Thanks for sharing, NWG! I kinda know what you experience based on our several gravel rides during our trip from south to north this summer. We rode some that looked just like your first photo, and a couple like your second, but none quite as bad as some of your later photos, other than one forest road that turned into an overgrown trail, so eventually we had to turn around and ride the five miles back out.

I am totally with you on the emergence to pavement -- it feels like a dream after riding the bumps!