On Saturday night, I had sent my cell phone alarm clock for 5:00 am so I could catch the sunrise over the Pine Creek Gorge. I’m not a morning person at all, and I slept poorly, but I woke up when my alarm went off. I was sleeping lightly anyway.

There was already enough natural light that I could make my way to the vista without my headlamp. All was extremely quiet — even the birds were just beginning to awaken. As I approached the overlook, strangely, it appeared white. I was astonished when I finally got a full view of the gorge, I realized it was literally filled with fog. It hadn’t been foggy during my short walk at all, but the fog in the gorge reached nearly to the top. I could just make out the top of the mountain across the gorge from me. It was an incredible sight, boulstered by fact that with very few exceptions the only sound was the rushing of the creek hundreds of feet below.

The fog moved a bit with the breeze, and I could see and feel it growing ever higher. I probably don’t need to post this many photos, but in some of these photos you can tell from the fogline by the mountain across the gorge that the fog was moving.

I spent maybe 20 minutes in this spot. I moved on before the sun actually rose — I wasn’t sure how long I would have to wait, and I wanted to get moving. By this time the fog had begun pouring over the edge of the gorge and out into the road. The light was just beginning to break through the trees, and the effect was stunning.

I saw a deer on my way back. The fog never made its way back to my campsite. I wanted to get moving fairly quickly, but it took a long time for me to filter water, cook and eat breakfast and tear down camp. Somehow, it was nearly 8:00 am when I finally started riding. This is early for me, but given that I got up at shortly after 5:00, I expected to be moving sooner. It’s a weird feeling, getting up at dawn and wishing for an earlier start.

It was a wonderful, cool morning and I was glad to be riding. My legs felt a little tired but overall surprisingly fresh from the previous day’s riding. About the first 20 miles of riding would be on lovely, quiet, remote state forest roads surfaced with the smoothest gravel. I saw another overlook as I headed out. Here is the map of my route on Sunday.

View Pine Creek Gorge bicycle camping part 2 06/14/2009 in a larger map

I began my day of riding with a wonderful descent. A great way to get the blood pumping. I was amazed by the roads during the first several miles of my ride. They were very well-designed. I went through several climbs and descents of 200+ feet. But the roads were so well designed that it was a real joy. Rather than taking a steep approach to the climbs, the roads switched back repeatedly and gradually made their way up. Each time it took well over a mile to climb 200 feet. Once again, I was able to use a low gear and just spin my way up these roads.

Descending on these roads was equally wonderful. It wasn’t a high-speed affair at all, but at times it felt like I had endless, curvy-but-flowing downhill runs. Looking at the terrain map, you can see that they were somewhat forced into these choices by the terrain, as a couple of smaller streams/gorges feed into Pine Creek Gorge. But the designers definitely could have taken a steeper approach. And given the huge but gradual climb the previous day, I think this design was no mistake. Also of note, I crossed the West Rim hiking trail and it appeared to take a much steeper approach.

View Pine Creek Gorge bicycle camping part 2 06/14/2009 in a larger map

The scenery during this time was mostly simply the heavily-wooded gravel roads flanked by ferns and wildflowers. It was very pretty, and there were a few overlooks when the road went close to the gorge. I saw a few more deer, and at one point a rafter of turkeys crossed the road a bit ahead of me.

“Drivable” is relative. This would be fun to explore sometime.

Unfortunately, once I got into a rhythm with these repeated, gradual climbs and descents, the road design changed drastically. The climbs got considerably steeper and I lost the flow. It was a real struggle getting up some of these slopes. Particularly brutal was a rather steep 300-foot climb. This would’ve been difficult even if I hadn’t been carrying so much gear. With the extra weight I was hauling, I had to stop a few times. This took me to the highest elevation of the entire weekend, at around 2182 feet. As a point of reference, the elevation at the start had been about 723 feet.

I started to realize I hadn’t had enough to eat, and tried to force down some snacks, but I found it rather difficult to eat. Maybe I need to bring a greater variety of food next time. I had bought some Ramen that I never ended up cooking. I think that would’ve helped considerably. I was doing OK, not going to bonk or anything, but not feeling particularly energetic, either.

I had to wonder if these roads were designed by someone different or at a different time from the ones I was riding on before. Here, the designers chose to eschew the gradual climbing mantra and many of the roads just went straight up the slopes.

Still, I was enjoying myself. These gravel roads were wonderful (even if not ideal) and I only saw a few cars, some backpackers, and a few guys messing around on mountain bikes. Otherwise, I had the forest to myself.

From my map studies before I embarked on this journey, I knew I would have a very steep, winding descent on a gravel road. I had considered climbing this way, but it looked like it would be too steep. There was an elevation change of about 800 feet in 2 miles. I was actually a little nervous about riding down it. The Trucker had performed admirably up to this point, but the brakes are one of the few weaknesses to the LHT “Complete” build.

And it was a challenging descent indeed — but I did not encounter any problems. I did stop a couple of times to let my rims cool and give my hands a rest from squeezing the brakes constantly. The road was very steep and had many tight turns. In some places it took on a washboard texture where people in cars had clearly tried to drive up, but their wheels had spun in place, damaging the surface. So, it was the kind of descent where you really just have to ride the brakes the whole time and try not to wipe out in the turns. Not a lot of fun, really. I will look for another option if I go back. I’m not complaining at all, I just think there has to be a better way.

With that, I was on a paved road for about a mile, and then back on the Pine Creek Rail Trail. The paved road was fun while it lasted, and I realized I’ve done very little road riding with the Trucker loaded down. I’ll have to do more of that soon. From here, I had about 10 miles of easy riding on smooth gravel, all slightly downhill. It was an uneventful — and once again, scenic — end to my ride.

I was quite tired and hungry by the time I got back to my car. And the flies in that Black Walnut Botttom parking lot were horrendous.  I was back at my car by noon, and home before 3:00 pm.

It was an amazing trip. I learned a lot about riding the loaded Trucker, and I am getting better at setting up my tent, using my alcohol stove and loading the bicycle. It’s a good feeling to be becoming more familiar with my equipment, and on each trip I do of this kind, I get better at it. And of course, the scenery and wildlife were incredible.

I had read about other S24O trips there by The Blasphemous Bicycler (another trip) and FiveToedSloth. They rode part of the trail, camped at one of the campgrounds alongside the trail, and rode back the next day. I had another plan. I parked at around the halfway point (Black Walnut Bottom), rode to the northern terminus at Ansonia, then turned around and headed back, but rather than take the trail back, I climbed up the mountain along the west rim of the canyon. I wanted to get some views of the gorge from above, then camp at either Colson Point State Park or in the backcountry in Tioga State Forest. I pored over some maps and found a way to climb the mountain that appeared to be fairly gradual, and a good route for the return trip on Sunday.

Here’s a map from Saturday.

View Pine Creek Gorge bicycle camping part 1 06/13/2009 in a larger map

Saturday morning, I dropped Sarah off at work and then headed out to the trail. It was about a three-hour drive, and I got some lunch along the way. I was riding by about 1:00 pm. The trail surface was wonderful smooth gravel, and while it was slightly uphill the whole time, the climbing was nearly imperceptible most of the time. White and grey clouds filled the sky, and threatened rain.

