Here is the route I ended up riding.

It was a cool day, the high was actually around 30, I think, but with a strong wind out of the NNW, the windchills were about 10 degrees colder.

Initially, the roads were clear. I rode my Long Haul Trucker, with studded tires, since I knew I’d be hitting some gravel, and I wasn’t sure how snowy or icy it might be.

The clouds were amazing all day, mostly overcast but in patches, with an occasional break that let the sun shine through. Also, because of the wind, the cloud shapes were constantly evolving.

It wasn’t long before I hit gravel. There I had varying amounts of snow and ice. Some of it was clear, some had a layer of snow or ice on it. None had deep snow, so my traction was pretty good, for the most part.

The Fort Wayne area is very flat. It’s always a bit of an adjustment for me. Since I’m used to hills, sometimes the miles go by very quickly on flat ground. On the other hand, I’m not used to long, straight stretches of road, which require a long, sustained, consistent power output. I’m more used to grinding up hills and coasting down the other side. So, flat ground makes for good endurance training, and in some ways can actually be more challenging for me. During the first half or so of the ride, I mostly had a tailwind, so this made this deceptively easy.

After a while, I crossed I-469.

The scenery remained fairly constant: roads, snowy fields, barns, houses, and those crazy clouds.

The road surface changed frequently. Sometimes it would be paved for a while, or gravel for a while, or sometimes it alternated seemingly at random.

My GPS indicated I was near the Saint Mary River. I tried to follow the GPS over to where the river appeared to be. All I found was this small stream. Obviously, the main river is somewhere else.

The scenery really seems constant in my photos. When I was there, it didn’t feel as monotonous as the photos indicate.

I passed the rather interesting Prairie View Cemetery.

I thought this “air mail” sign was very funny.

After a while, I reached Tocsin. There were just a few buildings there.

I didn’t even see a sign as I rolled into town. I had to ride around to find this sign on one of the other roads.

I had been thinking that I’d stop in Ossian on my way back, but at this point it became clear that I didn’t have enough daylight for that stop, so I decided to skip it and just head back fairly directly.

Now I had to struggle into the wind for basically the last 15 miles of the ride. I put my head down and just rode. It was slow going, with that damn wind!

Another cemetery caught my eye, this time Elhanan Cemetery.

These three silos served as a good landmark that I was getting somewhat close.

The Trucker was the perfect bike for this ride. Good on pavement, good on icy gravel … just generally good at basically everything.

I stopped for a shot of my bike with the Christmas lights on, in front of this iconic caboose in Fort Wayne.

By the end of the day, I had ridden over 37 miles. This was further than I expected to go, but when you ditch your route and wing it, that happens. I had a lot of fun, despite the rather harsh wind.

I relish these rides. I appreciate that I get to ride, even when I’m out of town, and riding somewhere different is always fun, even if it’s not an exotic location. It’s interesting how different the terrain can be, even without going far from home.

Rider Dossiers

Tim

Info: Author of Tex’s Luavull Cycling, co-founder of River City Cycling Society (RCCS), bicycle commuter, has a serious love of gravel.

Bike: Cannondale 29er with WTB Exiwolf tires

David C

Info: Author of fatguy.org (even though he isn’t), other founding father of RCCS, bicycle commuter, coffee lover, offbeat guy who likes to freak people out by wearing jeans to a ride.
Bike: Surly Long Haul Trucker with studded tires

 

Dave G
Info: Inveterate mountain biker; enjoys indoctrinating others into the sport. Has been plagued with knee problems. Can he push through anyway?
Bike: Cannondale Prophet with IRC FreedomCross tires

Michael (me)
Info: Apertome.com author, enjoys rides of all kinds. Bicycle commuter. Possesses a (yet-unfulfilled) hankering for a pork tenderloin sandwich.
Bike: Fuji Tahoe 29er with Maxxis Ignitor tires

Route

Illustrated Ride Report

We headed out from Norman, IN at around 10:00 am. We started on paved roads with just a little snow. All of us were on mountain bikes with knobby tires, except for David C, who rode his Long Haul Trucker with studded tires.It had rained the day before and then the temperatures dropped and some snow fell. It was tough to predict what the conditions would be like.

