I wanted to ride on Saturday but I have gotten a little tired of riding the same-ish routes all the time. I found a cool route on Bikely and figured I’d do a slightly modified version of that ride. Here is my version of that route. It took me on some familiar roads and some new ones.

It was a hot day — probably only in the mid to upper 80s temperature-wise, but it was extremely humid. I headed out 45 and within minutes I was covered in sweat. Sweating was practically futile, though, as with 75% relative humidity, your sweat doesn’t really evaporate much. Fortunately it was a bit cloudy and the route had some shady sections.

Rays of sunlight poking through the clouds on Bethel

Lush, green field

I took 45 to Bethel Lane to Old 37, so far all the roads were quite familiar. But this route took a detour on Mel Currie Road, which when connected with a couple of other roads just loops around and returns back to a point further down Old 37. Sort of pointless, if your goal is getting somewhere, but it’s a cool detour with a lot of rolling hills and one or two bigger hills to climb and descend.

Rolling hills on Mel Currie Rd.

The detour also had an interesting combination of residential areas, including some new subdivisions being built, and farmland. This would be a neat place to live — close to town, but remote at the same time. To my surprise, I looked up to see a deer on my left. She saw me coming and darted off into the woods. It was late afternoon — I didn’t expect to see any deer at this time of day.

Farm, with more hills in the distance

A gravel road or driveway at the end of Mel Currie Rd.

After some more rolling hills, the road curved to the right and climbed a fairly large hill. The wind had a cooling effect as I coasted down the other side of the hill, as I could feel sweat evaporating. Then it was up another big hill and a twisty descent down the other side. What fun! Then the road flattened out for a couple of miles and rejoined Old 37.

Flat section on Wylie Rd.

I was only on Old 37 a brief time, as I turned onto Sample Road, which has a hell of a climb up toward and across State Road 37.

Sample Road climb

Once on the other side of 37, I took a meandering path through some fun, curvy roads. There were some rolling hills and several 90-degree turns that really kept me on my toes.

Driveway

The sun beating down on the road

Curve

I ended up on Bottom Road for a while. I have ridden on Bottom a few times, but always in the other direction. There’s a long descent, a flat section, and then a long, brutal climb.

Soybean field

Creek

My bicycle on a bridge

I crossed 37 and was now on Kinser Pike. I rode down Clubhouse Drive, where the golf course is located. There’s a big hill just past the golf course and I flew down it — I’m pretty sure I left my stomach at the top. But there’s a sharp curve right at the bottom so I had to be careful. I rode through Cascades park, which is always pleasant, and took a path through campus to get home.

Cascades

As I rode through campus I saw probably a dozen groundhogs (I think). I didn’t get a photo, but they were everywhere. They seemed pretty timid and ran off when they saw me. I don’t recall seeing these critters anywhere else, so apparently they have taken a liking to that particular part of Indiana University’s land. I also rode past Memorial Stadium and Assembly Hall. It’s a little jarring riding by these huge structures after having been in the middle of nowhere just shortly beforehand. Fortunately being summer campus is mostly empty — but it’s easy to remember the hordes of people, traffic jams and wild fans and be glad I spent my afternoon riding out in the country.

Memorial Stadium

File under: Bicycling, Heat, Humidity, Road Biking