The scenery was incredibly beautiful. For the most part, the trail was wide open, with mountains on both sides, and the creek down the middle. I took a ridiculous number of photos, but I’m only going to post a few, relatively speaking. Much of the scenery looks the same in the photos.

As you can see, the scenery was fantastic the whole time. I really enjoyed looking over toward the west side of the gorge (on the left side in most of the photos) and thinking, “I’ll be riding up there later!” It’s very cool, and daunting, to see where you’ll be going in that way.

So far, the riding was very easy, to the point that I don’t have a lot to really say about it. It rained on and off for at least an hour, but fortunately it never rained hard enough for me to get completely drenched. I spent some time listening to music while I rode (the “Cedar Grove” album by Jeff Lang), but it seemed like every time I turned on my mp3 player, it started raining and I had to put it away. Eventually, I gave up. It was nice to listen to some mostly-acoustic, bluesy music for a while, though. The mood was just right.

Interestingly enough, the further I rode, the more wildlife I saw. I had seen a few deer here and there, and someone warned me that they had seen a rattlesnake alongside the trail. Fortunately, I didn’t encounter it.

Later, I saw a deer eating right by the trail, and she did not run away as I approached. I took a couple of photos before I continued on my way.

After about 30 miles of beautiful, easy riding, I reached the end of the trail. It had been raining, but it stopped. I found my way over to Colton Road, which would take me up the side of the mountain and into Tioga State Forest.

I was nervous about this climb. I knew from studying maps that this was going to be the easiest way to make the climb, but it still rose 700 feet over the course of about 3 miles. And, my bicycle was fully loaded with camping gear.

The climb was more doable than I expected. Don’t get me wrong, it was quite challenging. However, it was paved (I thought it was going to be gravel) and it was only steep in a couple of different spots. The rest of the time, I was able to put my bicycle in a low gear and just spin, spin, spin. I even did most of the climb in the middle chainring!

I should point out that this was the first big climb I’ve done on the Long Haul Trucker when it’s been loaded with gear. I was amazed with how well it went, and I have to give the bicycle some credit for that. The gearing is quite low, and the bike feels so solid at all times. Steep climbs would still be a problem, but I am very happy with the Trucker’s performance.

Threats of rain continued, but aside from a few drops here and there, no more rain fell. The sun even came out after a while.

Eventually, I reached the top, and I pulled off to a picnic shelter to take a break and have a snack. A couple was by their car with their dog, I just went by them and went into the shelter. I started eating and suddenly something fell from above. It landed on the ground and I realized there was a pile of animal droppings down there. I looked up, afraid of what I might see. It was a porcupine! It had climbed up the posts and was sitting in the rafters.

Just as this happened, the man was walking over with his dog to say hello. I pointed out the porcupine, and called the dog back. He noticed that the posts had metal on them to prevent animals from climbing, but you could see where the metal had been scratched away. I didn’t even know porcupines could climb.

I moved away from the porcupine. I talked to the couple for a few minutes, and then they left. It occurred to me that the porcupine might have been stuck, but I can’t imagine what I might have done about it. I hope it’ll be OK.

I started riding again. I had a bit of a descent, followed by some modest ups and downs. Soon, I reached Colton Point State Park, and came across a vista.

The view was absolutely breathtaking. I could see the gorge for miles in either direction, and the trail I was riding on just two hours earlier was clearly visible. It was amazing, and so rewarding to think that I climbed all the way up from the bottom of the gorge under my own power. In these photos, the path that follows the creek is the rail trail.

I rode around on some of the roads in the state park. Other overlooks presented themselves. Wonderful.

Now I needed to decide what to do about camping. I sort of wanted to ride on and find a nice backcountry spot somewhere in Tioga State Forest. However, I was right by the Colton Point State Park campground, so I checked it out. It was pretty nice, and quiet, and even had some walk-in spots that were away from everything. I rode down the trail to see how these spots looked. They were secluded and very nice. The tent pad was a bit overgrown but nothing unamanageable. I get the sense that these walk-in campsites don’t get a lot of use.

I decided I had better camp here. It might take a while for me to find a backcountry campsite. These spots weren’t free ($19) but it seemed worth it. I chose a site that’s accessed by a thin trail through a field of dense ferns. On the other side of the campsite was a wooded area. I saw another deer on my way back to the campsite.

As it was, it took me a while to set up camp and cook dinner. One thing that bothered me about the state park was that while there was water available, there were signs saying not to use the water without treating it first. I don’t remember the reason they stated — I think it was something about the water supply being affected by surface water.

I had brought my water filter, so that was no problem. However, I didn’t have a bucket or anything like that. I had brought my CamelBak bladder to keep water at my campsite, but I had to fill it with untreated water and filter from there. This meant using the filter any time I needed water for cooking or drinking. A real pain.

I had a surprisingly tasty meal of freeze-dried lasagna with meat sauce. I finally made a windscreen and figured out a better way of setting up my alcohol stove. I was able to boil water faster than ever before. The hot meal and a cup of hot tea had me feeling good. I snacked on some other food as well, although I should have eaten more.

These caterpillars were everywhere (Eastern Tent Caterpillars)

No sooner had I finished eating when I was visited by a very brazen raccoon. He ran over toward my campsite. I yelled at him to go away, and I thought he had, but then I realized he was just hiding behind a tree. I took some photos and ran him off.

I went to bed early. Unfortunately, I slept really poorly. I kept hearing animal noises, which were messing with my head. Given how bold some of the wildlife I had seen that day had been, I was a little worried an animal would try to get into my tent. I heard some pretty wild sounds, a couple of owls seemed to be having some sort of conversation, and I even heard a fight between a couple of animals, complete with hisses and screeches and grunts. Some other birds clucked while insects chirped away. These were fascinating sounds, but at times my imagination got a little carried away.

On a positive note, I am learning to get much more comfortable using my narrow sleeping pad and small pillow setup. Aside from being a little chilly, I was physically comfortable. I just need to learn to turn off my brain in these situations.

I set an alarm for 5:00 am so I could catch sunrise over the gorge (there was an overlook within walking distance of my campsite). 

Note: This is Part I. You can read Part II here.

Before I begin, I should mention that Scott has posted some photos here, and Geoff’s are here. Both got some good shots of the scenery, and both have some shots of yours truly as well.

It was a hot day, with nearly record-setting temperatures approaching 90 degrees. Fortunately, we were riding in the woods the whole time, and were well-shaded. Here’s a map of our trip.

View Stony Creek/Rausch Gap bike camping 04/25-04/26/2009 in a larger map

We started with some easy riding on the rail-trail. It had a very smooth crushed stone surface and we climbed a bit, but it was very gradual. This was my first time really loading down the Trucker, and I was curious how it would handle. From the start, it felt very solid. I knew we’d later encounter rougher terrain, however, and I wasn’t sure how the bike would handle it.

