• 59 miles
• unknown gravel amount, but definitely some nice portions. I’d call it a road ride with gravel, not vice versa.
• store stop in N.Vernon at 40 miles
• potential stops at Selmier State Forest and Brush Creek Wildlife Area
• warm, Spring weather

Here is the link to the route. We won’t have any cue sheets (we’re both running gps for this one), so this is definitely a group ride. We leave the elementary school in Hayden at 9.00. We’ll be riding out of Louisville around 7.30 if you’re interested in convoying up there. Feel free to email at mysurly69 at yahoo dot com if you have any questions, or leave a comment.

Ride report. Let’s see:

• headwinds
• Latte and Au lait with some serious bakery goods from Quills. Their blog post yesterday discusses said new products .
• significant bike schwag talk
• CrossHill climb via Lexington Rd.
• merits of a heavy mount, front bags and the shimmy
• some sunshine too

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/321329

Why we ride

I’ll mostly pics do the talking, but we started at Muscatatuck, directed ourselves south and then eastward across the very rough, winter-heaved farm roads in the area. As we turned north towards IN-3 and Crosely State Wildlife Area, we first lost Kirk and Kathy for moment (which resulted in a nice game of chase) and then found some very “distressed” roads which laster became more dirt than gravel. Crosley offered a more hilly terrain, and more closed woods through an outstanding road through the park leading us to a charming bridge over the M.River.

Group through Musctatatuck

Michael McFierce with his game face on

After the chase

Onto the really rough stuff

Dave and Kathy at a distance

Approaching the Crosley bridge

Kirk contemplating bridge safety

We made a brief stop in Vernon to buy a few snacks at a liquor store; the bigger store was “oh, a mile and a half up the road in Vernon”, although to the best of our knowledge we *were* in Vernon. Our return skirted north of the M.River and provided us with some damn fine roads, rolling, great flow, nice scenery, easy to navigate. Great stuff. Michael and I spied a couple roads to return to in the future, and before we knew it, we were back in the M.N.W.R. It was a 5-star ride for me personally and I hope to return to the area sooner than later, whether via mtbike in the wildlife areas or on a hearty road bike for the varied mixed-terrain available.

Bike show in Vernon

Curious Camellids

On the gorgeous return

Dang, that dude in the blue and grey sure is handsome!

Ultimately we worked west along the river before climbing up into Clifton and across Payne St. to Baxter and a warm cup and scone at Quill’s. Afterward we passed through Cherokee where our 5 splintered, with a newbie (I don’t know of their privacy preferences, so I’ll call him ‘A’) went up towards Woodbourne and two other folks (including newbie ‘W’) on into St. Matthews and beyond. Dave and I made one more stop at Breadworks at the Loop. The ride totaled around 27m, although everyone rode to the start to Heine’s, so all accrued a well-earned 30+ on the day. And a great day it was!

We stayed together yo-yo’ing a bit for the first 15 miles or so until the SIW group was smart to ride their own tempo and Dave and I ours. Once we turned west the hills felt a little tougher and once into Ferdinand State Forest the traction tougher too. The oddest part of the day came on CoRd 650E out of the forest. All the maps show it as a more “major” road, but at best it was a 4-wheeler path, and not too fun to ride in the deepest snow of the day. Somewhere in the forest Dave and I decided to turn left instead of right to cut down some mileage as one of us wasn’t having the best of days. Sometimes it’s like that, isn’t it?

We made use of IN-64 for a bit to give us some respite from the snow and ice and then made our way south, wondering when the SIW boys would come up behind us once we returned to the route. I laughed out loud when Dave saw the colorful group coming up behind at Bethel. I think they deviated a bit from the route at that time but didn’t mind. They seemed to express the desire to get the hell done. It was a tough day. The temps stayed coldish, but in all it felt much more like a mtbike ride than any kind of road ride. And 40 miles of mtbiking is plenty. At Stendal one of our party decided he couldn’t go on, so the remaining group did. Once back at the car park, Jim and I got changed and such and raced back to pick up our wounded party. The story ended well.

It was a really great day, an “adventurous” day on 2 wheels. I’ve never done a group ride starting at 15-ish F, never done a 40mile snow ride and it was the first time taking in some great roads, ones that need to be revisited in the warmth and dry of spring or summer.

We have developed this propensity for rough stuff, and sometimes under adverse conditions; this Saturday’s ride will be no different. We’ll leave out of Holland, IN, which is about an hour or so drive from Louisville. While it’s a bit more drive than desired, the greater desire is to ride the rough stuff, and this area west of Holland has it in spades. Our route will hit gravel very early on and  take us north and and then west into Ferdinand State Forest. We have a store stop halfway through in Winslow, IN and then head back into Ferdinand SF before heading south and SW for the return.

Conditions are unknown. Studded tires or fat rubber are required. No other services than those at mid-way will be available, so come very prepared to take care of yourself. As always, this will be a no-drop ride, so come ready to have fun and test yourself a bit.

After a restful sleep under the stars, we’ll get up and get going on day 2, the FreedomChurch/RattlesnakeRidge double loop. We’ll be climbing. Alot.