September rides

[north woods gal]

Yup, must be September. Had to wear leggings to start my ride, yesterday, but typical September, things warmed up, nicely.

My 23 mile ride turned out to be more of an adventure than I anticipated, though. Decided I needed to wean myself out of so much single track MTB work and figured riding gravel roads would make for a nice transition before getting serious on pavement. Headed to one of my favorite (and nastiest) sections of gravel road. About 4 miles in, stopped at an intersection with a gated road off to the side. Had stopped there, before, but this time I read some of the fine print on the posted map of the area (all managed forest land, owned by the country). Read in the fine print that bicycles and foot traffic are allowed on the gated roads, but no vehicles when the gates are up and the gates stay up all year long expect for deer season. Great!

Hoisted the bike over the gate and with the map still in mind, took off down the gravel road. Now, keep in mind, this is a remote area and there was a very good chance that I was the first person to use these roads all summer long. For sure, saw no sign of anyone having used them and, given the way the roads were washed out in spots, obviously the county hadn't maintained them for some time. The roads were actually pretty decent, overall, though, having been closed to vehicle traffic. Much better shape than the 4 miles of tortured gravel and sand roads open to ATV traffic that I needed to ride to get to this spot.

Glorious riding. Total serenity, total privacy and lots of wildlife sign, including what were some possible wolf droppings and some that were very definitely bear and tracks of both in places. Yup, I was in heaven.

Somewhere along the way, though, missed a turn in the network of roads, so, okay, I was lost. Had a compass, though, and figured if I just kept tracking west, I would eventually come out on a highway I knew. I was right. 9 miles, later, through some awesomely wild country, came to another gate with the highway on the other side, just as predicted.

Needed to ride two miles on this very busy highway to get back to my local paved road that would take me the several miles home, though. No problem, not with my Trek 29er plus Stashe with its 3" tires - a bike I use for these isolated backroads which often turn to sand. Even though the highway did have a narrow paved shoulder, just rode the Stashe out onto the much wider gravel shoulder for safety's sake. Actually, the Stashe handled riding this much better maintained gravel with ease and no problem keeping a reasonable 12 to 13 mph pace. Another discovery! With this bike, I could ride this highway and others like it in the area by taking the wide gravel shoulders with this bike. (Note: our highways have these wide gravel shoulders for the sake of handling all our snow in the winter.)

This discovery really is a gold mine for me. Probably 20 miles of these gated gravel roads in this area to explore and all just a short 7 mile ride or so from my house. Will return soon, but this time with a printed map or maybe it's time for me to buy that long overdue GPS.

23 miles total, 14 of which were awesome, remote gravel.

[Crankin]

Buy the GPS...
Both DH and I really were feeling our ride from yesterday. So, first, we walked to the farm, bought our veggies, and walked home, about 2 miles. The, after lunch, we took what we thought might be a 12-15 mile flat ride, but ended up being 10 miles of rolling terrain. We took it very slowly and I ended up feeling good. I should hike tomorrow, still worried about my trip, but I would prefer to ride.

[emily_in_nc]

Sounds like an epic ride, NWG -- great that you can handle riding those gravel highway shoulders!

We rode into Jackson (WY) from the campground at Grand Teton NP and made a lot of stops in town: farmer's market (very nice, but had to pass on a $30 huckleberry pie we wanted, once we heard the price! ), health food store, bank, ice cream parlor (a $5 scoop of delicious, organic huckleberry ice cream sufficed to quell my h-berry craving!), and bakery. Busy day in town, of course, being a Saturday and Labor Day weekend. An excellent ride, marred only by a motorcyclist who yelled at us because we didn't put our feet down at a 4-way stop sign. We did "stop", or very close to it, and no one was coming, so we went on. So he was right, I suppose, but he was so nasty in his approach than he and my DH ended up in a cussing match, and I was nervous because for all I knew, he could have been packing (this is the wild west, after all), and I could just see him pulling out a gun and shooting my DH over something so stupid.

Testosterone!

Got in 32 miles.

