Rick Miller's Sunday Gravel Ride

Rick Miller hosts an awesome gravel ride from his house each Sunday morning.  I've been dodging his invites for several months, sometimes legitimately and sometimes because I had another ride plan in the works.   As I was supposed to log big miles on the fatbike and his distance/pace seemed compatible with that goal, I finally committed to joining his ride.  Rodney and Mike, ride regulars, also joined in the fun. 

It was a very chilly 24 degrees this morning.  Hard frost on the car windows and all the flora.  I had a hard time figuring out how to dress as it was supposed to reach 50 deg by noon.  I finally opted for regular shoes with booties, leg warmers, bib shorts + jersey, arm warmers, light windbreaker, thin cap under the helmet, and my "45 deg" gloves.   I was chilled at the start but warmed up about an hour into the ride. 

I chose my fatbike for the day knowing that I would be working hard to keep up with the other three on elite cross bikes.   We are all pretty equally fit so it was going to be an extra slog for me. 

We headed East out of Utica into the "valley of the cold" as Rick put it.  The temps dropped to 22 deg.  We wove our way East across regular hilly gravel routes towards Girl Scout.  I love this area and hadn't climbed in the Northeast direction in years. 

I talked the crew into heading North to the Chestnut Ridge area north of Walhonding.  We climbed Bats Nest and then descended Stone Quarry.  Both are abandoned roads that are more like ATV tracks.  Going up is easier on the cross bikes; I can't believe those guys made it down SQ on those skinny tires.  I was rocking the fatbike all the way down a wild descent.  We hit our first creek crossing at the bottom and my booties managed to keep my toes dry. 

We were getting on past 2.5 hours at that point and I was running through my food.  So we turned the corner at Cavallo and started heading home. 

The most adventurous episode of the day, was crossing the Kokosing River.   It is about 75 yards across; today the water was about 6" to 8" deep.  I was wary because my feet get cold more quickly than other people and I didn't want them to be wet.  Suprisingly my booties managed to keep most of the water out.  We had a very long climb out of the river valley over the ridge to the south.

We hit another small creek at Mill Creek Rd and then wound our way back Westward towards Utica.  I had 63.5 miles 7300' climbing at 12.9 mph.   It was an epic day!