Disjointed Mohican Ride

The weather for the past couple weeks has been predictable: "scattered thunderstorms" pretty much sums it up.  Every time it seems like we'll have some dry weather another wave of wet comes through.  Knowing we may encounter a course too wet to ride, and with another forecast for "scattered thunderstorms", Ryan and I headed down to Mohican first thing in the morning.

As we pulled into the MTB parking lot we found Ryan O'Dell at his truck.  He talked about the course condition and 4" of rain that fell in a single day.  On this morning he was heading out with volunteers to do trail maintenance a couple miles into the course.  Sometime in the future I'd like to help with trail maintenance and now I know who leads such work.

Post ride down tube adornment.

Knowing people were working a couple miles into the course Ryan and I decided to drive to the snow mobile parking area (MTB parking #2) and start our ride from there.  I liked this plan as it would let me ride the only portion of the course I had not yet ridden, miles 15 to 23. 

For the first mile or two I'm trying to remember if I ever pedaled.  It was fast, flowing trail that was mostly downhill through pine forest with ferns all about.  Pretty fun and a good way to warm up.  At this point it takes me a little bit of offroad riding to get the feel, but I imagine that will improve with experience.  There were a couple short rock gardens and down hill corners to test me as the miles went on and I felt pretty good, but several uphills got the best of me.  I wasn't doing so well at keeping weight forward and kept loosing my front wheel.  In retrospect I think I was being too much of a road cyclist and pulled on the bars as I climbed to generete power.  This had the negative effect of unweighting the front wheel.  I'll have to work on that.

At the suggestion of Ryan O'Dell we didn't ride the final couple miles of trail along the campground, he said this section we still pretty wet.  Instead, we rode through the campground to get to SR3 and then road SR97 back to where we started.  We road down the road to covered bridge before plowing back into the woods for the climb up Mt. Doom.  At the bottom of the climb I had more problems weighting the front of the bike but I started to figure it out midway.  After the climb was once again fun blasting through the woods.  I remembered really liking this section the last time.

Post ride shoes.

Returning to the parking lot where we started, we caught up to four guys from Michigan.  They were from the Detroit area and had come down to stay in a cabin and ride mountain bikes for a couple days.  Hearing that these guys drove 4-5 hours to ride here made me feel fortunate to have Mohican just 20 minutes down the road from my house.  I'll have to make it a point to help out with trail work one of these days.

Expired tubes?

Well, let's replay my statement from two days ago:

Come to think of it, in my seven years of riding I can only recall three flat tires, including the one today.

And replace it with a new statement for today:
In my past three days of riding I've had two flat tires, including one today.

On the way home from work I was taking my usual short cut through the Boy's Village parking lot when I received a jarring shock from my rear wheel.  I looked back to see what I had hit and really didn't see anything. 

Hmmm... I paid attention to the bike for the next 30 seconds or so as I rolled along but all seemed well.  That is until I went to clip in after stopping at Back Orrville Road while on Geyers Chapel.  Apparently my rear tire had gone flat as I waited for traffic.  I slowly pedaled across Back Orrville Road on the rear rim and found a happy place alongside the road to swap tubes.

After thinking about how I had just made a blog post regarding my minimal experience with flat tires, I had to pause the tube replacement for a picture.

T

Temporary workshop on the SW corner of Back Orrville and Geyers Chapel.

So now I'm wondering if my current batch of tubes has passed their expiration date?  No matter, I'm out of tubes now anyhow and will have to restock!

Wind & Gravel & Wind & Wind

The day started off in the basement very shortly after breakfast.  Yesterday I partially disassembled my bike for a good cleaning and I only partially reassembled it.  I just finished reinstalling the crankset, chain and rear wheel when it was time to leave with KT and Daniel for an Easter egg hunt.

Daniel enjoyed the egg hunt and also enjoyed "eating" chocolate in the backseat of the car on the way home.  One Hershey Kiss can cover a large surface area in the hands of a 20 month old little boy.

