Gravel Grinding and Climbing

"It's going to be warmer soon." This is what I kept telling myself as my fingers throbbed from the cold.  It was 26 degrees when Ryan and I left the main trailhead at Mohican.  Instead of being on singletrack we were headed out for some fun, gravel road climbing.  The warm up I was looking forward to would also bring sloppy conditions on the trails, so we opted for the gravel roads.

Quick shot of wild turkeys.

Fortunately there was a good hill in the first several miles of the ride.  This helped me to begin warming up but it was some time later before I was finally comfortable.  We road a clockwise loop to the east of SR3 and the Mohican park.

Frozen puddle.

The skies were a brilliant blue and we expected to be out for 3 to 4 hours.  We stopped as needed to eat, knowing the bigger hills were coming.

Yielding while stopped for food.

Eating while yielding.

We turned south and enjoyed some fast, downhill gravel roads.  They sure are more fun to speed down on fat tired mountain bikes.  This was our first road ride on mountain bikes, the gravel made it fun and not too much of a slog on the slower bikes.  Actually, a cyclocross bike may be the best weapon for this route.

Turning west we hit a good gravel climb.  It was not terribly long but gained elevation pretty quickly.  A short distance later we hit the climb on Valley Stream Road, west off Wally Road.  Oh yeah, she's a good one.  I think I did a track stand or two in the middle of this mile long climb.

That's me climbing.

And that's Ryan on Valley Stream Road.

After Valley Stream Road it seemed like we were just a short roll from where we started.  Yeah... after several more hills.  Ouch.  We slogged back to the car, loaded up, and headed for home.  It was long time on the back with some rewarding views and, hopefully, strength building hills.

This is what my legs felt like at the end of the ride.