Country Views: Dry and Windy

Lots of birds out despite the gale.

Wednesday was hot. Not humid. In fact, the humidity is unusually low for this time of year. It actually concerns me when our humidity gets below 40% here in Summer because that's weird. Wednesday it was in the low 30's, if the apps can be believed. That's not good! 

On top of that, it was hot, into the mid-80's, and it was super windy out of the South/Southeast. A bad combination. Dryness abounds. Even the gravel roads show the effects of this with their broken down, moon-dust sections coming on. That said, I ran into a lot more fresh gravel than not, so more than anything, it was just really dusty.

I'm on the Teravail Cannonball tires and the Rutlands now for test/review. 700 X 47mm is a great size to tame the chunk with. I'm beginning to think 40's are 'skinny' tires now! Trouble is, not many bikes can handle such a wide tire. The Noble Bikes GX5 just barely accepts the Cannonball. I mean, like with a couple of millimeters to spare. That's cutting it close. For as dry as it is, that's okay though. I only get tire rub if I slam the bike hard into a fast paved corner, and then only briefly. Not gonna do that on gravel!

Looks beautiful- Feels awful. Heading into a 25mph headwind will do that. 

The corn is growing rapidly despite the lack of moisture.

I decided to bag most of the gravel section of Washburn Road, in my quest to ride all the gravel in Black Hawk County, because for whatever reason, I have not done this. It isn't like this is far from town or anything either. I designed a big squarish loop to ride which would end up with a tailwind.

I try to be smart sometimes!

Barns for Jason: I don't think I've posted this one before. Apologies if I have.....

A lone silo. There used to be a barn there beside it, I am sure.

Going South was brutal, but not impossible. My main worry was being overtaken by a vehicle because there was no way I'd hear one coming while heading into that blast of wind. Fortunately, that never happened, but you need to always be aware of your surroundings.

I stopped at one point where I had to cross pavement so I could get a drink. Fighting the wind while riding loose gravel meant that one-handed riding and drinking was not advisable. Riding in the crosswind was even more sketchy. It didn't help that the Cannonball tires liked to skitter around in the loose gravel.

Barns for Jason (Definitely a new one here)

The corn is tall enough now that the leaves rustle in the wind.

In fact, I was thinking that this was the kind of day, with the sort of gravel conditions that would turn off probably 90% of the gravel riding population. It was tough sledding, even with the tail wind, due to the sketchy nature of the deep, loose, very dried out gravel. Keeping the bike underneath me was a full time job at certain points during the ride. Skittering around at 25+ miles an hour is not what most folks would deem as 'fun'. I was pretty much 'surfing out of control' more than anything, and I wouldn't recommend doing that for most riders.

There is something about these sorts of rides that I get a kick out of though. Cheap thrills? Hmm......I don't know. Did I say earlier that sometimes I 'try to be smart'? Well, clearly, sometimes I don't!