Getting in to riding gravel

[north woods gal]

No, as I've mentioned, I'm pretty much a solo rider and a not very competitive solo rider, at that. Up here, most of our county roads are actually paved, but we do have some gravel roads in sections, the longest running about 8 miles or so. They can be very rough, though, due to logging trucks and ATVs constantly tearing them up, so very much an adventure to ride, but in a different way. Then, too, we have a lot of old, abandoned logging roads, which are sometimes sand and sometimes gravel and sometimes nothing more than rough single track. These run deep back into remote forest areas, so you have a serious risk getting lost, not to mention bears, wolves and so on. Have done them when I'm feeling brave, but you better have good maps or a compass or a GPS. Mostly I stick to established roads, either paved or gravel, these days. Still plenty remote enough for me.

Here's an example of an old logging road, which is open only to foot or bicycle traffic most of the year. This one sees only one or two bicyclists all summer. Not for the faint of heart, because lots of old side logging roads that intersect, so very easy to take a wrong turn and get very lost, many miles from an established road.


And in places can get so overgrown as to barely even see a road. These are really best done on a mountain bike, not a drop bar gravel bike, though you could certainly ride them with such a bike. Might have to do some walking, though.


And then we have stuff like this that is so bad that you'll even need to walk with a standard mountain bike. This is where I only use a fat bike.


But it's not all like that. We also have these wonderful, though short, two or three miles long, gravel roads which are pure gold and a joy to ride on any bike.