8.12.2014

A Quiet Morning on Kentucky River

The rain has been so erratically heavy for the last few days that it's put a damper on my outside time. We got so much rainfall that it would border on dangerous for visibility on a bike for our country roads. So I had to go with a Plan B yesterday.
Water falling from the sky is no issue when you're floating on top of water. So I pulled the kayak down for a morning paddle before work. The dense fog and cool temps made for a perfect time on the Kentucky River.
I took a thermos of coffee, a book and a sling shot. All of which kept my time balanced and well rounded. Sip some coffee... read a bit... try to shoot a groundhog with the sling shot. All while watching the sun rise. That's time well spent.
You don't gain a lot of ground... er, water when you're in a kayak. You're certainly moving slower than being on a bike. But you still see some amazing sites. And it's much more peaceful. I didn't see another soul on the water for about two hours.
And I park down stream and paddle up. So what takes 45 minutes on the way in is only a 15 minute paddle on the way back. It works out well for those sore arms.

Get out there.

8.06.2014

Rough Commuting

They're resurfacing the road I ride on my commute. It's rrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuufffffffffffffff. Too bad to ride on. They've done the work to rough up the road but haven't started repaving yet. So I'm going to have to take an alternate route until they're finished up. I got caught on it yesterday and it was awful. I ended up pulling over and airing my tires down to 10psi. That helped a ton. But it's still to whacky to ride on for more than a couple minutes at a time.

Get out there.

8.04.2014

A Long Ride on New Roads

I've been wanting to take some time off of work for a 50 miler for a while now and it finally came to fruition last week. There's lots of roads, rivers, lakes and nature preserves near my house that I've wanted to explore for a long time and I finally took the initiative. Most trips out my door head west. This one was south. And it was beautiful.
Just south of my house is Camp Nelson Cemetery. It's always worth a quick spin through, some contemplation and a prayer.
I planned 40 miles with the hopes of 50. But I wanted to give myself the wiggle room to explore random roads that I encountered in person. Sometimes roads on a map won't represent how awesome they are when you pass them at 14mph and I wanted to give myself an opportunity to ride those. The photo above is a small example. It was closed off and completely covered with debris. But was a great road for weaving in and out of trees and exploring.
I meandered through farm country and became eye candy for the longhorns for the first 15 miles or so but soon encountered my first major route change. I neglected to take a photo in the moment, unfortunately. But one of the gravel roads I was one for a half mile eventually ended with a menacing gate. Although marked publicly on the map, it was a private road and it's inaccessibility meant that I was going to have to ride a good six or seven miles out of my plan to get where I wanted to go.

Not a nuisance, though. That is exactly why I mapped fewer miles than I actually wanted to ride.
After my reroute, I made my way to Kennedy Bridge on Herrington Lake. Herrington was my family's vacation spot when I was a kid. So pedaling over it was one of the highlights of this ride. Having lived close to Herrington for nine years now, I've never actually laid eyes on it since I was a kid. So it drummed up some fun memories.
After Herrington was miles and miles of corn. Next stop, Burgin: A Friendly Little City. I sat here for a while and ate. At this point, I had climbed out of the river and climbed out of the lake and was a little pooped. But it was nothing that a peanut butter and jelly sandwich couldn't fix.
After Burgin is Shakertown.
Simplicity, donkeys, sheep. I'd never taken a peak into Shakertown before. It's quite quaint... and quiet. And from Shakertown, it's pretty much downhill back to the river.
Just before the river, though, there's a 175 year old church. Pretty spectacular, actually.
After Mt. Zion Church, I coasted for about three miles down to the river. Probably the most uplifting part of the whole ride. Super fast and fun through BEAUTIFUL trees and nature-scape. But after the river, it's all uphill from there.
As I mashed the pedals uphill, I found a little trail that shot off to the right of the road. I had the time and needed the break so I aimed the bars that way. A little gravel and dirt path led me to the photo above. Super cool tunnel in the middle of nowhere. Keep following the path and you'll hit a rope swing right into the river. I was very tempted to swing in for bit but I resisted. There was more climbing to do.

From there it was climbing, climbing and climbing. The three mile descent became a three mile climb on the other side. It was tough. Really tough. My ride was pretty much over but this last little bit toasted me before I made it back to my car. It's exactly how you want to feel when your ride is over. 49.9 miles. Couldn't have gone any better.

Get out there.