I work at home now, so forget about the “long way home”.  But the “after work”, roughly-one-hour route should still be part of my repertoire.  And since the new house is on the south east side, there’s new side-streets to explore!  And although we only moved in last May, I never got around to this kind of thing last year.  :(  I mean, I was busy, but of course I wasn’t busy every single hour.  It should have happened.

But today, it did!  After a nicely productive afternoon and whiltling my inbox down to an amazingly small FIVE messages, I felt like doing something different before I dug back into more hopefully productive stuff this evening.  Well, remarkably, after some rather scary rainstorms this afternoon, the sun came out and it wasn’t even very windy…  It was 6:44, as I recall, but it still seemed light out.  “Oh right!!  Daylight Saving Time!”  So, I decided to celebrate the extra hour of evening sunlight with a spontaneous bike ride.  Finally!

And so, I present my first draft of the first south-east-side “after work” loop.  Only 8.5 miles, so I’ll probably try to have a “longer option” to go for a full hour, especially once I get used to where I’m going.  Today there was a heavy exploration factor, but I was still home about an hour after I had the original idea and got out the GPS, and all the other bike gear…

… and the new Heart Monitor that Pri and I purchased (thanks for the recommendation, Fiona! We love it!). According to it, I burned 627 Calories on the ride.  Based on that and another recent experiment, I’m starting to use 70 Calories per mile as my estimated fuel efficiency. I don’t know how that compares with other bikers, nor do I have extreme confidence in the data that the heart monitor puts out… But still, I’m sure it’s not completely crazy, certainly in the right order of magnitude…  And yeah, I had to pause and thing that when I do serious bike rides like the Hilly Hundred or the big bike ride to Indy I did with Erik years ago, I’m burning multiple thousands of calories. Multiple days of normal eating.  Wow.  No wonder I feel tired.

Not too tired after today’s run.  I should finish this up though so that I can still feel like the whole experience took less than 2 hours.  :)

It was well into the afternoon by the time I got things together, though, so I figured I’d just go for the standard Lake Griffy loop. It reminded me that I made this trip last January, on an unseasonably warm day. This is probably what started me thinking if this was my farewell bike ride for the year. It’s getting cold, and in fact I was surprised that it got as warm as it did today, and especially when it’s rainy, I’m not going to feel like biking…

So, who knows, we’ll see. One thing I can say for sure is that being out of town for so long left me out of shape on the bike. I got stomach cramps and moved slowly, even on this short and familiar trip. Still I’m glad I went, it was good to enjoy the nice weather.

It all started with a bike ride. After the disturbing feeling of
being interrupted that I described in my previous post, I decided to
set off in the same direction again the following Saturday, which was
the beginning of Memorial Day weekend. This ride felt much better to
me. Adventurous, in control of the experience, several unexpected
experiences (from the rite of passage of repairing a flat on the road
to a surprising number of animal encounters). I had a great time, and
I came home excited to make [my map](
http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/gmaps/20060527-paragon.html) of
the experience, share [my
pictures](http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/200605-paragon-brief/),
and write about it.

I got to work on that, including play with some new options of the
[GPS Visualizer](http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/), but then a most
unusual thing happened. I got a phone call the next morning from the
roommate of a co-worker of mine, Jim Hurd. He called to tell me that
Jim had died. That morning. In his sleep. Seemingly peacefully.
But without much warning.

The rest of the weekend felt totally bizarre to me. I got off the
phone and thought “I was going to make an omelet. Do I still make an
omelet even though Jim is dead?” I decided that, yes, I do still make
the omelet, but … yeah, it was really weird. We all spend so much
time thinking about living long and healthy lives, the simple finality
of Jim being dead seemed bizarre, not to mention very sad.

Making the omelet was one thing, but writing in my blog about a bike
ride suddenly seemed too inane to put effort in to. I did continue
about the weekend with several other activities, notably taking many
of my Informatics friends out for their newly earned Masters’ Drink.
Like everything else, though, this had a surreal tint to it for me.

Getting back to work was actually very therapeutic in this situation.
I was around other people who felt weird in the same way I was, and
that was ironically helpful to my sense of feeling weird. Things
started to settle down a bit as the week progressed. Looking back at
it, it would have made good sense to write something in the blog the
weekend after Memorial Day. But, I didn’t. I did have a wonderful
Ethiopian meal with Amy and Kathleen on Saturday night, followed by a
fun festival of short films. And, on Sunday, Priscilla and I spent a
delightful afternoon, a bike ride followed by a few hours of eating
and talking.

At the same time, I knew I was gearing up for a full month of busy
schedule. My garden/yard was yelling for attention, and I needed to
deal with this before I left town on the following weekend. I did get
a fair amount done that weekend which was good. But this busy-ness
definitely made it hard to imagine sitting down to the blog,
especially since I still didn’t know what to say about everything.

Well, another week rolled by, and it was time to leave town. I stayed
later than I expected so that I could attend Jim’s memorial service on
Saturday June 10. I drove straight from there to Dance Trance in
Lexington, KY, which was good fun. Tom put me up in his home in
nearby Berea that night, and I left the next morning on the *long*
drive to Emerald Isle, NC.

I had geared up for a long drive. I had *Harry Potter and the Order
of the Phoenix* on tape, the fifth in the series that I am slowly but
methodically making my way through. As usual, it succeeded
wonderfully in keeping me company on the long drive. And, being as it
lasts 27 hours, I was in no danger of running out of material before I
got there (I *was* wondering if it would last me for the whole ride
home (which it almost, but not quite, did)).

The drive started off nice enough, my plan to drive through Cumberland
Gap seemed to be a perfectly reasonable way to enjoy the trip without
adding much time. However, the definitive moment of the experience
was when I learned that I-40 near Great Smoky Mountains National Park
and just west of Asheville, NC, was *closed*. Totally closed. No
detour. Three highway workers were handing out slips of paper with
the official “detour” (I am not normally one to complain about highway
workers, but… three workers to hand out slips of paper??!?) which
was to drive most of the way back to Knoxville, TN, and take I-81 and
squiggle back down south for a while. Seeing little alternative, this
is what I did, now keeping myself company with a loud stream of
profanity.

I estimate that this problem added 2-3 hours to my already
ridiculously long trip. I am very upset that the signage was not
better. But, I do not want to relive that rage, so I’ll just leave it
at that.

