Snowy Winter Kingdom Gravels

Cathy and I got in a fantastic little ride this afternoon along River Rd in Victory headed past the Bog and up to Granby Rd. We checked out Radar Rd, which is not being used for logging this winter so is not being plowed and had not been tracked at all. It was cold and crisp with blue sky and bright sun making for some dramatic lighting and fabulous images. 

A nice day to be on the bike, but aren't they all.

#RideOutside386

KG2.5 Gravel Road Ride

KG2.5 gravel road ride. We had a good group and some fantastic weather to head out and explore some old coupled with some new. Starting out from South Kirby we made our way to East Burke along the scenic ridge and then switched over to Darling Hill. The group followed that ridge line to Burke Green and then Maple Ridge up through Newark but along the way I mapped out an off shoot that I'd never done. 

On the map it looked like it went through so I gave it a try. Much of the route, out around a small pond, was a nice back road, which gradually narrowed, and narrowed, and narrowed until we were on old logging roads that were wintertime snowmobiles trails. After some wrong choices and indecision as the GPS tracks didn't match with the actual ancient path remnants in the woods we started coming out to more traveled path that opened into a clearing which brought us to more established trail that got us to old road that brought us back to the main road. Eventually we made our way back to the primary road and shortly descended down to RT114 which we followed into Island Pond.

In Island Pond we made a welcome stop for lunch to fuel up before heading East along RT105, which was nice wide rolling pavement with very little traffic. Eventually we made out way to the remote, gravel South America Pond Rd which we were on for about ten miles. This was a great section of remote forest access road that saw little use and even less traffic, pretty much giving us the road to ourselves along the entire stretch, which did a fair amount of climbing. This eventually brought us back down through forest to connect into some of the same areas that we visited for the Kingdom Graveleur 2.0 ride. 

We may very well see some of this terrain on next summer's KG3.0 ride. I'm still working on that final route though.

Anyhow a great ride with some hearty exploration on a fabulous late summer day with wonderful sights and great folks.

Kingdom Graveleur KG2.0 Adventure Ride

What can I say, it far exceeded all of my hopes and expectations in terms of being just an incredible day on and off the bike.

The route worked out very well and was super challenging while still leaving some room for enjoyment. The vistas were fantastic and the weather by and large was just about perfect. Not too warm, not too cool, not too sunny and not much rain, though admittedly, a bit of everything.

The overall atmosphere and attitude among the entire group seemed beyond upbeat and positive all through the day. The extra credit offshoot sections allowed the full group to stay close together through the day and overlap multiple times. In the end we all finished within about a half hour of each other as well.

The number of smiles I see in the photos despite the amount of suffering that everyone went through at points in the day tells the story. Couple that with the decibel level and exuberance at the after party and I think it is safe to say that we scored. The day did for me anyhow. One of the best ever on a bike.

Oh, and the hot setup at mile 103 was an ice cream chocolate chip cookie sandwich and a Coke. It got me back home. The pulled pork afterwards didn't hurt either.

Thanks to all who came and made this much fun. We are already working on a fresh new route exploring some fun new areas for KG3.0. In the meantime there will be rides going from gravel camp all through the summer. Hit us up if you would like to join in. The planned date is June 23, 2019. 

Get in the van!

#KingdomGraveleur

2018 Rasputitsa Recon - 4 Days Out

Tuesday afternoon I went out and drove most of the 2018 Rasputitsa race course. Given what the roads looked like Sunday when we were out marking the course coupled with what our road at elevation in Kirby looked like, I was anxious to see the state of affairs. To my partial surprise, once I got down off of the mountain that we live on it was significantly drier and the snow that we'd had off and on since Saturday stopped.

By the time I dropped onto the course on the back side of Cyberia, the roads were pretty darn good. Not quite as dry as Saturday but the temperature was above freezing where as it was below on Saturday. The roads were damp but not muddy.

As I climbed I started to transition into some snow on the roads but no where near as much as last Sunday, when we had picked up a few inches overnight. Back down to Newark St on Schoolhouse Rd the snow again disappeared yielding damp gravel but no mud. In fact, there was no mud really anywhere out on course. There was more snow for a few miles at elevation in the most Northern end of the course but that was to be expected and no ruts or ice.

All in all, the course was looking pretty good yesterday and should only improve in the next couple of days as the continual light precipitation we've had all week begins to taper off and the temperature stabilizes some. Saturday we should even see some sun, which will be a very welcome treat.

In terms of equipment, there is no right answer. Certain selections will be better in certain places than others. Yes, you could get around the course with a road bike an 25c tires if you were very careful on Carter Rd through the crushed rock. It would be a challenge and unless you are a world class cyclist, you likely wouldn't be fastest. As always, the bike that hits right in the middle of the scale and does the most the best is probably going to be a gravel or CX bike with 33-40c file or micro tread tires and gravel gearing vs. stock CX gearing. However, the right person on a fast MTB setup could also be right there as we have seen more and more often in the past. The MTB gearing may even favor the longer, sloggy climbs.

Here is the photo dump from the trip around the course yesterday in order starting from the back side of Cyberia and ending on White School Rd.

Enjoy and we will see you on Saturday AM if not at the School of Rock pre-ride or at registration!