Category: cycling

Had my camera battery not died in the 24.4°F weather (confirmed by my bike computer while leaving the trail) I would have a better photo than this.

This place is exactly where Nick, Erik, and I spent the bulk of our time on Sunday clearing the trail, and there’s now another fallen tree there. Thankfully this one can be ridden under. It appears that this area had a number of ash trees all of which fell victim to Emerald Ash Borer, and this autumn is the time they are all falling. As they are still very solid internally, I hope that we’ll be able to chop them up in the spring and use them to build a few log piles.

Tonight’s ride was quite wonderful. While it was cold outside I was appropriately (and perhaps over) dressed, and this was only a problem when I stopped to use nature as my toilet. Due to recent rains before the cold the trail was packed hard and as grippy as brushed concrete (or slickrock?) which made riding quite fun. Road traffic was surprisingly light, and I had no problems with cars either on the (residential) roads or at intersections.

I’m really looking forward to being able to ride these trails in the winter. I’ll just have to go get that tree sorted out before it actually falls and keep an eye out for others in this area. I suspect that this trail will be outstanding with studded tires once the snow falls and ice is making everything slick. I can’t wait.

(Total ride time today 1:40:37, 18.71 miles, 11.16 MPH average, 21.76 MPH max. Rode up from home, 1x full single track, two-track as return trail, 1x regular loop, 1x backward regular loop, then back home with a loop around the neighborhood.)

Today’s ride was probably the hardest I’ve done this year. At 51.71 miles (in 3:35:34) it was about a mile shorter than Massive Fallout and my route made it mostly flat and paved, but the conditions were not particularly hospitable, and there was no real opportunity to stop and get food. I started out by heading up to River Bends, then over to Clinton River Park before ducking out through Dodge Park to ride the paved path out to Metro Beach. After consuming the only two gels and finding that my favorite trail mix wasn’t being particularly satisfying I was concerned about running out of glycogen so I headed up Schoenherr towards home. I normally would have brought more food, but I erroniously thought I had three gels in my bag when I really only had one.

Schoenherr is terrible riding between Metro Parkway and 18 Mile as there’s no paved path, no track worn in the grass, and the road is shoulderless and 50MPH, but I still took that route (via the grass) in the interest of time. From there I took the usual route of 19 Mile to Hayes, up to 21 Mile, over to Milonas, then back home via 22 Mile. The next time I ride through the Hall Rd. area along Hayes I need to find a better route, because I had more than my share of car issues. I think that simply cutting through the parking lot of Meijer and the plaza containing Sherwood Brewing Company would save me a bunch of hassle. Unfortunately there isn’t any other option for getting through the shopping centers along this area. The next feasable crossing is Schoenherr (which is worse) or heading over three miles west to the tunnel to downtown Utica.

With overcast skies and roughly 34°F air it was cool out, but the ~14MPH wind out of the southeast made the ride down the Metro Parkway path brutal. Still, the tights, shoe covers, windproof gloves, Under Armor shirt, and windbreaker that I was wearing did a fairly good job of keeping me warm. My fingers were a bit cold at times and I probably should have opted for Moose Mitts and summer-weight gloves, but things worked out just fine.

The photo above shows a newly-downed tree on the trails at River Bends. At ~40′ long the tree will need to be sawed out, so I’m hoping to give it a go this weekend. If I’m not able to remove it by hand I’ll just have to ask the park to cut it out with a chainsaw. Previously I’d mentioned not wanting to be near a small tree that was falling, but this one would have been much worse to be around. While not quite visible in the photo, a piece roughly 8″ across is also lodged in the dirt trail surface so deeply that I can’t see the end of it.

Here’s three more photos from today:

· Titus Racer X 29er sitting against the gazebo at the end of the path at Metro Beach during a long, cold ride.
· Lights were brought on the long, cold ride just in case I got stuck outside after dark.
· Standing at the end of the Metro Beach path near the gazebo a bit more than half-way through a long, cold autumn ride.