Anyway, last weekend, Dave and I went for a road ride. We ended up doing something we’ve done in the past. I rode the 13+ miles out to his house, we rode a loop together (in this case, around 35 miles), and then I rode home. I ended up with over 60 miles and 3600 feet of climbing for the day.

The day was beautiful — nay, perfect. 70 degrees, breezy, sunny, and literally not a cloud in the deep blue sky. But even more amazing was the humidity — a mere 30%! That kind of low humidity is awfully rare around here, and I sure enjoyed it while it lasted.

Amazingly, this ride didn’t include a single new road. We rode some roads in a different configuration from what I’ve ever done in the past, but every road was familiar.

This kind of ride — with the long out-and-back sections at the beginning and end, and 100% familiar roads, makes it easy to put in some long miles without feeling like I’m doing an epic ride. It’s easier, physically and mentally, than a 60-mile ride in the boonies in new terrain. There’s something to be said for both kinds of riding, but this day was just an excellent day to turn the pedals for a few hours, with great conversation, worry-free.

Fall is starting to arrive. Some trees have started turning already, and some fields are a beautiful golden yellow color. It’s a wonderful time of year.

On my way out to Dave’s, I had a headwind most of the time.

Once Dave and I connected, it was wide open road for a while.

There are a couple of climbs lined with limestone walls like this one.

We rode up to Morgan-Monroe State Forest. There are a few good hills along the way, but once you are in the forest, it’s easy, gently-rolling, perfectly smooth asphalt, with deep shade from dense forest. It’s a wonderful respite from the climbing, at roughly the halfway point in the ride.

Our bikes couldn’t be more different, but you’d be surprised at how well Dave keeps up with my road bike on his full-suspension bike. If he ever gets a proper road bike, I’ll be in trouble.

We enjoyed rolling down Bean Blossom Road. This is more or less a 1.8-mile downhill. If you ride the Hilly Hundred, a popular annual ride, you’ll ride UP this hill. I’ve done it, but when left to my own devices, I always, always opt to ride down it instead of up.

Then it’s a flat valley for a few minutes.

Dave suggested we take North Shore Road to extend our ride and loop around Lake Lemon. It’s been a few years since I rode North Shore from west to east, and I think I have changed my opinion of this road. I used to think it was better going east to west, but now I think west to east may in fact be better. Either way you go, it’s quite hilly.

We only got a brief glimpse or two of Lake Lemon. I had to stop when I saw all these huge lillypads.

Below, you can see a tree that’s changing a little bit. Soon these trees will be ablaze with color.

The area surrounding the creek, below, was flooded badly, but they appear to be making good progress on cleaning up and rebuilding.

We usually take South Shore to ride across the causeway, and see more of the lake, but we decided to take State Road 45 back instead. It was a shockingly quiet day, and even the highway was incredibly empty. I think everyone must have been indoors, watching the IU football game, or actually at the game (there was a home game that day).

Dave went home and I stopped for a minute to get a shot of the little post office in Unionville. A couple of big logging trucks went by, full of logs probably taken from Yellowwood State Forest.

I had an excellent tailwind the whole way home and finished the ride on a strong note, feeling great and enjoying the push after having a headwind so much of the day.

It was a great ride! I was hoping to get to ride some evening after class/work, but I just didn’t have time. Tomorrow, though, I get to go mountain biking with Dave and Tim. The forecast looks iffy, but it should be another great day on the bike.

I wasn’t sure what kind of bike Doug would be riding. He showed up on a Schwinn Voyageur SP, in an excellent commuting/touring configuration, complete with fenders, racks, and downtube shifters. Like me, he commutes by bicycle year-round. This is the kind of bicycle my Long Haul Trucker is patterned after, so I enjoyed seeing Doug’s bike. Oh yeah … he also wore clipless sandals. A good choice.

It was a very humid morning, but fortunately, for most of ride, it wasn’t extremely hot. Just really muggy, and a bit hazy, but the humidity was bad enough to keep us sweating buckets.

This next shot typifies the scenery: haze and plentiful rollers. At one point, we commented that Tim would not have been happy with all the rollers.

One road claimed to be “closed,” but we got through the construction zone quite easily on bicycles.

I saw the bluish-purple wildflowers all over the place during the ride. I’m not sure what they are, so if anyone can help me identify them, that would be great.

Here’s one of my favorite views, with quite a bit of haze. By the time we climbed up on this ridge, the sun had come out in full force and we were just boiling in the heat.

This was a fun ride, with good company, and I still had much of the day left for other activities (mostly just beating the heat). Good times!

As planned, the ride was this past Sunday, but there was a much greater turnout than I had imagined. In addition to Jon, Brad, and Bill, we had Tim and Asher come up from Louisville, and my local friend Dave joined us as well. Including me, that meant we had seven riders, most of whom knew each other through blogs but had never met before.

