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 had a great weekend, with mountain biking both days. It had been far too long since my last mountain bike ride, and it felt great to get off the roads, away from traffic, and back in the woods. My friend Dave and I decided to check out trails 17, 15, and 16 in the Hickory Ridge trail network in Hoosier National Forest. Here’s a map of our ride.

HNF offers a great backcountry riding experience. While there, you have to be prepared for all kinds of possibilities. In the past, we’ve encountered horrendous mud, trails chewed up by horses, manure, erosion, loose chunky gravel, swarms of insects, etc. So I have learned to expect the unexpected.

Our ride started off well enough; aside from a few issues with Dave’s cleats, our bikes were working great.

There was a bit of mud, but trail 17 soon took us into a nice climb. It was gradual at first, but got steeper as it went. Still, it remained ridable, except for a couple of boggy mud sections.

Once on the ridgetop, enjoyed some very nice rolling terrain.

Soon we reached the intersection of trails 16 and 17. After consulting a paper map, the sign, and my GPS, we went right, thinking this would have us stay on trail 17, and ultimately take us to 15.

We enjoyed some more rolling terrain, with some very fun twists and turns, and finally a little bit of downhill riding. The trail was rugged and we had to dodge debris, rocks, roots, and erosion, and hop a few logs. It was a great time.

But, the trail spit us out at a strange area with a couple of cabins, and a small pond. It was beautiful, but we realized we were in the wrong place. We found a nice shady spot to figure out where we were.

We decided we needed to go back to the intersection. Apparently our right turn put us on something that’s not an official trail at all. It didn’t take us long to get back to the intersection, and we enjoyed this side excursion.

So, we were back on Trail 16 briefly, having a blast once again. The descent was wild, with a few switchbacks, steep sections, and plenty of technical challenges on the way down. Dave said this was “Quintessential Hoosier National riding” and I couldn’t agree more. Almost immediately after that, we came around a turn to find a shocking sight: a bulldozer was driving up the hill, tearing up the trail! We rode down, off to the side.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I guess this is supposed to be some sort of “trail maintenance?” Someone was with the guy who was driving the bulldozer. His wife, maybe? She was in a small cart down in the ravine.

As we pressed on, we saw that Trail 15 had already been bulldozed completely. Instead of a trail, it was more of a one-lane gravel road. But, rather than normal gravel, the surface was several inches of soft gravel dust. On top of that were indentations from the treads of the bulldozer.  Naturally at this point the “trail” turned sharply upwards to climb out of the ravine. We climbed for over half a mile on this horrible stuff. The surface ranged from nearly unridable, to completely unridable.

Eventually, the soft gravel dust turned into soft dirt. This was a slight improvement, I guess.

After a while we looked at our maps and saw that we were nearly to the road. However, before we would get there the trail would dip down a couple hundred feet, only to climb immediately back up. We decided that rather than deal with that, we would turn around and go back down the way we came.

Riding downhill on this dusty surface was more fun than I expected, once I got over the fact that the trail had been completely destroyed. We were mostly able to descend quickly, although we had to be extra careful not to wash out in the turns. As a bonus, the extra resistance from the soft surface meant we didn’t have to ride our brakes too much on the way down.

We found ourselves back in the creek bottom where we had seen the bulldozer before, but didn’t go right by it this time. We got on Trail 16, which would take us back to the car. Fortunately 16 was still a real trail.

We enjoyed some flat riding in the creek bottom for a while, with some enjoyable creek crossings.

The trail went into an insane climb. I decided to try to ride it, even though looking at it, I didn’t think I’d make it. The climb was steep, but I thought I saw the top of the climb, and pushed up toward it. I was almost there!

… or so I thought.  As soon as I approached what I thought was the top, I saw more trail unfolding above me. Oh man! I was not ready for this. I pressed on, and on, and on. A couple of other times, I thought I was at the top only to see more climbing ahead. It was brutal. There were a couple of switchbacks along the way, but they did little to ease the steep grade.

I have no photos of this section, since I could barely even keep riding. But I made it to the top.

The trail was flat for a while, with maybe some gently rolling hills. But soon all the climbing would pay off, with nearly two miles of mostly-downhill riding. The downhill was pure bliss, the trail was on the edge of a ravine, with numerous twists and turns and minor ups and downs along the way. The trail surface was rough but in a good, challenging way, and my 29er soaked up a lot of the bumps. Dave was having a blast, too.

Too soon, we were back at the car. I couldn’t believe this ride was just 11 miles. With all the road riding I’ve done lately, it’s easy to forget how much harder mountain bike miles are; those 11 miles took 2 1/2 hours!

At the same time, I’m in good shape and did better on a lot of the climbs than I expected. This was tough riding, but aside from the bulldozed parts, the ride was just a blast!

Stay tuned for an even better mountain bike ride from the next day.

Sunday provided an excellent opportunity to go mountain biking with Dave at Brown County State Park. I’ve been more focused on road biking this year, partially by choice and partially because with the massive amounts of rain we’ve gotten, there haven’t been a lot of opportunities to hit the trails. It felt great to go mountain biking again.

It was a hot day, somewhere around 90 degrees, and comparing being in the woods versus on the road on a hot day is interesting. Each has its advantages. In the woods, it’s shady and cool, but it’s also more humid and lacks the airflow of a faster ride on a road bike. Either way, you’re going to be hot.

Dave and I rode nearly all of the trails in the park, at a faster pace than usual. I felt strong despite riding 80 miles on the road the day before.

This was my first time this year to ride the Hesitation Point trail, which I sometimes shirk because I think it’s intimidating. It is hard, with a climb of over 2 miles, and a lot of technical features, but my fear is really residual from my first couple of years riding, when the trail was just barely doable for me, and not a lot of fun. Now it’s overall very doable, but I forget that sometimes. And the better I get at riding, the more enjoyable the trail becomes. I loved it.

I also did better on the Walnut trail than I expected, especially on the way back, when I pushed it more uphill than usual. It felt great.

The trip down Hesitation Point on the way back was a blast. I made it over a couple of rock gardens that I wasn’t sure I’d clear, and there was a family trying to make their way down the trail. They were stopped right by a dropoff, pushing their bikes. They moved aside so we could get through but that dropoff spooks me sometimes. I tackled it with confidence and did just fine. I was worried I’d wipe out right in front of a couple of kids. That would’ve just been fantastic.

It felt great to hit the trails again, even if it was hot. We rode a bit over 16 miles, and they were hard-earned miles. Actually Dave rode more, as he got there earlier than I did. We took some trails the short way so didn’t actually cover every bit of trail in the park.

I didn’t take much time to take photos, except a shot of the view at Hesitation Point, and a frog we saw sitting on a log in the pond on the Aynes loop.

I’m still loving the 29er. It rolls better overall, and I feel faster on it in general. However, this time we rode some tighter, twistier bits of trail. While I still did fine, I could feel that the bike was a little less nimble than my old mountain bike. It took a little more effort to bob and weave through the trees.

As for me, I am in better shape than I’ve been in a couple of years, so I feel strong on the bike. But because I haven’t done much mountain biking this year, my bike handling skills were a little rough at times.