Stony Valley Trail

The Trucker, loaded

The Stony Valley Trail is located in State Game Lands 211, which has many other trails to explore. We were only on the rail trail for about four miles before we crossed a bridge and turned onto a steep, rocky trail that joined with the Appalachian Trail for a while. Our first order of business was to find Rausch Gap, and the AT shelter. We planned to camp near the shelter that night and we wanted to know where we were heading.

Rausch Creek

Walking a steep, rocky part of the trail

The Appalachian Trail

Scott, on the trail toward the shelter

We found a great campsite on our way to the shelter. It was on a ledge, overlooking Rausch Gap, with views of other mountain ridges and the soothing sound of Rausch Creek running below. Oddly enough, several people had passed this campsite and settled in inferior sites closer to the shelter. We would ultimately come back to this site; in hindsight, we should have left most of our gear there while we went out to explore further.

The shelter was interesting, basically a small, three-sided cabin with room for people to sleep and water running constantly, coming right out of the ground. A spring, I guess, although the water was running out of a pipe. Nearby were an outhouse and a few other campsites.

Geoff and Scott, on what would later become our campsite

After leaving the campsite, we got back on the trail but soon saw a very nice spot by the creek. We stopped and for a while, we all took photos. We weren’t covering a lot of ground, but the area was quite beautiful and I was glad to be riding with others who like to stop, explore, take photos, and enjoy the scenery. No one was in a hurry: we had no schedule to adhere to, and only a vague plan to try to see a few things and explore some trails.

Scott

The AT follows Rausch Creek

Tree

Closeup of Rausch Creek

I also took the opportunity to document all the bikes. Scott was riding a Schwinn High Plains — a 90s rigid, steel mountain bike. His is set up with slick tires, fenders and racks. It reminds me of my old GT Timberline, which I still ride, and which I still consider a good bike. Geoff was riding a borrowed Trek 830, another rigid, steel mountain bike, with knobby tires. I rode the Long Haul Trucker. Scott was pretty interested in my Trucker, as he has one on layaway.

Scott’s Schwinn High Plains

Trek 830

My Long Haul Trucker

I should probably point out, since I’m sure someone will cry fowl about our riding on the AT, that here, the AT joins some State Game Lands trails, which allow bikes. There were no indications bikes were not allowed, and we were only on the AT as long as necessary to get to the campsite and the other trails. We did our best to be respectful of the hiking intent of the AT. In fact, this section even had a crushed stone surface much like the rail-trail, which was conducive to bicycles.

We continued riding, and apparently we missed the turn for the trail we were looking for. We were trying to find the Horseshoe Trail. Instead, we accidentally stayed on the AT and hit a section that was unridable, with insane stone steps. We turned back to try to find the right trail.

Scott on the AT

Insanely rocky section, complete with stone steps, on the AT

On the way back, we passed a large pile of coal rejects (there’s a technical term for these, but I can’t remember it). One of many ruins from the old coal mining town of Rausch Gap.

A pile of coal rejects on the right

We saw some red blazes indicating SGL trails, and attempted to follow them. We had to lean our bikes sideways and duck under some fallen trees. The trail abruptly hit Rausch Creek, with no good way to cross. Things looked even more rugged on the other side, so we decided to go back and try to explore an old railroad siding Scott had seen previously. But first, Geoff crossed the creek on foot to if there was any way we could continue on this trail, while we filtered water from Rausch Creek. The water was cold and sweet and tasted wonderful. We splashed creek water on ourselves to cool down. A much-needed break. Geoff returned and reported that we needed to turn back. The trail was mostly non-existent on the other side, and crossed the creek repeatedly.

Ducking under some trees

Rausch Creek

Heading toward the railroad siding

Scott and Geoff walked their bikes for a few minutes. They told me the trail got really steep up ahead. I rode ahead a little bit, but as promised, the trail soon became impossibly steep, and loose rocks killed whatever traction I once had. I walked the rest of the way. The other guys caught up a minute later, and we left our bikes and went out on foot, exploring an old railroad bridge, with Rausch Creek now running below us.

Geoff and Scott push up the steep, rocky trail

Heading toward the old bridge

Geoff inspects where the bridge once was

Rock wall on the other side of the creek

Looking down

The Trucker, overlooking a ravine

We went back to our bikes and turned onto the old railroad siding. This would prove to be difficult riding. It’s basically a wide trail, but it is not maintained. There were sticks, rocks, puddles, and mud spots to deal with, and still a lot of leaves from last fall. This was a great test of the Trucker’s handling loaded down, off the road. It performed admirably. I was able to do wheelies over some logs and rocks, and shift my weight forward to carry the rear wheel over them, even with the extra weight. I didn’t experience any shimmies or anything of that nature, although this was not exactly a high-speed affair. The only problem I had was that my tires had a tendency to sink in the muddy spots — but we all had that problem.

While it was challenging, this was very pleasant ridgetop riding. Well, actually, we were only partway up the ridge, not on top of it, but the feeling was similar. We passed numerous boulder fields and saw a few side trails. I wonder if they lead anywhere; they’re not on any map I’ve found. You could spend days exploring this place and still not find everything.

Old railroad siding

More of the trail

We saw a pipeline right-of-way, which was in effect a very steep, rocky trail perpendicular to our direction of travel. We noted that we could go back down to the rail-trail that way, if necessary. But it looked on the map like we should be able to make a longer loop.

In a few places, we had to get off and walk our bikes around mud — in one place, the whole width of the trail was flooded. It was tricky getting past that part.

Our exploration of the railroad siding ended abruptly when the trail turned into a stream. All of a sudden, it was completely covered in water, for as far as we could see. We had no choice but to turn back.

Looking down a pipeline right-of-way

Suddenly, the trail became a stream

This meant once again walking around the disgusting, swampy puddle that covered the whole trail. We had to walk on the higher ground and rocks along the side, letting our bicycles roll through the mud. It was quite a mess.  A few minutes later, we were at the pipeline again, and we had to walk down. It was too steep and rocky to ride. It was quite a challenge keeping good footholds while trying to move slowly with a loaded bicycle. I saw some mayapples and some young fiddlehead ferns along the way — signs of spring that I always enjoyed in Indiana. It was comforting to see them here as well.

Working our way around the swampy puddle

Looking back up at the pipeline

Once we got to the bottom of the hill, Geoff headed back. Scott and I rode back to see if the campsite we wanted was still available. We were quite tired and moving slowly by this point. Fortunately, nobody had claimed the site. We dropped off some of our gear and rode down to Rausch Creek to filter more water.

We filled all of our water bottles. I had brought the bladder from my Camelbak, which holds 100 fluid ounces of water, to use as a dromedary bag at our campsite. So, we filled that as well. It took a while to filter that much water, but I actually enjoy the process. It’s a good excuse to sit by the creek for a while.

Once we had all the water we could carry, we headed back to the campsite to set up camp and cook some dinner. Scott had borrowed Geoff’s REI tent, which was very nice. I brought the cheap bivy tent that I got last year. Despite the fact that Scott didn’t have any instructions and had never set up this tent before, he finished a while before I did. It took some doing to figure out how my tent went together. Ultimately, I figured it out. I didn’t have instructions, either, but I wasn’t sure where they were, and I remembered them being fairly useless before.