Here is the route we rode:

Sarah prepared quite a spread for breakfast, so everyone was certainly well-fueled when we rolled out. Here are a couple of shots Sarah took of us before the ride.

Here are the riders at the start:

Jon and Brad (the Denver guys), Asher and Tim (the Louisville guys), and me (the Bloomington guy).

Bill (the Fort Wayne guy) is below in the yellow jersey. In the other shot I had of him, his water bottle was covering his face.

The ride started with some rollers to get across/around town, and there was more traffic than I expected, for a Sunday morning. I guess being a holiday weekend may have affected that.

Here we have, from close to far, Brad, Asher, and Tim.

Here, Jon and Bill are getting acquainted in person, but I think of all of us felt like we knew each other already, from conversations on our blogs.

Within a few minutes, we had our first mechanical issue of the day. I think it was a bag snafu, if I recall correctly.

But, we weren’t stopped long. Once we got through the rollers and traffic, we turned into the neighborhood where I grew up. The next mile or so was on mild singletrack, rolling through the woods, which John Mellencamp owns. He bought the land so it wouldn’t be developed. I spent many days back in those woods at the end of my street, as a kid. Everyone loved the shady woods and the fun trails that we rode on. Here we’re all stopped to photograph a box turtle.

Here are Bill and Jon, coming out of the woods.

Next we had a big, paved descent, followed by some flat, but beautiful, bottomland, with fields, creeks, and hills surrounding us.

Now we had the first major climb of the day: Mount Gilead Road. It was paved and very smooth, a bit steep at the bottom but not too bad after that. It does go on for a while, though.

Soon after the climb, we met up with Dave, who was starting from his house. Next we were on State Road 45, with a few ups and downs, open fields and wooded sections. It’s a highway, but we were far enough from town that there was very little traffic.

After a bit of that, we entered Yellowwood State Forest, and finally reached our first gravel of the day. The introduction to the state forest was abrupt, as we turned onto a gravel road and went down a big hill. Now normally I climb this hill, so I am used to having more time to look around and enjoy the scenery. However, it was still just beautiful, with rolling hills, gravel roads, shade, deep green trees above and vinca below, not flowering but the lush green groundcover was lovely.

Here, Asher is approaching.

Tim and Asher rolling out.

And here is Brad, who surprised me with an awesome wheelie for the camera. You can see Bill in the distance, who was having problems with his fender. The bolt wiggled loose, with all the gravel.

Soon we were at the gorgeous Yellowwood Lake. The water level was high and the lake looked wonderful.

Soon we were rolling again, with some gravel rollers, the ride’s only water stop, and then we were back on pavement for a while. Unfortunately during a big downhill, Dave’s rear tire slipped a bit. He managed to stay upright. Upon closer inspection, his rear tire was going flat. He patched it.

While Dave was fixing his tire, I took a moment to document the various bikes people were riding. Here is Jon with his great 29er. I love the handlebars on this bike, and the titanium fork.

Bill’s Specialized Tri-Cross got a good workout on the gravel and trail. Aside from his fender issues, it fared very well.

Asher had borrowed this Cannondale mountain bike from a friend. It was a great bike, but some rear hub issues gave him fits while climbing, at times.

Brad’s Bridgestone XO-3 surprised me. It looks like a bike that’d be good for just tooling around town, and I’m sure it would be good for that, but it handled serious hills and gravel with aplomb. It definitely helps that he’s a strong rider. He could fly on this thing. It also looks shockingly similar to The Beast, making me think that I need to get that bike rolling again.

Brad took a moment to call the wife and daughter while sitting in the shade. Nice.

And of course, here is my Long Haul Trucker. Somehow, I managed to not get a photo of Tim’s LHT at this time.

Jon and Bill chatting. They really hit it off. Also, Bill has lost a ton of weight since the last time I rode with him. He looks great.

Dave, getting ready to ride again.

Paved loveliness awaited.

It wasn’t long before Dave had to put more air in his tire again. Then it was about a mile of riding on the busy State Road 46. It wasn’t fun, but fortunately it was short-lived. Soon we turned onto Crooked Creek Road, which alternates between pavement and gravel. At one point, a lizard scampered across the road, and we just narrowly missed hitting it.

Dave’s tire went flat again, so we stopped again. I turned my attention to the butterflies on some wildflowers.

Soon, we were rolling again. We had a big, steep gravel climb, the kind that goes up for a while, then evens out. Just when you start thinking it’s over, it turns sharply uphill once again. Ouch! There was a steep downhill afterwards, as well, which I took very cautiously. I didn’t feel I had very good traction.

