Brown Season: Dog Sprints

Escape Route: Prairie Grove Park

Well, the streak of no country ride days has ended. At least for now. I made it under the wire, in terms of weather, as it is supposed to get bitterly cold again here for the next week or more. 

And my head cold improved enough to the point that I was feeling well enough, and okay with trying a short country outing. My recent delivery ride on my Big Dummy really encouraged me to give this a try Wednesday. 

And so did the weather. It was breezy out of the Southeast, but no big deal. It was, more importantly, in the 40's for temperatures. That meant I wasn't going to stress out my body as severely as I would have in colder weather. So, Wednesday mid-morning I headed off to ride the Southern roads of Black Hawk County. For a bit, anyway.

The roads were sure a lot different than they had been!

That new Ergon BT Gravel tape sure looks good on the Noble GX-5.

The roads were in a shape that I haven't been on in a long, long time. We've had recent, long, soaking rains, and this has allowed the road beds to soften, allowing, in turn, traffic to push the rocks down, and this results in a smooth, fast ride. However; this also has made some of that formerly rock-hard road bed to soften, and in places, become mushy, making for odd handling and leg-sapping pedaling at points along the way.

It reminded me of Trans Iowa, these roads. The sound of tires on wet gravel, the soft road beds, the grey, cheerless skies....

That's an alternative use for a bicycle lock!

It was a moody day outdoors. Not much moving about either.

I did stop a couple of times just to gauge my body and to not over-do things after not really riding much for three plus weeks. Everything seemed fine during the ride, but I tried to be careful not to do the "dog off the leash", and over-cook myself with feelings of euphoria that I get when I am out riding. That may sound a bit silly to some reading this, but it is a real thing for me. 

Speaking of dogs, by the way.......

That medium sized black cur gave me a run for my money!

I had passed a farm and a dog came out and barked, did the "Don't come any nearer to my Master's property!" bit, and then retreated back to his domain. But I wanted to come back the same way. I contemplated alternatives, which were available to me, but all involved adding at least five miles to my ride, and I wasn't wanting to go that far on this initial ride after having been so sick.

So, I reasoned that with the wind largely at my back, and with a slight downhill grade just past the farm's driveway, I might actually have a shot at outrunning this little yipper. So, I engaged by ramping up my approaching speed to get the dog to commit to an attack angle, then I slowed dramatically to throw off his aim. (That's when I took his picture, by the way) This tends to make a dog confused for a second. That's when I gassed it and gained a bit of a gap on the black terror. 

Since the road way was mostly clear of loose gravel, I employed a weaving technique to further put the dog off of my tail. This forced the cur to use the edge of the road on the right, and it decided it would have to run me down, but being a human, that dog didn't understand that I wouldn't be slowing down anytime soon. In fact, I clicked down two more gears, stomped, and accelerated even more. 

The dog gave up.

Ha! I looked back and yelled some triumphant statement and laughed. "That'll learn ya, ya furry, little varmint! Ha ha!" That was fun! And no harm, no foul on the dog. The owners of said dog though? They should not be allowing that dog out unattended and uncontrolled if it is going to give chase to passers by like that. Not a good thing. Anyway....

It may be a while before I get to do anything like this again. Maybe not until the calendar turns to 2023. So, I was glad to get out for what may be my last gravel ride of 2022.