Within a few minutes, we hit gravel. There was a bit more snow on the gravel roads. We followed a ridgetop for a while, before going into a steep descent.

Just moments after I warned the others that the hill was going to get very steep, it did just that. I must have grabbed my front brake a little bit, because right then, less than four miles into the ride, I went down, landing flat on my face. Looking at the GPS data suggests I was going about 15 mph when I fell. I slid a ways on the snowy gravel road. It took me a moment to collect myself and stand up. When I did, my foot nearly slipped out from under me. It turns out, there was a layer of ice under the snow, that you couldn’t see at all.

I couldn’t see my own face, so the other guys had a look. They said my nose had some superficial scratches, and my cheek was swollen, but nothing looked too serious. Tim took a photo of me so I could see the damage.

I felt a bit shaken, but overall, OK. Tim offered to call the ride off, right then and there, but I wanted to ride on. So, after I regained my composure, and let some air out of my tires, we did.

Fortunately for me, the descent was basically over. Normally I wouldn’t be excited about the end of a downhill, but after that incident, I was feeling awfully paranoid about any descents for the rest of the ride. My confidence was shaken.

We rode through a couple of creeks and immediately started a climb. I felt pretty good during the climb. It’s a long climb, but it wasn’t too steep until the very end.

Then it was flat riding, with perhaps some rollers in the mix. A couple of beautiful pine forests were quite scenic.

For a while, we were also riding on soft, sparkly virgin snow. You can sort of see the sparkle in the photo below, but it doesn’t do it justice. This section was bliss.

Next was a long flowing downhill that is normally a lot of fun. I still enjoyed it, but I went very, very slowly. I couldn’t seem to shake my trepidation, so I just took my time. The others waited for me at the bottom.

We stopped for a shot of this beautiful grassy field, and the intersection of two ridges behind it. It’s funny, Tim took almost exactly the same photo.

We rode on paved roads again for a bit. The sky looked amazing. Thick grey clouds, but with a few openings for the sun to poke through. There was even a spot of blue sky.

Unfortunately I wasn’t really paying attention to my GPS, and we overshot our turn by about a mile. We took that opportunity to snack and adjust layers.  When we got back on course, we had another long climb but once again it wasn’t as bad as it seemed the last time I was there. Tim and I rode ahead a bit. It was hard to stay warm unless we kept moving.

Here is my ride for the day, my Fuji Tahoe 29 mountain bike. It performed quite well. The disc brakes were nice to have, and the suspension fork soaked up some of the bumps. My wipeout was my fault, not the bike’s.

Tim also rode a 29er, his a Cannondale. He was testing a Jones Loop Bar and seemed to like it, though he said he would adjust the angle before the next ride. Also new were the platform pedals and saddle bag. This was the bike’s maiden voyage in this gravel-grinder configuration. A very nice ride.

I guess I didn’t get a shot of the Daves’s bicycles, but they have been documented here before. Around this time, Tim commented that it was getting dark and the clouds much denser than before. Would it snow soon?

Here are the Daves, coming up the hill.

Now we had some flat riding, and another long downhill. Once again I kept my speed extremely low on the descent.

The road surface played tricks on my mind. Here we had rough gravel with a thin layer of snow. It didn’t look too terribly different from a clean white gravel road, so I nearly forgot about the snow. It was hard to discern what was just gravel, what was snow, and what was ice. Fortunately there wasn’t much ice, but knowing there was some out there was enough to slow me down.

We rode by a beautiful rock wall.

And the road followed a creek for quite a while. Beautiful.

We rode on pavement for a while.

The snow picked up, gradually at first …

… but for the rest of the ride, it was just snow harder and harder. The apparent vignetting in my shots is actually snow on my camera lens.

Eventually we reached the small town of Houston, where we took a break in the middle of the road, without getting in the way.

Once past Houston, things got gnarlier. More hills. More wind. More snow.

