But, the weather has been incredible lately — lows in the 50s and 60s, highs in the 80s. Saturday the high was in the upper 80s, and Sarah suggested a canoe trip. A great idea!

We figured Lake Griffy would be our best bet — Griffy is a small lake on the north side of town — within city limits, if I’m not mistaken. It’s a beautiful lake, and canoe rentals are cheap there, so we headed up to go paddling.

Unfortunately, we found that the water level was quite low and the shallow, stagnant water was disgusting, covered in algae and who knows what else. Suffice it to say, it looked unappealing.

So, we headed out toward Lake Monroe instead. First we tried to rent a canoe at Cutwright SRA, which lies east of the causeway. This is significant, as the east side only allows idle speeds, whereas the west side has speedboats and the like. But, we came up empty-handed. They only rented pontoon boats at that location. They suggested we try Paynetown SRA, which is not far away but is on the other side of the causeway.

We headed to Paynetown instead, and indeed, they did have canoe rentals. We rented one for two hours. It was overpriced, at $35, but we really wanted to get out on the water, and the water looked great, so we went for it.

We’re not terribly experienced at canoeing, and it had been a while since our last trip, so it took a little while for us to figure out how to work together to move forward and, more difficult, steer. We were having a good time. We weren’t sure which direction we should go in, so we checked out a little inlet.

After some hemming and hawing, we decided we would make our way over to the quiet side of the lake. This meant we had to cross the lake, and then go under the causeway. It didn’t look too far … we were mostly worried about speedboats.

We were a little surprised how much the wake of the boats affected us on the water. The waves didn’t look big but they were rocking our canoe. Or if we were headed straight into the waves, the front of the boat would tip up and then smack back down, which Sarah found a bit frightening.

I think it’s a lot like riding a bicycle on a gravel road. It’s disconcerting the first few times your tires start to slip, but once you get used to a little float and realize it’s not the end of the world, you start to feel more comfortable. Sarah was a good sport about it, even though I know she was a little stressed during this part.

Pretty soon, we realized that it was a lot further across the lake than it looked. Also, we had to contend with some wind. We kept paddling and eventually we were going under the causeway. It’s a little weird paddling under it, as I have crossed it many times by car and bicycle, but I had never seen it from this perspective.

Once we were on the other side of the causeway, things did calm down considerably. It was much quieter and I would have loved to explore further east, toward Hoosier National Forest and some other areas that are familiar from land, but by this time we were getting tired. We made a small loop on the “quiet side” and headed back.

Our return trip was a lot more pleasant than the trip out. Instead of cutting directly across the lake, we more or less followed the causeway and the land. We did cut across a bit but it seemed like once 5:00 rolled around, about half the boats left the lake and it was much quieter, even on the side that had been hectic before. We enjoyed a peaceful paddle back.

We saw this crazy house, which I guessed (and later confirmed) is owned by John Mellencamp.

We returned back at the rental place in almost exactly two hours, having traveled 4.3 miles.  Here’s a map of our trip.

After that, we decided to head out to the Scenic View Restaurant, which was right on our way home. We had heard good things about the place, but had never actually been there ourselves.

It was Saturday night, and there was a long wait for a table. At least the View was excellent, as promised.

I did think this statue was a little over the top …

However, once we got our table we really enjoyed ourselves. There was a live jazz band playing and the lake looked beautiful as the sun set.

We enjoyed some beer samplers (the beers are not all the same, I swear, even though it looks that way), some great food (including a corn fritter appetizer that was amazing) … and great conversation, of course.

Once the sun set, the torches were lit and the environment continued to be just wonderful. We’ll definitely be making a return trip, both to Lake Monroe and to the restaurant.

In the future, I’m considering renting a canoe from IU, which we could then take to any location we want. There are quite a few areas I’d like to explore by boat, and I’d rather not have to put in at such a busy location again, if we can avoid it. Plus, IU’s rates are cheaper for a whole day than what we paid for two hours …

View 07/25/2009 Tunkhannock in a larger map

I am not normally an early riser, but I got up early and was on the road by 9:00 am. Partially, I got up early to beat the heat, but I also knew it would be a long day of riding. It was a very pleasant morning — foggy and cool. My ride started on the Back Mountain Trail, even though I knew I’d have to make the sketchy creek crossing where the bridge washed out. The roads and trail were wet from rain the night before.