After that we were on pavement for a while, and things were a bit easier.

We stopped by part of Lake Monroe, and just as we pulled up, a Great Blue Heron swooped down into the water just ahead of us. I missed getting a photo of the heron, but I at least got the lake.

Then it was a few more miles of remote, quiet paved roads, followed by another big climb — this time, paved. Tim’s chain snapped as he was riding up the hill. Jon ended up coming partway back down the hill with his chain tool to help. That meant he had to ride back up again. It was a long, steep hill, and it was hot and humid. Tough riding, for sure.

But, all that climbing paid off a few minutes later, with a phenomenal paved descent down T.C. Steele Road, complete with switchbacks and some straight sections where you could really let loose. This was a real highlight of the ride for me; the payoff for a bunch of climbing, and the Trucker descends so well on pavement that it was a real treat. After that, we had flat-to-rolling pavement for a little bit.

The flowers below were particularly beautiful.

Soon we were back on gravel, where we faced a couple of miles of very rough, loose gravel with big chunks that shook me as I rode. Jon definitely had the right bike for this section, with his 29″ knobbies. Then it was a brief stint back on the highway, another short section of rough gravel, and a climb back up toward town. Apparently I stopped taking photos around this time. It was beautiful riding, but I was definitely slowing down.

Once we were nearly back to town, Dave peeled off to ride home. The rest of us continued back to my house, by way of some serious rollers. Jon was having major cramping problems, so he and I hung back. Either we slowed down a lot, or everyone else picked up the pace, because they sure seemed to be flying. I was feeling OK, but not wanting to go fast at all. We all arrived back at my house within a few minutes of each other.

Once there, we broke out the beer and Sarah had prepared a great lunch. We all sat in the shade, drinking cold beer and eating sandwiches, wonderfully fresh fruit, and other items.

It was immensely gratifying to have such a great turnout for this ride, and to meet new friends, and longtime friends who we just happened not to have had the pleasure of riding with before. I also enjoyed showing off the beautiful land in the Bloomington area to people who seemed to appreciate it as much as I do.

I have more photos posted in my set on Flickr for this ride.

Other accounts of this ride (will add more later):

• Asher
• Bill
• Tim

David had a hugely epic first day planned — Louisville to Bloomington — 110 hilly miles, into a headwind, carrying lots of weight. He made it as far as Bedford, IN, 80 miles into his ride, and called me to let me know he was behind schedule. I offered to come pick him up and he accepted.

It was great to have him stay with us. The evening was spent drinking beer, talking photos and GPSes, and generally goofing around. Good times.

On Sunday, David was rolling out for the second leg of his trip: 80 miles to Indianapolis. I decided to join him for part of the ride.

Read David’s post about Sunday’s ride here.

I ended up riding with David as far as Martinsville, and then turning back toward home. I had 60 miles for the day, on the Trucker, with tough headwinds and more hills on the return trip. But, I was glad to have a headwind, because that meant David would have a strong tailwind most of the day. Here’s a map of my route for the day.

In the morning, it was 40 degrees and raining — nasty. We went out for breakfast and relaxed for a while, and the rain subsided. We headed out.

You can only sort of see them, but there were a few flowers blooming alongside the road.

David was riding well. On the downhills, he flew well ahead of me. I guess the extra weight in his panniers pulled him down the hills at high speeds.

David was using some new Arkel panniers. They are HUGE, and badass.

Morgan-Monroe State Forest had some great riding in store for us.

After riding down a big hill, we found ourselves on flat ground, with a tailwind. We were flying, for a little while.

Before long, we reached Martinsville. We stopped at a gas station to get more water, and whatever else we needed. After this stop, we parted ways, he headed up to Indianapolis, and I was headed back to Bloomington, but I took a different route back.

My route back was hillier, and straight into the wind most of the way. It was quite tiring, and the Trucker felt absolutely dog slow. I’ve been spoiled, riding the Bianchi.

What started out as a nasty, cold, rainy day turned into a beautiful day for riding. It must have been in the 60s later in the day. I ended up shedding layers until I was riding in just shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Riding relatively unencumbered felt great.

It was a pleasure to have David stay with us, and I’m glad we got to ride together, as well.

Sunday morning, we slept later than expected … past 8:00 am! I’m not a morning person, but I’m usually up earlier than that when camping. We got up, made breakfast and coffee, packed up our tents, and headed out for our second big ride of the weekend.

The route Tim had planned for this day was 60 miles. We thought it would be easier than Saturday’s route, though, because it had less climbing. There were a few factors we didn’t know about/didn’t take into consideration — extremely rugged road surfaces, and several flat miles meant the climbing was more concentrated we realized. As a result Sunday’s ride ended up being at least as difficult as Saturday’s, or perhaps even more difficult. Here is the route we rode.

