riding into the heat of july

[north woods gal]

Last week or so, I posted about doing a remote 8 mile section of gravel/sand roads on my Salsa Fargo with it's 29er 2.2" tires. The Fargo got me through, but with some fishtailing and a few spots were just too deep with sand, so I walked the bike.

Returned, today, only to discover that the road was in much worse shape. For one, the sand was dry and powdery this time around, and, for another, the ATV crowd had the sand churned up pretty good. Not surprising, really, since this is the holiday weekend and this road is a designated ATV trail. Not a problem, anyway. This time, I brought a better bike for the job (that's a story for another post) and had NO issues. Even managed to churn through some muddy spots with great traction. Yup, fit right in with the ATV crowd.

As for the ATV folks, they were actually quite nice, slowing way down as the passed as to not raise too much dust and waving as they passed. One ATV rider actually stopped while I was taking a water break to make sure I was okay. Since this road is very isolated and lonely, it was actually nice to have the company. I am totally a solo rider, but I never get completely comfortable being alone out in the woods.