Twilight gravel grinder
Right as the kids were about to go to sleep, I looked outside, saw how much light there was, and was like, “I’m out of here.” So, went for a gravel grinder. I was able to leave right from my door and then go up to what we call the switchbacks. In the Greater Cache Valley, we have the Logan River Trail system. I’m able to grab into that right on the canal trail. It’s accessible from our house. So, jumped onto that and that is mainly gravel and rode that up behind Herms Inn and then connect into a urban trail. It’s sidewalk, slightly larger, it’s not perfect, but it’s about a six-foot wide space. So, two bikes going each way can go on that. It’s a shared multi-use path for those that are walking, running, strolling, riding a bike.
Next it goes to the Bonneville Shoreline Tunnel at what is called First Dam. Next is to connect from the Canyon Gateway, I think they call the Canyon Gateway or the Gateway Trail, up to the Pumphouse area and then up onto just under the High Canal Trail or whatever they call it. The trail follows under that higher trail section and nest it connects at the bridge, there’s an under bridge pathway and then we cross an iron bridge and then from there to the bridge, it’s about three miles from my door. From my door to the bridge is about three miles and then go on up another two, maybe three miles and come back. It’s just under 10 miles.
This route is mainly gravel. There’s not a lot of street. I broke onto the street on the way back just so I could get back a little quicker. It’s interesting because my back tire. This is a lesson learned on my last ride. It felt really soft, so I investigated and found out that, hello Presta’s, the valve stem can actually twist out. I’ve seen some tires that are compromised at the junction of the valve stem and the rubber of the tire. A lot of the time there will be a corrupted broken kind of space there, but it seems for this one, it’s just a valve stem issue. So I’m still playing with that a little bit, trying to figure it out because it did feel a little soft, a little float. It wasn’t as soft as the other day. But it definitely is interesting when you’re cruising on kind of mixed gravel trail and that little soft float that you can feel. It would be nice to just get a little bit more into that. Yeah, it’s definitely a different feel. Your handling comes up very quickly. I haven’t been clipping in. I’ve got mixed use pedals and I’m not going to ride with my typical cycling shoes. That’s just a disaster waiting to happen. Maybe I’ll be lucky and for my birthday, we’ll squeak out a pair of mountain bike or gravel type shoes. It was funny though, the Joyride guys were there with their van with, you know, five or six mountain bikes on the back and could see them all watching because the gravel bike I have is a Scott. It’s this, I believe it’s called Speedster and it is their aluminum tri, whatever tri-blend is on that. So it’s a mixed alloy. But it comes in pretty light and I like it. It’s a good mix as it’s compared to my time trial. It’s got a pretty good feel for handling and also that a lot of kind of loopty loop long loopty loose, but like up and down bouncies tonight in with the float. So it’s fairly comfortable ride. What I’m still trying to get used to is the difference of the hoods, of course. And then I have no fitness right now. It’s all gone away with the injury and everything. So it’s going to be a slow road back to that. I’ve got a friend that wants me to ride a kind of a bigger ride with him. And anyways, we’ll see. I don’t know if I’ll be, I mean, I can do it. But is it a smart thing to do and how much will it tear me up to do a big ride without kind of jumping up? I felt good tonight. Tonight, you know, being took about an hour and, you know, that’s decent thinking about the elevation gain and the overall kind of mileage, which I don’t really pay too much attention to that anymore. But overall, solid ride, fun, jumped and got it in and, you know, felt good and walked away from this ride feeling pretty invigorated for the most part. Almost got ran over my neighborhood because that’s just kind of the way it rolls. And I had my front light on and got my backlight. I got to charge everything back up because I don’t think the charge really worked. I got to get a cable for this one bike for the one light. But the light is amazing. So anyways, thanks to an old buddy Blair for gifting me that backlight. It definitely keeps me safe out there.
