the dirty dozen

after riding floyd around town this morning - this accounts for a little over three of this workout's miles - i decided he deserved a reward for his hard work, so i took him out on dirt. it was a blast!

i rode as quickly as i could out of town toward the nearest dirt road i could think of: blackstone at 30th. as quickly as i could was not very quickly. the wind was back up to gale force again today.

so i turned south onto blackstone and rode for two miles, uphill on dirt into a nasty headwind. since it hasn't rained much recently that meant eating a bit of dirt. my teeth were gritty when i reached the summit of (newly named) rusco hill. (mrs. rusco was the lady who rescued me when i flatted and my bike was "stolen" a while back.)

turning onto 50th, i had the wind slightly at my back. this sped me up a bit, but it also made me fight to stay upright on the loose gravel. this single mile included (newly named) stolen bike hill.

crossing argonia road and continuing on 50th, i started grinning. 50th east or argonia road is barely a path. it's hard packed dirt is great for rolling fast and there is NEVER any traffic! perfect! i rode hard toward eden rolling down stolen bike hill and then up and over (newly named) jackrabbit hill before turning onto eden road. (jackrabbit hill is named for the jackrabbit that i chased there a few years back.)

eden road was crazy fun! with the wind at my back, i accellerated up and over the top of (newly named) sandy eden hill and plunged down the hardpack at just over 30mph. about 3/4 of the way down, i slowed up a bit. a few years back i hit a sandy spot and almost lost it. no such danger this time. i made it down to 40th without the slightest bit of fishtailing.

40th is another gravel-strewn causeway. again i struggled to stay upright because of the crosswinds and the loose rocks on the road. an added hazard on 40th: washboards. i had to loosen my grip on the handlebars at times just to keep my arms from being shaken off as i climbed both (newly named) phillips hill and (newly named) pike hill.

turning south into the wind again, i crept up (newly named) mt. manly beard. don't know where that name came from, but there it was. at least i only had to travel a mile south before turning east again on 50th.

on 50th, i rode across the flats and then climbed part way up a hill i just couldn't come up with a name for before turning north again on morris road.

morris road. oh, the memories. i have taken morris road numerous times over the years. going north it is wonderful. going south is not. (thus my choice of directions today.) going north morris plunges down (newly named) birkholz hill. i hit my max speed of 32.6mph plunging down birkholz. then i encountered "sandy bottoms", the reason you don't want to ride morris road south. morris road is close to the chicaskia river and the road is made of sand, loose sand! i hit the worst of it going pretty fast and floyd's rear end started swaying this way and that. i nearly fell over once or twice, but made it through. going south on morris i have NEVER made it through the sound without having to stop and walk.

i turned on to 40th again and climbed up the other side of pike hill and then rolled over phillips hill and out to argonia road. since i didn't have much time left, i turned onto paved argonia road and sped back to town. made it back just in time to go back on call for the person who was covering for me until noon.

and that's the dirty dozen report. (21.42 miles @ 12.6mph)