I found some more gravel
I rode down to Independence yesterday with my friend Stasia (she was going south to spend the weekend with friends in Corvallis, and invited me to come along as far as I could ride before having to turn back) and I’d made up a route south that tried to avoid some of the more obnoxiously travelled N/S highways without intentionally going out of my way to find Adventure!
Well, that didn’t work; the route I took over the Eola Hills took some backroads I’d already ridden, plus some new ones to link up with the main road to Independence. One of them – Eagle Crest Road – climbed fairly steeply up to the ridgeline, so it looked like it would be fun.
It was a little more fun than we expected; at the very point where the road pitched way up (to 25-28%) it turned into a gravel road and we didn’t make it very far before our wheels were happily breaking loose every time we pedaled, forcing us to walk the rest of the half mile to the top.
I think that I’ll have to try this route a different week, hopefully after it’s been sunny for a while and the ground has stiffened up a bit. Either that or get a set of cyclocross tires and see if they’ll work well for 139.5 miles of pavement + .5 miles of ohmygodthisissteep gravel.
Comments
Oh, I don’t think it would have been that bad – it would have given all the riders a chance to get off their bicycles and stretch their legs :-)
It’s a gorgeous stretch of road, and I’m going to see if I can get down there to ride it again this year.
Comments are closed
Awesome. I was really curious about that road, for the same reasons that brought you to it (the road less traveled down the valley.) Glad I didn’t put it on last year’s 600; probably would not have been popular. I hope to get out and do it myself sometime, though.