Road Ride
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Event: Road ride.
Date(s): Saturday, July 19, 2008.
Location: Madison, Versailles, Friendship, Olean, Cross Plains, and Canaan in southeast Indiana. Because our replacement Garmin Edge 305 has not yet arrived we have neither map nor elevation information for this ride.
Miles: 75.0.
Total Elevation Gain: Not recorded.
Reporting: Rich Ries.
Photos: Rich Ries.
Attendees: David Fleming, Byron Nagel and Rich Ries.
This is a sweet loop most times we ride it. Today it was mostly sweet with a few bonus features beyond sweet and a couple of unpleasantries well below sweet. Let's start with those.
Part of the route involves exiting Versailles State Park and riding up US 50. Ordinarily there's little traffic along here, but there was plenty today. At a point where the shoulder is narrowest some thoughtless jackass coming the other way decided to pass the vehicle in front of him. This put the jackass inches from our handlebars with him going about 70 mph. No blood, no foul, but it was a singularly unsettling example of selfishness. When we do this ride in the future we'll go up Cave Hill Road and cut over by Christian International church, thereby avoiding US 50 almost entirely.
Just past the midpoint of the ride, about the time it was getting truly hot, we encountered fresh chip seal on Benham Road. That's not quite right. The reason it's called “chip seal” is because stone chips are used to seal the road surface. These weren't stone chips. They were stones. A cost-cutting measure, I suppose, since running the crusher long enough to get true chips takes extra diesel fuel. And the difference between stones and stone chips is likely lost on most motorists. We cyclists know the difference. Either treatment is dangerous when it's new, but stones are even more so. Our group opted to turn left instead of right. The reroute added eight or ten miles to our total for the day, including some tough rollers.
Among the bonus features were an encounter with a couple of guys out for an easy horseback ride and, later, an antique tractor show that was gearing up in Friendship. We spent quite a bit of time chatting with the tractor folks. There's something rewarding about talking with people about their passions, whether they're passionate about music or martial arts or the Middle Ages. Tractor collectors are passionate about their old iron and listening to them talk about tractors is a joy. Byron, who was raised on a farm, was having an especially good time.
Overall the bonuses outweighed the bummers, and next time will be even better. The reroute will eliminate the US 50 problem. The chip seal on Benham road will be swept away or packed down by traffic. And we'll still have a supremely beautiful ride through the country. Maybe without tractors.
Photos
Ordinarily we avoid US 421. The shoulder is often full of debris and there's usually tons of traffic. Today we rode it twice. It was peaceful in the morning (photo) and offered the quickest return to downtown in the afternoon. There was indeed debris both directions, but we had room to maneuver around it on the wide shoulders. No flats; no crashes.
David in the drops with morning mist shrouding the fields.
CR 100S in Ripley County is a nice way to reach Versailles.
I had pictures of the three of us in front of this covered bridge at the entrance to Versailles State Park, but these guys are much handsomer without me.
Byron exiting the general store in Friendship.
Byron comparing notes with one of the tractor collectors.
One of two old stone bridges we crossed on the ride. The other is the more familiar one near the south end of Old Michigan Road by Jefferson Proving Grounds.
It looks like Byron is climbing straight up Olean Road because he pretty much is.
The view from the top caught David's attention.