All The OM, None Of The G

Last night had to be one of the top 10 fall riding days ever, temps were in the 70° range, the wind was minimal and not a cloud in the sky.  It had been a while since I had joined the OMGravel crew, oddly enough the last time being almost exactly three months ago on July 19th, so I decided to tag along and what better place is there in all of Omaha to start and end a ride.



Had a small but great group of riders last night, one thing that these rides have done for me is to help me get more familiar with Omaha and especially the downtown area. When I lived in Lincoln we would occasionally come up to the Big O but generally those trips were to go to specific places and do specific things, so exploring wasn't really in the cards. As I learn more about the downtown area the more I realize it's not as spread out as I once thought it was, I used to think that the river front and the Old Market were miles from each other when in reality they are only separated by about a mile.




These rides have also shown me where the hills are in Omaha, Council Bluffs and the surrounding area. 2nd & Hickory Streets is one of those hills, sure there are steeper hills or longer hills out there but around here a climb nearing 20% is a decent climb, my lungs and legs can attest to that.



We took a well earned rest at the top of the climb, in a drug free zone even... which was good because the area looked like it might otherwise have been victim of some drug activity. Thank goodness for signs. Brought the Fargo thinking it would be a better bike than the Pugsley but the skinnier I go, the skinnier the group goes it seems; in both bike tire and rider.


We sort of meandered south past the Henry Doorly Zoo and onto Bellevue Blvd before heading west on Harvell Dr., not one of my favorite roads to ride for sure but it was a brief trip to Fort Crook Road. We did ride through "little Mexico" on 24th St., which I had no idea was even there but there were so many great smells on every block that it will definitely have to be on the list of places to go back and visit soon.


Stopped and got a quick shot with Fargo and the Buffalo... even got a little bit of the First National Bank Tower. A little back story on that, a few years back I was downtown taking pictures with a buddy and we were going to take some of the fountain in front of the tower, a security guy on a Segway comes flying out of the building telling us we aren't allow to take pictures of the building. Dude had his panties pretty tightly wound so we decided not to push it and just moved along... a block down and then commenced to get the pictures we wanted. Any who, no wedgie having, scooter riding, rent-a-cops were encountered last night but I am sure my summons to appear is in the mail. Speaking of photos, the quality of pictures took a bit of a hit as the G15 is down and out right now. While in Poosey, a chuck of the memory card broke off and is still lodged in the slot preventing a new card from being inserted. The G15 is going to the Dr. here soon but in the meantime I am using a more traditional point and shoot that I had prior to the G15 but it doesn't take as good of pictures so bear with me.



The final stop of the night before parting ways was a refreshment and food stop at LOCAL Beer in the Old Market and sat outside by the fire. Always good beer and great food, one of my favorites down there for sure.

Iowa's Not Bluffing

Made it down to my second ever OMG! Gravel and Adventure ride, apparently also somewhat known as "the hipster gravel ride"or so I've been told on a few occasions now. I'm not sure about all that but it's always been a good time when I've made it out. The ride generally meets on either the Iowa side or the Nebraska side of the Bob Kerrey pedestrian bridge and dependent on which side they meet on, they ride a bag of mixed road surfaces in that state. This week it was the Iowa side, oddly enough yesterday was the fist time I'd ever been on the Iowa side of the bridge... if you don't count crossing the line in the middle of the bridge.


The ride starts right around 6 pm, I recently stared a new job that is mostly the same as the old job but in a much different location. Not sure how long it would take me to get from the northwest side of Omaha to the east side in rush hour traffic I brought the bike and gear to work and tried to get out of there promptly at 5. I got there way early than I had expected and had some time to kill, the views from the Iowa side ain't half bad in their own right.


Building some sort of shopping complex on that side of the river, not sure what all is going in there but I bet it will get a fair amount of business.


Eventually met up with Robbie and Brandon and we waited a bit to see if we would get more fellow riders but on a day that was a bit chilly and a lot windy we weren't to optimistic.


I think the dog thought we were a little touched in the head going for a ride in this wind and maybe he was right but into the wind we were going none the less.




Promptly-ish at 6 something we headed off towards the gravel that awaited us but where exactly we were going I knew not. I really need to ride around here more and get familiar with the area, it's only been 3 years.


I've lived mere miles from this and never even knew it existed until yesterday, I could have been coming here weekly. Well, probably not but I could have.