And, Dave G’s knee started acting up. You can see him stretching it out in the background below.

At some point the road turned to gravel. There were times when I couldn’t tell if there was pavement or gravel under the snow. Not that it made a lot of difference, at that point. We entered another beautiful wooded area.

And, we started a very long climb. Looking at the map beforehand this didn’t look so bad. Being there on the ground, in the snow, it was brutal.

There were some nice views of a ravine beside us, poorly captured here.

At some point we had to make a decision: should we return through the National Forest, or take the “easier” way, the highway. Dave G’s knee wasn’t doing well. We opted for the highway.

Unfortunately, this didn’t end up being easy at all. The snow was picking up, as was the wind. There were more hills on State Road 58 than we realized. We faced four miles into strong winds on the open road, with snow blowing all around, so visibility was poor.

Here you can get an idea of my mental and physical state. Bloody face, snow on my eyebrows despite my glasses, just determination to get back. Also apparently my cap was very askew.

And here comes Tim. We rode ahead of the Daves, out of sheer necessity. We were desperately trying to keep warm at this point. I was mostly OK except my feet had gotten very cold, even though they had been fine most of the ride up to this point.

I won’t say this part was fun, but it was an adventure, and the scenery was stellar.

As soon as we climbed the killer hill back to Norman and arrived back at the parking lot, we looked back to see a snow plow come up the hill, right behind us. We just missed the luxury of a plowed road. We later learned that the Daves had to jump out of its way. They pulled up just a few minutes later.

We intended to all catch a meal together after the ride, but both of the local options were closed. Damn.

I can’t speak for Tim and David C, but Dave G and I had very interesting trips home. The snow just kept coming down and the roads were terrible. Particularly disconcerting were the cars strewn about the ditches right by the Lake Monroe causeway. But, everyone made it home safely, it just took a while.

This was a truly great ride. The conditions basically guaranteed an epic experience, but the group of riders was just phenomenal and made the adverse conditions a lot of fun.

As for my injuries, I’m feeling worse today than I was yesterday, mostly in the form of a headache and a sore neck. Hopefully those problems will take care of themselves. Also, I will be buying a new helmet, just to be on the safe side. Mine is old anyway.

We got a few more inches of snow. This morning my commute was quite interesting; many schools and businesses were closed today. There were an inch or two of fresh snow on the roads, and more snow coming down hard. My cassette and rear derailleur got clogged with snow over the course of my ride to work.

However, I had an absolute blast.

The Beast handled the snow well, I like the feeling of snow on my face, the way it blankets everything … I really just enjoy riding in this stuff. By the time I arrived at work, I had a silly grin on my face.

My ride home was more or less the same, but more intense.  It was colder, there was more snow on the ground, it was snowing harder, and it was VERY windy. It was snowing sideways!

Wind blew the snow off roofs, as you can sort of see below.

Fortunately, it had been warm enough that the main roads had little to no snow on them. State Road 45 was clear completely. Mt. Gilead, a side road, had some snow, but it wasn’t too bad. Still, I was riding the Trucker, with slick tires, so I had to be extra careful.  Interestingly enough, the hills were the *easiest* part, as they had large amounts of sand and salt on them. The flat sections were largely untreated, and as such has some snow and ice.

In the first few shots, you can see the progression of the road conditions, going away from town.

Here you can see that I’m enjoying myself. It felt great to ride the Trucker after spending so much time commuting on The Beast.

More importantly, the scenery was tremendous. I’ve ridden through this area dozens of times before, but it’s never looked like this.

You can see how thick the sand is, on this steep, winding downhill.

I made my way over to Bethel Lane, another back road … and the road conditions were OK at first, but quickly deteriorated. Icy snow and snowy ice made for very little traction. I was impressed at how well my slick tires handled these conditions, especially at one point when I stopped and put a foot down, only to have it nearly slide right out from under me.

At one point, my rear tire suddenly slid sideways. I recovered without falling, but it was nerve-wracking. I just had to go very slowly for a few miles.

