I got a last minute riding partner for my Friday ride this week. Willy joined me for a recon ride out to the Tum Tum area. It was a hard ride with a lot of climbing and we rode it pretty fast. It turned out to be a bit over 60 miles with a fair bit of dirt roads, some backwoods jeep trails, and nearly 5000 feet of climbing in about 6 hours.
Stony Peak is a mountain about 5 miles east of Tum Tum. Instead of going out on 291, we approached from the east by going out Hazard road/Wild Rose Prairie area. I charted a way more ambitious route on my GPS which we followed to Stony Peak. It was good to have the GPS. At one point we ended up in some state land with a labyrinth of jeep/moto-cross/quad trails that would've put us who-knows-where. By minding the GPS, we made it out at the right spot.
I rode the resurrecto RB-1 to see if it was a good candidate for this kind of riding. It's great for the ride out, but once I was in the hard climbs and dirt the compact double setup on it didn't work so well. I was continually double-shifting. The gearing (44/30 up front with 12-26 in the back) works great for city riding, where I can leave the chain on 44 for 90% of my riding, but on super hilly climbs, it wasn't so great. I'll be riding the Rawland for future long dirt/trail/road rides.
Stony Peak was neat. We climbed and climbed. We pushed our bikes for one section. And when we got to the top, the view was crazy beautiful and very vast. There was a trailer up there. No people. But there were a couple chairs where we sat and looked at the view as we ate our lunches. It was certainly worth the climb.
The rain came and we were on our way. We took a really well-maintained road all the way down. It was a fast and fun descent. Then on to 291, where we rode the quad tracks into Suncrest, did the big descent down to the river, and eventually on to the Centennial Trail and landed at Benniditos for beer and beer buddies. And home with an hour to spare.
5 comments:
Ems ain't beer buddy's, ems beignets.
Great looking ride John. I'm jealous of your out the door adventures.
I've had the same experience with 30/42 or similar doubles. They are perfect for around town riding, but let me down in the mountains (especially offroad). Isn't this why we own multiple bikes?
Good point Alex.
Sounds really fun. I need to be more daring with my LHT and hit some trails this summer. Idaho has a lot of that stuff available, although with less trees than I'd like.
That is a nice sounding ride!
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