Harry was starting to study occlumency by the time I was nearing the
coast of NC. I had an enjoyable but confusing conversation with my
brother Steven on my cell phone, trying to figure out the last 4 miles
of my drive. But, once I was there, I was surrounded by food, drink,
and my loving and fun-loving family.

I liked the way my cousin-in-law (?) Josh described it… something
like: “People at work said things like ‘wow, that sounds like a great
vacation! So relaxing!’. I tried to explain… ‘it will be fun,
low-stress, a nice change of pace from normal responsibilities, but I
don’t think that I’ll be coming back to work feeling at all rested.’”
Basically, my family members and I just can’t resist having fun when
we’re together. So, every day for a week was a bunch of swimming and
beach games during the day, eating, drinking, and strategy/chance
games by night. I’m pretty accustomed to that pattern, we’ve done
this kind of thing together all my life. What’s newer is that many of
those in my generation now have young children. So, the party still
ends at 2am or later, but now it starts up again around 7am. For me,
this definitely gave the impression that the party was really going on
the whole time. Grand fun. But not exactly restful.

The drive home was thankfully more boring than the drive there. I
left on Saturday, slept a good long while in a rest area, and arrived
home early Sunday afternoon, plenty of time for a nap and then an
evening at home. This was good, because it was time to start the
annual ritual of the week-long preparation for my Decadent Garden
Party. This I did, thus spending most of my free time that week
cleaning, cooking, researching recipes, and grocery shopping.

Sue and Michael arrived from Portland on Friday morning, and all in
all the party went very well. The weather was nearly perfect, we were
able to eat outside and there were only a few small unexpected
problems… This was the tenth party, and a number of the guests
conspired to get me wonderful place setting and other adornments.
Very very nice. And, the party, the surrounding activities, and the
presence of Sue and Michael provided good instigation for spending
quality time with some long-time friends who I don’t see very often,
and to introduce them to some of my newer friends and vice-versa. So,
that was all very fun…

But, to return to the theme of this post, having all that going on was
not conducive to sitting down to write a blog post, which by this
point had felt like it had grown hugely in significance since it had
been so long since the previous one…

Before I knew it, we were on our way to Sue’s sister’s house, (well)
outside of Indy, to spend the July 4th holiday weekend with Sue’s
family. This was also good fun. Sue’s brother in law is a brilliant
carpenter and the house that he built his family is amazing. So, we
spent a few days playing games, notably a highly spirited game of
basketball the first day that left me moving a bit more slowly the
rest of the weekend.

Michael left on the 4th, and Sue and I both flew out on Saturday
morning. She returned home, I headed off to Philadelphia for the
wedding of my friends Dan and Reena. I started this post on the way,
and now I have just arrived home. The wedding was fantastic, Reena and
Dan showed off their remarkable creativity and organizational skills,
and created a fun, meaningful, and beautiful ceremony, not to mention
the associated parties. Perhaps the best thing about weddings,
though, is meeting your loved ones’ other loved ones, and this was
also very fun and satisfying.

Today I toured around Philly a bit, which I hope to write about in a
separate post! Because I hope that *this* post represents my return
to more regular blogging! Because, for as much fun I’ve had in the
past month, traveling, entertaining, and visiting some of the most
important players in the history of my life, I do love my more normal
daily routine, my local friends, and my home. So, an irony of the
information age, I’ll stay home more, but perhaps be in better touch.
We’ll see….

Read on for more of the adventure, and more [unbelievably cool stuff one can do with GPS data in this day and age](http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/gmaps/20060521-maple-bottom.html).

Unfortunately, while I was packing things up, I got a phone call from a co-worker informing me that the problem that we had been working on was not in fact resolved. I’m not going to go into the details, but I had to open a trouble ticket with AT&T, which was definitely not what I was in the mood to do while I was getting ready for an aerobic adventure on a beautiful Spring day. Ugh. Well, I did it, and in fact got a call back from an engineer before I had even left. He said exactly what I told the first person he’d say, which is fine because part of that is “we’ll have to open this other kind of ticket for this.” But you can’t open that second kind of ticket without the first one, even if you know that’s what the first people will say. Wait, I’m not getting in to the details…

Ok, so, after a fair amount of futzing with bike gear, I finally headed out. I left at about 11:50. Oh, the GPS tells me it was 11:48:22. OK, GPS. Anyway I gave myself the goal of being back by 3pm. I figured I’d head towards the river and see how close I got.

I like the route that I plotted (which moves clockwise as you look at the map). Low traffic, relatively direct, interesting, pretty… yeah, good. Seeing the [elevation profile](http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/gmaps/maple-bottom-elev.png) in retrospect is comforting, because it’s nice to see that that hill that was giving me trouble about 8 miles into the trip was substantial (250 feet climb in about a mile, maybe less… if it’s in a mile, that’s about a 5% grade on average, nothing to sneeze at).

Well, after cruising down that hill, I crossed a bridge over Indian Creek (as I always say “the water is downhill from here”, so when you coast across a bridge, you usually know you’re not going to be coasting for much longer). I saw a sign marking a trailhead on some land owned by [the Sycamore Land Trust](http://www.bloomington.in.us/~sycamore/). This turns out to be the [Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve](http://www.bloomington.in.us/~sycamore/bbbnp.html) (BBBNP), but I didn’t know that at the time. Part of it is a National Wildlife Refuge, which was pretty clearly a small wetland area and almost certainly the wildlife they are offering refuge to are migratory birds. Anyway, didn’t even know that was there. Cool!

I thought maybe I’d investigate, but instead I realized that I had missed a call on my cell phone. I had a cell phone signal, so I checked my voicemail, and it was the phone company. As so often happens, part of my description was lost in the transfer process from person to person, so… Wait, I’m not going into the details. Suffice to say that I spent at least a half hour on the phone with them discussing what might be going on. I cannot deny getting a kick out of discussing things like the nitty-gritty functionality of high-end telecommunications equipment and services while standing on the edge of a nature preserve with nothing but my feet or my bicycle to take me anywhere and nobody else around except for the very occassional car that drives by (leaving a cloud of dust behind them from the gravel road). But, having said that, this is *not* what I wanted to be doing right then.

After all the time on the phone, we basically had two possibilities of what was causing the problem: one would be our problem to fix, the other the phone company’s problem. This may be surprising, but I actually prefer it when it’s our problem, because it’s usually actually easier to fix something than to navigate the bureaucratic maze of phone numbers and the people who answer them to find someone who can fix their problem. But, I’m getting dangerously close to getting into the details of it. What I had before me was 10+ miles to bike to get to our machine room and see if the latest hypothesis might be correct.