I stopped to take a break for a minute and realized icicles were accumulating on my fenders. I had to break the ice off the front fender, as it was starting to rub the tire.

I was worried about the hill that I would have to ride down to get to Lake Griffy. The road there was in slightly better shape than Bethel Lane had been, but not by a whole lot. Once I reached the bottom of the hill, the road was clear and I rode across the causeway. The lake was frozen and a lone fisherman was out on the ice.

The road up the hill on the other side of the lake, back toward town, was clear and easy riding. Well, easy except the fact that it’s a big hill.

Within a few minutes, I was back in town. It’s a bit jarring to turn the corner after riding past a lake and through a forest, and suddenly see one of the busiest roads in town. That’s one thing I love about Bloomington, though, you don’t have to go far to get to what is essentially the middle of nowhere.

From there, I rode home, basically following my commute route. Some kind soul had again plowed the bike path. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a vast improvement over what it’s like when left alone. Whoever is responsible for this: thank you!

All in all, a great ride. Just a bit over 18 miles, but it felt like more, given the conditions.

I’ll take snow over this, any day. There’s just no way to stay warm when you are that wet. And no way to stay dry when it’s pouring that hard. And no way to see, when your glasses are covered in raindrops, and fogging up. Rain drops pelted my face, stinging, until the numbness set in. In hindsight, I should’ve had another layer or two of clothing.

So, it wasn’t exactly a glorious day for commuting. These things happen, but I made it anyway.

Tomorrow looks to be interesting as well, but with snow, rather than rain, and 50 mph winds. Whatever the conditions are where you’re riding … be careful out there!

As soon as I got outside, I noticed it was drizzling. I hadn’t counted on rain, but I was dressed warmly enough that I wasn’t too worried.

I rolled away from town, heading for some back roads. I got on Mount Gilead Road and the rain picked up slightly. It wasn’t raining hard, but the roads were wet enough to be rather slick. I rode my brakes down a big hill, and at one point I felt my rear tire slipping a bit. This is the second time this has happened; I think it’s time to get a new tire.

I reached the bottom of the hill and turned onto another road. I stopped by a creek to turn on my headlamp and take a few photos. I wasn’t sure if they’d turn out, as my point & shoot camera does not do too well in low light, but the gamble paid off. Actually, if anything, the photos look too bright.

I cruised for a few flat miles, seeing a few deer along the way. Eventually, I had to ride on State Road 46. By this time, it was getting quite dark, and the rain had picked up. I was glad I had dressed warmly enough, and glad I wore my wind and rain-resistant cycling vest. I had many lights blinking but I was still nervous about this brief section of highway. It was over in a few minutes, with no problems.

I turned onto Friendship Road for a brief section of gravel, and stopped on a bridge over a creek to snap a few more photos. I’ve taken photos here several times before, but of course it looks different when it’s raining and nearly completely dark. My glasses kept getting covered with rain drops, I would wipe them off frequently, but it didn’t seem to help much.

After a brief section of gravel, I turned onto Lampkins Ridge road for a long climb. By this point it was completely dark, and it started raining even harder. The climb seemed very long in the dark. It was hard to tell I was, or how much longer I had to climb. It didn’t help that a dog chased me; I always hate being chased uphill, and since it was dark, I couldn’t tell if the dog had stopped chasing or not.

I made my way back toward town, soon reaching Smith Road. From this point it was only a couple of easy miles home.

This was a surprisingly fun ride, given that it was cold, windy, raining, and dark. I loved it!

Panoramic view to the north

View to the south

The Delaware Water Gap is visible in the distance

This hike was also a gear test for my new GPS. I had one previously, but at some point it stopped working, and it never worked very well on my bicycle. The new GPS, a Garmin eTrex Venture, worked incredibly well. It gets a much stronger signal and seems to be more accurate than my old GPS. This will allow me to do some cool things like geotagging my photos, and posting maps of our activities. For example, see this hike on motionbased.com, or this interactive Google map:

View Larger Map

I have a lot to learn about that stuff, but I think it will make for some interesting ways of presenting photos combined with maps. Another fun way to look at it is in Google Earth. Here’s an example.

