Sarah and I spent the weekend in Fort Wayne, visiting her family. I set aside some time to ride on Saturday. Initially, I was planning on riding with the 3 Rivers Velo Sport club, who I’ve ridden with before, but their ride was starting at 8:00 am in Roanoke, IN, about a 25-minute drive from where we were staying. After being up late Friday night, I knew there was no chance I’d be getting up that early. Instead, I put together a route south of town. Here’s the route.

In the morning, a few storms rolled through, but based on the radar, it appeared they would blow through, and then the rain would stop. So I waited a while before starting my ride. As soon as the storms stopped, I got ready and rolled out.

It was still overcast and gloomy and the roads were quite wet. I bought some clip-on fenders for the Bianchi but forgot to bring them. Oh well!

After riding on a couple of busy roads very briefly, I was surprised at how quickly the scenery started looking rural.

In fact, within probably about a mile of where we were staying, I found myself on a gravel road.

I have been wondering how the Bianchi would handle gravel, so I suppose it’s just as well. Frankly I’ve been reticent to intentionally take such a nice road bike on gravel roads, but I didn’t hesitate to take the gravel here, that happened to be on the route.

Naturally, the bike did just fine. It sure got dirty, riding on the wet gravel, but that’s OK.

There was even some washboarding and still, the bike did fine. It sure was a rough ride, but I had no problems.

Once I was back on paved roads, I mostly had chipseal to deal with. It wasn’t really much smoother than the gravel.

I crossed I-469.

The roads here are so much flatter than what I’m used to. There were a few small hills here and there, but not many.

The scenery was different from what I’m used to as well. Long flat fields of soybeans and corn, and farms, and a few homes, all laid out in a grid pattern. At home, where it’s hillier, the roads take a much more circuitous path. I prefer my home terrain, but I always enjoy trying to get the feel for different areas.

Soon I reached the small town of Ossian.

It was a cute town, with a nice downtown area.

A bakery, and later a coffee shop, tempted me, but I was only 10 miles into my ride. I kept on riding.

As I left Ossian, I could feel the heat picking up a little bit. It was already quite humid, from the earlier rain. Things also got a little hillier.

And then, I found myself on a gravel road once again.

This time, I was on gravel for a good three miles or so, and a few hills made it a little more challenging. Again, the Bianchi did fine, but I do think that trying to ride gravel with big hills would be a problem, with such skinny tires.

I crossed “Eight Mile Creek” a couple of times.

The next sections of road altered between paved and gravel.

I reached Zanesville, IN. It seemed to be too small to have much of a downtown area. In fact, according to Wikipedia, “Zanesville residents are ineligible for street mail delivery, and thus, must get their mail at the post office.” In other words, it’s tiny.

There was, however, a place called “County Line Pizza & Mini Mart.” It seemed to be part restaurant, part convenience store. It reminded me of Pinnick’s, in Williams.

I stopped here to get some water and have a snack. The lady running the place was very nice and said she had had a few people come through who were riding across the country. Pretty cool!

A little past Zanesville, I turned back toward Fort Wayne. I spent 7-8 miles going due east, on a long, straight road. I am not used to that! It was fun being able to push a big gear for a while.

I passed the small town of Yoder, which seemed to consist mostly of a set of railroad tracks, and a grain company.

Soon I turned back north on roads I had ridden on earlier, including a little more gravel.

This was a fun ride. It was fun exploring a new area, and seeing a couple small towns. I would like to go back to Ossian sometime and spend more time looking around.

After our great ride in Hoosier National Forest on Saturday, Dave and I did more HNF riding on Sunday. We set out to ride the Nebo Ridge trail, and after that we did some exploration. We found a way to get from Nebo Ridge to Crooked Creek Road. More about that later. Unfortunately, I got my helmet cam all ready to go, and then left it sitting at home. Damn!

You could consider this a mixed-terrain ride, only more on the mountain biking end of the spectrum. It included singletrack, doubletrack, gravel roads, paved roads, grassy trails, etc. Anyway, here’s a map of our ride.

