G R A V E L ! ! !...and sand

I took the Kona Jake out for a near 70 mile adventure.  I knew it would be an adventure before I left the house and it did not disappoint.  It was nearly all on unpaved roads and trails.

I started on the trail behind the house that leads to a multiple use trail. 

One of many small lakes I rode by on this day.

Fresh gravel is not easy to ride on...fortunately they had one side leveled out.  I am guessing about 2 to 3 miles of this.

I had 1400 ft of climb on this ride...which is nothing for many out there.  This was the biggest climb of the day...maybe 3\4 to 1 mile long.

Another little pond

I saw this bear about 25 miles into the ride.  It was walking away from me, so when it crested the hill in the picture, I hammered it up the hill to see if it would still be there.

It was! !  This is a little guy.  My guess would be that it is a little over two years old.  It had my attention to see if there were any others around.  It saw me here and just turned around kept walking down the road, so I kept riding towards it.

When I had to hit the brakes a little, it heard me and decided it was time to get back in the woods.  Anybody who has ever saw a bear up close running knows what it encounters.  It is noisy and fun to watch.

Forty miles in...time for peanut butter and jelly on wheat.

The John Waggoner Road...was  r o u g h.  Near 6 miles...Clumbs of sod, rocks and hard packed, but still easier than what was to come.

W A Y off in the distance, at the top of that hill, stands a Grey Wolf, aka Timber Wolf.  I saw a lot of wild life on this ride, but this one suprised me the most.  I did not get close to this one.  I snapped the picture and it was gone.

When I said earlier the worst was to come...here it is.  Several miles of soft sand.  On a cross bike, with 700 x 35 tires, made this stretch an adventure!?.  We had driven this road a couple days earlier and it was good.  They graded it which resulted in the soft sand.  I spent some time in the granny gear on this road...testing the fortitude one might say.

All said...It was a fun ride, a tough one, close to 70 miles of gravel and sand with an average of 12.6 mph including the hike's I did.  There were a few suprises, which is expected.  One of the roads that used to connect one road to another was closed part way through, so I elected to try a rut road that headed in the direction I needed to go.  That resulted in either back tracking a few miles, or a half mile hike-a-bike around a swamp. I chose the hike a bike.  I saw a lot of wild life on the ride...Whitetail deer, Black Bear, Red fox...way too fast for a picture, Porcupine...should have stopped, but I kept moving, Grey Wolf, Red Tail Hawk, Geese...lots of em, Ducks, Eagles, an Owl of some kind, Pileated Wood Pecker, Wild Turkey and many other critters.

I am in the process of routing out another gravel ramble.