Last Saturday (July 14) I wanted to do a longer road ride. It’s been a year of little cycling. I decided to ride the Hobbieville route devised by the local bike club.
I had planned to ride early in the morning, but I woke up to find that a long string of storms was coming through the area. I don’t mind rain but didn’t want to head out into a big storm system. I went back to sleep. I got up later, and the rain had stopped, but this ride almost didn’t happen. I sort of forced myself out the door. I decided to take the Trucker as I have not done a lot of long rides on it lately and I wanted to do some training on it.
It had stopped raining by the time I rode, but there were still a lot of threatening clouds. I love cloudy days so I was thrilled that we had some lower temperatures and some clouds. A break from the scorching sun.
I climbed Victor Pike, something I hadn’t done for a while. It’s a lot of climbing and I felt very sluggish on the Trucker. You can’t hammer up hills on it. It’s a slow, gradual spin.



Rockeast Road was beautiful, but the pavement was awful.




After a while I was on State Road 54, a very low-traffic highway that was also quite flat.

Complete with some good views.

I stopped in Cincinnati, Indiana, hoping to refill my water bottles, but the gas station there had gone out of business.

I passed a small library in eastern Greene County.

A fire station with a vending machine provided water.

Soon I was on State Road 43, which had nice pavement and some flat sections but also some large hills. It’s also an incredibly beautiful ride. Great scenery and very low traffic.

Here is the climb up to Solsberry, Indiana, once a railroad town.

Here, 43 winds between two grassy hills, brown from the drought.


The flat sections of 43 provided some breaks from the climbing. The sun came out for a while.





I stopped at the R&J Grocery store for some more water and a snack. It didn’t look open at first, but when I peered inside I could see some people in there.

I also rode a brief stint in Owen County, but soon it was back to Bloomington.


It ended up being a hilly 46-mile ride or so. It was kind of a tough day on the Trucker. I wasn’t struggling exactly most of the time, but I just felt anemic, especially on the climbs. Riding downhill was wonderful though, the Trucker is a fantastic descender.
With the low-mileage year I’ve had, I was quite happy to get out for a longer ride.