A bike ride
Monday, September 22nd, 2008I have not done much riding in the past couple of weeks. With the wedding and everything, I simply haven’t had time. I did manage to get out on Saturday for a brief ride of about an hour and a half or so. I took off to ride down Lampkins Ridge Road to Friendship Road. I saw a couple of deer along the way. Once on Friendship, I decided to ride down to the end of Friendship Road to see the waterfowl sanctuary and find out what else is there. I remembered reading about it in the Bicycling in Bloomington blog, although I took Lampkins Ridge instead of Gross Road to get there.
I took a disposable camera left over from our wedding, so the shots are lofi. I am really looking forward to getting my digital point & shoot camera back from the shop, but not having it is forcing me to mix things up a bit.
Riding on Lampkins Ridge Rd.
Descending on Lampkins Ridge
I knew Friendship Road crossed a stream, but I didn’t realize it followed it for so long. This appears to be the north fork of Salt Creek. There were a few people here and there fishing in the stream.
Salt Creek
It’s a truly beautiful ride. A little challenging because the gravel can be rather loose, but I’m really getting the hang of riding on gravel on the Long Haul Trucker. At times I was riding around 18 mph and while sometimes a wheel would drift, the bike just kept going in straight line regardless. The road follows the creek on and off and goes by some fields with views of the surrounding hills. I passed a group of about half a dozen turkeys. Unfortunately, they heard me coming before I noticed them, so I didn’t get a photograph.
Field and hills
The road also passes a tree farm and becomes very narrow and bumpy before reaching a dead end at the waterfowl refuge. I wanted to check that out, but needed to get going. I’ll go back sometime and explore the waterfowl resting area.
Gravel road, a bit overgrown
I returned home by way of Getty’s Creek/Kerr Creek Roads and a bit of singletrack trail.
Cows near Kerr Creek Road
Kerr Creek Road
The trail had a lot of sticks on it from the winds we had as a result of Ike. I had to be a little extra careful, but didn’t run into any problems. I saw a turtle and a bunch of toads by the pond.
Long Haul Trucker by the trail/creek
Sometimes I get caught up in reading reports from people’s bicycle tours, epic rides, vacations etc., and while I definitely crave those things, this ride and others like it make me realize how lucky I am that I can go on small adventures such as this one on a daily basis.
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Yes, lucky indeed! I can’t get to anything that looks remotely like that unless I go 50+ miles away from where I live. Not that I’m complaining about where I live, mind.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I never would have imagined that Indiana was that beautiful. I bet you get a nice color change during the fall out there.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Myles: yes, Indiana can be quite beautiful, especially the southern part of the state, which is quite hilly. In fact Brown County, the next county over, is a big tourist destination in the fall. It truly is gorgeous, but sometimes it’s irritating to have the leafers invade my territory
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Yes should definitely realize how great your scenery is. Although KY is close, I don’t think we have near the variety of roads and terrain as you do in and around Bloomington. That said, Louisville (Metro) is more like Indy, so it’ not as easy to be instantaneously in the country.