By this point, we were seeing some alpenglow on the other side of the gap. We couldn’t really see the sunset through the trees, but some oranges and pinks were reflected off the other ridge. It was lovely.

Tents and alpenglow

We cooked dinner. I have an alcohol stove, and Scott brought an Esbit stove (which use small, white tablets as fuel). We found Scott’s stove could boil water much faster than mine, but my stove can burn longer. Scott also had a wide, shallow pot, which probably helped speed up the process. Anyway, neither of us had trouble boiling water, mine just took longer. Scott also had a homemade windscreen that worked very well. I will definitely need to make one for my stove, or buy a pre-made windscreen. Scott let me borrow his, and my stove worked much better with the windscreen.

Scott’s Esbit stove and homemade windscreen

My alcohol stove

Scott tried a method for making coffee that I had read about, but never seen in action. He had a filter ball for loose tea leaves, and put coffee grounds in it, then submerged it in hot water and let it steep. Unfortunately, it didn’t work very well — he said the coffee was weak, and the filter let some grounds through it. I think he’s going to have to find a different way of making coffee. I love coffee too, but I opted for tea, as it is a lot easier to make. I think we both benefited from a hot, caffeinated beverage.

We both brought freeze dried backpacking meals. They were OK. Scott said the beef in his stroganoff was awfully salty. I had some pasta that was better than I expected. It was a vegetarian meal and while I am not a vegetarian, I think meat might not work too well in a freeze-dried meal. Everything in my meal reconstituted well — pasta, cheese, sundried tomatoes, some sauce, jalapenos. The jalapenos added a lot of flavor and I think made the meal.

I should have eaten more. I must have been feeling some effects from the heat, as I was not feeling very hungry. Later that night, I got quite hungry but didn’t feel like getting up to make more food. I brought plenty of food with me, I just didn’t actually EAT enough of it.

Dusk falls on our campsite

The Trucker

Soon, darkness fell, and we started to wonder: what do we do once it’s dark? Neither of us had really brought anything to do. We tried some night photos, most of which did not turn out (at least mine didn’t) but our time was mostly spent on conversation. We sat for a while, taking in the stars and just talked about stuff. But we were both tired and we soon decided to call it a night.

It was the earliest I had gone to bed in a long time. But I did not sleep well. I laid there for a while, looking up at the stars. I left the fly off my tent, even though I thought it might get chilly. I could always put the fly on later, or cover up more. But I really enjoyed being able to look up at the stars, and feeling the breeze flowing over me. It didn’t really take me very long to get to sleep, but I kept waking back up. I’d sleep for a while, and then wake back up, turn over, and fall back to sleep, etc.

My sleeping pad is really quite comfortable, and I brought an additional pillow, but I like to sleep on my side, and when I did so whatever arm I was laying on would fall asleep. Eventually, my allergies started acting up as well. As the night wore on, it did get colder. I used my cycling jacket as a blanket, and while I was still a little chilly, it didn’t bother me. I guess the biggest problems were my arms falling asleep, and not being able to breathe very well, thanks to my allergies.

We woke up by dawn. I sat up and felt fairly awake. Scott said he’d already been awake for an hour, so we decided to get moving. I felt a little chilly so I put on some long pants and a jacket.The first signs of light were just peeking up over the adjacent mountain. I am not accustomed to being up this early, but there is something very pleasant about watching the day begin. Here is a sequence of shots, from dawn to shortly after sunrise.

Dawn

The sun is just below the horizon

Sunrise

The Trucker at sunrise

A cup of coffee at sunrise

Scott’s bike

The tents

The view, unobstructed

Breakfast was our first order of business. I had a strange but satisfying breakfast of trail mix, bagels with peanut butter, and chicken ramen. It was a weird combination, but I had to make up for not eating enough the night before — and in fact I felt a lot better once I had eaten. And of course some tea helped me get moving.

Once we ate, we started breaking down the tents. As we did this we could feel that it was warming up rapidly. The forecast was for another 90-degree day, so we hoped we would be done riding before the hottest part of the day. We headed down to the AT shelter to filter some water from the spring there and sign the logbook. We didn’t stay long.

We rode back down to the rail trail. It was downhill the whole way, and rocky enough that it was tricky. There’s nothing like some challenging riding to get the blood pumping in the morning.

Scott was riding down to the opposite end of the trail from where we started on Saturday. His wife would pick him up there. I rode with him for a while in that direction. We were only about four miles from where my car was parked and I wanted to do a little more riding. As we cruised down the rail trail, we saw an interesting side road marked “Cold Springs.” I looked at my GPS, and it looked like this road descended some 150 feet and went by Dresden Lake. We decided to explore.

Partway down, we saw some ruins. Several foundations, one of which Scott speculated might be the remains of a hotel that used to be in this area. We may never know for certain, but it was cool to see these ruins. One foundation was very mossy.

Cold Springs Road

Ruins

Mossy ruins

Scott riding on Cold Springs Road

Riding through a clearing

A view in the clearing

The road took us further downhill, and we soon saw the tip of Dresden Lake, with Stony Creek flowing out of it. A bridge took us across the creek. We got off our bikes to look around and immediately saw a large spider on a tree.

We couldn’t see much of the lake itself; it might be worthwhile to go back sometime and see if we can find a trail or road around the lake. We did see an old wall that appeared to have served as a larger dam and the road seemed to have gone across the top of it at one point.

Spider

The end of Dresden Lake

Bridge

The old wall/dam, and our bicycles

Now we had to climb back up the way we had come. It wasn’t an insanely long climb, but it got steeper at the end and the gravel was just loose enough that we had poor traction. It was slow going and we were really feeling it when we reached the top.

I rode a bit further with Scott and after a while, we stopped to check out Yellow Springs.

Yellow Springs

I decided to turn back at this point. In hindsight, I wish I had gone a bit further as we were almost to Dauphin County, and I could have added an additional county to my list of counties in which I’ve ridden (that reminds me, I haven’t updated the list in a while).

We parted ways. I’m not sure how far Scott had to ride after that. For me, it was about another eight miles back to the car. There was some climbing, but it was quite gradual. Overall, the riding was easy, and I was glad that it was. I was feeling tired, and it was getting hot. I stopped to photograph a boulder field and some strange stone arrows that were pointing at the ground, but otherwise I just kept pedaling.

Boulder field

Stone arrows

When I passed the AT connection, I knew that I only had a bit over 4 miles to go, and that it would be mostly downhill. This last part of the ride was a fantastic middle-ring cruise through the woods on smooth gravel. I saw the only notable wildlife of the whole trip during this time when a couple of deer bounded down the trail ahead of me.

Soon, I was back at the car. I loaded the car and headed home.

It was a great trip. I really enjoyed riding with Scott and Geoff — I think our riding styles were very similar in that we are all photography nuts as well, so we liked frequent stops to take photos. And nobody was in a hurry, we just enjoyed exploring the woods.

