TimothyH

There can be lots of negativity and anger at BF. I'd like to change the channel for a moment and would love to hear about your positive gravel accomplishments.

One user here competed in the Red Clay Ramble and finished very respectfully. I hope he comments.

Other's have completed epic journeys in remote back country, built some pretty rad bikes and competed against man and nature in their own right.

Inspire others. What have you accomplished recently?


-Tim-

Seattle Forrest

Last summer, I made the first recorded ascent of Cascade River Road on a bike. Turns out it's been done at least twice before me, but, still, I'm the first in the Garmin/Strava era. It's the hardest ride I've done yet.

This year I've done a couple of long and remote rides, including to the Spider Meadow TH, and at Harts Pass, with some of the best scenery on earth. I have a couple rides planned that will make me feel pretty accomplished, but we've had disastrous air quality.

ksryder

Sunday I almost -- but not quite -- got home before the heavens opened up and I got drenched.

However, I did not get hit bit lightning. I consider that a positive outcome.

mstateglfr 

I did my longest gravel ride(actual gravel road, not smooth hardpack dirt or limestone trail) earlier this year- 75mi.

It was part of a past route for this race- https://spottedhorsecycling.com/

So I am halfway to the shortest route for the race!

dgodave

Only one ride this year that feels like an accomplishment.
Solo ride.
High rocky mountain dirt roads, a few stretches bordering on mtb-ing.
65 miles.
Up to 11,000 ft elev.

mstateglfr 

ooh, yeah I was out in Carbondale CO(between Glenwood Springs and Aspen) a few weeks ago for a week and did a few rides- oh my goodness was that difficult!
The views were amazing and each ride was about 100' of climb per mile ridden(our house was atop a hill(mountain?).

The climb was tough, but doable. I can slug thru climbing any time. But the sheer elevation made rides brutal! Being 9-11000' up was a wild experience since I live my life below 1000' pretty much at all times.

My rides were all 10-20mi gravel/dirt rides. I cant imagine the 65mi you did! Strong work.

shoota 

Link!

shoota 

I was just looking at that event five minutes ago. Weird.

mstateglfr 

another race thats closer to you that weekend is this- Race Omaha ? Fred?s Paper Route Gravel Bike Race

also, check out the Buffalo105 race in Newton IA. Its Oct 21st and has a 55mi and 105 category. me and another BF member did it last year and will again this year.

chas58

My greatest accomplishment is using google maps and strava heat maps to map out some extreamly creative back country routes that would be difficult to do on a mountain or road bike, but are a blast on a cross/gravel bike.

I love finding new roads...

shoota 

Yep saw both of those as well. I hope to make at least one of them this year.

unterhausen

I have tried that, need to get back to it. I have a lot of routes near me, but I feel to the south east of here has to have some good gravel

dgodave

Thanks!
I live at 7,000 ft tho. So this is a lot easier for me.... but still a very hard ride.

rumrunn6

got some free time this weekend & I might actually ride a bike! can't decide if I want to fly down some pavement or revisit some gravel trails I discovered last fall / winter

Seattle Forrest

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1198511298

Like I said, it turns out at least two people beat me to the punch. One of them was much more impressive than me. Jason Hummel did a solo Ptarmigan Traverse for Alpine State of Mind, then kayaked the Sauk River and rode a MTB up Cascade River Road just to get back to his car. Ptarmigan Traverse is a climbing route through a very rugged section of the North Cascades, it crosses a few peaks and several glaciers, takes a strong party a week. I just rode my bike up a dirt road.

shoota 

Amazing. Are you using a power meter or are those estimated figures?

TimothyH

Nice accomplishment.

I notice you mentioned heat stroke in the ride description. That happened to me on my eclipse ride 8/21.

A 3200 ft climb over 14 miles in 95° heat left me at the top of the mountain freezing cold, shivering but sweating profusely. I was pretty worried.

Interesting to read that you had snow to cool down.


-Tim-

Seattle Forrest

@TimothyH

A few years ago, a friend from high school came out to visit me, and we hiked one of the trails at the end of this road. It was late July or early August, so she thought I was pulling her leg when I warned her there would be snow on the trail. (We grew up in Connecticut.) She wore toe shoes. Sure enough, at the 5,000 level, we start encountering snow patches. Maybe half a mile in all. She hated crossing them in minimal shoes.

Washington has more glaciers than anywhere in the lower 48. These are just places where the snow doesn’t melt, so it accumulates year after year. Naturally, we have a lot more places where the snow does melt, but it takes a long time.

That’s actually a big challenge riding out here. A lot of great roads are snowbound until July, sometimes even August. Then a lot of them close again in November. I bet @dgodave can relate.

Seattle Forrest

PM. I think my FTP was underestimated at the time though. I like using a PM on gravel, even though mine isn't the best choice for the job, it clearly shows how much harder gravel is than pavement. Well, just the effort part, it doesn't show that you need more skill and judgement, too. All the stuff that make this fun.

Seattle Forrest

I live at sea level, and start feeling it around 7K. Where you live, I just have less energy. I can gain 3K on a hike and feel pretty good at the top if it starts low, but a similar 3K with a higher start drains me. I stayed in Denver for a while and was able to enjoy much higher places. The human body is an amazing thing.

Primitive Don

• I did the Strava August Gran Fondo metric century challenge, but I did it on (mostly) gravel. I ended up finding a bunch of new gravel roads researching and building the route, which is the best thing ever.
• I did the Strade Bianche Road Race in Michigan Sunday. That was my first USA Cycling Race, so I was WAY in over my head. The competition were all road racers riding CF road bikes and nice wheels with skinny smooth tires. That's when I realized this was a road racing group that happened to be racing on dirt for that particular event. But I did 60k gravel race in just over 2 hours with an average speed of 16.3 mph, which is not bad for a 47-year old clyde newbie.

RJM

I've been searching out and riding new (to me) gravel roads and routes locally and updating them to gravelmap.com. There are a bunch of really used and destroyed jeep trails in a national forrest by me that I've been slowly trying to figure out too. Honestly, some of them are better done on a mountain bike though. A bunch of good gravel roads though...should take several months to ride them all.

sgtrobo

within 4 consecutive weekends, I did a 65-mile gravel/off-road ride through Oregon logging mountains (~8k feet of climbing), followed by a 100-mile road ride, followed by a 110-mile gravel ride (100% gravel, John Wayne trail in Washington) followed by another 108-mile road ride

BigC_82

I created a route to nearby small town in Illinois using mapmyride app as I rode the route yesterday I stumbled upon 12-15 miles of manageable gravel b roads with my cx bike using it's Clement X'plor USH 35c 120tpi tires. This route I will ride again with my new gravel when I build it in 2018.

kuroba

On Saturday I did a 40km gravel ride with 500mts of climbing AND I DIDN'T WALK (which had been the case so far). I even was able to reserve my 2 lowest gears instead of spending 90% of the time on my lowest gear. I felt accomplished.