Ride Gravel, Hail Satan!

Hitting First Dirt that starts out as a Hike-a-Bike really makes you wonder what evil forces are at play here in Satan's Kingdom. I noticed last week that there was a group of people that did a 30 mile route starting from Collinsville that included Satan's Kingdom and I came up with a slightly longer route that hit some more dirt roads that have been on my bucket list in the New Hartford area. 

Litchfield Hills Roubaix

There's a bunch of roads and trails in Litchfield that I have been meaning to ride, I planned to meet Mike on Sunday, November 7, at the Roxbury Town Hall. The weather was spectacular for a fall day and perfect for riding gravel.  We hooked around to Hemlock Road, bombed down the gravel and then climbed up Spargo to Judds Bridge. We then turned onto the dirt section of Sentry Hill, which was the easiest way to get to Davenport Road and that's where pain began.

New Handlebar Day!

Finally got some bull horns, aka pursuit bars, for the singlespeed!

The leverage is great and it makes climbing so much better

 

Roubaix to Brew: OEC again

I got kicked loose from work early on Friday, October 15th, so I texted Scott to see if he wanted to ride out to OEC for a beer and then ride back to Newtown. He game so we met at the Flag Pole and started towards the brewery.

Night Gravel

A friend of mine, Andy, leads these Thursday afternoon/evening gravel rides from his house in Roxbury and decided to attend one of them and this evening we covered a lot of dirt, too.

Riding the Rose of New England

I had to go to a wedding being held at the Norwich Inn and Spa in mid October. Since we were spending the night I, of course, I brought my bike.

Our accomodation was nice and it gave me the perfect staging area to prepare for my ride without disturbing my wife. I wanted to ride both sides of the T(h)ames River. In Connecticut, they pronounce it the name with Th as opposed the British who spell their river with the same letters but the h is silent.

Veterans Day, Part III RC Ilumenati night ride

I got back from New Paltz around 4 PM which was more than enough time to prepare for the third ride with RC Ilumenati. I charged my lights the night before so all I had to do was switch bikes, put on the lights and leave for Easton by 5:45 PM.

Veteran's Day, Part II in the Gunks

We all headed out a little after 9 AM with Steve and two of his friends from New Jersey and another guy who is a professor at SUNY New Paltz. We rode up this new trail called the River to Ridge Greenway. The trail ended at Lenape Lane, which is a dirt road that heads up the ridge.

Veteran's Day, Part I in the Gunks

I reached out to some friends about doing a gravel ride on Veterans Day and Steve suggested that we ride in the Gunks. I invited my Brother-in-law, Will, and took the day off from work.  Since we were meeting at 9 AM, Will suggested we pre-game and found a route that used the rail trail that went past the parking lot where we would be meeting Steve and his friends.