The camping part of the trip was really fun; we had an excellent campsite, our only neighbors were probably a tenth of a mile away and they were very quiet. I even enjoyed cooking — I’m not sure why I don’t enjoy it at home, but I do  when camping.

I think the water filter was necessary for this trip; I can’t imagine how we would have carried enough water with us. The way I figure it, we filtered over 3.5 gallons of water, which would have weighed almost 30 pounds!

This trip also served as a reminder that I basically have everything I need to do trips like this. I should do them more often!

Has anyone ridden this ride? Is anyone interested in riding it?

Here are some photos I found from last year.

Cyclists

Waterfall

This one is from October

Annotated route overview

I got a later start than I planned. This is typical for me. Getting up, having breakfast, and breaking down the tent and everything took a lot longer than I expected. The main downside to this was that it was already heating up by the time I hit the road.

Riding

Despite the heat, I was in good spirits. It felt good to be back on the bike, and not being in a hurry makes the heat more tolerable.

Riding through Jackson-Washington State Forest

A pond on the way out

Jackson County is a very interesting place to ride. Most the land is flat, but huge hills (“knobs”) surround you. Sometimes there will be cornfields on both sides of you, and it just feels like you’re riding down the middle of a cornfield. Sometimes there are soybeans planted instead, which give you better views of the hills.

Soy fields and hills

A church

The route I planned was mostly on back roads. I rode a bit on State Road 39, and it was quiet, but you never know with the state highways. Some are nearly vacant and have relatively low speed limits. Some are very busy and have fast traffic. There’s generally no way of knowing which kind of road any given state highway will be until you get there. I stuck with my planned ride on back roads.

It wasn’t long before I hit gravel. Quite suddenly, the pavement ended and I was riding on gravel. It was fairly tightly-packed gravel, and I had a tailwind. I rode around 20 mph on gravel for some time — I was flying, and it felt great.

Where the pavement ends

My bicycle by some corn.

Cornfields and hills

I got a little confused about the route. I thought I went the right way, but soon started seeing things again that I had seen earlier in the ride. I was going in circles. Fortunately, I had brought my Gazetteer and a compass with me. I highly recommend carrying both, if you can. I was able to figure out, fairly easily, where I messed up and where I needed to go. I otherwise would’ve had to make a series of guesses to get myself out of this mess. And I went a good 30 minutes without seeing any cars, so asking for directions wouldn’t have worked too well.

Unfortunately, I had gone several miles out of the way. It took me a while to get back on track. Fortunately, I was really enjoying the scenery and it didn’t bother me too much. I knew that given this mistake, I’d be late to meet Sarah, but there wasn’t much I could do about it at this stage.

Dilapidated barn

I got back on track and had some more gravel riding to do. It wasn’t as smooth this time around, but it was still fun. This road was a bit curvier, and the turns kept me on my toes. It would have been easy to have a wheel wash out, on a bicycle less suited to gravel.

Hay bales

More gravel

I spent quite a while on Waskum Bridge Road. I was hoping this meant I’d be hitting a bridge soon. I went over one small one but I couldn’t imagine they’d name the road after such a small bridge. Sure enough, I soon reached a bigger bridge, with one stream to the west, which branched into two on the east side of the bridge. I looked around for turtles or other wildlife but didn’t see any. I did, however, see a dirt road running alongside the stream. This was awesome, because I’ve been wanting to try riding my new bike on a dirt road, but have had a hard time finding any.

The stream splits

I didn’t ride on the dirt road for very long, but the bike handled quite well while I did. I simply didn’t want to waste too much time, since I was already behind schedule. The tires had good traction, even in the loose dirt. It had been a long time since the last rain and things were quite dusty.

Dirt road

My tire treads in the dust

After a while I ended up back on paved roads, and spent some time on Pumpkin Center Road, a fun, curvy country road. I was hoping I’d get to see a bunch of pumpkins or something, but no such luck. I did see yet another interesting hilltop cemetery.

Pumpkin Center Road

Gater Cemetery

It was around this time that the rolling hills started. No single hill was all that big, but I rode over many hills, one right after the other. It was really getting hot at this point, so I didn’t tackle the hills with as much fervor as I normally would. I was content to spin over gradually. The Trucker’s lower gearing really came into play here and while I was moving slowly, I was able to take on the hills without exhausting myself too much.

Rolling hills on Pumpkin Center Road

I ended up on State Road 39 for a little while, and there was pretty much no traffic. I could have ridden that road most of the way down and it would’ve been more direct and an easier route to follow. However, I really enjoyed the back roads. I soon ended up on Bloomington Trail Road, which had more rolling hills, some of them much bigger. I got turned around a couple of times but soon found my way. The Gazetteer came in handy once again. I also got to ride through the Leota covered bridge, which was pretty cool.

Several times I had tried to talk to Sarah by phone to let her know I was running late, but doing fine. Eventually I managed to communicate that to her, despite the fact that our phones both had poor reception and most of the time, we were only able to exchange greetings before our signals were dropped.

Bloomington Trail Road, with big hills in the distance

A knob

The hills continued getting bigger. Still nothing too hard, but again, cumulatively I was feeling it. But I was almost there. Sarah had told me she and Rob were waiting by a church. When I was in the right area and saw a church, I figured I must have found them.

Arriving at the church

When I pulled into the parking lot, they were waiting for me.

What a greeting!

The ride ended up being longer than I expected by about 10 miles — about 35 miles total. My bicycle was a mess from all the dirt and gravel roads. And so was I. I had a great ride, but I was glad to be done. The heat was getting to me.

Dirty bike

Me

We hung out in the parking lot a little bit. A guy went by repeatedly on a tractor, hauling hay bales one at a time. Sarah said he’d been at it for quite some time. He waved every time he went by.

Hauling hay bales

Brooks saddle, Keven’s Bag, and my Indiana Gazetteer

We put my bike on the bike rack and drove into town to get some lunch. We found a local restaurant where my beef Manhattan looked suspiciously like Sarah’s turkey, except for the color of the gravy. It was one of those small diner-type places where everything is bland and inoffensive. It’s always nice to know where the local mediocre generic American food restaurant is. On our way out we saw the following sign.

FREE FLOYD!

We had planned to hike in Clark State Forest, but it was really hot and we were exhausted. We opted just to drive through. We’ll return there someday soon, I’m sure. The drive through the forest took us to the top of one of the knobs, and it was a steep, twisty climb. I simply must attempt it by bicycle sometime. The car was struggling with it a bit at times. The view from the top is absolutely breathtaking. It’s hard to believe this is the midwest with views like this. The elevation at this point was over 1,000 feet.

View from the top

Another view

It was a beautiful trip. I wished it hadn’t been soon hot as I would’ve loved to explore the area some more. But we were exhausted already, and drove home. We took the scenic route and I showed Sarah some of the things I saw on my way to Jackson-Washington State Forest.

All in all, I’d say the trip was a success. We need to streamline things in the future, but this worked fairly well. I can’t wait to go camping together again. And the touring bug has bit hard, and I’m itching to do an unsupported trip sometime soon.