Our ride started on the same 6-mile flat gravel road as before. This time, instead of getting onto the paved road from Saturday, we turned onto another gravel road. The route was surprisingly flat and deceptively easy for the first 15 miles or so. The road we were on followed a beautiful creek through a valley for quite a few miles, and we passed a horse farm or two. I think we were all very stiff from Saturday’s ride and sleeping on the ground. For me, at least, it took quite a while for my legs to loosen up.

We saw another footbridge, this one had supports made of oil drums. Sketchy?

At times, the trees formed a tunnel around us. The sunlight turned orange as it filtered through the leaves, and leaves fell and blew all around us as we rode. It was a beautiful scene.

We came across a spot in the creek that had a HUGE rock, and a rope swing. What fun!

I forget what this green plant is, but Tim mentioned its name. In areas everything was overgrown with this green crawler.

After a while, we turned onto a paved road, which remained relatively flat as well.

We had a few moments of confusion with the route, but we eventually figured out where to go. Our road immediately went into a brutal climb, 1.5 miles and over 500 feet of elevation gain.

The road continued with some major ups and downs. Now, this road was just amazing. A very narrow, one-lane road through the woods, sometimes winding its way along the edge of ravines. We saw very few signs of civilization along the road. This road was so remote and little-traveled that we were pondering why it even existed! Along the way, we saw more interesting rock formations. The climbing was brutal, but … what a beautiful road!

Here we are looking back on where we came from.

After a while of this, we ended up on a gravel road. Not your typical gravel road, this one was quite rough with many large loose rocks. The riding was very rough and sketchy for many miles.

We did see some rhododendron, which I am always a big fan of. I hadn’t seen any since I left Pennsylvania.

Here are Tim and Dave on one of the rollers.

Frankly, this road became a drag. It featured some rolling hills, some very tough climbs and descents,  and very little flat riding. At many points you could tell that you were close to a nice view, but couldn’t see through the trees. It got a bit frustrating. Also on this stretch of road, Tim got the only flat tire any of us would see the entire weekend.

We did find this very cool rock face with a cave in it.

There were some more really tough climbs. Eventually we started running out of water again. Argh! I brought 4 bottles, I think the other guys each brought 5. And yet, it wasn’t enough. I had brought my water filter with me, but there were no streams or water of any kind to filter from. We just had to keep going. I even walked a few hills, not because I couldn’t make it up them, but because I knew if I pushed it too hard without water, I’d be in bad shape.

When we left Daniel Boone National Forest, I was hoping things would improve.

We entered Tennessee.

At this point, things *did* improve, at least somewhat. The road got smoother and had better flow to it. The climbs weren’t as steep. It was actually really beautiful and fun riding.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to enjoy it very much. We had simply been on this road for too long, with its pleasant-but-samey scenery, lack of water (or anything, really), etc. It would be pleasant on a normal day, but we needed a change.

Eventually, we entered Pickett State Forest.

And, after what seemed like forever, arrived the next road we would take, and it was paved!

Riding on smooth pavement felt absolutely sublime, after all that gravel. And before long, we found water.

My mood, and my riding, took an immediate turn for the better. Unfortunately Tim and David were both feeling sick by this time, but once rehydrated, I was feeling pretty good. I did my best to help them along. This paved road was a real stunner. Beautiful scenery, great downhills, doable (but challenging) climbs, and no traffic whatsoever. And like Saturday, the sky filled with clouds in the afternoon. It got cooler and less harsh on the eyes. Things were looking up, from my perspective.

We entered Pickett State Park.

Tim and David were struggling with the climbs. We just stuck together and after a while they, too, started feeling better again. In a way this started to feel like a century ride, or another long ride, where you hit a wall but ultimately get over it, feel better, and start enjoying the ride again. This ride wasn’t that long in terms of mileage, but it was in terms of time, and climbing.

I couldn’t get enough of the sweeping descents, and climbs, on this road!

The sky grew increasingly ominous, but no rain fell.

We re-entered Big South Fork, and Kentucky.

After a while — too soon if you ask me, I could have ridden on this beautiful paved road all day — we turned onto another gravel road, and stopped for another shot of the three Truckers.

I was a little nervous about this gravel road. I knew we’d be on it for about eight miles. If it turned out to be as difficult as the earlier gravel roads, we might have a really hard time with it.

Fortunately, this road was not as rough as the earlier ones, and did not have any huge climbs. Just some moderate rolling hills, and some beautiful views. By this time it was getting a little dark so we switched our lights on.

