It rained all weekend. On Sunday, I decided to go for a ride anyway. I felt like riding my mountain bike, and doing something a little different, so I headed out to Hoosier National Forest for an 18-mile ride, almost entirely on gravel roads. Here is the route I rode.

Note that it’s the same route that I rode back in February, only then, it was covered in snow. It was interesting to see how different it looked this time.

An 18-mile, two hour-ish ride is by no means epic, but sometimes epic is more of a state of mind. The rain and the muddy, sandy gravel roads contributed to this feeling. I also fondly remembered how the area looked blanketed in snow, and how much harder the ride was then. Hence the “mini-epic” title. I will have some helmet cam videos to share from this ride, but I have not yet edited them.

The road was paved at first …

… but it soon turned to gravel.

The road climbed gently for a while, and then turned sharply uphill toward the small town of Normal. I remembered this being quite a climb, but I was pleased that it felt easier than I remembered. After riding past Norman, I turned back into HNF …

… for more gravel riding.

Along the way, I saw a number of trails for the Hickory Ridge trail system, most of which I’ve never ridden. It was too muddy today, but I am determined to spend more time in HNF this year and further explore the Hickory Ridge trailsystem.

I rode on a ridgetop for a little while, before a wild, multi-tiered descent. It was raining hard and the lack of fenders on my mountain bike meant I got splattered with water, mud, and small bits of gravel. I was covered in water and mud by the time I reached the bottom, including my glasses, face, legs, feet, basically everything.

I rode briefly in creek bottoms, including a couple of creek crossings …

… and snail, wildflower, and geode sightings.

From this point, I basically had a long climb, a bit of flat ridgetop riding, and then another long decent. I was just flying down the hill, and once again got completely covered in muck.

By the time I finished, I was drenched, covered in mud and small rocks, and quite content.

I’ll post some video, when I get a chance.

File under: Bicycling, Gravel, Mixed Terrain, Mountain Biking