Interesting ride, today. Decided to do some exploring on roads I've never biked, so grabbed the map and made a route. When exploring new areas, I automatically opt for my Salsa Fargo. It's actually a drop bar mountain bike with MTB like gearing, but best of all, it runs on big 29er 2.2" tires. Believe it or not, it's only slightly slower than my standard road bikes in terms of average speed on pavement, but it's when we go off pavement that this bike just shines. Turns out, I needed it, today.


The maps I have don't distinguish between paved and unpaved roads, so I never know for sure what I will encounter. Got half way through my 30 mile loop and, sure enough, when I made it to the intersection, the road I needed to complete the loop was gravel, but how far? What kind of shape? Off I went.

Turns out it was 8 miles, sometimes gravel, but sometimes more sand and rather treacherous in spots. Even with the Fargo's big tires, I hit a lot of sand traps, causing me to fishtail like crazy. In some spots it was so bad, I walked the bike. The road was marked with ATB route signs and they meant it. Whew! To make things even more exciting, not a single home along the road for 8 miles. Just me and deep north woods on both sides. A fat bike would have been a better choice, but not too crazy about riding a fat bike 15 miles on pavement to get there.

Would I do it, again? Yup. Would feel safer having some company, though.