Nebo Ridge is an old favorite of ours. Just a few years ago, Nebo by itself was an epic ride for me. Now, it’s still challenging, but certainly not epic by itself. Fortunately, there’s a ton of other great riding surrounding it, so it’s still a great place to go ride.

This ride on Nebo Ridge can best be described as fast. I think this is probably the fastest I’ve ever ridden it. And, since it has a lot of rolling hills, it’s actually easier at higher speeds than if you’re slogging up each hill. I am in better shape than I’ve been in a few years, so I was flying. Dave hasn’t been able to ride as much this year, but somehow he was going just as fast. I’m not sure how he does it. Regardless, it was just an incredible roller coaster through the woods. Toward the end, I bunny hopped over a log and cleared it completely. I was thrilled, bunny hopping isn’t really something I’ve ever been good at. We were at the end of the trail in a little over an hour. Very fast, for us.

After Nebo, we rode on some roads for a bit. We rode over to Combs Road as if we were going to make the loop it forms with the trail.

Soon we reached the climb at the end of Combs Road.

After making the climb, rather than turn back toward the Nebo Ridge trail, we went straight. This took us back down the other side of the hill, on a narrow ribbon through a field of grass, with some great opportunities to catch air.

Normally I keep my wheels on the ground for the most part, but I couldn’t resist this, it was too much fun! I had read that jumping on a 29er doesn’t work too well, but I found it not to be a problem at all. The trail here received little to no maintenance, so we had to do things like climb through this fallen tree.

After a while, we ended up on a gravel road. We thought this would take us in the direction we wanted to go, but we weren’t sure if there was going to be a bridge over the local fork of Salt Creek.

We saw a great place to put in a canoe.

Fortunately, the bridge was intact.

There was a guardrail at the end of the bridge but we were easily able to get over it and ride on the doubletrack on the other side. It was grassy at first, later giving way to dirt. It was a bit muddy in spots but overall not bad. The road followed Salt Creek to where it feeds into Lake Monroe — and beyond.

After this point, the only “traffic” we saw were people in boats, mostly fishermen.

We saw probably a dozen egrets / great blue herons in the lake, and some geese.

We reached a point where we weren’t sure if we would be able to get across. Our maps showed a road that appeared to be interrupted by water. It didn’t look like it went through. We were hoping the water level would be low enough that we could get through.

Fortunately, there was a small land bridge across the water. We were able to get across. If the water level had been much higher, we wouldn’t have been able to get through. By the way, I checked and the water level was 537.56 feet. Normal Pool for Lake Monroe is 538. So basically, as long as the lake is at or below normal pool, we should be able to get through, I think.

Soon, we were right by the Crooked Creek boat ramp. You can’t see it int he photo below, but it’s back in that cove.

We were very excited that we were able to ride all the way through. This opens up tons of possibilities for linking together some amazing rides. It gives us a much closer-to-home starting point for riding Nebo Ridge, but also serves as a link between Yellowwood State Forest and Hoosier National Forest.  Just awesome.

Tim might recognize the name Crooked Creek Road from the ride we did together when he was here, it was along the route. Now that area can be connected to the HNF tracts on the opposite side of Lake Monroe!

After a break, we headed back the way we came. As we were riding along, I was also thinking that this portion would be quite doable on a touring bike. And we saw a few campsites along the way. I’m trying to figure out what it could all mean. A bike with hauling capacity, combined with remote campsites on the lake. It seems like you should be able to do something with those two things.

By this time it was getting quite hot and I was being eaten alive by insects. Fortunately Dave had brought bug spray with him. What a life-saver!

Once I found some relief from the bugs, I could focus once again on the task at hand.

Oh, but what’s this? Beautiful flowering plants covered with butterflies!

We made our way back to the Nebo Ridge trailhead by way of some gravel roads. It was mostly flat, except one big bad hill at the end.

Somehow, we both made it up this grueling climb, late in the ride, in the heat of the day.

Back at the parking lot I was amazed at all the dirt on my legs. Somehow Dave was hardly dirty at all. Not sure how that could be.

