Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Big country makes me smile

What a great day. Yesterday I did some scouting and then this morning my father in law helped me map out an epic ride. The ride consisted of pavement, bike path, gravel and dirt. I left from Minot and rode up to the Souris National Wildlife Refuge. Once there, I'd then cross over the river and ride back to town on the other side of the river. Here's my story.



I headed out into the wind today. Wind was blowing about 15-20 mph. I just kept a steady pace. Beautiful day. Grand scenery.



Pavement turned to gravel. Gravel turned to dirt.



I've lived in the city too long. As I rode through the countryside, the smells of the crops brought me back to my youth. The golden turned barley just swayed in the wind.



Just a few more miles north and I'd be turning east. The bad news was that the bridge was out so I had to back track about 6 miles. That's OK as I got to see more of this.



As I turned back to town, I had a wicked tailwind. I was spun out riding along comfortably at about 25mph. Then I met up with this guy. Wow is that a big combine!


As I rolled back into town, I was all smiles. 4+ hours and 55-60 miles of big country. What a perfect day for riding.

6 comments:

Jason said...

Looks like a great day. I love the option you all have in the plains/mid west for these gravel road adventures. It seems like it falls between road riding and mountain biking and one hell of ride. Have fun and enjoy those wide open spaces!

j

Head Honcho said...

nice!

Looks like a great ride. We don't have a ton of Gravel down here and I MISS it!

MG said...

Wow... Great story and AWESOME pics, Jason. Thanks for sharing those, and thanks for the email earlier.

Hot news, just in -- we're doing a trial run of the Great Life gravel grinder here in Nebraska on Sept. 20 -- Details on http://piratecyclingleague.blogspot.com/ soon, but word is that it'll be 150-175 miles of gravel grindin' fun, and since the 24 Hours of Landahl has been cancelled, there are no date conflicts, it seems.

Travel safely, and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers,
MG

Guitar Ted said...

Yeah, that's awesome stuff gnat. Very cool dirt roads there.

Awesome news from MG too. Right before Interbike though, I am not sure I could do both. Rats!

Captain Bob said...

Great pics. Looks like a peacful place.

Love those shades too. Who makes them?

GNAT said...

Just got back.

Thanks for the kind words folks. The roads were incredible. It was a great trip.

Jason, the spaces are so different here in th Midwest. If you've never witnessed them first hand, they are hard to explain.

Captain, the glasses are Optic Nerves. Can't remember the model name.