since Lindy is very protective of her rides. But the Apple Pi ride was a better fit since it was a nice route and close to home.
The route is basically unchanged from the early days with a couple of exceptions. Mostly the changes are in road conditions. The cue sheet which I xerox every year and rarely update fails to follow reality, indicating rough roads that had since been repaved and omitting some really rough roads. I think there was a warning about a now non-existent dog for a while.
In general, the roads on Apple Pi have gotten better over the years, new pavement on Pinnacle, Oak Hill, Monument Street, and the Chelmsford triangle (which to this day I can't traverse without guide arrows).
North Road in Carlisle was in pretty rough shape when I took over the ride, and then it was repaved. It's been some years since that happy event and it is again sprouting potholes, but still way better than it was.
One road that like Dewars never varies is Dudley Road near the end of the ride. It started out bad when the ride was conceived and has been steadily getting worse. I don't have to worry about changing the warning, since it is unlikely to be repaved in my lifetime. By popular demand I am finally going to reroute the ride to avoid it.
I did actually make another minor route change in Acton, taking a right to bypass West Acton center and possibly the only traffic light on the route.
One logistical problem is that since the route sticks to back roads, there are few places to get food. In the old days, there was a convenience store in Littleton Depot, which has now morphed into a liquor store, so unless you think of beer as one of the major food groups, you'll need to make other arrangements. There were a lot of hungry riders until I added to the cue sheet the information that there was a gas station/store several hundred yards off the route. The official lunch stop, after getting provisions at the former store, was Bumblebee Park, aka Poison Ivy Park, so dubbed by a series of riders who found out about it the hard way.
We used to have an after ride party for years (really a during ride party since I've routed the ride onto my street, which is about a mile from the start). One year we didn't have the party, but I neglected to change the cue sheet, and there were a lot of disappointed riders.
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