Saturday Morning Gravel Ride

Saturday Ride: What a great ride we had last Saturday morning! We rode most all of the new 18-mile TOWM course, and it is widely agreed that this is going to be a hit for the people that sign up for and ride it in the Tour! Lumberjack has really come in over the last two years and is an absolute hoot to ride. Even the climb up to the top on Blue Ridge has gotten better and better as TRACKS has kept working on it. The improvements to the Springs trail have greatly improved its ride-ability, and County Club is awesome as usual. If you haven't been out and done that route, make it a point before the summer ends. Or sign up for and ride in the Tour!

The grand patriarch alligator juniper of the Lumberjack was so happy to see us it started magically sprouting bikes last weekend!

This week, we are changing it up a little because all the rain we got yesterday and the anticipated rainy conditions we expect over the next two days. So . . . this Saturday we'll be doing a gravel ride! Meet at the Country Club trailhead at 7:00 a.m. The plan is to ride up the 185 road, and then bear left on the 271 road, then left on the 267/Brown Creek road down to the 283, and then left on 283 down to the Turkey Mountain Road, and then left on the 182/Sky-Hi Retreat road back to the CC trailhead. All in all, it is about a twenty mile ride. Riding gravel is the responsible thing to do when you know it is likely that the trails you might prefer to ride are likely to be too muddy!

No, you don't have to have a specific "gravel bike" in order to come with us, your MTB will do just fine. We'll do it at a nice social pace stopping in logical spots to keep our group together and to keep everyone on course. It should be lovely Saturday morning with the dust all nice and settled from recent rains. The roads we selected all stay in pretty good condition regardless of weather, so rain the day or night before isn't going to impact us one way or the other. See you Saturday morning!