Overview of the route, with points of interest noted

I had ridden most of this route before, when I rode the Nashville 90 last year, but that was a long time ago, and some of this was new. In fact, I realized shortly before I left that the route I took included a jaunt down Dutch Ridge Road, which connects to 446 in two places. Even though I’ve ridden on that part of 446 many times, I had never even noticed this road before, so I was looking forward to seeing what it was like.

I started riding around 10:00 am. That’s early, for me. Fortunately it was early enough that I could beat most of the heat. Don’t get me wrong, it got hot. But I was done riding before the hottest part of the day. The ride started with an uneventful trip down 446. I took Knightridge to avoid 446 as much as possible. I took some video of the downhill to the causeway, riding across, and partway up the other side, but it didn’t turn out well. The camera was bouncing around too much. It’s probably not worth posting. Suffice it to say, I hit over 40 mph going down that hill, and it felt great.

One advantage to doing things this way is that Sarah got to sleep in a while longer than I did. I’m willing to get up early to ride (sometimes), but there’s no reason she should have to. Also, since she was bringing the car, I didn’t have to load a bunch of stuff on the bike.

Field by 446

Someone hiking on the shoulder of 446 (seen from Knightridge Road)

Traffic was much lighter than I expected, especially given that it was a holiday weekend. It was a pleasant surprise. I rode on 446 for a while, the riding was easy and a little dull, but it felt great to be on the bike.

Eventually, I came to Dutch Ridge Road. Actually, I rode past it and had to turn around. I almost just stayed on 446, but I was curious about this road. I was glad I turned around to check it out.

The road starts out paved. It’s a bit rough, and quite narrow. As you’d expect, it follows a ridgetop, and while it’s heavily wooded, you can see the deep ravine at least a little bit. I passed some homes, but mostly it was just woods. The pavement ended and the road narrowed. It switched back and forth, paved and gravel sections.

Gravel section of Dutch Ridge Road

I saw a gate with a sign and stopped to explore.

Chrisley Hillenburg Cemetery sign. The sign in the background reads, “Foot Traffic Welcome. Closed to all public motor vehicle use.”

My bicycle by the gate. Notice: no pink water bottle!

I probably could have lifted my bike over the gate and ridden back there, but I decided to hike back to the cemetery.

Trail back to the cemetery

Cemetery gates

KINSER Gerline … Stillborn 1929

A row of small white crosses

Sometime during all of this, I think I got a fingerprint on the lens. The result is that a lot of the shots look hazy. But that’s appropriate, as it’s more how I saw the scenes, in a lot of cases. It gets old in some of the later shots, but what can you do?

I didn’t linger long. I wanted to get moving again pretty quickly. I tried to time things so if anyone had to wait in Brownstown, it’d be me, not Sarah. To that end, I didn’t want to waste too much time.

The road became even narrower, and was effectively one lane for a while. I followed it through various twists and turns, over mostly flat terrain with a few mild ups and downs. I passed a few stands of pine trees along the way. It was a little hazy and the sun cut through the trees in impressive ways. What a beautiful little road! I saw a sign for a Hillenburg Stephenson cemetery, but this time, I didn’t stop.

A stand of pines, a twisty, narrow road, deciduous trees, all glow in the sunlight

I spent a few miles on this road and as I neared the end, went into a fantastic flowing descent down from the ridgetop. I picked up a lot of speed and really railed the turns. The Long Haul Trucker loves to descend. The only problem I had was that my front fender started rattling a lot while I was on this road. I looked and discovered that a nut was coming loose.

Dutch Ridge Road ended and spit me back out onto 446. I stopped to admire the scenery and call Sarah to ask her to bring a couple of extra things to the campsite so I could fix the fender that night.

Trees, fields, a pond, and a creek.

Now I had a fairly long climb on road cut through the limestone, with stone cliffs on both sides.

The road cuts through limestone

Not long after that, it was time to turn off 446 and onto 58. It was getting pretty hot and I stopped for a snack. I contemplated going into Heltonville, a nearby town, but I had plenty of food and water and knew I could get more in Kurtz, so I pressed on.

58 is a scenic and narrow but low-traffic road through … well, pretty much the middle of nowhere. It does go through a few small unincorporated towns and near some Hoosier National Forest access points, but that’s about it.

There was nearly no traffic on 58. Normally I wouldn’t be surprised, but I really expected a little traffic on Labor Day weekend. I did see quite a few motorcycles, but I literally went 20-30 minutes without seeing any other vehicles a few times.

Donkeys

I had a bit of climbing to do, and then it was very flat for a while. This is when I really noticed the easterly  winds. They weren’t too strong, but on this flat high ground, I had to pay a little more attention to the wind.

Covered bridge on private property

Some climbing

Camouflage truck

Suddenly reaching flat ground

Enjoying the ride

Truth be told, I enjoyed having a few flat miles. I passed through Zelma, crossed into Jackson County, and rode through Norman.

A truck attempts to hide in Zelma

Open air barn?

Enter Jackson County / Leave Lawrence County

Once I reached Norman, I saw a strange phenomenon … again. When I rode the Nashville 90 last year, I noticed that the flag at the Norman Post Office was blowing in the opposite direction from the one at the church across the street. This time, the same was true. I wonder what it is about that particular spot that causes this to happen.

Flags flying in opposite directions

The terrain started getting hillier again. The road mostly went between hills. There were some huge hills on my right that I marveled at. At the top of one hill, there had been a car accident. Everyone seemed to be OK, from what I could tell, and there were plenty of people on the scene helping. I rode on.

For scale, the speck on the road at the base of the big hill is a guy on a motorcycle

I took a break at the Kurtz Cemetery, another familiar place from the Nashville 90. There’s a pretty steep road climb, and then a gravel drive on the left side that’s even steeper, and then you’re in a cemetery on top of a hill, with a good view of the surrounding hills.

Hill up to the cemetery

My bicycle at the cemetery

It’s probably beginning to sound like I’m cemetery-obsessed. I’m not, really, although they do interest me. They also tend to make a good place to rest; no one bothers you in a cemetery. Somewhere around this area, I enjoyed a long, gently-curving ride down a sizable hill.

Soon I reached Kurtz and stopped at the 58 Cafe to get some water and gatorade. It’s mostly a cafe but they sell a few convenience store-type items, as well. The woman filled my water bottles for free. I bought same Gatorade and left a nice tip. The people were very nice to me, I’ll have to stop there for a meal sometime. It’s hit or miss stopping into these tiny stores as a cyclist: some people are great and others look at you like you’re insane (a point I can’t argue, but still …)

58 Cafe sign

After a few more miles, I reached 135. When I did the Nashville 90, I rode north from this point. This time, I needed to go south. I had never ridden this portion of 135 before, but it was very quiet. The speed limits were high but once again I saw very little traffic. I was simply amazed more people weren’t out taking in this beautiful country on a holiday weekend.

An interesting-looking “Antiques” store. I wonder if they have real antiques, or if that’s a code word for “junk.”