Google Earth view

Since this hike starts at the top of the mountain, there’s nowhere to go but down. It started with a smooth, gradual hike down the side of the mountain, and once we got away from the mountaintop and into the woods, we weren’t as exposed to the wind. Eventually we warmed up from the physical activity, but for the first 15 minutes or so we were quite cold.

Easy hiking through birch trees

You can see how cold Sarah felt

Snowy moss

Me

Sky

The trail got perpetually rockier as we hiked. After a while, we reached the edge of a cliff, which the trail followed, quite close to the edge. This afforded us some great views of Tannersville below us in a large valley, with the Delaware Water Gap and New Jersey in the distance.

Rocky trail

Panoramic view — worth viewing large

Unidentified building

Big rocks, part of the trail

Delaware Water Gap

Sarah

Precipitous trail

The trail turned back away from the edge, and now it was time for some climbing. The rock-to-trail quotient increased further. It was slow going, but we were having a lot of fun. The sun was getting low in the sky, the trees throwing long shadows, and we enjoyed the quiet and beautiful hike back up the mountain.

Hiking into the sun

The trail climbed this rock wall. If you look closely you can see an orange blaze on a rock.

More rocks

We reached the connector trail that went back to the car, but we hadn’t had enough. We looked at the map and figured out a way to extend our hike by about another mile. It looked like it would be mostly flat, but there was still significant climbing ahead of us. In a way this was preferable as the more we climbed, the warmer we felt. And as the sun followed its downward trajectory the sky took on new hues.

Climbing

Looking back at Sarah, and the elevation we’d gained

We reached a power line right-of-way, and peering down we had a great view of the valley below us to the south. There was a small lake that appears to have been Mountain Spring Lake, and another, Trout Lake, behind it, and the whole scene was illuminated by nearly-sidewise rays of sunlight. I fought my way through a bush to get a good shot.

Looking toward Mountain Spring Lake

A short while later I discovered that my efforts to find this clear view were not necessary. We found a vista, complete with a rock on which to sit, or stand. I stood atop this rock and gazed down on the land below, the lakes, the Delaware Water Gap in the distance, and who knows what, beyond that. I watched as the clouds caught the sunlight and refracted it erratically. I took a deep breath, drinking in this crisp mountain air, and held my wife close to me. It doesn’t get any better than this, peering out over the land in our new home, with my beautiful wife. When we lived in Indiana, we grew to feel a sense of ownership of the land. We were familiar with every twist and turn of many roads, the topography of the land, and many of the sights and sounds. I knew, standing here, that soon we’d feel the same way about this place. But more importantly, that we would discover this new land together.

Taking in the view

Panoramic image of the view (view large)

An even better view, if you ask me

We had a little hiking left, but we were almost back. It wasn’t the longest hike we’ve done, or easiest, or the most challenging, but it was quite beautiful, and even more memorable.

Sunlight

Solitary tree

Back in the parking lot; one last look to the north before heading out

Sarah again. If she ever runs for office, maybe she can use this shot.

The forecast called for some possible drizzle, and as we ate lunch in the valley before heading to the park, it did rain a bit. But once we started hiking, rather than rain, a few flurries were falling. It was chilly and quite windy, with gusts hitting 30+ mph. The hike started by following the Fireline Trail, which we’ve hiked part of before.

Fireline Trail

After a short time on that very wide trail, we turned onto the Skyline Trail, which is much narrower. We immediately started seeing some interesting plants that I would like to identify. If anyone knows what these are, please let me know. I have a wildflower book that’d probably tell me, but it’s still packed somewhere. I noticed when my hiking staff accidentally hit one of the plants that a cloud of white dust emanated from the plant. I’m assuming this was some kind of pollen.

Unidentified plant

The trail was moderately rocky for a while, but it was clear that for this trail, they had at least attempted to clear a path for walking (unlike Saturday’s hike on the Pinchot Trail). Many rocks were cleared to the sides.

