Last week d.p. and I started to grind night time gravel, ostensibly for training for the Dirty Kanza 200, but really...........let's be totally honest here. We just enjoy riding gravel and doing it at night is fun. In fact, we plan on doing this all summer long.
So, anyway........ I made the trek down to Traer again and d.p. met me. It had rained quite a bit and the Wolf Creek was flooding. We were both a bit afraid that the gravel would be all peanut butter. We also had both noted the buffeting winds and we figured we were in for a tough night. But ya know, it didn't really matter much. We wanted to try and ride regardless.
Once we got going, the chattering began, as usual, and before we really knew it, we found out the roads were not too bad at all. In fact, they were actually dry and fast! The setting sun put on a delightful show for us as we headed westward. A couple of B Maintenance roads were avoided as they were still too wet and muddy, but we found acceptable re-routes and found the road we really wanted- K Avenue.
K Avenue is a great ride up to Ridge Road from the south. You have about three really big grunts to get up there and about four really fast, short down hills inbetween. Funny thing about it was that we both noted how much easier it was to do this bit in the dark. Weird how that works.
So we turned eastwards on Ridge Road and by this time the stars are out in force, the wind is completely gone, and d.p. and I were just about to go off the road due to our star gazing. Finally, it was just time to stop, turn off all the lights, and enjoy the scenery. The Milky way could be seen, and the stars were twinkling like I haven't seen in a long, long time. I was waiting for a troop of elves to take up singing, it was so unreal last night.
Well, we had a wee nip off the flask and then we saddled up and finished off the ride. It was awesome, and totally unexpected as far as how good the roads were and how beautiful the night was. More folks should try this gravel grinding at night. It's a good thing!
5 comments:
The Slender Fungus Cycling Association prides itself in doing most of its riding in the dark. Once you get hooked there is no going back! Glad to hear you guys are having a blast out there.
best,
Ari
Yep, I do plenty of night rides out here to avoid the heat of the day & I've seen some amazing things over the years when it comes to wildlife, young couples parking in the moonlight & even a DUI bust one 4th of July at 2:30 am, I think we kind of scared the 2 officers on that one as we came busting over the hill with our lights, they didn't know what to think at first!
Best parts of DK for me have been at night. No light pollution, you settle into a group of people that have a common goal, and just shut up and hear the sounds of tires moving gravel. Heavenly.
I'm sold. Thanks for the reminder of opportunities forgotten.
Might be warm enough next week to bare arms
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