Shortly after I got off the Back Mountain Trail, the fog lifted and it started heating up. Aside from a couple of steep sections, the first 12 miles was mostly gradual climbing; a routine ride up to Center Moreland.

I made the usual stop at a convenience store in Center Moreland. The clerks there have typically been pretty unfriendly, but they were much nicer this time, for whatever reason. From there, I went west on 292 briefly, and then hit Pine Ridge Road, the first new road of this ride. My Garmin software said this was a gravel road, but it turned out to be some nasty chipseal. But I had no trouble with it at all on the Trucker. I was glad I had reduced my tire pressure, as my tires soaked up a lot of the bumps. The scenery improved, thanks to some bigger mountains.

Soon, I came to an intersection. My route had me continuing on Pine Ridge Road, but ahead of me it changed from a chipseal road to a loose, rocky doubletrack trail. The map on my GPS didn’t quite match what I had seen before; on my GPS, it appeared this road didn’t quite go through. However there was only a small gap and I decided to see if I could get through.

This was some tough riding. Traction was poor and the “road” rose some 350 feet over the course of about a mile, getting rockier and steeper as it went. Along the way I encountered some power lines and figured I could probably follow them for a while, if need be.

Eventually, I reached the top. The “road” did go through, although things were a little confusing at a power line intersection. As soon as I reached the top, I started down the other side. It was steep and rocky, once again. Suddenly, the road spit me out of the woods, with some nice mountain views and a jaunt across a field.

I immediately turned onto another chipseal road and started climbing. Naturally, a dog decided this would be a fine time to chase me. I couldn’t sprint up the hill fast enough to get away from him, but he was moving pretty slowly and it quickly became clear he was just chasing me for fun. Also during this time, I started hearing some weird sounds coming from my front fender. Later inspection would show that my Velo Orange aluminum fender developed a crack during the bumpy descent.

So, I pedaled away from the dog as fast as I reasonably could, with my fender ticking and creaking the whole time. Some more fields yielded excellent views.

But soon I turned onto Barziloski Road, another chipseal road and gravel road, and began a climb that I had terribly underestimated. It’s not often that I walk a hill; sometimes, I’ll stop to catch my breath. But I walked for quite a while here. Some slopes were so steep that I just couldn’t keep the pedals turning. And the climb just went on and on. Another 350-foot climb I didn’t really realize was there.

Once I finally reached the top, I rested for a bit and sprayed water on my face from my water bottles. My technique for dealing with the heat was just to take my time and stop frequently to cool down. After a break, I felt quite refreshed and enjoyed quite a crazy descent down the other side.

The road flattened out briefly, and I turned onto a paved road and enjoyed a paved plunge toward the Susquehanna River. The smooth pavement felt wonderful after all the chipseal and gravel and I swooped alongside the river on a winding road with plenty rolling hills. Gravity did most of the work and I really enjoyed allowing gravity to carry me over the rolling hills, which are in short supply around here. The scenery was stunning too, with the river and the mountains.

I spent a brief time on PA Route 29, which is a busy highway, but it had nice decent shoulders most of the time. I reached Tunkhannock and spotted a Subway, which seemed like it would be a great option for lunch, so I stopped.

It felt great to sit in the air conditioning for a while and refuel. I called my wife to let her know where I was and that I was behind schedule. With all the climbing and the road/trail, it had taken nearly four hours to ride just under 25 miles, so far. Fortunately, I felt strong, and I knew the second half of the ride would be much easier.

When I was done eating, I filled my water bottles and headed out. I crossed the Susquehanna River and saw the road to the quaint downtown Tunkhannock area, but I kept going. I spent a little time on US Route 6, which was busy but had wide shoulders, before turning on PA Route 92.

US Route 6

Avery Mountain

I turned onto PA Route 92, where I would spend the next 11 miles. The road follows the river, and I would follow the river most of the way home. I had ridden on 92 before, but not this section. Traffic was quite unfriendly and a few cars honked at me for no apparent reason. I enjoyed the way the road was sandwiched between the river and a mountain, along with a train track, but I spent a lot of time looking in my mirror and worrying about the traffic. Fortunately, after a couple of miles I passed the junction with PA Route 307 and traffic thinned out. Most people must have turned onto 307, which heads toward Clarks Summit and, eventually, Scranton.