This shot typifies the region: corn, hills, and trees

Goats

I wasn’t on 135 terribly long. I could have stayed on it most of the way to Brownstown, probably, but I had planned a route on some back roads. Things remained hilly for a while but then got flatter.

Farm

I took a meandering route on some flat back roads. I looked ahead and saw a car kicking up dust in the distance. The road was obviously gravel up ahead. On my road bike, I’d consider taking a different route. On the Trucker, gravel just means extra fun!

Long, straight, flat gravel road

One thing I was aware of but sometimes forget is how interesting the land is in this part of the state. It’s mostly flat, with huge hills jutting up in various places. I could see some such huge hills in the distance and found myself approaching them as I continued riding.

Soybean fields, with hills in the distance

Adjacent to the green field above was this brown one

Wildflowers

The Trucker by a field

I was almost to Brownstown at this point. I crossed this fork of the White River on the Ewing bridge, and saw some big turtles sunning themselves on logs in the water.

Reaching the river

Turtles catching some sun

I passed a small industrial zone in Ewing, which is adjacent to Brownstown, then headed over to Brownstown and waited for Sarah by a restaurant. Her cell phone didn’t get reception in Brownstown so she called me from CVS and I told her where I was.

Industrial zone

Ewing, Indiana

Downtown Brownstown

A tank on the town square

We ate at Brock’s Family Restauraunt in downtown Brownstown. We both ordered “REAL Cheeseburgers” (they also had simply “Cheeseburgers” on the menu. Apparently the difference, aside from 35 cents, is that the “real” cheeseburgers are fresh meat, never frozen. The food was decent, but nothing spectacular. From here it was only a few miles to the state forest and the campground. I rode the rest of the way, and Sarah met me there.

State Road 250 toward the state forest

Jackson-Washington State Forest

This lake, right by the campground, has been drained. It’s been this way for some time; good thing we’re not into fishing

We weren’t 100% sure campsites would be available. I tried to make some reservations at state parks and all of the ones I checked were full. However, the state forests are always quieter than the state parks. We had plenty of campsites to choose from. We found a good site and set up camp. I ran the registration back to the forest office by bicycle.

The tent and the Long Haul Trucker

It was a pretty hot day, so we sat in the shade for a while and had a beer. After that, we went for a hike. I’ll cover that in a separate post.

It felt really good to use the bike to get somewhere. I’m not used to riding somewhere and then staying there, most of my rides start and end at one point, usually our apartment. And a 50-mile loop only takes you half as far as a 50-mile one-way trip.

We had mixed results. I didn’t plan well enough, and we both had poor to nonexistent cell phone reception, so we had a little trouble connecting in Brownstown, IN. Also, what I intended to be a way for me to get some riding in while allowing us to spend a lot of time together became a little more complicated and bike-centric than I intended. Sarah was very patient and we had a great time together, but in the end it felt a little selfish. If we do something like this again, I’ll need to plan things out a lot better. It was also really hot, which effectively meant that by the time we got anywhere, it was too hot to want to do very much.

I plan to write about this trip in three parts:

1. Riding from Bloomington to Brownstown and Jackson-Washington State Forest
2. Hiking at Jackson-Washington State Forest
3. Riding from Jackson-Washington State Forest to Clark State Forest and Henryville

• Ride 4,000 miles.
• Ride at least one century.
• Complete at least two Sub 24-Hour Overnight (S24o) camping trips. Preferably more.
• Go on tour.
• Ride with Sarah more often.
• Ride with my friends and family more often.
• Make some new friends with whom to ride.
• Run more errands by bicycle.
• Do the Brown County Breakdown again.
• Do the Hilly Hundred again (this may get traded for a short independent tour).
• Ride in some real mountains again.
• Improve my photography and writing.

The only potential problem I see is that I also want to do more hiking this year, and I’m not sure I can find time for both more cycling and more hiking. So, some cycling miles may get traded for hiking miles.

They are incredibly compact and lightweight, the sleeping bag weighing exactly 1 kilogram. I’ve been talking about doing a bicycle tour for a while now and I’m feeling more and more confident that I’ll be able to do one sometime in 2008. Last year, fitness would have been the biggest concern but hopefully I can stay in some semblance of shape over the winter and be in better shape next year. And now I have a lot of the gear I’ll need to do some sub 24-hour overnight trips and/or a longer tour. Thanks, hot stuff!

Christmas morning, we went over to mom’s house to exchange gifts with my family. We had a great time. Mom made lasagna for dinner as is becoming a tradition, and after dinner, I proposed a hike. The high was 47 degrees, and it was sunny — an incredibly beautiful day and surprisingly warm. After some discussion, everyone decided to come. We decided to hike the Wolf Cave trail (trail #5) at McCormick’s Creek State Park. It’s an easy two-mile trail.

Everyone really seemed to enjoy the hike, including my sister Becky, who hasn’t gone on the past few family hikes. I was really glad that everyone went and had a good time. In fact, it had been a long time since Sarah and I went hiking, and I think I had forgotten just how much I enjoy it. Here are some photos from the hike. Sarah took some of these.

Shadows

Sarah and me

Avery (my nephew) showing me a hiding place in Wolf Cave

Avery, mom, and me

Rock bridge with icicles

Avery and mom crossing the creek

Becky (my sister) and me

Becky, looking aloof

Avery, hiding in a tree

Hiking into the sun

I woke up Sunday morning feeling pretty tired. It was hard forcing myself to wake up — I really wanted to sleep in. Nonetheless, I managed to get moving and got to the start point a little earlier than I had on Saturday. I was still a bit groggy when I arrived at the start point. Two short, steep climbs and a couple of good descents within the first few miles helped wake me up, along with some more beautiful scenery. We passed a cool limestone bridge off to the side and rode on some curvy roads for a while. Large, flat open fields surrounded by hills gave us a great view of the hills around us.

Riding through open fields. You can see more cyclists in the distance traveling from left to right

The ride to the first SAG stop was fairly easy, with only two short steep hills. The SAG stops were spaced better on Sunday, with the first at the 10 mile mark, lunch at 28 miles and the third stop at around the 39 mile mark.

Even though the first leg of the trip wasn’t very hard, I was ready for the first SAG stop. I was still tired and needed to refuel. Some police officers were directing traffic and stopped cars to let us cross State Road 37. I was thankful that we had people directing traffic because while you can always find a gap to cross 37, with 5,000 riders it’d become a bottleneck.

I was hoping for more donuts at the first SAG stop, but I had no such luck. I ate some muffins and a banana instead. I met a guy at this stop wearing a Bianchi jersey who was also taking some photos and we discussed our techniques for shooting while riding. We lamented the fact that the sections that would make for the best photos are also the ones where we don’t feel like stopping.

A rider leaves from the first SAG stop
Not long after the first stop, the route became familiar for a while, heading down Old 37 briefly and then turning onto Anderson Road. I have ridden this road many times before, but it looked different today with the leaves changing and the large number of other bicycles on the road.