We went into a steep, loose, washboarded, rocky descent. I was having problems retaining enough traction. Finally, almost at the bottom of the hill, my front wheel washed out and I went down. I tried to do a leaping dismount, like I had on Saturday, but it didn’t work this time. Fortunately I was going quite slowly at the time and didn’t hit the ground too hard. I scraped my leg and landed funny on my hand, but no real injuries occurred. The worst of it is the scrape on my leg, which covers a sort of large area, but it’s not deep at all. I got back on the bike. It figures I’d wipe out in the last 7 miles of an epic weekend of riding!

Soon we were back on the road back our campground.

We arrived safely back at the campground, loaded the bikes up, and Tim drove us back to Louisville. Once there I had to drive the two hours home. I didn’t get home until about 2:30 am. I’ve been tired and sore all week, but it’s certainly been worth it!

I’ve been thinking about these rides a lot the past couple of days. I had a great time, and it makes me long for more adventure!

Note: this is Part 1. Read Part 2 here. Also, Tim’s Part 1 is here. David has a writeup here.

I had never been down to this area before; I found it beautiful, rugged, and extremely hilly. We rode 54 miles Saturday and 60 on Sunday, but we underestimated how difficult it would be. Between the rough gravel and the wild changes in elevation, we ended up riding 8 hours or more each day.

Saturday started early. I had driven down to Louisville Friday night and stayed at David’s house. Tim arrived around 6am Saturday, with a box of donuts. We loaded up on coffee, put our gear and bikes in/on Tim’s car, and made the 4-hour trip down to Big South Fork, eating donuts along the way. A glorious breakfast. Once we arrived, we found a campsite in the remote Great Meadow campground and got ready to ride. Here is our route from Saturday:

Our ride began on the road to the campground. Since the campground was at the end of a long, flat gravel road following a creek, we had a beautiful, easy warmup/cooldown on this road for each of our rides.

After our warmup, we found ourselves on a paved road with a big, long climb. This first climb of the ride actually turned out to be the longest, and probably had the most elevation gain of any climb we did. But that is not to say that it would be the hardest. Far from it. This hill was paved and mostly not too steep, unlike some of the others.

We started to get a sense of the scenery. We were pleased to see more fall colors than we expected, big hills, and a lot of interesting rock bluffs.

Here is Tim climbing. You can see David in the background, coming around a switchback.

This climb reminded me a bit of my favorite climb out of the valley in Pennsylvania. Long, but fairly gradual. In a low gear you spin your way slowly up the hill. The PA climb was bigger, but this had a similar feeling.

There’s a nice view of distant hills, behind David.

We turned onto Skullbone Tower Road, and almost immediately saw this bicycle perched on a roof.

Despite its morbid name, Skullbone Tower Road was actually quite pleasant, and not overly difficult. It was a meandering ridgetop road with some minor fluctuations in elevation, some fun twists, a good flow, and some fantastic views.

After a brief stint on a very quiet state highway, we turned onto Jones Hollow Road for our first major downhill of the weekend, and it was spectacular. It was a paved road, so we were able to go quiet fast with good traction. The road descended some 500 feet over the course of nearly two miles, with numerous twists and turns along the way, all the while skirting rock cliffs and offering some wonderful views. I had a stupid grin plastered on my face the whole way down. I couldn’t be bothered to attempt to take photos … the riding was just too good!

I did stop at this intersection. I would continue riding downhill in the left fork. Later, we would return via the gravel road on the right.

Once in the valley, we would have some relatively flat riding on smooth pavement for a while. The scenery just kept getting better.

At one point we passed a horse-drawn wagon. The folks in it were friendly and enthusiastic, and quite curious about what we were doing.  One girl charmingly exclaimed in a sweet southern belle voice, “We never see no bikes!”

We rode on.

Eventually we turned down a steep gravel hill, on a road we weren’t sure would go through. This shot is looking back up at the road we came down.

We were all amazed by this suspension pedestrian bridge over the creek.

We could also see that the road did in fact go through … straight through a rather wide creek! It was shallow, however, and passable.

But we took this opportunity to explore a bit and have a snack. David climbed up on the bridge. I didn’t. I sort of wish I had, it was quite cool.

Tim and I rode through the creek. David decided to take his shoes off. This SUV came through and had a bit of trouble getting through the creek — but he made it.

Here’s Tim, having already crossed the creek. If you view it larger, in the background you can see the bridge, and David preparing to ride across.

David rode across barefoot. Apparently the pedals hurt his feet. Ouch!

We had quite a gravel climb up from the creek (~400 feet), then some easier, paved riding.

This easier section was enjoyable because it afforded us more opportunity to pay attention to the scenery.

We got to see quite a few more interesting rock cliffs and bluffs and other formations.

As well as some beautiful bucolic scenes.

We tackled a quite challenging gravel climb.