Council Bluffs has trains, lots of them, I can't tell you how many railroad tracks we crossed last night. Luckily only got stopped the one time but Nelson just stared at us, mocking and laughing in that Nelson like "HaHa". Asshole!





A few more miles on the mean streets of Council-tucky and we were to the gravel, this I recognized barely because it was near the Wabash trail head.


For once I wasn't the only shutterbug on the ride, which was good as there was some great picture opportunities until it got darker.




Road was amazingly flat, and amazingly busy, which you would think would be great but it was straight into at least a 20 mph head wind, it didn't feel flat at all. Sustained head winds are not a strong suit of the fat bike, hills aren't either... actually not much is, so if you're going to ride fat you have to be willing to put up with a little suffering and there was plenty of it to go around last night.


Rode right by the gianormous Google data center, hadn't see it up close like before so that was kind of cool, when I could breath that is.


Other structures out this way were a little less awe inspiring.



Being a small group and Brandon and Robbie both being on skinnier tire, I was the slow one last night but they never complained or at least not loud enough to be heard over the wind. Stopped at the top of this little climb for a few pictures, Brohard Road, possibly the best named road in all of Council Bluffs.



Hit a little section of pavement which was a nice change of pace and we weren't directly into the wind so that was also nice. Had I known we were just beginning the hill climbs I probably wouldn't have been so jovial but sometimes ignorance really is bliss. Not much for pictures after this as it became too dark to get anything of quality but I can tell you that Applewood is a heck of a climb and some of those bluff roads get pretty steep. Should be good practice for gravel races down the road like Gravel Worlds, the Omaha Jackrabbit and the Solstice 100 so I guess the pain and suffering has a purpose.


This gem is from Brandon who was the other guy with a camera on the ride, pretty nice looking mirrorless setup. Been contemplating one myself once the G15 gives up the ghost, he's got a pretty good eye for photos and the camera takes great looking pictures. I particularly liked this one, which is odd because like most people I'm not real crazy about pictures I am in most of the time.

All in all it was another great ride with the OMG Gravel and Adventure club, I really hope to start making this a regular thing this year and get back to riding more often locally. Thanks for having me guys, great time as always!

You Know They Have Rides In Omaha, Right?

Been meaning to get out for a ride with the folks from OMG! Gravel and Adventure Club  for a few months now but for one reason or another things just didn't work out. I know it's kind of a lame excuse but Wednesday (every other Wednesday to be exact) is the day I get the rabbits trimmed so that has contributed to not making the ride before. Any who, decided that there wasn't anything going on this Wednesday so I'd finally get on down and see what riding in Omaha is all about.



Threw the bike on and the gear in the car in the morning and took it all to work as I had no idea what the timing would be like from work to the meetup spot by the Bob Kerry bridge. Turns out I severely over estimated the amount of time it would take to get there at 4:45 and ended up with almost an hour to spare before the 6 o'clock meetup. Spun around the immediate area for a few but quickly ran out of things to see and do...




...so I decided to spin over the Heartland of America Park and see the sights over that way as well, as always it didn't disappoint.




After spending a few minutes in the park it was time to head back to the Bob and meetup with the rest of the group. Having never ridden with these guys before, they were probably wondering what the camera was all about but they seemed to go along with my paparazzi ways.


Not being too familiar with the Omaha Metro yet, especially the off the beaten path part, I had no clue where we were really but found some cool gravel within Omaha... then Conrad got his first flat of the night. Conrad is also a Lincoln transplant, I remember reading this guys blog back when everyone and their brother had one and he hung out with the Monkey Wrench guys. Hadn't ever ridden with him before though, good guy and strong rider.



It wasn't too much longer before more air needed to be added to the tire, which was OK with me as we had found some serious hills and the rest was much appreciated. Chasing skinny tires on the Pugs up and down hills can be a bit tiring.



After the third flat in the dark, battling Zika filled mosquitoes we decided that maybe we would just retrace our steps back toward town rather than proceed on the rest of the route.



This lead me to another first, the Surf Side Club for some fried catfish and beer, both went down pretty smooth after climbing all those hills. All in all it was a great first real ride in Omaha with the OMG Gravel folks, if timing works out I'm going to try to make these on a more regular basis. Good times and good group. Plus I discovered I need to learn Omaha by bike much better than I currently know it.