And, so it was, that I made the difficult decision that I would not bike all the way to the White River that day. Looking at the maps, I think I was within 5-6 miles of it, which seems pretty close, but going there could have turned this into a 40 mile ride instead of 27. And besides, now I had work to do. So, I took the first road back towards Bloomington.

Cindy told me years ago that Bottom Road was so named because it followed Indian Creek in the bottom of the valley that it flows through. In other words, it’s the lowest road around in elevation terms. That’s not obvious when you’re on it, but looking again at that elevation profile, I realize that I had about 7 miles of relatively flat riding. No wonder it went by so quickly. The topo map confirms that this was easy riding.

Eventually, though, I had to climb up the hill to be at Upper Cascades’ elevation. This climb was hard, I was low on energy. I decided that even though I was almost back in Bloomington, I’d stop in Cascades Park and eat some of the Girl Scout Cookies that I’d packed. That was a good idea, but I should have eaten them long before that. I really have to remember to eat before I feel like I need it when I’m on long bike rides. Anyway, I felt only a little funny sitting tired and sweaty on the grass and savoring my little bag of cookies while around me large families were gathered together feasting on sausages and beer. It was hard to remember that I was in the middle of a rugged outdoor experience.

I made the possibly foolish decision to take Dunn Street into town. It’s just a route I don’t usually go, so I thought it’d be a nice change of pace. Indeed it was. But, woah, the first 100 feet of the climb next to the dam that makes Lake Griffy is *grueling*. Very steep. I mean, I’ve got to climb to get from Lower Cascades to the Library, there’s no way around that. But I suspect this was more challenging than most of the alternatives.

Anyway, I realized when I got to the library that I couldn’t leave all my gear sitting with my locked bike, because the gear wouldn’t be locked! So, I carryied it all inside with me, which wasn’t so bad. But, yeah, I felt a bit funny walking towards the machine room sweaty, exhausted, and carrying a couple bags of bike gear. The good news was that it was our problem, and knowing now what it was, I was able to get it fixed pretty quickly. I ran a few tests to confirm it, but just a few minutes later I got back on the bike and rode the very easy and familiar 0.87 of a mile home. Where I promptly took a bath and proceeded to not do very much for the rest of the day. I was much more wiped out than I should have been. I think I’m out of shape. I guess the winter will do that to you.

Well, yesterday (Saturday) the weather was very nice, and I had very little planned, so… the beginning of the Summer riding season! Yahoo!

Well, not quite. I got out my gear, cleared the data on the GPS, and got on the bike. I needed air in my tires, which I prefer to get from gas stations because I don’t like my own pump. So I started out towards the gas station on 2nd street a mile or so west of my house. I knew they used to have free air, but they’ve changed brands since then, so I wasn’t sure (it’s now a Sunoco).

Well, I got there, and saw the air hose right where it used to be. But when I went to use it… there was no tip on the end to connect to my Schrader Valves (a term that I’d heard on Car Talk just a few hours previous so it was already swimming around in my mind). Shoot.

I took a roundabout route to the next gas station on 2nd St., a Citgo near the Sportsplex. I rode all around before I finally found the air hose hear the carwash. It was free too! And it worked! Man, having enough air in the tires makes a huge difference…

So, I was off! I biked down Clear Creek Trail, all the way to the end. Trying to work my way west of highway 37, I got onto a road called Church Lane. I realized that I’d been there before (it’s getting harder for me to find good bike routes outside of town that I haven’t been on). There was a decent hill on it, and I think I remember hearing a popping sound of some sort as I was fumbling with my gears. But, whatever the case, only a few difficult strokes into the climb, I knew something was wrong. I was in a much higher gear than my shifters indicated.

Sure enough, the cable that controls my rear derailleur was no longer attached to my gear shifter. Ugh. I didn’t know if it could be fixed or not, but a small investigations suggested that there was at least enough (or not obviously insuffucient) cable to attach. I set myself down right in front of a house there (there were no sidewalks or anything on this road) and investigated.

I am happy to say that with the possible exception of a wire cutter, my unbelievably cool bike tool did have every tool I wished for during the investigation. I used three or four different allen wrenches to loosen up a variety of things and investigate. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure it out. Members of the family that lived in the home I was in front of walked by a couple of times, and I felt a little bad for installing myself right there. There weren’t a whole lot of options, though…

Anyway, I eventually gave up and just rode back in perma-high-gear on the rear derailleur. Once I was moving it was fine, but starting was definitely more annoying, and climbing hills was a real chore. *sigh* I did ride into town to Bikesmiths, but they told me that I’d need a new cable and they couldn’t fit me in in the last 1.5 hours of the day. *shrug* Ok. So, Monday…

And, when I got home, I figured I’d at least make sure I remembered how to get data out of my GPS, and after a little investigation I realized I hadn’t turned “tracking” on, so I had no data to retrieve!!

So, the first day of the summer biking season was kind of a bust. I still biked about 13 miles, actually, so I got a bit of exercise, but I had thought I’d bike about twice that… and I thought I’d have more fun…

And, thanks to xmas, I’ve got a bunch of new presents! My family and friends are very generous around xmas. In fact, I am struck by how often when someone asks where I acquired something I own, I say it was a gift. Really, a surprising percentage of the durable goods that I own were gifts. Of course, I try to be generous as well, and so does everyone, so perhaps the same is true of most everyone I’m close to. But I think my aversion to shopping in general probably raises the percentage for me.

Anyway, I think I was particularly easy to shop for this year because of my increasing interest in cycling. So, I had a new:

• handlebar bag;
• frame bag;
• bike gloves;
• long underwear;
• (unbelievably cool) repair tool;
• (and the biggest gift of all) GPS

Well, much to my surprise, the weather was very nice this weekend. Actually, I’ve loved the weather so far this winter… seems like it’s either snowing or clear. Clear, cold, and sunny doesn’t bother me at all, although I admit that cold does not make me excited about long bike rides. But still, what I don’t like (and what we typically get a lot of in the winter) is cold, overcast, and drizzling. Yuck.

Anyway, yesterday was very sunny, and I thought “I could bike in this.” Then, today, it was not only sunny, but even quite warm! It topped 60 this afternoon! Woah!