Soon we found ourselves on a ridge with some wonderful views of some fields and hills, and had some really fun, flowing gravel riding on the incredible Freedom Road. But not before getting a photo of our three Long Haul Truckers first. Yes! We each rode a LHT. It was a great bicycle for this ride.

Soon the road entered the woods and took us down a hill.

We rode past a church … there were tons of these little Baptist churches in random places, and they all looked nearly identical. White, mostly with green roofs. This one had a white roof I guess, so not exactly identical to the others, but it’s still the same basic design.

We reached a creek — the same creek we had crossed before. Now we had to cross it again.

Another suspension bridge was quite interesting.

A man was sitting by his pickup truck down by the creek. We never were able to figure out what the heck he was doing there. He was a little creepy …  a bit of a Deliverance moment. We needed water but with the old guy creeping me out, I didn’t think to filter any from the stream. This creek crossing was rockier, slipperier, and harder than the first one.

After the creek is where an absolutely outrageous climb began. Nearly two miles and 500 feet of elevation gain, all on a very rough, rocky, loose gravel road. Some sections were so steep that our tires could not get purchase on the gravel and they spun out beneath us as we attempted to climb. This was the toughest climb of the day for me. Being basically out of water, relentless climbing in the heat, on basically a mountain biking surface, I was at a low point. I stopped a few times to catch my breath on the way up.

To make matters worse, once we got to the top, we had some more major ups and downs. These were fun but each time we would start to lose that elevation we worked so hard to gain, it was a little disconcerting. We also saw several 4-wheelers along this section, whose vehicles kicked up untold amounts of dust. More interesting rock formations presented themselves.

Somewhere along here, on a steep loose gravel downhill, I braked too hard and I felt my front wheel wash out from under me. I managed to do a leaping dismount and land on my feet! I’ve only been able to pull off that maneuver a couple of times … previously when mountain biking.

The riding was brutal, but at least the scenery was good.

Eventually we made our way back to Jones Hollow Road. What was a blistering downhill before was a very slow climb now. I took advantage of the opportunity to get better views of the rock cliffs.

We reached KY 92 again and spent a few minutes on that, with some more good views. I missed most of the photo ops here though. By this point, we were in dire need of water.

Finally, we found a fire department and got water from their hose. We had a snack while we were at it and tried to rehydrate.

When we got rolling again we enjoyed another incredible paved descent. This one had great flow, and it was absolutely exhilarating!

We turned onto Wolf Creek Road which had a very tough climb. As we were climbing several dogs gave chase and their owner yelled something like “I’ll let you kill them for $20! Or, you can just take them!” I guess he didn’t much care for his dogs.

Here are some scenes from the climb. It was long and brutal, but I was feeling better after getting some water. I felt surprisingly decent at this point. The sky was clouding up which to me was quite welcome. The sun had been so bright and hot, earlier.

After what seemed like forever, we reached the top and turned onto Rattlesnake Ridge.

This road had some mild rolling hills and I was feeling pretty good. By this time Tim was cooked. I’m not sure how David was feeling at this point. I enjoyed the gently meandering road and even the climbs a bit. I guess I got a second wind after we got more water. A few nice views along the way didn’t hurt, either.

Next we got to ride back down the paved climb from the start of the day, and it was a hoot! A paved road with no traffic and lots of twists and turns had me leaning into the turns and really having a blast. I guess this must’ve been the third absolutely blissful paved descent of the day … and I sure felt we had earned it!

Once at the bottom of the hill, the road turned to gravel and we were on the flat 6-mile road back to our campsite. It was a pleasant way to wind down the ride, though at times it felt like a very long stretch of road, because we were tired and it was nearly dark. Still, it was lovely.

It was an astoundingly great day on the bike. We were all tired when we got back to our campsite. We set up camp, made dinner and goofed around for a couple of hours, before crashing. What a day!

Note: this is Part 1. Read Part 2 here.

I rode to Dave’s house before the ride (7.5 miles or so). It was rather foggy, and the roads were wet. It was a weird week; the roads were wet all week, even on days when it didn’t rain. It was just VERY humid. It was also a very warm day, in the 40s. It may have even topped out around 50. It felt luxurious to ride without a ton of layers of clothing.

I got to Dave’s house, and we rolled out, right down a big hill to Lake Lemon. The water level was very low, and we saw a couple of people with a high-end video camera taping a group of riders. I wonder what that video was for. The lake looked especially beautiful, with the fog.

After debating which way to do the loop, we started riding, counter-clockwise. This is the way I prefer to do the loop … but each direction has its challenges. Going counter-clockwise, there’s one VERY steep hill, but it’s over before long. Going the other way you suffer for a lot longer, even if it’s not as steep.

We rode across the causeway.

After this, we rode around to the other side of the lake, and over some rolling hills. Then, up the very difficult hill described above.