A barn on Anderson Road

Another great barn

We turned onto Beanblossom Road, which has a big climb and takes you into Morgan-Monroe State Forest. I had ridden this road before, but only downhill, so I knew it was a long hill, but I had never climbed it before. There was a sign saying the hill is 2.0 miles with a maximum grade of 17.2%. It actually lets up a couple of times and lets you go downhill slightly on the way up, but it’s almost 2 solid miles of climbing and it starts with a very steep section. There was a lot of congestion during this climb and you could hear people huffing and puffing. Everyone I saw was really struggling with this climb. I saw a guy riding a fantastic Rivendell Romulus on the way up and would have struck up a conversation about his bike but we were both too focused on climbing.

Approaching the Beanblossom Road climb

Still approaching the climb. I didn’t get any shots during the climb.

A lot of people, including myself, stopped at the top of this hill to catch our breath. It was possibly the hardest climb of the whole weekend for me. Fortunately, I’m good at hills like this which are for the most part not too steep and you just have to keep spinning until you reach the top. Still, it was pretty difficult. I need to climb this hill more often as a training exercise.

Next we spent a few miles riding through Morgan-Monroe State Forest. It’s an easy ride, flat and gently curving for a few miles. A car got stuck behind the big long line of bikes and didn’t know how to pass us. I waved it past me when it was safe, but then it stayed behind a group of cyclists up ahead for a few minutes, one of them riding a fully loaded touring bike attempting several times to wave the car past. During this time things got a little congested as it wasn’t safe to pass the car and it was holding everyone up. It was funny that the only time I really got held back was when there was a car up ahead. Eventually the guy on the touring bike convinced the car to pass him and it ended up far ahead, no longer holding us back.

I sped up and struck up a conversation with the guy on the loaded touring bike. He had a GPS on his handlebars and was traveling with a friend of his. I complimented him on getting that car to pass and we talked a bit about the ride. I sped up a few minutes later to go at a bit of a faster pace.

The route departed from the roads that are familiar to me and turned north on Old 37. I had never ridden on this part of Old 37 before, but it was fantastic. All that climbing really paid off and we were treated to an incredible descent, gradual at first and then getting steeper and faster, out of the State Forest and toward State Road 37.

Another police officer was directing traffic when we reached 37. We had to wait for a few minutes and then he stopped traffic to let us pass.

Waiting to cross State Road 37

Once we crossed the highway we had some climbing to do. It wasn’t a huge climb but the miles were starting to add up and people were tired. I sluggishly climbed up the hill, passing many who opted instead to walk it. It wasn’t a huge climb though and once we reached the top we had fantastic views of the surrounding valleys and big hills in the distance.

View from Turkey Track Road

It was flat for a few minutes and then we had a great descent into a valley. It was steep at first and I picked up a lot of speed and went flying into a twisty part of the road, getting into a good rhythm of leaning into the turns and throwing my weight into them. It was an exhilarating section with all these turns. A few miles later we reached lunch, and I sure was ready for it.

I ate way too much, eating more fried chicken this time but also lots of fruit and vegetables and a few cookies. I knew I was eating too much, probably, and that I’d be sluggish after lunch, but I didn’t care. I was hungry and needed to refuel. I was really amused at the hats worn by the people serving the food and beverages. There was no apple cider at this stop, and I was a little disappointed about that.

Tons of bananas and apples

More live music

Great hats!

I’m pretty sure that the people serving the food, in the chicken hats, were high school students. Whoever came up with the  idea to put a bunch of awkward teenagers in embarrassing chicken hats, my hat is off to them. They were nice but obviously not amused by their hats. I was plenty amused.

After eating way too much, I hit the road again and almost immediately came to a big climb. I could really feel that fried chicken slowing me down now. But I made it to the top and that half-mile climb more than paid for itself, with the next 8 miles or so being mostly downhill.

A rider from Indianapolis struck up a conversation with me as he noticed that our bicycles are almost identical. Mine is a little newer and actually one model up from his, but they are very similar. He said when he first got his the first thing he did was ride into the back of a parked car. Fortunately, the bike shop was able to replace his frame almost for free even though things like running into parked cars aren’t covered under the warranty. He also said he’s a mountain biker and I told him about the Brown County Breakdown and that he should do it the next year. He seemed like a pretty cool guy, but he ended up passing a bunch of people while I stayed back and I didn’t catch up with him later on.

A rough road

More power lines

There were small ups and downs that were a lot of fun for a few miles, and then the steepest climb of the entire weekend: Mount Tabor Hill. This is a notorious hill and while it’s only 0.2 miles long, it reaches a 20% grade and then turns and gets steeper, reaching a 23% grade during the turn. I was a bit worried about this hill as it had been described to me as being not quite as steep as Boltinghouse, but longer. I found that not to be true, I think this was both less steep and shorter than Boltinghouse and it was difficult but much more doable than Boltinghouse. Once again other riders became obstacles and everyone had a hard time with this climb. One guy said “to hell with it!” and put a foot down right before the turn. The poor guy didn’t know (and neither did I until a few seconds later) that once you make the turn and go up that very short 23% grade, you’re at the top of the hill.

Finally we enjoyed a blistering descent toward Stinesville. This was particularly fun since the road curves back and forth very sharply during part of it and it’s a good test of your bike-handling skills and your traction. I had a lot of fun with it. The final SAG stop was in Stinesville at the Victor Oolitic Park.

There was another band, and I enjoyed this one the most, I think. One song they played reminded me a bit of T Bone Burnett, whose music I really enjoy. Looking at the information now I think the band was called Blackberry Jam.

The band at the final SAG stop

Everyone was looking pretty tired at this point, almost 90 miles into the two-day ride and just having climbed a really steep hill. I had another banana and some apple cider and tied my jacket to the rack on my bike since it was getting warm. I didn’t stop for too long, though, as I knew if I did it’d be hard to get rolling again.

Almost immediately after the SAG stop, there was a long hill to climb and I was really feeling sluggish. I spun up it very slowly and then the course turned, taking us straight into a tough headwind for the last 10 miles of the ride. Some riders ahead of me formed a tight paceline and I joined it to help beat the headwind. But the guy in front of me was riding erratically and ultimately I had to drop off the back because of the way he was riding. A few minutes later, I caught up with the paceline, but that took a lot of effort because of that wind and the fact that they were keeping a pretty good pace.

I was relieved when I did catch the paceline because things got a bit easier for a few miles. Things were fairly flat for a bit and while that made the headwind more of a problem, my legs didn’t need a bunch of huge climbs at this point. Finally, around 48 miles into the ride, we hit another big climb, and it was the Watertower Climb from the day before. Frankly I could have done without making this climb twice but of course we had to get back to the start point. It was harder today than it was before, but after that there were only a few much easier hills left.

We were almost done at this point

I rolled back to the high school around 1:30 pm. I was tired but felt surprisingly good given all the riding I had done — 100 miles in two days, with over 6,000 feet of climbing. It was a fantastic experience and while I normally ride alone, it was great to ride with thousands of other cyclists. The Hilly Hundred was great and I can’t wait to do it again.