Melts in your hands, and around your mouth.

On the way home from the egg hunt we passed a handful of guys making it back to town on the Saturday morning ride with the Parlor group.  Given the forecast for the afternoon it was better to ride in the morning today, it you didn't have the entertainment of watching a bunch of little kids chase around for plastic eggs.

Thirty minutes after arriving home I was out the driveway with the bike on the back of the car, headed for Ryan's house.  The forecast for the day called increasing winds from the south.  By mid afternoon, 25mph wind was expected.  Yikes.  Last night I mapped a route before reading the forecast.  Thankfully the route had us riding south on the way out and a clockwise loop before coming back.  So I got lucky and had made a good route for the wind direction.

On the road and heading south we got our first taste of strong wind gusts.  Before long we had left Wayne County and, appropriately enough, entered Holmes County on a gravel road.  We had been on the same road a couple weeks ago but this time we turned west instead of east.

Quick stop for a picture, shortly after entering Holmes County.

We found some more gravel roads and made our way south of Holmesville.  Just before crossing SR83 to continue west, and after coming down a gravel strewn descent, I started thinking the road was feeling pretty rough all of a sudden.  We stopped at SR83 and reached back to discover my rear tire was holding steady at zero psi.  Ryan and I agreed that in all our miles of riding together neither of us had experienced a flat tire until today.  Come to think of it, in my seven years of riding I can only recall three flat tires, including the one today.

No, it's not someone's driveway.  This gravel, Holmes County

road passed within inches of the shed on the right.

Having crossed over the state route we turned north and here a new fun began.  The wind was really cranked up by now and it was thankfully at our backs.  At one point Ryan yelled out "this is crazy we are going 30 miles per hour on an uphill and hardly pedaling!"  I remember a flat to slightly downhill section were I could just feel myself being pushed along by the wind.  Sometimes a gust would hit us from behind and I'd actually spin out a gear because of the wind's boost.

An unfortunate aspect of the wind was the dust and dirt blowing around.  It stung our legs and my freshly cleaned bike was being peppered with debris.

We met Wayne County on County Line Road and made the legs work as we climbed Harrison Road up and over to Fredericksburg.  I thought my legs were going to crack on the final climb on Harrison but things held together.  From there it was back to Ryan's via the gradual climb on Cutter.

The wind continued to blast well after our ride but now it's calm as can be.  For not having a long ride we enjoyed some remote roads.  Gravel roads always add to the charm of road ride.  As Ryan said, it was an adventurous route.

Bonus Miles

We pretty much stuck to our plan and had a good ride this morning.  There was one unexpected gravel road in Holmes County but we were not on it for long and it took us through a scenic little valley.  Lots of friendly waves and people out doing yard work today.  Quite a change from rides over the winter where there seemed to be nobody else outdoors, except in their vehicles.

After making it back to Messner Rd, Ryan turned right and I turned left to head home.  I thought to myself "about five miles to get home... or maybe I'll take a detour, it is really nice out."  As it turns out, I thought this to myself several times and ended up tacking on another 10 to 15 miles.  Sunshine and slightly warmer weather sure can be motivating. Working around the house the rest of the day my legs were feeling pretty heavy.  Must have done something useful out on that bike ride.

 I always like this old barn back off Kister Road, near the Mill.

Tomorrow Ryan and I plan to work on a rack for the back of the truck that will be used for our trip to Boone in mid April.  This was part of the truck cap purchase last fall.  I'll have to take some pictures once the rack setup is completed and installed.

PRP - pre ride post

Here's a new idea, I'll post pre-ride as I eat breakfast and stare at the bike sitting in the kitchen.  In about five minutes my coffee cup will be empty and I will roll out the driveway to ride east on Messner Rd. until I meet Ryan.  From there, the plan is to ride south into Fredericksburg and do a clockwise loop, dipping into Holmes County.  The weather looks terrific.  It's about 50 degrees already and is supposed to warm a little bit more beneath sunny skies.  I'll type again after the ride!