Saturday's Ride

Saturday's ride was one that certainly should go on record. I set out with no agenda. My wife banned me from the house for a couple hours so I could recover from my lack of bike time in the last couple weeks (I have the best wife in the world). So with no destination in mind, I just started pedaling.

My first random stop was a machine shop pictured above. It has some cool, old architecture and busted out windows that allowed for a peek inside.

It was like a journey back in time in there. Lots of old tools, manuals and furniture. I bet there's a million untold stories of what was made here. Enlarge the photos to see some of the detailed whatnots on the shelves.

After a short break at the machine shop, I hit the saddle again. I recalled a great fishing spot nearby that I'd been to a couple times by car. My aim was to just head straight there and sit for a thermos of coffee for a while.

As I pedaled toward the ol' fishing hole, I got distracted by the sound of falling water. I was on some tiny, one lane country roads with zero traffic. So I could clearly hear the rumble of water down an unknown road. The intrigue pulled me in until I had wandered down a new route to find the water feature pictured above.

Since I was on a new road, I decided I'd take it as far as I could. Little did I know that I'd be climbing... a lot... a whole lot.

Up, up, up I went for a good part of a 45 minutes. Lots of the road was still covered in snow. Some of the super-steep climbs were tough to stay upright with no studs on the tires. When I took this shot, I was about to give up and walk the bike up on the side of the road. But I slip-slided my way all the way up.

The trees were so thick that it is hard to tell how high I was with photography. But I couldn't believe that this much of a view was so close to my house. If you could see through the trees, it would be a jaw-dropping view. There were a couple lookouts along the way that were heavily marked with "No Trespassing"  signs. I was bummed to not be able to walk out and take some shots. But I'm a wimpy rule follower. So I pedaled on.

Eventually, I turned back. Checking the map on my phone showed me that I would be climbing for another 45 minutes and getting a tough route home if I kept going. It's a route that I eventually want to do. But this ride needed to come to an end. So I coasted down the hill (fingers on the brakes and anticipating a wipeout in the snow) and busted out the coffee near the creek.

Since all of this is private property, I appreciated the stealthy colors of the LHT for my restful coffee stop. It allowed me to sit near the road and break for a while until the coffee ran out.

From there it was a straight shot, boring ride home. The end of an exploratory trip like this is always a buzz-kill. But that's what it takes to get there, I guess. I will be back for more of this route, for sure. Other than the fact that it's a 5(ish) mile ride to get to anything interesting, it was awesome. I want to see where that road ends up and what it shows me along the way. Next time I'll bring a fishing pole.

Get out there.