Well, how could I resist? I installed my new handlebar bag (with my new unbelievably cool repair tool), figured out a way to attach my GPS to it, strapped on the frame bag, donned the gloves and the long underwear, and set off! I rode a variation on one of the easiest routes that I do, one of my “12 mile after work” routes that can be ridden in about an hour. Usually I do these routes for the exercise and the mind-cleanse, so I usually push myself a bit. Today, though, I was telling myself to “play”. Every time I thought of something I might adjust or check with my new gear, I tried to check it. So, definitely a slower ride than usual. And then I went out of my way to go to Staples to buy me a new Flash/USB drive (I should write about that in a different post).

The ride went well, it did feel relaxing. But, part of my excitement to bike was to unveil the new abilities made available to me by the GPS, and some very cool software. So, now, thanks mostly to GPSVisualizer.com here is
a google map version of where I biked today and [an elevation profile](http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/gmaps/20060108-surprise-ride-elevation.png) as well! I found the software and stuff necessary to do this yesterday, and I’ve been very excited about the ability. Very cool.

Furthermore, I’ve been having good luck with finding perl modules and the like to play with the GPS data myself. I was hoping I’d do a total ascent graph to post up here as well. Unfortunately, though, the data is.. not reliable. I have to learn more about some of the stuff that the GPS does with elevation, because it seems to make these corrections, often when I’m standing still. I calculated the total ascent to be about twice what the GPS said it was. I tried to correct for the corrections, but I never got it to within 20% of what the GPS said. And I’m not sure I trust what the GPS said anyway (it said ~1700 feet for this ride, that seems a bit high to me. One of my estimates came back closer to 1400 feet, but I don’t know whether to believe that or not). I wonder if part of the confusion was that it was very windy today, and that maybe the variable pressure confused the GPS’s internal barometer. Weird, I don’t know, I’ll have to research it and/or get used to it.

I could say tons about the bike ride, but I’m trying to get to bed, so I’ll just highlight a couple of things:

* Why did I ever bike up the hill on Old 37 between Dunn and Bethel? I can bike up the same hill on much more pleasant back roads. Doesn’t make the hill any easier to climb, but at least you’re not also worried about cars.
* Both of the climbs I did near Griffy were about 250 ft vertical. So that’s: from the bottom of the dam (~600 ft) to around the corner of Bethel and Hinkle (~840 ft); and from the causeway at Griffy (~650 ft (50 feet higher than the bottom of the dam!)) to the crest of the hill near the corner of Jordan and 17th St. (914 ft! I had no idea there was such a high point over there near the frats!)

Ok, enough geeky reminiscing. I’m going to bed.

But, it turned out to be the weekend that *everything* happened. The [Hilly Hundred](http://hillyhundred.org/) being the big one, but Saturday was also the night that Ira Glass was speaking at the IU Auditorium, and the night of the [Eroticon](http://www.sensualskills.com/). Tad then scheduled his housewarming/pumpkin carving party for Friday night, and just to round things out, Mark R invited people over for soup on Sunday afternoon (which I thought was a courtesy to the Hilly Hundred riders, but I don’t actually know how much that motivated him).

Well, I decided that since I didn’t go to the dance, I’d better make sure to have a really good time doing all the things I could this weekend. Ok! So, my motto became “doin’ it all!”

It got off to a bad start when dinner and conversation with Kynthia lasted much longer than either of us really intended on Friday night. We almost missed Tad’s party! But there were still several people there when we got there, and it was fun. But, I didn’t want to drink a lot or stay out late, since I was scheduled to pick up Erik at 8am, so we were only there for a short bit. Some other people there certainly were drunk, though!

Saturday, I picked up Erik. We rode to indy together, so this was our second experience with long distance cycling together. I think we’re a good match for each other. I think I slow him down a bit, but he doesn’t seem to mind, and we have good conversation and otherwise seem to be good company for each other. Amy N went with me last year, but bailed this year because she had a wedding in MN. Sad! But oh well…

The ride went really well. According to my bike computer, we averaged well over 13 mph both days, which is far better than my typical 12 (it may not sound like much, but it’s probably a 10% improvement over last year). But, what was more striking was that I just wasn’t that phased by any of the hills. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly treated several of them with due respect, I thought a lot about strategies for getting over them and certainly had to cope with a lot of difficulty. But, almost without exception, I finished every one thinking “that didn’t seem as bad as I remembered it being”. My only theory on why is that the biking I’ve been doing has just resulted in me being in better shape/better conditioned, which is nice to think about… but so much so that I hesitate to believe it because I know I’d be biased towards believing it. But what? The size of the hills didn’t change significantly so… *shrug*

After Saturday’s ride I took a bath, talked with Sue, went to dinner with Kynthia, and then raced to the Audirium to see Ira Glass. It was good. I didn’t know what to expect, but he basically just sat and chatted about doing the show and what he thinks about it and stuff. He did an amazing job connecting with the audience, giving us all (if I may speak for everyone) the feeling that we were his friends and he was excited that we were willing to let him expound on his opinions for a while. I left feeling like if I passed him on the street, he’d recognize me… which is ridiculous of course, but that’s the feeling I got.

Of course, I’ve got my mild issues with him and his show. I was glad that he acknowledged that they should have a greater variety of background music. His descriptions of the formulas and tricks that they use in producing the shows were very much in line with a lot of the things that I’ve noticed about the show, I found it a wee bit odd that he was just unabashedly admitting to us how formulaic and “tricky” they are with it. I am a bit bothered by that kind of thing, but he obviously isn’t, and indeed seems to think that all journalism should be done that way. Of course, all journalism is formulaic, so what’s my beef? Not much, but I guess I’d like to believe that information could be broadcast in a number of effective ways that didn’t all follow some formula. Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be an entry about my opinions on those things, I’m just talking about my weekend.

After the talk, Kynthia took me to her house where I picked up my car and went home to get ready for the Eroticon. I had decided to go, but as partial compromise I’d decided I wasn’t going to spend lots and lots of time on my outfit. “Just throw on a dress and go check it out” is what I said, again thinking that I shouldn’t drink much or stay out late. So, that was the goal. I chose a dress that Sue had gotten as a DGP possibility, but that was beaten out by another possibility. A bit hard to imagine, because it was a nice dress, and I thought it fit me well. I wore a red “tissuey” scarf and that was about it… Oh, I had a funny pair of cheap but “fashionable” black flip-flops that I wore, which was good because I was worried about what shoes I might wear. The were too small, though, so they bothered my feet a bit.

