Brown Season: George Was The Only One

Three short stubs to bag this time.

 As "The Quest" winds down I have found that the roads are getting odder and harder to get into a loop or get to from a spot that makes sense to head to with the truck. Fortunately most of the oddball stuff is out of the way now that this past Sunday's ride has been completed. 

This time I had three, really short bits to knock out and all three were in the same vicinity. One I passed by multiple times on other excursions out to bag roads. It is a half a mile stretch called Merle Road. Just about every time I went by it I thought to myself, "I probably should just knock that out, but...."I wasn't into doing out-and-backs just yet. Not when I had perfectly good loop rides I could do. 

But, of course, now that it is coming down to it, I have to do these bits. I decided to combine Merle Road with two other bits on the map that looked like two quarter mile strips right on top of each other coming off a county blacktop. There was no real way to link those two bits up to anything thing else, so I have left them hanging until now. Merle Road actually fit pretty well into this plan, so once again, a mostly paved ride to bag a mile of gravel. Well, I thought it would be a mile of new gravel. 

The day was partly cloudy with a 15mph wind out of the Northwest. So, that pretty much dictated a tailwind out ride, which isn't how I like to do it, but whatever. Sunday was the day. The temperatures were in the 40's, so I wore a suite of GORE Windstopper gear I am testing for RidingGravel.com. Otherwise I was in my standard gear I usually have been in this Fall. The bike I chose was the Standard Rando v2 single speed. It's pretty flat out the way I was going, so I figured I'd be okay. 

The majority of this ride was done on the MLK bike path.

There is not much room on the pavement, but there is a wide gravel shoulder. You know which part I took.

The major out-and-back was on a bike path along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive which meanders Northeastward out of Waterloo out to the Tyson meatpacking plant and the very busy Elk Run Road. Fortunately for me, Elk Run Road has really wide and smooth gravel shoulders, which allows me easy access to an Eastbound gravel road called Newell Street. However; this time I had to go South and I did not know how far the good shoulder went in that direction. If I was lucky, it would take me right to those two short quarter mile sections of gravel. 

Little wider than a typical driveway, George Drive was the only bit of gravel out there off Elk Run Road.

Well, it isn't a DOT barrier, but that'll do! Found at the end of George Drive.

Fortunately I had a good gravel shoulder all the way out, but the first short bit of gravel that I was supposed to find had been chip-sealed. What!? Had I ridden out here for no reason? I was wondering at this point. And it also was a great reminder that DOT maps are not always correct. 

Fortunately, the next short bit, dubbed George Drive, was gravel, and it turned out to be the only one of the two stubs that was gravel out there. So I went and did the short out-and-back. That didn't last long! I found myself headed back North going to Newell Street and out to bag Merle Road. 

Newell Street looking East

Merle Road looking North

I'd been out along Merle Road before. A long, long time ago when I got the Snow Dog and everything was snow out there. There was a great snowmobile trail which was so packed in that I was able to ride the Mukluk I had on it without sinking. This ended up taking me out into a field, the very field on the East side of Merle Road I was riding on Sunday. So. I'd been near this gravel, but never on this gravel. 

So, I did the out-and-back. Funny thing about these dead end roads. It seems that the folks that live at the ends of these things are more paranoid about.......something, that many times I see things that make me shake my head. This time it was a security camera on a pole above the mail box. Weird.  Anyway......

The end of Merle Road

The low angle of the Sun at this time of year makes things look more dramatic.

 

 The ride went well and while I thought I was getting a mile of new-to-me gravel, I only got 3/4's of a mile. Oh well! A little scrap off the list of gravel yet to do and now I have even less to knock out. 

I did identify another tiny bit of gravel I need to knock out near a little village called Voorhies.  A little bit of gravel that comes out of the town on the East side. So, I'll have to go get that bit done. Then there is another bit of roads down by LaPorte City and that's been a known bit all along. Once I get those two things down and off the list, then it's all over. I should be getting this done soon. 

Stay tuned.