Pugsley Limestone Adventure

Met up with a few friends and rode the Mo-Pac trail on Saturday. The Pugsley ended up being really comfortable and rolled sufficiently well on the 45 miles to Wabash and back. Then add another 10 miles for the ride to the trailhead and back home, and you have a great Saturday ride. I enjoyed Casey's Pizza and a BBQ Pork sandwich at the gas station in Elmwood along the way, which helped fuel the nice pace back home.

I hope to have some time to clean a few of the dirty bikes in the stable this afternoon. I haven't touched the La Cruz since last weekends gravel ride and now the Pugsley is covered in a white dust from the Mo-Pac.

Only a little over 2 months until I return the Tundra and we become a one car household!

Pugsley

Rode the Pugsley today for ~20 miles, including a trip downtown after work. Every time I jump on it after a hiatus, the wide bottom bracket feels uncomfortable. But after a few miles I become accustomed to it and it isn't a big deal. 20 miles in a day is about as far as I've gone on the Pugsley, but I hope to remedy that this Saturday. A few friends and I are going to ride the Mo-Pac trail to either Elmwood or Wabash and I decided this evening that I am going to take the Pugsley.

Last week, at around 6PM, when I hit the Mo-Pac for the final ~2 miles of the Good Life Gravel Adventure, the trail felt oh so incredibly smooth. I'm anxious to see how the Pugsley and I get along on 35-45 miles of limestone.

Good Life Gravel Adventure

Rode the ~135 miles of the first annual PCL 'Good Life Gravel Adventure' on Saturday. I got to the start shortly before the 6AM start and said a few hellos to the locals I knew. Lots of details when riding such a long ride, but I'll keep it short by saying that it was great to ride with the local group of regulars that seem to frequent these tortureous rides. I felt good for the first 80 miles or so, until about 10 miles outside of Denton. That's when I got a nice right frontal headache and started feeling chilly. I did my best to stay with Jeff B. after the final stop in Malcom, but eventually I had to drop back and recover a bit on Branched Oak Rd. I got back on the bike after drinking more liquids and eating a granola bar, and felt good enough to make it to the finish. Much thanks goes to Cornbread and the rest of the volunteers for not only making the event possible, but very friendly and welcoming.

After I finished I had Katie pick me up at the trailhead as opposed to riding the 5 miles back home. I was spent. We picked up a whopper meal that I quickly ate when I got home, gave a quick overview to the kids, took a shower, and then crashed in bed at 8PM.

My relationship with these longer gravel rides is perplexing. This is the second gravel grinder I've participated in this year and after each one I swear to myself that I won't do another one. Then after a few days of recovery, I start to waiver and start thinking about the possibility of participating in another one.

Here is the GPS upload of the ride that I uploaded to MB.

Platte River State Park: 1 Me: 0

This past Saturday I and a couple of friends drove to Platte River State Park to ride some single track. I'll preface this with stating that my single track skills are non-existant. We head into the hiking trails and on the first serious descent it was re-enforced that I am a terrible bicycle mechanic. I had swapped out the stem on the Mamasita a few weeks ago and didn't tighten the handlebar bolts tightly enough, so my handlebars slipped and shifted my weight forward to cause me to do a perfect endo over the handlebars. I ended up on my back with the bike right above me, still perfectly attached to me via my SPD pedals. I got up and cursed a bit at my stupidity. Fortunately I was just scraped up a bit and the Mamasita didn't appear to take any damage. Everyone had a good laugh and we continued on.

It was difficult navigating Platte and we ended up doing a lot of stopping and trying to decide where to go. There was one section, toward the end of the ride, where it finally felt like 'smooth flowing single track', and it was a blast. I need to make riding single track a more regular part of my cycling.