The event was good! *Lots* of people there, which was nice because the last couple similar events were not very well-attended. I saw a number of people who I know (and I’m not going to try to list them in case they don’t want their attendance broadcast on the ‘net) but mostly hung out with Renee and Jeremy and some of their, uh, circle of friends. I like them, it was fun. And I did a good amount of chatting/dancing/flirting with other people. I was glad I went.

I stayed out just a bit longer than I’d intended, but I was in bed before 2a. At about 7:45 I woke up, two minutes before my alarm, and started getting ready to go. My socks and pants that I had hand washed hadn’t dried yet, which I was disappointed in because I’d hoped that the synthetic fibers would make them dry that fast. Alas. However, they did both dry incredibly quickly in the dryer. Like, less than 5 minutes. Very dry. Impressive.

Not much too different to say about the Hilly today. It was fun. I guess the biggest surprise was a rift in the usually flawless organization of the event. When we got to the lunch break after riding 28 miles and climing well over 1000 feet of hills, there was no food there! Some logistical problem resulted in the food being late. I don’t know the details, but would sure like to know what happened. If anyone reading this knows, please share! Anyway, as I suggest above, I typically think of the organization of this event as exemplary for anyone planning any major event, and this one problem is not going to turn that opinion upside-down. Still, it cannot be denied that it was a blemish on their previously (for me at least) spotless record.

But, other than that, the Hilly went well. I’m still amazed by one hill very near the end that just doesn’t look like a hill. Surrounded by farm land, it really feels like you’re on level ground. But, just as with last year, I was getting totally demoralized feeling like I was pedaling really hard and just not getting anywhere. However, it turns out that this section is a hill, similar in many ways to “water tower hill”, which is just after it (check out the Sunday [elevation profile](http://hillyhundred.org/Route.html) and you’ll see the two hills right near the end) and which we all respect greatly for being a difficult hill to climb. So, yeah, it’s weird. So, even though I was trying to convince myself of that, it was still demoralizing. Ironically, I felt much better as I trodded very slowly up water tower hill, just because I totally felt like I was on a hill.

Anyway, we finished the 51 miles of today’s ride in 3 hours and 45 minutes of biking, which felt like great time to me. It was shortly before 2p when we left the road. I gave Erik a ride to the School of Informatics and then headed over to Mark R’s for the soup/party. I was the first one there, which was surprising to me. The only other people who came were Ann and Nancy from Urbana, also fresh from the Hilly. It was fun to see them and to compare notes on the ride. And Mark’s straw bale house is really cool. And, as Ann and I independently observed, the soup really “hit the spot”! Great thing to have after the ride. I was pleased.

I came home, talked with my mom on the phone, and took a bath. Now I’m winding down and will go to bed early, aiming to be to sleep as shortly after 10p as my body wants to sleep. It’s been a busy weekend! But, I’m finding recently that I’m enjoying being busy. As much as I like being alone, it feels good to my psyche right now to feel like I’m doing lots of things. Of course, some of the things that I do are alone, not social events. So, it’s not the being with other people as much as feeling like I’m living life with lots of energy going in to cultivating joy. There are many kinds of joy, so it makes sense to do many types of things to experience it.

[odometer follows [this map](http://tinyurl.com/8yf5p), which lines up with my recollection of my odometer quite well]

0.0 I leave home, feeling only slightly self-conscious riding around town with 30+ pounds of camping gear on my bike…

1.5 This is the first time in quite a while that I’ve ridden this section of road. When I first moved to Bloomington, I biked this route every day since I lived on High Street (just of Hillside)

3.0 I take the parking lot past Showplace West. Turns out it’s easy to cut onto a little path here, I didn’t know that.

4.5 I cross 446 and Moores Pike becomes Lampkins Ridge Road. WOW! This road is beautiful! Very little traffic, very wooded, very much on a ridge.

6.0 I note by my odometer that this lovely woodsy environ is only 3 miles away from the mall, which is the same distance my house is! Wow. Maybe if I ever get the bug to live in the woods I’ll try to live on this road, since it’s still so convenient to town.

7.2 “The water is downhill from here” I always say when I’m biking… I’m on a ridge, the road that I’m leading to goes to the lake… so I’m not surprised to see the very steep descent. Vroom!!!

8.3 My speedy descent ends at Friendship Rd., which turns out to be gravel. It’s in good shape, though, so I continue with my plan to go south here and see if any of the roads go through. Friendship stops at the intersection of Gross on some of my maps, so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get through. But the road keeps going! So I go!

10.2 The road is blocked off by a cable. I see a sign that says that this is a wildfowl resting area, and says that no trespassing is allowed from Oct 1 – April 27 (I’m fuzzy on that end date, actually). It’s not Oct 1 yet! I can go! So I do… Shortly after I start pedalling again (after pushing my bike under the cable), I see a deer jump out of the road into the woods. :)

10.5 Well, you can tell it’s a road because the weeds are chopped down, forming a path on the grass that’s about the same width as a car. Google maps is a bit optimistic about what counts as a road, I guess. :)

10.8 As I bike across the field, these funny little bugs jump out from the grass I’m biking on just as I approach it! There are so many insects I know nothing about. There are… so many insects.

11.3 This area is cool. I’ve certainly never seen this part of the lake. It’s very … marshy. things seem flat and kind of stagnant, and I hear frogs and bugs and stuff. Seems like there might be alligators there, but of course that’s ridiculous.

11.5 Uh, yeah, I don’t know what the story here is. The path that was kind of like a road turned into something more like a path and then even less than that. I can’t imagine a vehicle that could have ascended this hill. But it’s the end of the road. I have to turn around, and walk down that muddy, very steep hill. Man, if it were wet here, I’d be in deep shit… or at least something that looked a lot like it.

12.2 Back across the field, the bugs don’t scamper as much going this way. Or maybe they’re all gone for the moment.

13.0 OK, I’ll try this road that I refused to try before because it didn’t look developed enough. Damn my adventurous spirit.

13.7 Yeah, I don’t know. After the road petering out a few times and some confusing readings on the compass, I figure I’m hosed. One dead end happened right by a small river… I saw a road on the other side, which might have been useful to me, but “small” here did not mean small enough that I could walk across it, especially not carrying a 60 lb. “beast”, and especially not because it was so mucky. I turn around.

