Eileen and I vacationed in Chicago in August, and on the first day we rented a tandem bike at Millennial Park, and started riding north. We found the path a bit crowded, but everyone seems to get along fine, no crashes. We passed the volleyball courts, and rode out on a pier. I got my [...]
Posts under ‘Rides’
Morgan-Monroe Spring Ride
After our great Virginia bluebell find last week, I was anxious to get to the Morgan-Monroe forest, where in years previous I’ve found the rare yellow lady-slipper. It was Sunday morning and we figured the highway would be pretty empty, so we headed out 10th St., and rode SR. 45 straight out to Tunnel Road, [...]
Road Rash Alert
Last week Jojo and I took the 80 degree weather as a sign to ride to Lake Monroe and test the waters, and that’s what we did (it was mighty cold, but refreshing). We decided to ride down the bike route south to Rhorer Road, and then down Harrell to Stipp. We had not decided [...]
Toughest Hoosier Hills?
[Updated Sept 5]
I’ve been using Google Earth for the last year to line out new rides, and by measuring the distance and elevations of the various hills, I’ve come up with Mitch’s Hill Toughness Quotient (MHTQ). The formula is simple, I divide the rise in elevation feet by the distance in miles, this is essentially [...]
Kerr Creek-Brummett’s Creek Loop
When I first started taking longer rides in the country, I worked out several loops that I could do before work at 10 am. One of my favorites was the 23.6 mile loop that included 3 miles in the Kerr Creek valley, and 3 miles along Brummett’s Creek.
Jojo and I were starting late on [...]
Bottom-Barr-Delap Loop
We took off a bit late at 3 pm, and headed out for Bottom Road. We usually ride through Cascades Park, now that the speed limit is 20 mph, it feels really safe for bikes. The climb past the monastery is short enough that you feel good and warmed up by the time you crest [...]
End of an Era? I hope not!
Every weekend for the past two years I’ve ridden into the hinterlands of Monroe, Brown, and Owen counties to explore the Hoosier Uplands. Each ride is documented in this blog, and the archives go back to January 2007, a flood month that year. I had been riding regularly before that, but that’s when Jojo started [...]
Biking on Ice and Snow 2009
Wahoo! Another year of ice riding on Lake Monroe (and Griffy), you know, I sometimes worry the ice will not form (like in 2007). But this year the ice has been over 4 inches thick for over three weeks, and had many different faces. And yes, I wear my sandals (and 2-3 pairs of socks) [...]
Bear Wallow Hill Rd.
If you’ve ridden the Hilly Hundred when it went east, the killer climb comes right after lunch. After riding the gentle valley north out of Nashville, you run smack dab into Bear Wallow HIll. It has has the largest rise of the climbs in our region, starting at 692′ in the valley to 1010′ on [...]
Riding in January
Though not exactly an easy task, it’s not impossible, and can be fun. I ride more slowly in the winter, the wind chill at 15 mph can be brutal when it’s 20 degrees. So I don’t worry about being aerodynamics, I just bundle up in my winter coat and ride at 10 mph. There is [...]