92 was relatively flat, with the exception of one tough climb of around 300 feet toward the end. The biggest problem I ran into was that there was very little shade, and the sun started getting to me after a while. I continued to take frequent breaks so I could cool down. I took a slight detour on Sand Plant Road. This turned out to be great, as I avoided some extra climbing on 92 and Sand Plant Road had an excellent, sweeping descent and only a slight climb back up to 92.

I reached the town of Falls, where Route 92 crosses the river before continuing south. I stayed on the east side of the river and took the quieter roads on that side. But not before checking out Buttermilk Falls and noticing that I was about to be on Hoppy Road. Naturally, this made me wish I had a beer.

I spent the next six miles or so on a nearly-deserted one lane road that with alternating paved and gravel sectons. It continued to follow the Susquehanna River and railroad tracks, just as 92 had done, but the riding here was much more pleasant. The road even had a slight downhill trend, so riding was easy, except that there were a lot of potholes to dodge in the gravel parts. This was all technically a road, although it felt more like a rail-trail part of the time, thanks to the narrow road and lack of traffic. Now that I think about it, I wouldn’t drive my car there. The gravel portion is quite rough.

After a while, I reached Ransom and from here on out I’d be on paved roads of varying quality. After following the river for a few more miles, I went through a cool one-lane underpass and then reached the bourough Duryea. From there, I took Main Street to Pittston, crossed the Susquehanna on Route 11, and headed home by way of the West Side Trail.

Finally, I made it home. I was gone for about 7 1/2 hours, making this my longest ride in some time. To my surprise, my moving average was nearly 12 mph according to my cycling computer, faster than I expected. However, I took a LOT of breaks. I was hoping this would help me deal with the heat, and it did seem to help quite a bit.

Fortunately, I had a nice, hoppy beverage waiting for me at home. I enjoyed a Stone IPA. I love big, hoppy brews and this one didn’t disappoint. Maybe a little on the bitter side for my tastes, but even so, there’s nothing more refreshing than a cold beer after a long ride.

I rode close to 60 miles and climbed 5190 feet. It felt great to get out for a long ride, I have had too few of them lately.

We also finally got Sarah a DSLR camera, a Nikon D40. We had been saving for a while, and it was time. So far, it looks to be a great camera.

In celebration of Sarah’s status as a new driver, we went for an outing on our bikes. It sounds backwards, but it was a great way to celebrate, and I had made her promise we’d go for a ride once she got her license. We spent a lot of time practicing driving and hadn’t ridden together all year. So, we headed out to drop off some books she wanted to donate at the library, and then went to dinner.

Sarah on the bike path

Downtown

We decided to go to Crazy Horse for dinner, a pub with good food and beer selections.

Our bikes

They had Dogfish Head 60-minute IPA, one of our favorite IPAs, so we ordered a pitcher.

Dogfish Head

 
Crazy Horse

Sarah’s pasta dish and my buffalo chicken sandwich

After dinner, we saw a few more bikes outside, a touring bike and another bike with a child seat extension thing on the back, and one or two others. They were pretty well loaded, might have been on tour or something like that. We headed home. It was rather hot outside, but Sarah was a good sport about it.

Sarah

Fountain

Handlebars

There was quite a bit of debris on the bike path and in some parts of the road from all the crazy rain and flooding we’ve had. We got around 8″ of rain in a 24-hour period. The manhole cover was ajar. We fixed it.

 
Fixing the manhole cover

We had a great time. Hopefully we can have more dates by bicycle. Sarah rode better than the last time we went out on our bikes, even though it’s been so long since she rode. We had a great time together, and went out again later so she could test her new camera. I took some shots too … more on that later.

College Avenue stoplight

Art museum

Theater

Dear Tioga, GT, Kool Stop, and SKS: how about some sponsorship?

7th Street

Shimano: ditto on the sponsorship.

The bike path was treacherous as usual and the roads near my apartment were pretty bad, too. I got home and got the mail, finding the Pink Floyd jersey I won in Noah’s contest in my mailbox. Fortuitous timing, having that arrive on my birthday. Thanks, Noah!

