Ride For Jacob Report: Part 1

First things first: The Ride For Jacob was a big success. Not in terms of numbers, but in light of why we were riding. It was an expression of love and support for me and my family. All in honor of Jacob Stevenson, who would have marveled at the attention given this ride. 

I thank everyone out there who were not at the ride for your thoughts and doing your own rides, which I know were being done in honor of Jacob. I thank all twelve riders who showed up Saturday to ride with me. I was, and still am, very grateful for all of you. 

Thanks also to Rob Evans, Kevin Fox, and Dan Buettner for sharing images with me which I am using in these reports.  

So, now let's get into the day and the stories which became what made the Ride for Jacob such a success. The ride was attended, as mentioned, by twelve folks. We had Dave, Justin, and Tony from Waterloo. There was Rob, Dave, Doug, and Jackie from Nebraska. We also had Kevin Fox from Nebraska. There were two from the Twin Cities area, Jason and Tom. We had two from Des Moines including Dan and Steve. With myself included we had 13 riders total. 

Escape Route: Right through those shrubs!

My day started out really early when Minka, our cat, barfed up a hairball and woke up Mrs. Guitar Ted. She was not pleased and the ruckus caused me to be pretty much wide awake from that point onward. 

I ended up getting out of bed at 5:00am and having some breakfast. Two eggs and some cheese on top. Then I got dressed and ready to hit the road over to Big Woods Lake.  I was riding my Singular Peregrine Mk4. I almost took the Fargo Gen ! because I had a message from Jason Boucher that he was coming down. Jason was the one who let me have that Fargo I have now, so I kinda feel obligated to ride it when he's going to be around, but the Singular ended up being the call. 

I stepped outside at 7:20am to ride over to Big Woods Lake and the North parking lot. I figured on it taking close to an hour to get there at an easy pace, so that would be about right for the 8:00am start. The weather was odd. Very humid, but on the cooler side, with very little wind. It seemed almost foggy. My camera lens was prone to being covered in moisture it was so humid. You can kind of see that in my "Escape Route" image here. 

I don't know if it was excitement about the ride or what, but I ended up arriving at Big Woods Lake by 7:00am! I thought I'd sit in the shelter house there but the mosquitos were too bothersome, so I sat on a wooden post alongside the parking lot edge instead, and I waited for the first arrival. 

About a half an hour later the first rider showed up. It was obvious who it was by the very distinctive bicycle on the roof rack. A red Soul Craft with red anodized appointments. It could be no one else but Dan Buettner from Des Moines! 

Image credit: Kevin Fox - who is not shown here.

 Soon others rolled in and by about 7:50am everyone that was going to show up had done so. I assembled the riders and gave them my usual "fatherly advice" speech, and ended it by cutting myself short and saying"...Well, you guys all know what to do!" We had the group photo and then we rolled out a few minutes past 8:00am.

Heading up Symons Road

The jack ass and two horses were very interested in our passage

Heading out toward Mount Vernon Road, where the gravel would start, I was surprised to find Symons Road was just chip sealed. Fresh chips are almost like riding on gravel. To boot, Symons Road was a gravel road at one time, and I had ridden it back then. So this was a pleasant surprise, to me, and almost a throwback to the old days. 

Instead of doing the route like last year where I went North up Burton Avenue, we went up Leversee Road instead. I hadn't ridden up Leversee in many years. It's a nice road to ride. It was capped off with a jack ass and some horses which were running with us a bit. Then we zigged and zagged over to our first stop in Janesville at the very busy Kwik Star convenience store. 

Heading toward Janesville. Note the fuzzy image due to all the humidity

Gathering outside the Kwik Star in Janesville. Image by Kevin Fox

The stop at Janesville was nice. I did not go inside, but a few of the others did. A while goes by and then we started out for Shell Rock by heading West out of town over the Cedar River. The road is pretty flat here and there was fresh gravel which was quite dusty as well. My tires were white with the dust. I assume the moist air was partially to blame for the dust sticking to the tires. 

Jason (L) and myself leading the group out of Janesville. Image by Kevin Fox

 

Heading up to new-to-me roads.

Last year this section past Janesville is where I totally messed up in terms of navigation. I missed a turn which would have taken me on some new road along the Shell Rock River. Then I missed a turn-off to Shell Rock. This landed me on Highway 3 and then a not very pleasant run into town on that highway's shoulder. 

Now I have to take a minute to go over my latest GPS failure. You know me, dear readers! I have no good luck with GPS navigation! So, back at the start, I had my GPS on to measure the mileage out to the Big Woods Lake parking lot. It was a little over 8 miles. I then selected the Ride For Jacob route in the ride history and tried to load it. Only it would not load. So.... After N.Y. Roll told me he thought I did not have the Iowa maps loaded (!!), I just opted to start a new ride and record that. All was well. 

