By Ambassador Jacob Mullen
Little pre ride coffee to started off the morning, bikes all geared for a “casual” Sunday gravel ride.
We climbed up past the university and snuck through the vast amount of trails to connect us to some local back roads. Backroads eventually ended and turned in to old quad track, and with all the rain we have had lately there were a few boggy sections but nothing to bad.
We ended up at a fork in the road where we knew going right would take us on a casual road ride back home, but going left, from what we could tell on google maps, would still take us home and we would get a little more “gravel” riding along the way. Our curious minds have always wanted to go left, so with hopefully enough water and very little snacks today was the day, plus it was a short loop anyway.
A few kilometers in the trail quickly turn from a dirt road to wet double track. Earlier we talked to someone on a ATV and we knew to take the steep left up the ridge to the highpoint this eventually would take us to a old forestry road. Which was supposedly a “short” ride out to the highway.
Well, do to the large amount of rain we had had this year that “short” ride to the highway was a slog of riding for a few mins then getting off to carry our bikes or clean the large amount of mud that had built up on them, only to continue to ride for a few mins and repeat. We eventually made it through the muddy mess of forestry roads.
Back on some pavement and completely out of water and snacks. We were happy to stop at the nearest gas station on the highway to grab a gatorade and donuts, before we continued the last bit of our ride home.
At the end of the day we had a smiles on our faces and mud on our bikes. Sounds like fun to me!
