Gravelpalooza #1–Something New, Something Blue

Yay! We are back to Gravel Season! Today was the first Joy Ride Bikes Shop Gravel Ride known as Gravelpalooza. It was almost like a bride at a wedding...something new, something borrowed (if you consider a borrowed rain jacket), and something blue. 

Let’s start with the something blue. That would be the sky. The weather forecast throughout the week had not looked good for today. It was looking like thunderstorms would accompany us along the gravel roads of Capitol Forest. As I was riding from my house to meet up with Bethany for the drive up to the “Y”, I did indeed get rained on pretty good. I had my rain jacket and my awesome Vaude bike gaiters, but the space between the bottom of my jacket, and the tops of my gaiters got pretty wet just riding the 6 miles to Bethany. At least it stopped raining by the time we got to the “Y” (Waddell and Sherman Valley Rds). Twenty one of us started up C-Line. By the time we got to D-4000, the jackets had come off (it’s a bit of a climb). There was actually a few pockets of blue sky!

However, as we were descending down, it started to rain, no, make that, hail. Jackets were back on in a flash! This trend of rain then sunshine would continue for most of the ride. At least there was some blue sky! I think I took off/put on my rain jacket 3 times.

For the “something new”, it was short to longish sections of SINGLETRACK! There were a number of us who were rather apprehensive about the idea of taking our drop bar gravel steeds on singletrack trails. I, for one, have steadfastly proclaimed I am NOT a mountain biker! To me, singletrack is mountain bike territory. Those with mountain bike backgrounds seemed to think it was no big deal (and, of course, there were some who were actually on mountain bikes). Well...we managed just fine. Maybe not the speediest, but we made it without any mishaps. Dare I say, it was even a little bit fun??? It helped that there was more flat and downhill, than uphill. Also, the trails are pretty well maintained (even though there was a fair amount of mud and puddles from the rain). It was also interesting to me because, while I have been on many of the gravel roads, I have zero experience with the trails...where they start, distance, and finish. I want to learn the trails so I can do some hiking training for my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2020.

It felt like the gravel road to singletrack ratio was about 1:1, but it was really probably more gravel road...but not by much! It was a good experience. As conditions become worse on the trails, some knobbier tires would be helpful, or maybe I should just bite the bullet, and get some 650b wheels so I can run a wider tire...which would be awesome on the gravel too...

Even with the rain, it was a successful first Gravelpalooza of the season. I’m looking forward to the next one!

A couple of new women...Lia and Machiko!