Commonwealth Games

This weekend I was down in Charlottesville, VA to see some old college buddies, and got a chance to sample the local hardpack. Good stuff, and there is plenty of it.

The local bike club has a page of gravel road rides on their website (my kind of club!). I chose a route that started in Madison, VA, and meandered through the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.




This meant fabulous views of some big-time terrain (pardon the intrusion of the ziplock I carry my phone in!) - but no monster climbs - just lots and lots of hard rollers and shorter climbs.



The dirt roads were in great shape - no holes, hardly any washboard. Many appeared to have been freshly serviced with loads of small gravel - making the ride on my 25c tires a bit swimmy. Next time the red bike will be wearing 32s.



The biggest climb of the day was Whippoorwill Rd. Are there any roads called Whippoorwill that are flat? I don't think so. This one was very scenic, and had a lovely descent.



If you go, bring what you need. You'll pass farms, a few houses, several small churches with cemeteries - but the convenience store is a little behind the times.



At one point I passed an older couple walking three dogs. I bade them good morning, and as I rolled past the woman called out "Watch out for the wild and crazy…" at which point her voice was drowned out by the crunch of skinny tires swimming through gravel. I circled back and asked her to repeat the warning.

"Drivers! They're reckless, and young!"

I didn't doubt her at all, but I probably only saw a dozen cars the whole time.

Ice Capades

You've surely had days when something you keenly anticipated turned out to be... meh... but something else you did on a whim was an absolute triumph?

That was my ride Thursday - my third stab at the Delaware Water Gap. Ironically, the hero of the ride - ice, at frozen Dingmans Falls - had played the villain on my previous two Water Gap rides. Much better to see ice hanging from a distant cliff than under your wheels.


The route I planned had three scouting objectives:

+ what appeared to be dirt roads over the back side of Mt. Minsi, which forms the Pennsylvania side of the Water Gap

+ climbs running up from the PA side of the Delaware river: roads with names like Mosiers Knob, Little Egypt and Big Egypt, and Johnny Bee

+ the McDade Trail, a newly-completed, 32-mile unpaved multi-use path along the river

I'd been salivating over the Mt. Minsi roads for a few weeks, my appetite whetted by the National Park Service map of the area.


My experience so far was that what this map showed as dirt roads were things you could drive a car on; it omits the crazy fire roads, or shows them as trails... so off I went with high hopes.

I parked at Slateford and headed up National Park Drive. It was, as advertised, a lovely 2-mile hardpack climb. The turn onto Totts Gap Road looked like a gravel driveway. Uh oh.



This one turned creek bed right away. And steep! In the roughest spots, a trail ran through the woods parallel to the road - much easier passage there. Going up was 80% hike-a-bike. I could see a radio tower on the crest of the ridge, which implied vehicle access... and this wasn't it! Hopefully the road on the other side of the ridge would be better.



Near the top was a party cave... no need for a velvet rope. Over the crest the road turned to gravel, even steeper than the creek bed. I skidded down and in a flash I was back on pavement. This was a bit of a relief; it had taken nearly half an hour to go one mile. But the map had me hoping for two more miles of unimproved road, in one form or another. That's scouting.



On my way north, I encountered one of my favorite things, a Bridge Out sign. I forged ahead; this one turned out to be all bark and no bite... just had to hop a couple barricades.



Soon I was heading up Big Egypt Road, a lovely unpaved climb closed to vehicle traffic. Which is a good thing, because it really did have a bridge out... though it was easy to get across.


After about three hours on the road my bottles were almost frozen solid, so I was happy to come across the Pocono Environmental Education Center (PEEC). I finally had a bear encounter, right there in the lobby!


This place had an old-timey feel: there was a crank pencil sharpener on the wall next to the office. At the back of the building, it looked like they had turned an indoor pool into a beaver habitat.



After a fun descent down unpaved Chestnut Ridge Rd, I headed up to Johnny Bee Rd, at the far end of my loop. This turned out to be an abandoned, gated-off paved road.



There are quite a few of these around the Water Gap, but this was the first I'd seen with a double yellow line. Just around the bend it pitched up near 20%, and the surface was covered with a couple inches of leaf litter and tree branches.

I bailed. On my way down, I passed the road up to Dingmans Falls, which was closed for the season. I decided to have a look, and it was spectacular - the highlight of the day.


On to the McDade Trail, which I planned to take most of the way back to the car. Most of the sections I rode are new, with a gravel surface that hasn't been packed down too much, so you're guaranteed a good workout even on the flats. I made about 12 mph at endurance pace, and 14 at tempo.


The trail runs alongside corn fields and through stands of tall pine trees. There are also parts that twist through the woods or meander close to the river. Every now and then you get smacked with a short, steep little climb. No rail trail, this.



The Boxing Day blizzard just skimmed past this area; once they get some real snow, McDade will be a great spot for cross country skiing.

After 15 miles on the trail, I became worried about getting back to the car before dark, so I hopped back on the pavement for the rest of the ride... through the Gap itself, and I was homeward bound.