[Helene2013]

A nice 70km ride today. Perfect weather. My dream weather has started. Although it will be very hot for the next week or so. I took it today. Very welcomed. I had planned 80km but the last 10km I knew I was pushing my knees too much. Even the front/back of my thighs were talking to me. So instead of pushing myself and injure my knees for nothing, I told husband to do the last stretch (he's much faster and stronger than me) by himself and I'd do the last 2.4km on my own and would wait for him at this bike rest area. It is safe and lots of people around. I will put some Voltaren on my knees tonight to avoid swelling, etc.

Overall, I am so happy of my ride. It is not an easy one and managed good time/speed on it.

Thought of going for an easy and shorter one tomorrow but we'll see how my knees are in the morning. Since we're at campground, that means we also have to walk the dogs a lot vs being home in our closed yard. So it adds to our "exercises".

I also signed up with my PT/Kineo for a yoga class starting on Sept. 12. She said she will give me options for the exercises that would be too hard on my knees (like the warrior position).

I just can't wait for summer to go away and bring me decent weather so I can come out of my hole (like a bear in the winter - but me it is summer).

[rebeccaC]

Nwg…if you do go GPS and if any of the trails/roads you find on your rides aren’t GPS mapped be a friend to others and upload your tracklogs and any additional info you want to give about the routes into OpenStreetMaps…..would help you too on future ride maps and you may even find other mappers in the area!!!

Emily….enjoy the Teton area, beautiful country and huckleberry anything ftw!! …and tell DH that the motorcyclist would probably have shot you too as a witness.

Just a pleasant ride down the beach bike path to lunch with friends in Manhattan Beach and then the Playa Vista farmers market on the way home for us…. 23 miles and o’henry peaches, greens, heirloom tomatoes, veggies, olive bread and cheese to have for the longer weekend.

[emily_in_nc]

Emily….enjoy the Teton area, beautiful country and huckleberry anything ftw!! …and tell DH that the motorcyclist would probably have shot you too as a witness.

Just a pleasant ride down the beach bike path to lunch with friends in Manhattan Beach and then the Playa Vista farmers market on the way home for us…. 23 miles and o’henry peaches, greens, heirloom tomatoes, veggies, olive bread and cheese to have for the longer weekend.

Sounds like a perfect ride and haul (well, except for the olive bread, me no likie olives, but DH loves 'em). And you're right about the motorcyclist! Thank goodness we were right in town. If we'd been in the boonies, we might really have had to worry.

Agreed on the huckleberry...nom nom! Had never had it til we got to this part of the country.

[north woods gal]

Thanks to all on recommending the GPS. Given my love of exploring out of the way places, not to mention my really bad sense of direction, I really do need togged a GPS for the bike. Made a huge difference in my peace of mind when I bought one for the car.

Thought I would share some pics of the gravel roads I ride. Illustrates how gravel road biking is so varied and even downright unpredictable. That, of course, is the attraction for me. All it takes is a change in the weather, a change in traffic, when and how often the road is maintained and how it is maintained and you find yourself having to ride the same road, differently, than you rode it the day before. Cool.

For instance, here's what I was riding, today, 12 miles worth plus another 20 on pavement to get there and back. Very good quality, all hard pack and well-maintained because there are scattered homes along the roads in this area and the county keeps up the roads. Pebble sized gravel, though, so not real comfy to ride, but predictable and safe and, of course, lovely. With the right bike, keeping a 10-14 mph pace is easy to do.


Here's what you get when there are no homes along a road, so little maintenance, but still open to traffic and ATVs. Even on a fat bike, I sometimes have trouble, often taking to the woods on the side to bypass these areas. Just getting through without having to walk is an accomplishment.


or


For a walk on the wild side, these are the gated timber roads closed to vehicle traffic that I rode, earlier this week. So remote that they get maintenance maybe every few years. Actually pretty decent to ride, but you never know what you will encounter. 9 miles before you see a house, sign or so much as a human footprint. Very much on your own to get back out.


Sometimes, you even wonder if there is a road.


And sometimes you do have to get creative


Still, compared to typical single track in our area, ANY road is a luxury. (Leave your road bike, at home.)


Breaking out to pavement after a long gravel workout is truly heavenly.


Thanks for riding with me on this little tour of my gravel roads.