Until....

Just outside of Janesville the Wahoo went "WAHOOO!" and flew off the mount! I stopped and Tony fetched it for me. Looking a little worse for the wear, I stared down to see it was on some new page. I tried getting back to start a new ride but it would not do my bidding. So, frustrated, I decided to shut it off, stash it in my jersey pocket, and enjoy the ride. As long as I was with friends who had the route, well everything would take care of itself.  (Note: I checked the Wahoo out afterward and it said I had done a 20+ mile indoor workout. Nice...)

Okay, back to the story....

The roads I missed last year were super-cool! Image by Dan Buettner

 

I'll be hitting up these roads again soon!

The bit of road on the East side of the Shell Rock river was outstanding. I am so sad I missed that turn last year now! The road I took last year was so boring compared to what we rode Saturday! Some riders could be heard saying they thought the route was really a good one and were remarking on this stretch of road in particular. 

The turn off to Shell Rock was pretty decent as well. This was much better than going alongside the highway! Once we arrived in town we went off route a little bit to find our next Kwik Star convenience store and a bit of rest. We were making great time. It was not even noon yet! 

Not bad for shooting no-look over my shoulder!

 

The final bit before getting into Shell Rock, Iowa.

So, the ride was going very well and everyone was having a good time. Even my GPS nightmare couldn't affect me on this day. The weather was a huge blessing as we were comfortable and cool-ish all the way into Shell Rock. Had the Sun been out? I don't think we'd have had every rider finish the day. Or we may have cut the route short. Hard to say, but I'm glad we didn't have to do that! 

I'll leave you with one last shot for today.... 

Any guesses as to what this is? 

 Tomorrow the report continues with the Shell Rock stop and onward to Cedar Falls. Thanks for reading! 

C.O.G. 40 Report: Part 2

Leaving The Park:

 With the lunch rest stop out of the way we were ready to head out East and finish off the ride. We'd stopped for maybe a half an hour or so. Not too bad, and I wasn't stiff or cold when we left, which was a good sign. 

My fears were allayed by my good form coming to Union Grove State Park, but how would the lunch and rest affect me?  When would my legs get tired and quit on me? I pushed all these questions down and kept my head up and pedaled onward. 

The wind wasn't too bad going East. No worse than it had been going South, that was for sure. Then we hit a short Northward section of the route, and it became readily apparent it was going to be far easier going North. We had a long stretch to go North, but I would have to wait a bit on this. First, we had about three or four miles to go East again, and it was hilly. 

We hit one particularly steep hill in this Eastward section which made me really work hard. My legs started to feel like they were asleep and I knew I was running out of gas at this rate. I had to stop and rest, just before the top of the hill. 

One of several cemeteries we rode by on the route. 

 

Beers At The Bridge: 

Oddly enough, I only had this one time on the road back where I felt I needed a rest. I ended up riding pretty well after this for a while. We had Ben and I and then a large gap back to David and Tom. At one point we had to stop when I noted Tom was missing, but he caught back on fairly quickly and we were back at it again as a group. 

Ben had told us about a cooler he had stashed near a bridge which we would com up on once we turned North again. It was at about Mile 35. We reached the wood plank bridge and stopped. Ben got off, scrambled down a ditch by the end of a guard rail on the bridge, and struggled up again with a blue cooler in his hands.  

Ben retrieving the cooler from its hiding place. 

Ben had cold Hamms beers and Pringles stashed away there. Those Pringles were gold! They hit the spot with their salty goodness! We chatted for a short bit here on the bridge, but I think the sense amongst us was to get going. We had seven miles to go to Reinbeck and David, in particular, had a long drive back home to accomplish. So, we didn't dally and before too long we were back climbing rollers and coasting down hills toward Reinbeck again. 

Finally the Sun came out. Kind of. 

 

At least there were some pretty Fall colors in Reinbeck!

 The Finish:

Ben led the way into town. He must have "smelled the barn", because he was way up the road on us. I tried to come back to him, but since he had a geared bicycle it was tough to do without some big downhills to bring me closer. 

We rolled up to our cars by about 1:40pm, so we smoked that last half of the course and made some good time.  Ben was excited about stopping at the Digg Inn, a bar/record shop right across from our cars. David bowed out, since he had to get home. Tom's girlfriend met him there and while they did not indicate what they might do, eventually they must have slipped away and went home as well. 

