Medora GAR

This weekend was my umteenth attempt at putting on a Gravel Adventure Ride out of Medora, Indiana. Every other attempt has either been flooded or iced out. Finally got one in!

I'm never quite sure how many people I may have for one of my rides. I've had a dozen and I've had none. Driving over an hour and a half to find out is always interesting. This week we totaled 5, a turnout I'm really happy with.

The Spark Ferry Bridge (1890)

One of the main reasons for wanting to explore the area is a number of threatened old bridges.

Fort Ritner Bridge (1895)

Also, It's a beautiful area and the fall colours are spectacular now.

Guthrie Creek Bridge (1897)

S24O

S240 in bike parlance means Sub-24hour-Overnight

Ride-Camp-Ride Home in less than 24 hours. A single night with decent odds the weather prediction will be correct.

This gives a good chance to test gear in controlled environment and to practice skills.

I do this several times a year with some friends.

A rainy evening with a low of 48 gave me a good chance to test the limits of my Enlightened Equipment Prodigy backpacking quilt. A 50F rating on a sub 1 pound synthetic quilt. A minor mistake dampened the socks in my campwear bag, leaving my feet cold all night, but otherwise the quilt was adequately warm, though I wouldn't try it in any cooler weather, and will likely opt to bring a slightly warmer baselayer to sleep in for similarly rainy conditions near this limit. I plan this Fall to pick up one of their warmer down quilts.

The evening also gave me a chance to test out my Swedish Hand Axe, a Hultafors, while practicing my one stick fire technique. For such a small, pocketable axe, it really does some work. I got to work getting the fire started while my friends worked on getting their tents up. By the time their tents were assembled and staked out, I had processed a piece of firewood into shavings, matchstick, and chopstick sized pieces and had the fire started with a single flick of the lighter.

Sub 24 hours, 2 pieces of gear tested, and a skill practiced, all while getting in a nice bike ride, a night outdoors, and hanging with friends. A evening well spent.

Box of Frogs

Random shots from June's Box of Frogs in St. Paul, MN

Touring notes

Things to work on for next tour (pics from current tour may or may not ever exist)

-figure out a way to keep sets of batteries marked together and whether charged or discharged
-more dry bags to keep dry/wet items seperate and organized.
-take an AC charger just in case you happen across AC

Things that worked really well.

-using Ixon IQ and Ride&Charge to keep AAs for phone and GPS charged.
-TarpTent Contrail (some minor condensation issues, but considering the rain and warm mugginess, a little condensation is unavoidable)
-Enlightened Equipment Prodigy 50F quilt. Never have I slept in a tent with sleeping bag in warm muggy weather and not felt like I was sticking to the bag...until now.
-Bedrock Bags, um, bags. Solid, stable, roomy, waterproof. and they look great. what else do I want?
-Carradice SQR Slim saddlebag. Still awesome. Was actually mostly empty days 2 and 3, as I carried beer day 1, and after that it just had the empty 6pk cooler and a pair of FiveFingers. For a more hardcore trip, most of the weight in my Camelbak would move there instead of on my back.

Back to Marengo

A bit short of 2 years ago myself, David, Tim, and Patrick did a route out of Marengo thru English. Tim, David and I were joined by Jeff this weekend for another go...and I took zero pictures.





I was riding the acclaimed Clement X'Plor MSO 40mm tyres. They sucked. Video below.

ReBoot

After a fun and calorific Derby and birthday season, my weight is up to levels not seen in 4 years and my fitness is in the cellar. Time to take my health seriously.

The slipped cervical disc I suffered last year seems to be as good as it's gonna get, meaning mostly pain free, but I still have serious strength issues in my right arm, as well as some rotational limits in the shoulder. I'm hopeful some strength training will help that out. There's not enough strength for most body weight exercises, so I'm looking into dumbbell routines.

As far as weight, diet and cardio. The goal is to cycle 3-4 days a week and get in 2-3 5k or longer runs (mostly treadmill). The diet, is mostly paleo again. Trying to keep carbs under 75grams/day and no idea how to make this happen without protein shakes, but 1g/lb of lean body weight in protein. Alcohol? Dry white wine has less carbs than even the lowest carb beer, whiskey less than either. Cheat Days? Tuesday Night with the guys for beer.

If anyone wants to know what my new Go-To Snack Food is: Pumpkin Seeds. Lower in fat and carbs than peanuts, and higher in protein. Also scores pretty well on the Omega 3s.

Gravel Adventure Rides

As part of my rehab effort and to get back in race shape, I've decided to add a series of rides to the LBC schedule. Today was the first such ride. 35 miles out of Marengo, IN.

11 hearty souls decided to give this gravely goodness a go. All said they had a great time and would definitely be back for more.

The day started out on a beautiful November morning and was warm considering the time of year. We left heading South-West, and much like the rest of the day would go, started uphill to gain altitude for a downhill run at the first gravel section. It felt odd leading a club ride from the front, but this allowed me to regroup the riders at intersections, turns and the top of climbs making sure no one got off track or left behind.

Suddenly, we were sweeping down the first section of gravel through Bogard Hollow, a quick regroup where we crossed a road and we had our first water crossing, which everyone managed without getting dunked!

Bogard Hollow ends in a short climb, then we turned onto Magnolia to reclaim altitude on pavement. Again we reach the top and turn onto gravel and descend, this time the fast and wide Seaton Hill Rd into Grantsburg. A steady 2 mile paved climb up 237 brings us to Zahn Rd, which seems innocent enough at first, but soon turns downhill. What starts as fairly deep and fresh gravel, soon turns to rutted and leaf-covered dirt and rocks. We regroup at the bottom, where we are amazed that there is an actual road sign.

We reach Tunnel Hill Rd, where they have happily paved the bottom, steepest part of the climb, then are treated to about 3 steady miles of beautiful, rolling gravel.

At the top again, we turn onto busy and boring IN-64, but after a quick 0.2 miles we take a left and to quote another rider "Fall down the rabbit hole" onto Longest Rd. a full 2.5 mile downhill run of gravel, mud and water crossings galore. I have video from this winter, I'll add here at some point.

A quick stop at the gas station in English, IN (which, luckily, was open!) and we're heading uphill again. Soon, we're zooming down a paved road coming up to the road around the reservoir, where I'm asked "Aren't reservoirs typically at the top of hills?" Ummm, quite often.

The road around is rather muddy and quite fun. I'm just a big kid splashing right through instead of riding around each puddle. As we get to the climb up, the road turns to rocky and rutted, forcing nearly everyone to walk.

The climb to the top of Reservoir Rd:

After that it's just a couple miles of rolling and wide gravel and a few more of paved and we're back at the ride start.

"I feel like I've just been hit by a truck full of awesome."- Kirk Roggenkamp.



and here's the route we rode




Next week: New Washington, IN.