Rocks line the trail

One humorous rock

The trail was generally well-marked, which was essential since it crossed other trails at several points. However, one sign had us a bit puzzled and looking at our map and compass.

Not the most helpful sign

Creek

Winding trail

We had been hiking across a ridge, and the trail descended a bit before turning to follow the curvature of the land, and climbing for a while. We got glimpses of neighboring mountains through the trees.

Sarah

Looking through the trees

We climbed higher, and inched closer to the edge of the mountain. The whooshing sound of the Lehigh River rapids below us was constant. The wind blew in strong gusts and now we were exposed. We were glad the wind was blowing us toward the mountain, rather than toward the gorge. At several points we could clearly see the Lehigh Gorge Trail, where I rode my bicycle just a few weeks ago.

Getting closer to the edge

Looking toward the gorge. You can see the Lehigh Gorge Trail, and the river

Sarah by the gorge, looking “gorge-ous,” I must say.

Me.

Mistakes could be costly

Another view of the gorge

Sarah again

Eventually, the trail rejoined the Fireline Trail, and we had another view we saw before. The pine trees sure stick out, now that they’re the only thing green.

Lehigh Gorge

We immensely enjoyed the Skyline Trail. It’s not too difficult, but excessively easy, either. It covers a variety of terrain, and it offers some fantasic views of the Lehigh Gorge.

After our hike, we drove to the Boulder Field. It’s a longer drive than I expected on some gravel roads. Just as we arrived, so did some other people, and they immediately walked out onto the rocks, severely limiting our photo potential. Oh well.

Sign explaining the Boulder Field

Boulder field

Looking at the boulder field

Sarah

It was another fun outing. Hickory Run State Park has a surprising number of trails (23, I believe), with a total length of 45 miles. We hope to hike all of them, eventually.

There was something about the light during this ride that was truly wonderful. Warm and golden, rays of light increasingly radiated from behind hills and trees, drops working their way through the canopy and splashing on the pavement below. And it was windy, and cooler outside than it has been for a while (in the 70s), so the sunlight felt good, rather than overheating me. This was one of those rides where everything just looks better, and feels better.

The wind was just strong enough to give me a boost when at my back, but not strong enough that riding into it was a struggle. I rode out 45 to Mount Gilead and enjoyed a swift descent into the valley. The road surface here just keeps getting rougher, and there is still some sand at the bottom of the hill, forcing me to keep my speed in check.

Barn on Mount Gilead

Rough road

I climbed out of the valley. I felt strong, and climbed in a higher gear than usual. I spun up the hill with relative ease, compared to how much I sometimes struggle with it. I am finally starting to feel like I’m getting back in shape after really losing a lot of ground this winter.

Part of the climb

I saw some weird shadows at the top and rode by some more farms, where the corn is really taking off (finally).

Cool shadows

Corn. We have lots and lots of this.

After riding Mount Gilead, I headed over and took Tunnel Road down to Shilo. Shilo always has an extremely rough surface, but it’s just getting worse. Somehow, for me, this makes it more fun. It’s great fun darting downhill and around a sharp turn, dodging potholes and other anomalies in the process. It requires more thought and more finesse than most roads.

Shilo Road
My ride on Shilo was intense, but uneventful. Even the dog that usually chases me was nowhere to be seen. There was no flooding on any of the roads I rode on, it seems to have largely subsided. Sometimes it’s hard to predict how long some of these areas will remain flooded, and I often forget that the water seeps away and evaporates much more quickly in the summer. Some fields remained flooded.

The always-scenic landfill

Anderson Road

Windblown grass and flooded fields

The climb up old 37 is always a long one, but once again I felt strong and kept my speed a bit higher than usual. It felt great.

Old 37

The light just got better as I rode on, taking Bethel Lane back over to 45.

Field, sun, trees, clouds

Long grass

This was a great summery ride, without being too hot. I am loving these long days. Being able to easily fit in a 26-mile ride after work and still having plenty of light is fantastic. I really could have ridden further, but we had other things to do, and I was hungry. I think I could probably fit in 35 miles before dark … maybe one of these days, I’ll try to find out.