14.5 I look at this “McGowan Rd.” but there is a gate and security signs and stuff on it, and I see a sign that says “tree farm” or something. So I figure, even though the gate is open and it doesn’t threaten the lives of all who enter (as much of the land around here does) it’s private property, I should keep out.

15.0 This goes right by a small river (probably the same one), which you can’t see on the map very well.

15.8 When I get to Gross Rd. I look back and see a sign that says “dead end”. How did I miss that?? I feel stupid, but… on the other hand, that area was really neat… I could imagine that some people (especially Audobon types) might go there just to hike around. I’m glad that I saw that place, even I am right back where I was an hour ago!

17.1 So, the backup plan. I get on 46. Not where I’d like to be biking, but it’s a short ride to my next turn. It goes by quickly. It’s nice to be on pavement again.

17.6 Turn onto Kent, which is also a very nice road.

18.2 The pavement ends. But, hey, as long as you have the tires for it, it rides very well… pretty land, very little traffic… I like it.

19.?? back on pavement again.

20.7 On the corner here I take out my map to look around. A car, which had just passed me going the other direction on Kent, stops. I figure they are going to ask directions, but instead he asks if I’m lost. “Well, I know pretty well where I am, but wanted to make sure I knew which road this was.” (County roads are very poorly marked.) He says “this is Steele. [pointing south] that way goes up to TC Steele Park, and [pointing north] this way goes down to SR 46.” I know I am heading towards the park, so I am disappointed to listen to my brain compute “He obviously isn’t using the common “‘up’ means north, ‘down’ means south” convention. That pretty much leaves the “‘up’ means up, ‘down’ means down” convention. Dang.

21.1 Dang is right. JEEZ! Killer hill. Huff!! Puff!!

21.9 OK, the last crest of the hill is right around the park, to which I’d never been. Seems like a nice place, but I didn’t feel that I had time to stop. Might be a nice day trip sometime, actually, along this same route except without the excursion down to the wildfowl resting area. I guess it’d only about 13 miles each way… not bad… too bad there’s that hill at the end of it! Ugh…

I pass a family picnicking, and the (presumptive) mom asks if I’d like some lunch. That’s very nice of her, I smile through my huffing and cough out something like “I’m all set. Thanks.” It really is nice though… I hope she can tell that I sincerely thought that.

23.0 Well, it’s not really true that what goes up must come down, but I know I am going to see another part of the lake at the end of this road, so it makes sense when this long steep climb turns into a long steep descent. Wow! Fast! I think I hit 46 mph, [which turns out to be the high speed of the weekend]. Dang, that’s fast. I feel cold cruising through the trees with my sweat-drenched shirt…

25.0 Well, those last two miles flew by, but here’s a boat ramp, which means water, which means so much for coasting for a while. I pull into the parking lot to check it out and take a real break (meaning that I eat a clif bar. I’m trying to be good about eatin more on long bike rides!)

25.2 Once again, google’s idea of what counts as a road is pretty imaginative. Wow, this one looks like it’d be tough to hike on, much less bike upon. Couple that with the fact that I’m not sure it even goes through, and I bag it. I turn right around.

26.5 I didn’t think I’d be biking on Crooked Creek Road. Given that it’s hilly and gravel (a bad combination, the sum is definitely worse than the sum of its parts), it’s about as good as I could imagine. Very little traffic, very pretty terrain. Parts of Yellowwood State Forest that I’ve never seen. I don’t think of it being south of SR 46, but … I keep seeing signs!

27.5 A couple of these hills are just too much, at least with the gravel. I have to get off twice and push my bike up the hills.

30.8 Yeah, that was a long time on Crooked Creek. The pavement is a welcome site, although it is SR 45.

31.0 As I bike I’m trying to line up the landmarks I’m seeing with their proximity to Nashville. Is Ski World first? Or Mike’s Dance Barn? For a while I catch myself hoping that I’m past the Big Hill, but that’s silly… My only hope is that I can turn off on Upper Schooner Rd. before the hill.

32.0 Well, good news/bad news… just as the extreme ascent starts, there’s Upper Schooner on the right. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it has a sign that says “dead end”. What? Ugh. I get out my map. It’s pretty clear that this road goes through, but I bet there’s no park entrance there, so that’s why they say it’s a dead end. I consider trying it, but given that it’s after 4pm, I’ve already biked 32 miles, and so far none of my google-maps inspired risks has paid off, I decide not to.

What that means is that I have to climb the Big Hill. I’m reminded of telling Ted my biking plans the night before and him chortling, “woah, imagine trying to bike up *that* hill.” Well, shit. No imagination required I guess. Just a lot of determination and concentration to stay as steady as I can on the side of the road so as not to disturb/enfuriate the cars behind me. Ok, here goes.

32.5 Yeah, this isn’t really fun. The traffic is pretty heavy, although most of it is westbound. I see some proud blue Kentucky flags, and I realize that people must be heading for a football game. Whatever. Huff. Puff. Shit.

A driveway! Ok! that’ll be a nice way to catch my breath and clear out some lactic acid without having to dismount. I coast around in a *very* slow circle… And then resume my path on the road.

33.3 I crest the hill, and am VERY pleased about that. Here’s the entrance to the park. I wonder what entering will be like.

33.8 I approach the gate in line with some cars. The attendant sort of smirks at me, at first I thought he might be annoyed by the likes of a cyclist, but after enchanging words with him, I think it’s closer to the opposite, maybe like he was smirking with me at the crowds of RVs around. Anyway, he charged me $1 for entry to the park (car rate is $4), for which I received a number of maps and other bits of park info. Cool! He told me the campground was five miles up ahead. Roger that!

35.0 The thing about Brown County State Park… I rarely come here, because it’s very touristy… crowded with RVs and other automotive traffic. But, wow… it’s pretty. A case of my recurring “I can’t blame people for wanting to come here” theme. And, really, biking the park road is not too bad. For all the cars/RVs, they apparently spend most of their time parked, which is more than fine by me. :) Anyway, it feels very nice to bike through the park with beautiful hilly woods on either side of me. The road is certainly not flat, but the hills are pleasant, alternating mild exurtion with easy coasting. Nice.

