On this wonderfully cool Saturday morning, we tackled a fun and challenging set of routes that included many of the big climbs in Putnam County. We modified our original routes to avoid some dirt road sections that were badly damaged in a storm in July (particularly Sunken Mine Rd), but we still traversed some beautiful terrain.
The long route, unlike our Spring Gravel Series version, saved the two largest climbs for the last 1/3 of the ride – and we might have broken a couple of riders with that setup – sorry! Those two big climbs are tough at any time, but especially difficult after you’ve already done 5000 ft of climbing. The route was mostly downhill for the last ~10 miles if that counts for anything.
Many riders stayed to hang out over cold drinks and food after the ride, which was fun. Our long-distance group missed a few people before they headed off (we got back a little behind schedule). For the record: Kathy (medium group) and I (long group) had almost the exact same moving time, 4:14 and 4:15, so our planning was actually pretty good. That said, we ended up taking some longer pauses in the long distance group for a variety of reasons, which slowed things down a bit.
ROUTES:
-Long (v2): https://ridewithgps.com/routes/44397564
-Medium (v2): https://ridewithgps.com/routes/44402963
-Short (v2): https://ridewithgps.com/routes/44404608
Note: We’ll update these routes, particularly the long distance route, when Sunken Mine Rd is repaired again. The long distance route included a lengthy stretch along Rt 301, which was “acceptable”, but not as nice and quiet as the rest of the route.
Steve’s Strava Activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/9862724695
Speeding along dirt roads through the woods.
Riders from the long distance group taking a pause before the biggest climbs of the day.
Part of the medium distance group, stopping to regroup.