I decided that what I needed most at this point wasn’t to sit in my nice warm apartment — it was beer. And I’d get it on my bicycle, of course. I rode to the nearest liquor store, which is about a mile away. Conditions were getting worse and I started feeling some of my mountain biking skills coming into play as I rode through snow/slush drifts*, shifted my weight back to let my front wheel roll over anything in my way, and felt fairly comfortable with the fact that my tires were drifting beneath me. I probably stayed under 10 mph most of the way — but who knew 10 mph could be so exhilarating?
* Yes, apparently slush can drift. I didn’t think so either, but I saw it with my own eyes.

I got a six-pack of Bad Elmer’s Porter from my favorite local brewery, Upland. I wasn’t sure if this was the best way to go, because I intended to go have dinner at the brewery and if I did I’d get plenty of Upland beer then. But the conditions being what they were, I figured I ought to have some on hand anyway.

The cashier commented, “You’re a braver man than I” for riding in those conditions. I pointed out that I got home before my coworkers finished scraping the ice off their cars. I forgot to mention that I had fun doing it, too. He said he rides to work sometimes when the weather is better. Excellent.

My ride home featured more tire slippage but otherwise was pretty good. I am really impressed with how well my old mountain bike fares in conditions like these, even without studded tires.

I got home and opened the package from Noah. I was pleasantly surprised, the Pink Floyd jersey looked nice on his blog, but the photos don’t really do it justice. It’s a nice-looking jersey. And since I only had two short-sleeved jerseys before now, I am especially appreciative. This one is cool because it looks more like a normal shirt — it’s got a relatively loose fit for a jersey and the design doesn’t scream “I’m a cyclist!”

Birthday goodies: Pink Floyd jersey and some nice dark beer. Score!

The jersey fits pretty well. Side note: I have a lot of reflective items in my dining room.

Sarah had a late class that’s not scheduled to get out until 8:30. They got out at 8, so I picked her up and we went to Upland for dinner. The roads were not in great shape, but drivable. I was cursing at a cop car who stopped right in front of me at the bottom of a hill for no apparent reason, then decided to turn. I wanted to use momentum to get up the hill, and I still made it, but not without spinning my tires a bit.

We had a great dinner with poor service at Upland (as always), and drank a couple of beers. I had a nut brown ale with dinner, which is decent, but the highlight was their chocolate stout, which makes for an excellent dessert.

After we got home, Sarah gave me my birthday gifts. They are uber cool. She got me a titanium backpacking cook set and a tiny alcohol stove, along with some freeze-dried food to go with them, and a bottle of stuff to waterproof maps — continuing the recent theme of touring items as gifts. This theme rocks, since I really want to do some S24O trips and touring, and you need a fair amount of gear to do those things. Oh, and she also got me a gift certificate for Rivendell — cleverly, the amount is listed in “Rivendollars.” Sarah apologized for giving me practical items as she said they’re “not very exciting.” But I don’t think she quite realizes just how exciting a stove smaller than a hockey puck is, or how great that titanium cookware will be. Before long I’ll be able to carry everything I need on a bicycle, and that is exciting.

Last year, Dave and I spent Black Friday riding at Versailles State Park. This year we decided to head south instead of east and discussed possibly going to Ferdinand State Forest, but ultimately settled on riding in Hoosier National Forest which is in the same area. Dave picked me up at around 9:00 Friday morning and we set out on the two-hour drive there.

The drive was particularly scenic since once you get past Mitchell things get even hillier, with some beautiful karst topography. We passed some pretty interesting places and it was great to have Dave as a guide as he is familiar with the area and told me about how the town of English, IN was built on a flood plain and after having the whole town flood many times, they decided to move the whole town to the top of a nearby hill. They let a lot of the buildings stand in the flood plain and I really wish I could have gone to see the strange ghost town. The remains were torn down several years ago. Nowadays, there’s nothing but a golf course in the flood plain.

We also stopped at the Orangeville Rise of the Lost River. The Lost River is a river that runs mostly underground, going some 40 miles underground before surfacing briefly near Orangeville. The river is very low now since we’ve had so little rain, but it was still cool to see. I can imagine how it must look in the spring when it’s strong.

Orangeville Rise of the Lost River

We stopped at a small liquor store along the way to pick up some beer. We were surprised at how decent their selection was and walked away with a six pack of Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss. We also considered Goose Island’s Honker’s Ale and some Upland brews.