So, it was just myself and Ben at first until his wife joined us. Ben bought me a drink and we chatted for a bit. Then around 3:00pm I bade them farewell and headed home. The group started a chat before we all left and went our separate ways, and those guys have a ton of great images. I will share those tomorrow and also I will have a special "Barns For Jason" post from this ride. 

Epilogue:

The riders declared this a very fun and successful ride. While the group was small, it did allow for us to ride together at different points and get to know each other better. This was always a hallmark of a good gravel event back in the beginning of gravel grinding.  

As for myself, I was very happy I rode through the opening miles of funk and came out the other side with a decent ride. I was not totally exhausted, worn out, or lacking in power. Those hills in Tama County are no joke, and had the course been littered with them I would have been in big trouble on the single speed. But fortunately it wasn't too gnarly as far as big hills and I was happy with my ride. 

I'm glad we did this. N.Y. Roll and Kat knocked the pierogie stop out of the park, and Ben's contribution was a pleasant surprise. Yeah, it was a bit disappointing that we did not have a few more riders show up, but then again, it was small enough we had a chance to talk to each other over the miles. So, I'm not mad about it. 

I should mention that we may have had only four riders in attendance, but we had four others "in spirit". Near Lincoln, Nebraska, Matt Gersib, Matt Wills, and their friend Noah rode single track for 40 miles in solidarity with us. One other rider in the Black Hills, Craig Groseth, also did a ride on his single speed being inspired by the C.O.G. 40. So, it was kind of like the Virtual Turkey Burn ride. Hey!

Maybe we should open this up in that way in the future. Something to think about....  

Next? Probably the Virtual Turkey Burn ride in a month. (!!!) Then Winter and next season. Thanks for reading and remember to check the photo dumps tomorrow.  

C.O.G.40 Report Part 1

Your host, N.Y.Roll

 Welcome to the C.O.G. 40 ride report. I know...... I said I thought I'd have this done in one post. But there are so many images to share I cannot do the ride justice with just one post. So....

Getting There:

I started off on Sunday morning being awakened at about 3:00am by our cat, Minka, walking on my head.  I tried to go back to sleep but she was sitting on my back purring so loudly I don't know if I did really get anymore sleep. Anyway..

After I got up and got going I had some breakfast and a cup of coffee. I put on my kit, save for the cycling shoes, loaded up the 4Runner, (which needs a name, by the way), and took off a little after 8:00am in the morning.  N.Y. Roll texted me he was already there. I arrived at about 8:40am, and there were two riders there talking with N.Y. Roll already.  

David had pulled in a bit before I got there. He drove all the way over from the Chicago suburbs to do this ride!

Ben's custom made titanium gravel bike. 

David and Tom were there, and a bit later Ben rolled in and that was that for riders. So, after we had everything all together, and those guys had grabbed some C.O.G. 100 hats, we se4t out at just after 9:00am. 

David (L) and Tom riding behind me on the road out.

Getting Going:

We had a stretch of gravel once we got out of town and then two miles of pavement on County roads. The stretch of gravel headed Westward just out of Reinbeck had me really worried. 

I was blowing up. II could not catch my breath and I was working hard  just to keep up with those other three who were chatting casually as if they were on a recreational bike path. I was fearing the worst and thinking I may not have it in me on this day. I'd been under the weather with some weird muscular deal all week. In fact, Saturday evening was the best sleep I had gotten all week. 

Fortunately those two miles of pavement came next and this allowed me to not have to be at red line all the time, but I wasn't hopeful I'd recover enough to make it very far. The weather was supposed to have been breezy, but the wind was strong out of the Southeast and this made matters worse for me. Don't ask about the Sun. It was hiding. Even though it was forecast to have been Sunny. I was actually glad it wasn't because of the issues it would have caused for drivers and us as riders. 

I was able to find a groove on this paved section.

There were four miles of dirt road in the first 12 miles. 

Slowly I found a groove and my breathing became more controlled. Level B dirt roads came up and these were smooth and fast. This also allowed me to get settled in. Then we pulled over for a "nature break", which I was in dire need of after having had two cups of coffee earlier in the day! 

First stop of the day. It wasn't a long one. 

Harvesting isn't 100% finished yet. 

We stair-stepped South and West until we reached C Avenue and a long slog into the wind. Eleven miles of rollers. Somehow or another I more than found my groove on this section and was way off the front. I had to stop once and slow way down twice to let everyone else catch up with me. 

We skirted the West side of Gladbrook, crossed HWY 96, and kept on truckin'. Ben ended up keeping me company after the highway crossing and we both reached the turn off for Union Grove Park first. For about a mile and a third it would be all pavement from this point until we reached our halfway lunch stop.

