Thought I'd add some pics from yesterday's ride in here. This was my second attempt at this ride - the first one was last Friday and ended after 1) my buddy and I getting run over simultaneously by two deer at mile 3, and 2) the plug I put in the rear tire last week (see post a few above) coming loose on a steep gravel descent and me losing too much sealant (and going through three CO2 cartridges to get the tire sealed again, and embarrassingly not bringing a pump). Still got a nice 40 miles in (15 of it after the tire problem).
Anyway - yesterday my ride was pretty great in so many ways. 111 miles, 11,000 feet of climbing. About half the distance was gravel, and over half the climbing was gravel. Besides those I was almost exclusively on country roads (some recently chip-sealed). It was scenic, challenging, painful, and in the end quite satisfying. Some of the gravel descents were quite possibly the hardest aspect of the ride. There were a couple that got quite steep on loose 1-3" gravel...as steep as -18% in places. And there were a couple that were just long and rugged with rocks too large to be called gravel - I stopped to let air from my tires on one of them.
Pics don't really do it justice.
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/39689491
Yes this was the "road" - had a half mile of this to negotiate. Had to walk around one or two.