As we wrapped things up after the ride, another rider in the parking lot said, “Hey, do you have a blog?”

Of course, I responded that I did. He introduced himself as Bill … he has left some comments on the blog and we have corresponded about gravel roads a couple of times. It was great to meet him and put a face with a name. He had just ridden Nebo plus a whole bunch of Hickory Ridge trails. A more difficult ride than ours, for sure. But he was excited to hear about our discovery.

So, it was another great day on the bike. This time it was 25+ miles on the mountain bike, over the course of four hours. I can’t wait to take advantage of this newfound knowledge.

I wanted to go for a long ride on Saturday. It was a cool, windy, overcast day, and I had a little bit of a hard time motivating myself to get out and ride. After waffling a bit on a route, I eventually decided to ride out to the Green County Viaduct (also known as the Tulip Trestle). By the time I started riding, it was nearly 2:00 pm. The route, as planned, was close to 60 miles, so this was a much later start than usual for a ride of this length.

I loosely followed one of the routes in the Bloomington Bicycle Club route book #2, making a few adjustments so I could see some more gravel roads while I was out there. Bloomingpedia says about the viaduct:

“The Greene County Viaduct [...] is a half mile long train bridge in Greene County, about 21.75 miles from Bloomington [...] It was finished in December of 1906 and is the third longest bridge of its kind in the world.”

[...]

“This bridge is out in the middle of nowhere and you can only get to it via a single dirt road.”

I had been there once before, with my wife, by car, and thought it’d be a great place for cycling. As it turns out, I was right. Here is my route.

The high temperature for the day was around 55 degrees, with 10-15 mph winds gusting to 25 mph; the wind certainly kept things interesting.

I started by riding through town, and along the way I passed some unfamiliar sections of town, including an urban stream and some interesting industrial areas. I also took a wrong turn or two but got back on track relatively easily.

Soon, I was headed away from town on Vernal Pike, which has a number of long, gradual climbs and a few smaller ones as well. I was heading into the wind at this point, but thankfully the hills shielded me from the wind a bit while I climbed, and I was able to coast into it while riding downhill. All things considered, it was a decent stretch of road to have to ride into the wind.

After a particularly long climb, I stopped by some rather interesting railroad tracks …

I crested the hill and the road opened up before me. I flew down the other side of the hill, with greenery and wildflowers aplenty …

… and then spent a little while in flat lowlands, surrounded by the hills. The riding was beautiful, and easy, for a while. I  was surprised by this easy section, when I spent about 5 miles on flat ground, if anything going slightly downhill. The wind became more of a factor for a while.

I hit a few more hills, but they just gave me a better vantagepoint over the fields.

Soon, I turned onto State Road 43, which was also relatively flat. Overall, miles 10-20 of this ride were surprisingly flat. State Road 43 was quite scenic, as it wound through valleys with fields and hills all around. The sky was absolutely amazing, it was overcast, but rather than dull flat grey, the sky was filled with billowing clouds in various shades of grey. It looked ominous, but it never did rain.

A bit over 20 miles into the ride, I took a break. It felt good to get off the bike for a few minutes and have a snack. I felt a little chilly, and I did throughout the rest of the ride. But, I love this kind of weather. I’ll take 50s over 80s-90s any day, I prefer to be a little cool on the bike, rather than hot. It was a perfect day for wool, and we don’t get many of those here in May. The dreary weather must have been keeping people off the roads, too, as I saw very few cars. Not that any of these roads are major thoroughfares, but still.

I rode on, enjoying the peaceful setting and feeling pensive. I reached for my camera when suddenly I heard a bark, and two dogs began chasing me.  Most dogs I can outrun fairly quickly by sprinting away from them, but this time, I mashed the pedals and accelerated as quickly as I could, but I was barely gaining any ground.

Eventually, I left the dogs behind. So much for my peaceful mood … soon I felt comfortable again. But a bit south of Hendricksville, the hills started back up. A small one first, and then a long one that felt like it went on for a long time.