I was a little surprised by the lack of Fall color and by how many trees are still green. By this time most years we are all done with Fall color and the leaves are blowing off the trees and all over the place. Not so this season. I'm glad we saw some Fall colors, and at least we had good tempreratures with no rain whatsoever. 

 

Just before the rest stop for lunch we had to climb this ridiculous hill. It was short, very steep, and right into the wind. I made it about 2/3rds of the way up before I bailed and walked. Ben said he saw 14% for a grade. I do not doubt it for one second. It was all of 14% or more. Oh, and Ben, Tom, and David made it all the way up. I think..... Anyway, Ben was cheating. He had a geared bike! 

We rolled off the backside of this hill right into a parking area by the dam for the impoundment where N.Y. Roll's Bluetooth speaker was blasting "Debaser" by The Pixies. I rolled in, dismounted, and prepared to delve into a plate full of freshly grilled parogies. Kat was there to help N.Y. Roll too, and there were other goodies to eat as well as the parogies. 

N.Y. Roll tending the grill. 

Yum! 

Next: The Lunch break ends and we head back North on a Southeast wind toward Reinbeck. 

Guitar Ted's Ride For Jacob: Part 1

Many of you long-time blog readers know I have done a long Summer ride which started out being called the "Death Ride", which then became the "Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational", and once I went back to doing the ride solo again, it simply became the "GTDR"

I wanted to continue my tradition of "one long day in the saddle" this year, and I have been waiting for the right opportunity to arise for months. Then my son died earlier this month, and this changed a lot of things, obviously. One of those things was how I viewed this effort I wanted to put in on the bike. 

It no longer seemed appropriate to use the death ride thing anymore. Again, fairly obvious why this would be. So, when a gay pride event shut down our ability to be open at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective last Saturday, I was motivated to use the opportunity to do this long ride on gravel. The weather, furthermore, was forecast to be as about as perfect as one could hope for in August. Everything was coming together for this big ride. 

I decided to use my Salsa Cycles Fargo Gen I bike for this ride. I did this for a few reasons. One, I love this bike, and it has been with me for quite some time now. Secondly, I wanted to go 100% self-contained, and this bike has a ton of water bottle mounts. Plus it has the Redshift Sports Kitchen Sink handle bar with the corresponding bag which fits it. This allowed for a nice handle bar for riding and storage for food. The top tube bag was then used for repair bits only. This allowed for a set up which did not need a saddle bag or top tube frame bag.

While the bike has heavy wheels and tires, my brief test rides showed me I was going to have a momentum-machine, and coupled with the long, 180mm XT triple crank set, I was going to be okay. (I'll have more to say about this after the ride report.) 

So, the bike was set, the day was set, and all I needed to do was get a few good days of rest and get going as early as I could on Saturday morning. One note - I did ask N.Y. Roll to come along, but he had a previous engagement, so I did this ride solo. 

The route was set about three days ahead of the ride when the forecast solidified. There were to be pretty decent Northwest winds on Saturday August 23rd, and so I went North with the route with an eye to try out some roads I had not been on before. My plan took me to Janesville, Iowa, then to Shell Rock, Iowa, before heading mostly South toward New Hartford, Iowa, and then back East toward Cedar Falls and home again. I did not bother to count the mileage before the ride, leaving no expectations for this, and no mental pressure to 'achieve a goal'. 

I hand wrote cues with only road names, no mileages, as I was using Iowa DOT maps as a guide. Note: I only wrote cues from Janesville to New Hartford as I know the surrounding roads here well enough. Interestingly, this plan caused a couple of issues, which you will read about later. 

To keep this from being a novel-length post, I am breaking up my report into at least three parts. Today is Part 1, tomorrow's post will give you the first half of the ride, and Wednesday's post will bring it to the return back home. Thursday will be a gear review. 

I hope you all enjoy checking out the recap. Thanks again for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

The 2023 Guitar Ted Death Ride: "W-V-W" - Part 1

 Escape Route: West 2nd @ slightly after 4:00am.

 I mentioned earlier last week that I had a day off work and that I had planned a "big ride" for that day. Well, it was going to be my version of the Guitar Ted Death Ride for 2023. I used to invite people to come along with me on this, but since the pandemic and since I "retired" from event promoting I don't do that anymore. I just go solo on this deal now. 

My route was planned to be the same that I failed at in 2020. A route that went South to just East of Dysart, through Garrison, on to Vinton, then just West of Independence and then to Jesup and back to Waterloo. The route, as planned, was right at 100 miles from my house and back again. You can read the 2020 report on the failed attempt HERE. 