One really cool town we passed through was Paoli. It’s a small town nestled in the hills with a beautiful square dowtown. The courthouse looked impressive against the backdrop of the surrounding hills. I’d definitely like to go and spend some time in Paoli sometime.

We passed several other trails on our way to The Oriole West trail. There are many trails in Hoosier National Forest, and a lot of them are open to bicycles. Most of them are “multi-use” trails though so they are also open to horses. Still, it’s pretty impressive just how many trails there are in the area.

Oriole West trail

We arrived at the Oriole West trailhead to find a bunch of hunters. We decide to park a little further away so we could avoid too much interaction with them. We got ready to start riding and we both felt pretty cold as it was in the 30s. I knew we’d warm up once we started riding, but that was little consolation at the moment. To keep us visible to hunters, Dave had a bright yellow vest but I just had my blue jacket. Fortunately, he brought a bright orange shirt for me to borrow. It looked completely stupid, but I was glad to have it.

Yea, though I ride through the valley of the shadow of hunters, I shall fear no gunshots; for I wear bright colors.

Our ride started with a brief jaunt over to the trailhead almost immediately followed by a screaming descent into the valley below. Leaf cover was thick and it was very difficult to see the trail and completely impossible to see most of the roots and rocks and other obstacles on the trail. This meant riding over a lot of rough stuff we’d normally try to avoid simply by virtue of not being able to see it.

There’s a trail here, I swear

Throughout this downhill section, the trail stayed pretty straight and had a number of whoops which allowed us to catch some fantastic air. I had been pretty groggy during the drive down here but it didn’t take long before I woke up, flying down the hill and jumping a couple of times per minute. The bottom of the hill was particularly steep and sketchy with a lot of rocks to navigate. It also dumped us directly into a tricky creek crossing.

While that descent was a real blast, after a few minutes of riding in the valley we had a ton of climbing ahead of us. We figured we probably climbed for the next three miles solid. And while it wasn’t super technical, there were a lot of rocks to deal with in the trail and traction was poor; the leaves made things slick but the ground was a bit muddy beneath the leaves. I had a lot of trouble with my rear wheel spinning out while I tried to climb. And we really didn’t expect the climbing to go on for so long.

Taking a breather during the long climb

The scenery was really great though throughout all of this. As we climbed we could see into the ravines below us and eventually could see some of the surrounding hills through the trees. Unfortunately we didn’t get to enjoy it too much as we were getting our asses handed to us by the climb. We walked a few sections we couldn’t seem to make it up and few others to conserve energy, as we knew we had a bunch more riding ahead of us that day.

Walking part of the hill

We rode along the ridgetop for a little ways but even then we continued climbing gradually. However, before long our efforts paid off with an absolutely incredible descent. For a while the trail wound back and forth as it swept down the side of this huge hill, with some fun switchbacks and rocky technical sections. We had to keep our speed in check due to the traction problems I mentioned, but the turns were wide enough that we could keep moving pretty well.

After a bit of this twisty descent, the trail leveled out a little bit and gradually descended as we rode across the side of a hill with whoops allowing us to get some more airtime and then went into a full-bore straight ahead downhill run. Most of the downhill sections on most of the trails we ride don’t offer many runs straight down the side of a hill, so we really relished bombing down this hill. Unfortunately about two thirds of the way down the hill I saw Dave move over to the left and slow down to stop and I saw a puddle ahead of me followed by a dirt mound. Dave had just moved to the shallowest part of the puddle, so I couldn’t go there, and I couldn’t stop in time. I thought I could just ride over it but the puddle was deeper than I thought and it sucked my front wheel in. My bike stopped and I kept on going, flying through the air but still landing partially in the puddle. My landing was surprisingly soft considering I must have been going 15-20 mph on impact. But my fork absorbed a lot of the impact and I had shifted my weight pretty far back, so most of the energy was absorbed by the fork and by pivoting my body over the bike.

I wasn’t hurt but I was very wet and cold and this being a horse trail I knew that what I had landed in wasn’t the purest of water. It was quite disgusting and my body and my bike were covered in mud and water from the puddle.

My bicycle and my self, post-crash

Gross stuff coating my wheel and my legs and feet

Dave didn’t crash, but it was a close call

The culprit. You can see bunched up leaves where I tried to brake. The puddle doesn’t look very deep … does it?