Once I reached the top of the hill, 43 took me along a ridgetop for a bit, which made for some very pleasant riding. I watched as the wind blew across grassy fields, sending waves of grass swaying.

Soon, I reached the small town of Solsberry. I needed water and stopped at Yoho’s Grocery. I felt more than a little awkward as I went into this small convenience store clad in bike gear, and the place was absolutely packed with a group of older men who appeared to be swapping tall tales. They were very kind to me, but I still felt uncomfortable. I always do, when I go into a store in my bike gear. Usually I try to ride in more normal clothing, but given the length of the ride and the wind, I couldn’t justify baggy shorts.

Before I left, I couldn’t resist the temptation to get a shot of my bike parked in front, surrounded by pickup trucks.

From here it would be more or less an out-and-back ride to the Green County Viaduct, the main attraction of the ride. These few miles to the trestle ended up involving constant hills.

Soon, I flew down a long downhill and into a meadow. I stopped by a bridge over a lovely creek, and from here I could see part of the trestle.

I soon turned onto another road, which turned into gravel.

Soon, I reached one end of the Trestle. You can’t see all the way to the other end. The bridge is about 1/2 mile long, and is flanked with trees.

I figured this would be a good spot for another break, so I had another snack and rolled out. The sights on the other side of the trestle were just as impressive.

Soon, I turned onto an incredibly smooth paved road. What a change it was from the gravel road, which had been freshly graded and very loose and rocky.

I was glad that I had chosen to loop around this way, seeing more gravel and some of the best scenery of the entire ride, rather than heading directly back to Solsberry from here, as the Bloomington Bicycle Club route suggested.

The road surface got much rougher and went into some large rolling hills with amazing views. I had to be very careful on the downhills to avoid deep potholes and very rough patch jobs.

On one climb in particular, it looked like the road would carry me straight up into the sky.

But then, it immediately plunged back downward.

The hills never really let up. Soon I had to climb back up toward Solsberry, and this time stopped at the fire station to get some water from their vending machine.

I rolled through Solsberry again …

… but soon was out away from town, rolling on 43 for a little bit longer.

After that, I rolled along some county roads, one of which displayed a Road Closed sign. I didn’t see any sign of construction and decided to try to go that way anyway. The only real alternative I could see was State Road 45, which is a busy highway on this side of town, and very unpleasant for cycling.

I rolled along for a few minutes, thinking that there was no construction, until I came to this scene. The bridge over some railroad tracks was out.

I decided to see if I could get through. I managed to make my way down a large pile of mud to the tracks, then back up the other side. This next shot is looking back.

And here is some more mud to push through …

Once I got past the tracks, I immediately turned off onto another road. That wasn’t so bad.

From here, I had quite a few more hills to deal with, but fortunately a lot of them were rollers and I was able to use my momentum to my advantage on at least some of them.

Soon I was back in town, and of course once back in town I had to get lost. I turned onto part of the Clear Creek Trail, thinking it would connect with the Bloomington Rail-Trail. But I went the wrong way, and ended up at Tapp Road. I could backtrack a couple of miles on the trail and then connect with it and turn around and ride a couple more miles, or I could take the more direct route on Tapp Road, which is uncomfortably busy.

I opted for the latter, and fortunately traffic was rather light. I spotted a sidewalk and took it part of the way. I normally don’t ride on the sidewalk, but in this instance I thought it was the safest option, and there were few intersections and no pedestrians anyway. Once I got to the top of a hill, the sidewalk ended and I got back on the road.

This was still a busier road than I like to ride on, but fortunately now I just had a big downhill and then shortly afterwards, I could turn off. With the downhill, I had no trouble keeping up with traffic.  Soon I was home, and only slightly unnerved.

I finished the ride around 7:30 pm. All told, I was gone 5 hours 50 minutes, and covered just shy of 60 miles, with over 3800 feet of climbing, and some wild winds to deal with.

Another thing to note: I returned the camera I had ordered, and picked up a new one. The new one is a Fuji F70EXR. More on it later, but so far I’m much happier with this one.