As we made our way along the north side of the lake, Dave suggested we make a trip over to the spillway. I’d never been to this part of Lake Lemon before; it was rather small, given the size of the lake. We saw a couple of Great Blue Herons and some geese, and had some nice views to other parts of the lake. I had ridden very close to this spot many times before but never knew it was there.

We headed back toward the main road.

Once there, we had a few more hills, and then we reached a flat road for a few miles. We enjoyed the easier cruising on flat ground, after all the hills.

But, it wasn’t completely flat.

We turned onto another road, where we had quite a bit of climbing to do. It was very steep toward the bottom, and got easier after that, but it sure was a lot of climbing. Along the way, I took a photo of my favorite sign in the area …

NO TRESPASSING
VIOLATORS WILL BE SHOT
SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN.

Once we finished climbing that hill, it was just a few more miles back to Dave’s house, and then another 7.5 miles home. My total for the ride was about 37 miles.

This was a great ride. It was a route I’d done before, but not for a very long time. It was cool to do a road ride with Dave for a change, I love the gravel/mountain bike rides we usually do, but this was fun, too. And now I have a new spot to go to, the spillway.

It felt great to do some more road riding, I haven’t done enough of it recently.

We started on a horse trail, and hiked up a hill. Once on the ridge, we bushwhacked down into a ravine. We saw a creek at the bottom, and worked our way down. Along the way, we saw bare spots where turkeys had made their beds.

We didn’t find a pond, instead, we followed another, very muddy horse trail out to a nice view of the lake.

We turned around and got on another trail … just because we didn’t find the pond didn’t mean we couldn’t hike more.

We climbed a bigger hill on the 10 O’Clock Line Trail, a 14-mile trail that ends in Brown County State Park. Once we reached the top of the hill, we followed some horse trails for a while on some narrow ridges.

We looked through the trees and thought we spotted a pond. Dave got out his binoculars and it was pretty clear there was SOME kind of water down there. We couldn’t tell if it was a wide creek or a small pond, and the ravine was too steep to go down and check.

We got to the bottom and followed the road back to the car, getting some more views of the lake.

Later, we looked at my GPS and realized we had been pretty close to the water we spotted from the top of the ridge. We just turned the wrong way. Next time, we’ll be able to go there and see if there is, in fact, a pond.

It was a fun hike of about three miles, with a couple of good climbs and some great scenery. And it was great to see Dave, I hadn’t hung out with him since before Christmas since he was sick, and we’ve both been busy.

View 2009-11-27 Versailles Black Friday Mountain Biking.kml in a larger map

We started out on the new Shadow Run trail. This is an intermediate trail which begins with a climb. It was in the 30s outside and we were cold when we started riding, but this climb helped us warm up. Once we reached the top of the hill, the trail was much easier; it’s quite flat for a while, but it winds through the woods with many twists and turns. Along the way, we got some great views of Laughery Creek, and saw quite a few sinkholes. Rolling on flat ground for a while allowed us to get warmed up before hitting the harder trails.

You can see Dave in the above shot, if you look closely.

The trail got a bit harder as turned to go downhill. It wound its way down the side of the hill, with more views of the creek and ravines below.

Next, we had to redo part of the Shadow Run climb in order to make our way up to the Cliffside Trail. This trail was more difficult; it skirts the edge of a cliff, and the trail is narrower and rockier. It even crosses a waterfall at one point. We walked this part due to safety concerns. Trail conditions were mostly good, but parts were muddy enough that traction was poor at times. We had more great views of the creek this whole time, but we had to stay focused on riding, so it was hard to take in the views, except when we stopped.

This shot taken by Dave. The iPhone shot looks nice here!

Stone bench along the trail

Dave took this shot of me with his iPhone

Next was the Center Loop. This went by really quickly. It was a fun trail, with some twists and turns and a bit of climbing, but it was over just as I was getting into it. It mostly serves as a way to reach the Grandview Trail, which at six miles long, is the longest trail at the park. When we reached the Grandview Trail, we saw this sign, which we promptly ignored, pointing us back to the trailhead (photo by Dave).

The Grandview trail is aptly named, as it offers views of a bend in Laughery Creek some 150 feet below, as well as some nearby hills.  These views would be much obstructed during the summer, but with no leaves on the trees, we could see quite a bit. This trail has some fast, flowing riding for a while. Conditions were much better than the last time I rode here. Back on Black Friday of 2006, the trail was covered in several inches of leaves. This year things were considerably better; the trail was fairly clear and those leaves that were there had been compacted. We had only to worry about the occasional muddy section.

