Gravel & Hills Around Loudonville

I always like making plans for a weekend ride mid-week.  Then, the last few days of the week there is some fun to anticipate.  Ryan and I made plans to head down to Loudonville and do a gravel road ride, the same one we did last spring.

Cross bikes this year.

We left the mountain bike parking lot and headed north on SR3 to Wally Road.  Much like last year I started out a little cold, but we remembered a good hill off Wally Road that would warm us up soon.

Bouncing down a gravel road.

The day was overcast and breezy.  It didn't feel like spring, more like a warmish winter day.  There was little vehicle traffic to be encountered on the roads we pedaled.

Going up.

The rain of the previous week founds its way to the rivers around Loudonville.  We had a couple bridge crossings and the brown water was churning away, high on the banks.

Bikes on a bridge.

After some good riding we ended up down by the Mohican Wilderness course.  We started up the gravel road climb past the Tree Frog Canopy place.  I'm not sure how I didn't remember this climb from our ride of this route last year.  Perhaps it was not too big of a deal on a low gear mountain bike, but this year on my not-geared-for-climbing cross bike it was a grunt fest.  As Ryan later described it, "each pedal stroke was a one rep max effort."  I was proud to make it up without walking, without falling over due to low speed, and without cramping up or exploding.

Last sight before chuggin' up a hill... slowly.

The last effort of the day was a punchy but short climb past Landoll's Castle and we were soon back to the parking lot, satisfied with the climbing we put in our legs.