Dave and I dusted ourselves off and regained composure, laughing about what had just happened. I have to say, my crash was surprisingly invigorating and fun. Of course I wouldn’t have felt that way if I hadn’t escaped unscathed.

The rest of the descent had a lot of twists and turns as before and we took it a little easier. As we rode, Dave noticed his front tire was going flat. He had had a slow leak for a while, but it became a fast leak. He pumped up the tire and rode a little more but it wasn’t holding air. I had a patch kit but we decided to walk back because we had reached the bottom of the hill anyway and now just had to go about a mile back up to the car. I would’ve been fine fixing it there but after this we were going to a cabin a friend of Dave’s owns and could fix the tire there over a beer. That sounded pretty damn good to me.

My bike alongside the trail as we attempted to fix Dave’s tire

Weird tree

Walking back to the car

Next time I wouldn’t mind trying this trail in the opposite direction (we went clockwise). I it’d be a lot of climbing either way but I do think the parts we had to climb this time around would be a lot of fun going in the other direction.

We went over to the cabin which as it turns out isn’t really a cabin — or it’s a cabin with one wall. It’s more of a shelter. Dave showed me around his friend’s property where they gather with a bunch of friends several times a year to have parties. It sounded like there had been a lot of good times there. I got to see where the outhouse had burned down a few weeks before and a new one was already being built in its place. Dave was going to just replace his inner tube but realized he only had tubes with Schrader valves and his new bike takes Presta valves, so I offered to patch his tube. He accepted and before long he had a functional wheel again. The Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss hit the spot after our ride … very refreshing and tasty.

To make a long story short, we went over to a bar (I should say *the* bar) in this tiny town of Magnet, Indiana and ran into a friend of Dave’s there. It was a little weird because this guy actually lives in Indianapolis, which is further from Magnet than Bloomington. Quite a coincidence.

BettyRay’s Landing on the Ohio River

The Ohio River

This place reminded me a lot of the Port Hole Inn near Bloomington, a dive mostly filled with hollering rednecks although one table of guys had arrived in a limo. This was pretty puzzling but I didn’t try to understand it. I guessed it was a bachelor party but really, who knows? Anyway lunch took forever but I had a fantastic double bacon cheeseburger. I only ordered a single but I was glad to have the double and the waitress only charged us for a single. The same thing happened to Dave.

After eating and talking to Dave’s friend it was getting surprisingly late in the day. The flat tire had also been a setback. We debated whether we had time to ride one other trail. We had three planned for the day and while I knew that was ambitious, I thought we’d certainly get to ride two. We decided to go for it even if we were a little tentative about it since neither of us brought lights.

Tipsaw Lake

Unsurprisingly, the Tipsaw Lake trail loops around Tipsaw Lake. We didn’t see the lake at all until we had ridden a bit. This trail was covered in leaves like the Oriole trail but was a lot flatter. There were some small descents and climbs but it mostly stayed close to the water and therefore stayed flat. This trail has something like 21 creek crossings and while most of them were dry they were still quite a challenge. In fact one of the first things you do on this trail is cross a pretty wide creek — this one wasn’t dry and I was worried my tire would slip on a rock and I’d fall into the icy water. But we both made it across safely and without getting wet. Even though it was fairly flat the trail had a lot of rocks in it which kept traction to a minimum and since we couldn’t see them through the leaves it was difficult to know how to handle the technical sections. I kept my weight back and tried to keep my speed up so I could roll over the rocks. It seemed to work pretty well.

Before long we got our first glimpse of the lake. The golden late afternoon sun angling over the lake and casting long shadows made for some breathtaking views.

First glimpse of Tipsaw Lake

The trail. Seriously. I swear it’s there.

I was glad Dave had ridden here before because it was damn near impossible to follow the trail. He knew more or less where it went and it was very helpful being able to follow him.

Trees basking in golden light reflected in the water, accented by the moon

The trail was very different from the Oriole trail although both are pretty rugged, and I really enjoy these more rugged trails. The pristine trails at Brown County are fantastic and are incredibly well-designed , but these trails have a character of their own. As I put it to Dave, “At Brown County, you aren’t going to bomb down a hill hitting a puddle, flying over the handlebars and getting drenched in horse urine. You have to ride at Hoosier National Forest for that.” Seriously, though, these trails may not be as well-designed but the scenery is incredible and riding on rawer trails has a different set of challenges. It also sometimes feels more natural to me than a well-groomed race track through the woods. At the same time, I can’t help but wonder what these trails would be like if they’d been designed by the HMBA folks.