Last time I was here, the Grandview Trail was also much shorter. At that point, it had a few minutes of fun, flowing riding, then a climb back to the start. We rode it twice in a row, last time. Now the trail is over twice as long as it used to be. Instead of turning back so soon, it goes down almost all the way to creek level before winding through mixed hardwood/pine forests and finally, climbing back up to the starting point. This gave us another nice perspective of the creek, as well as some extra fun.

The rest of the ride is a blur, we were on Center Loop again briefly, then a fast-but-brief descent on the Creekside Trail, followed by a creek crossing and some very rocky sections.

We finished the ride, right around 11 miles, in 2 1/2 hours of riding. It felt a lot longer, thanks to the climbing, mud, technical sections, and views. We contemplated riding the Grandview Trail twice, but we were tired and hungry.

The trails at Versailles are just awesome. Each has its own character, but they are all extremely fun, and all are very beautiful. I’ll definitely be returning.

I slept much better than I usually do when I’m camping. I mostly attribute this to the fact that I brought a real pillow AND a smaller pillow with me. For whatever reason, I’ve got to have my pillows! I did wake up a couple of times during the night, but I fell back asleep right away.

I woke up, squinting as the sun was shining brightly. I heard the pitter-patter of a mouse running around my tent. I had no sense of what time it was. It felt like I had slept in, and I hoped Dave hadn’t been up and waiting for me for too long. It turned out it was 8:30, and Dave had also just gotten up.

Dave started a small fire and I heated water for coffee and oatmeal. We also had donuts … which were quite tasty, but surprisingly cold.

I’m a coffee lover, and I had purchased some Starbucks “VIA” instant coffee so we could try that. It was extremely convenient, as it was just instant coffee in pre-measured packets. I thought it was pretty good. I preferred it with cream and sugar … if it had been a little bit better, I would have had it black. I wouldn’t buy it all the time, but it was perfect for camping — no need for a percolator or French Press or other device, and we still had good coffee.

Anyway, after we had breakfast and coffee, we headed over to the fire tower area for some hiking.

We were doing the Old Axsom Branch hike in the Deam Wildnerness area.  I had never done this hike before … most of it is unmaintained or has no trail at all. It seemed like something that would work better with a guide. Dave has hiked this trail numerous times and knows his way around, so this worked out perfectly. Here’s a map.

View 2009-11-08 Old Axsom Branch Hike in a larger map

The hike started along a fire road on top of a ridge. We then turned off onto a trail that followed another ridge for a bit, before descending into the ravines below.

A tree with arms

Once in the valley, we followed a creek for a bit …

And bushwhacked through a meadow to this old cabin. As you can see, a tree fell on it recently.

Soon, we reached Lake Monroe. Apparently if the water is high, the part of the hike down by the lake can be quite difficult, if you have to hike on higher ground with more shrubbery. The lake looked beautiful, as always, and we hiked alongside it for quite some time.

We saw some killer campsites along the way …

… and some very interesting rocks, under water

Soon, we started a long climb up to the top of a ridge. There was no trail, and the first section had a lot of brush, making for a challenging hike. At the same time, leaf cover made it difficult to avoid rocks and other obstacles.

We had some nice views of the lake along the way …

… and saw a see-through tree ….

… and several “sweat lodges” …

… and a bent tree, apparently this was an Indian technique to indicate a turn in the trail.

We followed the ridge for quite a while …

… and eventually reached a spot with some great views of the lake

… and the terraced land, carved by glaciers.

We decided this was our lunch spot. Dave had brought some pita bread, salami, pepperoni, and leftover steak from the night before. This made for a delicious lunch.

We rested for a while and ate some lunch, enjoying both the cool breeze and the warm sun.  We looked out above the water … way, way above the water … above our position on the ridge, even … in time to see three bald eagles soaring across the sky. It had taken a lot of work to get here — bushwhacking through brush, and hiking up to the top of the ridge. But it was well worth it.

After lunch, the hiking was varied. We had more ridgetop hiking, some bushwhacking, and followed a faint horse trail for a while.

We reached Terrill Pond, which Sarah and I have visited a couple of times before. It’s always beautiful, and on this day, the lily pads were changing colors. Just lovely.

Soon, we were back on the fire road and headed back out of the woods. But we had a couple more miles to hike from here. We checked out a few campsites along the way … there are lots of great options for backpacking in the Deam Wilderness.

At the end of the hike, we’d gone about six miles. It was a lot of work, but it paid off.

We returned to our campsite to pack up the car. We got all ready to go, and Dave’s car wouldn’t start. The battery didn’t have enough juice. After a few failed attempts at finding someone to jumpstart the car, I called Sarah and she agreed to come pick us up. She had to buy jumper cables, but I’ve been meaning to get some for a while. I’m glad we have some now. Dave’s car started right up when we jump-started it. We headed home … what an awesome camping trip!