Today’s ride I planned to try something a little different. I always ride road or locally around on the bike paths. Both of which are great. That being said I keep seeing Randy’s Pics over at DirtBum, Eric’s pics over at Adventure Monkey, and my friend Kevin always blabbing about gravel rides. I thought to myself I should map out about 40 miles and ride dirt roads out west opposed to the road ways there I usually ride. All is good, got off work at midnight drove home (I don’t commute if I’m riding early), showered and went promptly to bed. 5:30 am my phones telling me to gtf up!! I hop up with out even a spare snooze because I need to change out rims and tires before the ride.
Check my phone and see my friend Justin is not going to make it, Kevin says he will try to hunt me down during the ride. This is possible because the guy is just way faster then me lol. This mean I will be heading out solo, but first a stop by the store to get fuel. Grabbed some Jerky and Granola bars that does the trick for me, easy to eat plus transport.
The ride was great but started off cold. It was right around 34 degrees when I headed out and I of course left with out shoe covers or any way to heat my hands or defrost my water. The sun was out good and this helped tremendously. It was very peaceful to just ride around checking everything out with out having to try and keep up with anyone. I rode almost 40 miles at about 13.5 mph avg and it was very relaxing let me tell you. I will embed photos into a map too in case you want to see where I took the pics. There was definitely no shortage of beer cans along the gravel roads I mean someone could earn some decent coin if they were to go a long there and grab them all.
My next biggest fear was the dogs I crossed paths with about 5 of them and I was a bit nervous however only one of them actually barked at me. I fear these dogs because they eat good and get plenty of exercise. Not like the dogs I encounter in the city on my commute. Those dogs I outrun easy because they are tied to a chain most of their life and cant catch me.
During my ride I got lost and ended up on the rails to trails path I had heard about but not actually tried yet myself. It’s awesome and peaceful. Plenty of rest stops as well as a public restoom near the middle of the path at the work out areas.
Oh and thanks to Bicycle Exchange for the water bottle. I’m going to use them to plug my site on their fan page on Facebook Muhahahah so I figured I better give some link back love.
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- About to head out
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- Wallgreens
Really cool pics!! like the “light at the end of the tunnel” I gota check that out, I plan on riding out to Lake Cheney sometime tommorrow, gonna tow my gear in the trailer, plan to stay out for the week, do some riding , fishing and hiking. does this trail go out by there?? I think I might like to hit it…Oh, I rode 21 today, had Young Marines, so I took the river route.
yeah thats exactly what I thought and just had to get picture, I can’t wait till I can order my HD bike Cam its gonna rock! Cool have fun wish I could go with ya but it’s Easter I have family time plus I’m working all weekend!!
Almost caught you but you went off course
. I learned a new trick this ride. Import a course to Google Maps, make any changes you want, then print out the turn by turn directions. Fold it up so it’s the width of your grip, then wrap it around the bars under your hand. As you navigate just rotate the map – I did that and I only got turned around when I overshot unlabeled intersections 
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The dogs I hit today weren’t too bad – only had 1 really rush me, but it was friendly. I wish the hillbillies out there would just keep them restrained. If I’d been a vehicle their golden retriever would’ve been flattened.
yeah i had written it all on paper like street number and direction to turn but I left it here at work. of course none of the street had numbers out there lol. Nice to see you guys using the facebook plugin.
If you look at my Garmin map I overshot most intersections; I had to keep going until I saw a mailbox to see if it was a larger or smaller number (depending on which way I was going) to see if I passed my street. So, if I was looking for 231st and the house number was 24100, then I needed to go back. I could pay attention to distance from last turn, but that would make too much sense
yeah lol basically what i started doing, way too much to look at to be watching mileage out there. I have thought of a new game. that has to do with gps tracking and smart phones I will bounce the idea off you later I’m going to call it “GeoCatch” opposed to GeoCache you get where I’m going with this i bet
My ride seems so similar. I started an hour later and only rode hard roads but the rest is similar. I went to Walgreens (in Newton) and bought the same exact food just smaller packages. I almost stopped to take pics but got too focused on my rhythm. Found some cool road treasure just too large for me to carry. I found an entire set of tools. Box end wrenches, sockets and other assorted stuff. I want to try out that rails to trail path sometime this summer.