Tipsaw Lake

It kept getting darker but we got a little more confident that we would make it around the lake before it got too dark to ride. As the sun went down the moon was coming up and it was almost full. We could have finished the ride by moonlight if necessary and in fact for the last few minutes it was mostly the moon guiding our way. We were cold and struggling to see, hitting every rock and root along the way. But it had been a great day of riding and even if we didn’t get to ride as much as we had hoped, it was quite an experience and much better than spending Black Friday fighting hordes of people at the mall.

I’d really like to return to this area with Sarah and explore it more, taking some photos and going hiking and doing some more riding. Tipsaw Lake in particular was fantastic and I wish they rented boats there because it’d be the perfect place to go canoeing. They also have a beach and a campground complete with showers.

Sun setting over a hill as seen from the dam

Dave on the dam

Beer-wise, we found some really fantastic brews. Of the local beers, I just loved Upland’s new beer, a black lager whose name I can’t remember right now. It’s not available yet, but I’ll definitely be buying some of that when it comes out (Upland is our favorite local brewery). We tried some beers from the Oaken Barrel Brewing Company in Indianapolis that were good but not great. I had heard good things about Bloomington Brewing Company’s Java Porter, which I finally tried and really liked. The coffee flavor was a lot stronger than I expected.

We all really enjoyed the Schlafly Pumpkin Ale — it had just the right amount of pumpkin and some good spice. I also spent a good 10 minutes at the Breckenridge Brewing Company’s table sampling everything they had to offer. Sarah and I had had their Vanilla Porter before, which we call “The Milkshake of Beers,” but that’s the only thing we’ve been able to find. Their Oatmeal Stout was fantastic and I really enjoyed their Amber as well. The guy at that booth also recommended a couple of places to buy Breckenridge locally, so hopefully we’ll actually be able to buy some of this stuff.

I also noticed after trying Upland’s new Black Lager that Sam Adams has a Black Lager too. I tried theirs and it was good, but Upland was better. One thing that surprised me is how much I enjoyed stouts. I have never been too into stouts but I found some great ones last night. The Breckenridge one was great, as was Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout. I also enjoyed Saint Peter’s Stout and I think a couple of others, but my memory is a bit hazy for some reason.

One more thing I’d like to mention is Leinenkugel’s Apple Spice Beer was really good. Sarah brought over what I thought was a hard cider and I took a sip and was very impressed. I was a little surprised when she told me what it was. Good stuff.

Now, a full list of everything I drank, whittled down from the full list of beers (to the best of my recollection):

• Allagash Double
• Chimay Reserve
• Piraat
• Abita Purple Haze
• Anchor Steam
• Flying Dog Gonzo Porter
• Avery Salvation
• McEwan’s Scotch Ale
• Leinenkugel Apple Spice
• Peroni
• Sam Adams Black Lager
• Sam Adams Brown Ale
• Schlafly Pale Ale
• Schlafly Hefeweizen
• Schlafly Oatmeal Stout
• Schlafly Pumpkin Ale
• Oaken Barrel Brewing Indiana Amber
• Oaken Barrel Brewing Razz Wheat
• Oaken Barrel Brewing Gnaw Bone Pale Ale
• Bell’s Amber
• Bell’s Lager of the Lakes
• Bell’s Best Brown Ale
• Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout
• Wychwood Hobgoblin
• St. Peters Stout
• Franziskaner Hefeweiss
• Moosehead Lager
• Woodchuck Granny Smith
• Woodchuck Pear
• Goose Island 312
• Goose Island Matilda
• Goose Island Pere Jacques
• Guinness Draught (keg)
• Stella Artois
• Hoegaarden
• Sierra Nevada Wheat
• Upland Wheat
• Upland Oktoberfest
• Upland Bad Elmers Porter
• Upland Amber Ale
• Upland Black Ale
• Bloomington Brewing Company Java Porter
• Sea Dog Blue Paw Blueberry
• Jewbelation Eleven
• Breckenridge Brewery Avalanche Amber Ale
• Breckenridge Brewery Vanilla Porter
• Breckenridge Brewery Oatmeal Stout
• Breckenridge Brewery 471 Small Batch Series ESB