36.0 I “hesitate” — stop for a moment at “Hesitation Point”. Elevation about 1030 ft. [as memory serves... definitely over 1000 ft., though] I don’t know how many place is Indiana are over 1000 ft. in elevation. Anyway, they have some trees cut away here so that you can lookout over the Hills o’ Brown County. They are truly beautiful. And, yeah, if you think about what this vista must look like in a good October, you can almost understand why so many people flock to Brown County to see the leaves.

38.2 Entrance to the camping area. I get into a line behind a car, who is behind a “small” RV. I stand there. The line is not moving. I wonder if something is wrong. I wait for, surely over 5 minutes… the line looks exactly as it did when I arrived. I wonder if something is wrong.

Eventually the RV pulls away, I inch up, and see a park ranger exit the building. I ask if I should come inside or anything, but he says, no, I should wait… they need the computer to register me, and there’s only one and the guy at the window has it. OK. It does feel a bit better to at least know I’m not missing something.

Eventually it’s my turn, I tell the guy I’m interested in camping. At first he doesn’t think that he has a non-electric site left, but he finds one. $16, more than I wanted, but I did pick Brown County in part because I wanted something easy as my first biking/camping experience, so… there ya go.

The registration ranger asks me if I’ve come a long way. No, just a weekend trip from Bloomington. “I’ve seen some that have come a long way. One guy from Germany who was biking across the country”. He ends up telling me at length about some cycling club in Bloomington that I can’t believe I’ve never heard of, but that sponsors an annual trip to somewhere far away for cycling, at unbelievably low prices. He tells me their website, but I don’t right it down, so I forget. I should ask around. I’m not sure I’d want to go on one of their trips, but I’d at least like to know more about them.

Anyway, he sends me on my way to my site, .75 miles up the road, he says. I pedal away, and the car behind me, undoubtedly, breathes a sigh of relief.

39.1 Here’s my site! Not bad. Right on the border between the “lawn” and the “woods”. I’m too close to one of my neighbors for my tastes, but really, I can’t complain. I set up my tent (Thanks Sue!) for the first time, and eat a package of vegetarian jerky.

Once I’m all settled, I have to decide if I’m going to build a fire. Collecting firewood is prohibited here, and you’re not allowed to bring it in either because they are worried about the Emerald Ash Borer, so you pretty much have to buy your wood at the park… I’m sure the park sees this as a not-unfortunate by-product of their forest management policies.

The question is: how does a cyclist carry a load of wood to a campsite? It’s supposedly .75 miles away, I don’t really want to carry it walking that far. But, why wouldn’t I be able to strap it to my bike? I can’t think of a reason, and the image of it makes me laugh. So I decide to do it… put all my gear in my tent and bike back towards the store.

You might think that the biking would feel much easier with all that weight off of it, but I really was not struck by it being a whole lot easier. *shrug* I think the weight rides well the way I packed it, which is good.

I buy the wood and successfully attach it to my bike and ride it back with a big grin on my face. :) Problem though: I don’t have much paper! I end up burning most of the park materials that I was given (carefully saving the maps). I also raid the case of my Palm and pull out a bunch of business cards of people I’m unlikely to need to contact. I transfer a couple of email addresses into the palm, but.. yeah, that gave me a bit more. And, I admin, I do pick up some twigs around the site, which I can only assume does not violate the spirit (at least) of the park’s policy. I do not venture into the woods, these are mostly the twigs that I had to move to set up my tent anyway.

Anyway, I get the fire going without much trouble, and I cook my Lipton Creamy Garlic (thanks, Xie!). It gets dark while I am cooking, which is fine timing. I eat leisurely, and clean up leisurely. Then I just sit by the fire for an hour or so. I actually start getting cold! I didn’t really expect that, and haven’t packed very much in the way of warm clothes. But, that’s ok, I have the fire, my rain coat, and I had intended all along to go to bed early, so… no problem.

I go to bed and my main issue is: staying cool! Between this very small tent and my brand new sleeping bag, I am having trouble avoiding being too hot. I eventually just lie on the thermarest and drape the sleeping bag on top of me. That is much better from a heat management point of view, and the thermarest is less annoying to my skin than I expect it to be. Still, I would like to have a sheet, I think I’ll have to pack one in the future.

I read a bad book for a short while, lighting working well (LEDs are a revolution). Then I go to sleep.

———-

I wake up just before 8a, which means I slept a long time. I cook my oatmeal and ponder my route home. Against my better judgement, I decide to take the rest of the loop I’m on rather than going back to the registration booth the direct way. The problem with this decision is not the extra seven miles or so, but rather that it goes by a lake (elevation 688) and a couple miles later passes a fire tower (elevation 1058). Ugh. I cherrily say “it’ll be fun! You don’t have to get home as fast as possible! It’s pretty here!” Damn my adventurous spirit!

I pack up and leave, and my odometer shows exactly 40 miles as I fill up my water bottles. I don’t reset it, figuring I can subtract 40 from whatever I do today. [my story, though, follows the odometer readings on [this map](http://tinyurl.com/d8ut6)]

1.0 Sure enough, after a nice quiet beginning, I descend down a very steep grade very quickly until things level out at the…

2.4 …horse camp. This is the road that I wanted to come in on, but couldn’t get to. Turns out, they dont’ really let people go through! It’s like there are two parks… one for people to bring horses, and the other to drive RVs. I wonder, if I called ahead and asked if one could ride one’s bike into the south entrance, if they’d let me through. No telling.

3.0 Strahl lake. I don’t actually see the lake, because it isn’t right next to the road. Looks like a short hike in. I know I don’t need the extra exercise because I caught a glimpse of the hill I was about to start climbing.

4.8 Fire tower. Yeah, seriously, ouch. Ok, that was a climb of approximately 400 feet in 1.8 miles. That’s a 4.2% grade *average* over the course of those 1.8 miles. It’s definitely not 4.2% the whole way. Jeez. I had to walk twice, and that still felt like a lot of work. Wow. Damn my… forget it. Breathe!!

8.5 The ride out is pretty eventless, because I had pedaled all of this yesterday. I turn in my campground permit thingy at the gate, which turned out to be a mistake: I was supposed to turn it in at the registration desk. But, the man at the desk offers to call it over for me. Phew! :)

One of my maps shows that there’s a road just across SR 46 from the park entrance that connects to some roads North of the highway. The only thing I see looks overgrown and private. I guess I take 46 down The Big Hill!

