The GAP

[indysteel]

You can park at the art museum, along Westfield (near Illinois) or in Braod Ripple. The path is easy to access and easy to ride. It does get crowdedd during peak hours though.

Crushed limestone is a pretty easy surface to ride on except, perhaps, when it rains. I doubt you'll have any problem with it, either in terms of handling or your hands.

As for deep gravel (as you asked about in another thread), that's tougher as it can give anybody fits. I'd suggest getting comfortable first with crushed limestone and dirt before giving gravel another go. I'm sort of in your shoes in this regard as I've yet to learn much about MTBing. That said, I anticipate that MTBing will help me learn to move around the bike better, which would likely help on a road surface like gravel.

[Catrin]

You can park at the art museum, along Westfield (near Illinois) or in Braod Ripple. The path is easy to access and easy to ride. It does get crowdedd during peak hours though.

Crushed limestone is a pretty easy surface to ride on except, perhaps, when it rains. I doubt you'll have any problem with it, either in terms of handling or your hands.

As for deep gravel (as you asked about in another thread), that's tougher as it can give anybody fits. I'd suggest getting comfortable first with crushed limestone and dirt before giving gravel another go. I'm sort of in your shoes in this regard as I've yet to learn much about MTBing. That said, I anticipate that MTBing will help me learn to move around the bike better, which would likely help on a road surface like gravel.

Thanks for the parking tip Indy, I really wasn't sure where to access the path but was going to look at maps in the office tomorrow. I think this would be a great early Saturday morning activity... I need to do this soon to get over it in my head. After my very tiny gravel experience yesterday I am more confident about it

Your advice about starting with crushed limestone and dirt sounds spot on... I didn't intend to try and ride deep gravel yesterday, it just kind of worked out that way. I am getting way excited about the clinic!

[DebW]

The GAP is actually a very well-maintained and fairly smooth (for limestone) path. Dusty, as someone said, but a nice surface for 1.25-1.5 inch tires. A heavy rain could give it some rills, but a light rains is just soaked up by the crushed stone. I rode it a few years ago. The grading is so gradual you'll hardly notice the uphill to the divide heading east, though you get a nice downhill run after the divide.

[Catrin]

Awesome! My little taste of gravel the other day tells me that crushed limestone shouldn't present any problems although I still want to practice in it...err....ON it