Sunday, June 01, 2014

Gravel Metric 2014

Wind Farming
Drove down to DeKalb with Nate and Steve to ride Axletree's Gravel Metric, the ride with the clever videos. Grant skipped this one because apparently there was some kind of dispute on their ride while I was at Almanzo.

Pretty big field of locals, Chicagoans and Sconnies took the start. Rolled out of the NCC parking lot, onto some pavements to get us out of town, and turned the dogs loose on the gravels maybe 5 or 6 miles out. Pace lines held until maybe 25 miles in where we did a long stretch of turf grass trails through a state park. Interesting at times given that some folks obviously don't spend a lot of time on surfaces other than pavement. It was pretty hot and quite a few people would run out of water as the ride went on, but we were smart enough to stop at the park and top off.

Peeps were feeling a little low at the halfway checkpoint, so that slowed us down a little, and we took another longish break at the water crossing around mile 45-ish. Couple of really fun B roads on this one. Ended up taking a little longer than I might have liked overall, but we had a good lunch afterward in good company.

Word has it that the next running will be the last, so make it if you can.

Pix over on the picture site.

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