10.0 Going down is decidedly more pleasant than going up had been yesterday. :) Beyond the obvious reason, it’s just before 10am, and there’s not much traffic on 46 now… And of course, fewer cars would be passing me anyway as I roll down this hill at 30+ mph than when I was crawling up it yesterday and 3mph.

10.3 One of my maps shows this road going through. I’ll try it! Dirt road, not in very good condition, and… wow, passes a few houses that definitely conjure up thoughts of moonshine runners.

11.2 After passing the houses and a few large tractors I hit a hill. Very steep, and gravel… I can’t climb it. And does this go through? I don’t know. I can’t bear it. I turn around.

12.0 Y’know, biking on 46 is really not as bad as one might think. The road is obviously in great shape, and there’s a fairly good berm.. so really, the only reason not to bike on it is just that cars are noisy and not fun. But I feel perfectly safe on this road, and I can make good time.

12.9 I turn on to Lower Schooner Rd., which is the last “new road” for me on this trip. Like many of the others, this is great. It goes on my “prefered route to bike by Nashville” that I’ve been imagining. I follow a creek for a while, there are some pleasant hills, it’s wooded, the road is paved. I approve.

15.2 Back onto Kent. I like it going this way as well. My chain freezes up for a moment (it’s been doing that occassionally). While I’m trying to fix it, up drives a car, with a man and his two young daughters in it. He asks me for directions to Gilmore Ridge road. We talk about it for a while, I think he’ll get there soon. Funny that this was almost exactly the same spot as the exchange of directions with the car the day before.

18.2 Yeah, I’m making good progress here. Maybe I don’t even need to eat…. David!! You’re trying to be better about eating. Eat! Ok. I stop and sit in the grass and eat a Clif Bar. It’s a good thing to do…

19.0 I’ve decided that, especially since I’m enjoying biking on 46 ok, I’ll go up to Kerr Creek road and get home that way, although the temptation to go back to the beautiful Lampkins Ridge is definitely present.

22.0 Not too much to say about Kerr Creek Road. I’ve ridden it before. I ride for a short bit next to a young boy who lives there, he’s on his little bike. I’m struck by the similarity and contrast of our situations. I think about how Matece lives just to the south of where I am, which is over a steep, wooded ridge. And… the hill at the end of Kerr Creek Road is substantial. But I make it up!! Woohoo!!

23.8 Oh, maybe I should stop at Brusters! That’s a way to be better about eating on long trips, right? :) It’s a good idea, I spend my last paper cash on a single dip of butter pecan. I think the teenaged girl serving me wanted to avoid touching me, and I can understand that. :) It tasted good though.

24.0 What’s that noise? Uh-oh… something is wrong with my rack! My tire is scraping against my rack! Ick! I push things around a bit in hopes that it’ll help. It does, but I’m clearly going to need to do some kind of major repair before my next long trip… Argh…

25.0 I join onto the Path that follows the tracks here (Thanks, Cindy!). I like biking on this pathway a lot, I wish there were more things like this. It feels more tiring going this way than it does the other way, though. Maybe it has something to do with the 65 miles I’ve biked in the last 24 hours though… Hmmm.. Whatever, I take the bike route, cut through campus (which still looks beautiful, even after a ride like this) and then my normal route home. It’s a little after 12:30. I can go in and relax in a bath!! :)

I opened it up, the whole thing was wrapped in bubble wrap. It was hard to get through it all, but I did it! But what I found was that the [needle was totally broken off](http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/dscf0012.jpg)!! Ugh. I wrote to the seller, and he wrote back *amazingly* quickly and took responsibility and said he’d send me a new needle. Kudos to him. So, I’ll be waiting on that.

Meanwhile, though, still playing with the last shipment, I found a [list of stuff to take bike touring](http://gorp.away.com/gorp/gear/packlst_bik.htm) online, written by the same guy that wrote the book I liked! I put that onto my Palm (using a [nifty little palm app that converts memos to todo lists](http://rickyspears.com/articles/convert_palm_memos_2_todos.html), via a [nifty little basic implementation for PalmOS](http://www.hotpaw.com/rhn/hotpaw/)), and packed up my panniers with just about everything I’ll need for an overnight. It’s a bit heavier that the simple test from Tuesday, I think I’ll still be under 30 pounds, doing pretty well, I think. I then put some directions onto my palm… I’m pretty much all set for that adventure!!

Now I have to convince myself to go to bed. I’ve sure been staying up late this week…

I went for a ride around town with what I believe to be fair simulation of a reasonable load for an overnight (ie, one night) biking/camping trip. I went about 4 miles, and was quite pleased. Although I wish those panniers were bigger, they still hold quite a bit and they are safely out of the way of my feet, and they hold their weight well, apparently.

Of the three bicycle touring books that I picked up at the public library (all about 15 years old and all relatively randomly selected (thanks to Kynthia for prompting me with the search!)) my [favorite](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0941130797/qid=1126662205/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-6763038-5052764?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) said that in the author’s experience, everyone who ever mounted a loaded touring bike for the first time said “I can’t believe how *different* it is!” I was afraid of that experience as I lifted my bike out of my back yard, because it felt heavy! But, once I got on it and started pedaling, I was surprised by how *similar* it was! Basically, I could tell I was pushing more weight… I don’t think there’s any getting around that. But I was expected to have some concerns about staying steady on the bike or something, but… nope. It rode just great. Woohoo! I weighed it and I had just about 20 pounds loaded on there… I think I’ve read that people suggest sticking to under 40 pounds. I’d have to pack a lot more stuff to go on a long tour, but still, the heaviest and most essential items are all there, I felt the excitement of possibility!

When I got home from my ride, I started thinking about where I might go camping this weekend. I had already thought some about this, considering the Martin State Forest (East of Bedford) and McCormick’s Creek State park (near Spencer). When I was back home, I started looking at maps, and pretty well decided that if I go I should try Brown County State Park, near Nashville. A very nice place that’s a bit touristy, but definitely deserving of more attention than I’ve given it. I plotted out [an adventurous, ~35 mile route there](http://tinyurl.com/cfeaj) and a 20 mile, [much more direct route back](http://tinyurl.com/9t5tu). I’m not settled on this plan by any means. So far the weather prediction is good, but I’m not going to go if the weather is bad. And regardless, I might just change my mind. But, that’s where my mind is about it right now. I’ll probably try to reserve a campsite there if I do it, because I don’t want to go there just to find out that I have to bike back. We’ll see….