This was a "redemption" ride, to finally get that one done. This report will let you know how it all went. I did change up a couple of things this time outside of the route but that did affect the ride. One- I started far earlier and two- I planned better for nutrition. The first attempt failed mostly because I was so amped up about not getting COVID that I forgot to buy food to eat at Vinton. Of course, I bonked. 

This time I took more "on the road food" and I was adamant that I would buy food at Vinton. I also did plan on not eating before I left. I always seem to ride better on an empty stomach, at least for a while, to start out. I planned on stopping about 12 miles in to eat on the road at the corner of Quarry Road and Aker Road. 

Funny, but there isn't a lot to see in the country at night!

The sky was juuuust starting to blush in the East as I took this on Quarry Road.

I also did not take any sort of a computer. I had the route all ready to upload into the Wahoo, and it said it went in, but I could not recall it on the device once I did have it, and what is more, I couldn't find a few other rides that should have been on the device, one or two that were there before. This was discovered mid-week when I did a dry run of my set up. So, I hand wrote my cues, mounted a cue sheet holder, and boom! No worries. (As for Wahoo, and any other GPS, I think I am done with them. More on that in another post)

The other big thing I did was to get up really early and take off. My original plan was to get up at 3:00am. I set an alarm on my phone, but while the app said it was alerting me to wake up, it wasn't. Good thing I woke up on my own at 3:30am. I made it out and was riding by about 4:10am.

Riding at night brings a different sensory vibe. You hear things more keenly, and I noted how there were fewer crickets than usual this year. Probably due to the drought we're in. This drought condition would be a big factor in several ways on this ride. 

"First Breakfast" at the corner was good, and I was moving along at a steady, and a bit slower, pace. Their were no clear "lines" in the gravel, and the Light and Motion light I was using was not a good match for gravel riding as it tended to wash out details and contrasts. I had to keep a firm grasp on the bars to keep the ship pointed in the right direction. 

Headed South, it was getting close to Sunrise.

In the middle of that "S" curve is where Black Hawk County ends and Benton County starts.

The weather was warm, it was still in the low 70's when I got going, and it was very humid. So humid that the moisture condensed on my Rudy Project glasses and my camera lens which then attracted the dust from the roads. This fouled my glasses to the point that they were useless and screwed up a few camera shots until I swiped the lens off. 

There was little wind, which was nice, but what wind there would be was forecast to be out of the North and pretty significant. I was not looking forward to a head wind! 

A super-rare James Greer McQuilken Round Barn on the corner of 52nd St and 11th Ave in Benton County.

A lone silo stands sentinel as the Sunrise is in progress.

It was so humid that I was soaked with a combination of sweat and humidity. I wasn't looking forward to the Sun making things even more uncomfortable. However; as the Sun began to rise it got cooler. The air must have trended drier as well during this time since I started feeling almost too chilly at times, especially in my feet. 

There She is!

There is a very intriguing C Road I wish I could ride down there!

As the Sun came up I saw the roads better and I was able to turn off the light. There were decent lines, but a lot of loose, chunky gravel too. I was starting to battle some issues already before I was 30 miles in. My right trapezius was aching like a son-of-a-gun and I was afraid it might cause me to cut the ride short, but a self-massage while riding seemed to alleviate that to a degree that I forgot about it. 

A fun dirt road and then.....

....A second breakfast at the place I entered the Old Creamery Trail.

I planned a stop at the Old Creamery Tail where I intersected it and that trail is a pea gravel trail which I was to ride all the way East over to Vinton. Here I ate more, took some ibuprofen for the sore muscle, and some electrolyte tabs. Then I was off again on what may have been the most difficult part of the ride for me. 

The Sun made things difficult, but that wasn't the worst of it.

Again, the trail was hard to navigate due to the angle of the Sun when I rode it all the way to Vinton.

While I was able to work the shoulder thing out, I got the "sleepies". I was having a super-hard time staying alert. I ran across a couple joggers that kind of snapped me to for a short while, but I ended up slapping myself, trying to stay awake. Eventually I just had to stop when I found a trailside bench halfway to Vinton out of Garrison. Here I took a brief "cat nap'.

That helped, and I was able to roll into Vinton a little after 8:00am in the morning. I went straight away to Casey's Convenience Store to resupply, and to eat, because I figured that my on-the-road food wasn't cutting it for whatever reason. A slice of breakfast pizza did the trick.

A Monster and a slice-o-pie fixed me right up!

I was pleased at this point and I was about to head out on what I figured would be the hardest part of the route. There would be a headwind and some tough navigation. Plus the Sun would be up and at full steam. Would it get hot and humid? I did not know, but the weather was supposed to be fine. 

Next: "W-V-W" Part 2