The forecast for Friday night showed some light showers possible overnight with little to no accumulation, ending around 4-5 am. Which of course naturally meant that there was still water on the ground hours after "little to no accumulation" was supposed to have passed. Weather forecasters, what good are they anyway?
Despite the moisture still on the ground we had a pretty good turn out for the ride, mostly familiar faces but a few we haven't seen in a while and a new rider, on a fixie of all things!
There was a bit of a longer ride on the docket for Saturday, heading out to Hallam for a cool 50+ miles. When I planned the route the forecast was clear all week so I figured the gravel would be dry and fast. The pavement was just that on the way out of town.
The gravel however was neither dry nor fast to begin the day, a fast rolling route was not to be.
We even had a little synchronized tire repair early on in the ride, hopefully it was not a sign of things to come.
Joy had the raddest laser cat kit and yes it does say "suck it" inside the green on the pockets.
What would a Saturday ride be without a ditch beer? This week I picked up the always delicious, seasonal Caramel Apple Cider from Glacial Till, if that wasn't quite up your alley there was also a Casual Friday and Fluffaluffagus to be had.
Thankfully the MMRs were just dry enough that we could ride them without kicking up too much mud, there is always a way around them but they are definitely more fun if you can ride them. We did have a few of the skinny tire folks who decided to take the reroute option though rather than risk sinking. Wider is better when it comes to soft dirt, well, if you ask me wider is better all the time.
With soft gravel it does take a little more umpf to keep things rolling, I was pretty glad to see the water tower of Hallam.
The Hallam Steakhouse is always a great stop when in the area, cold beer, good food and one of the few buildings in Hallam that was lucky enough to survive the tornado 11 years ago that almost destroyed the town. While we were eating we noticed another cyclist show up outside, not unheard of but rare to see someone else riding this far from Lincoln by themselves. As it turned out it was a rider that was supposed to be joining us but showed up a few minutes after we left the shop, so rather than just go home Gabriela decided to chase us down. Kudos for that and it was nice to have her company on the ride back.
After lunch and a quick seat adjustment from Todd, it was time to head back to Lincoln.
The gravel was considerably drier on the return trip but with a fairly stiff head wind greeting us as we turned north, it might not have been much faster.
Despite the soft gravel in the morning and the headwind in the afternoon, the sun kept it warm and it ended up being a fantastic day to be out on a bicycle.
As we were regrouping near Wilderness Park it was fun to watch this rafter of turkeys crossing the road ahead of us. 5-6 of them would scurry across, the rest would wait a few seconds after the first group made it across and then 5-6 more of them would go until the entire group made it across. It was almost like watching a tactical military unit crossing an open field, I don't think I'd ever seen turkeys crossing that way before.
One last regroup and a stop at White Elm brought the SMNDFBR to an official close. Thanks to everyone who came out and rode with us today, it was a long day in the saddle but it was also a lot of fun.
Oooooh yeah, there was also a rare Gary on foot sighting on the way back to the shop. Groovy!
No ride next week due to the Halloween ride that will start at 4:45 pm from the shop, hope to see you all there. Details on that ride can be found HERE!
Also, if you've ever wondered what all the hype is about surrounding smart trainers and programs like Zwift; you're in luck, we have one setup in the shop. Come on down and give it a spin, all the cool kids are already doing it.
