Or not.

I haven’t let my wrist fracture slow me down at all. In fact, I’ve been out for rides the last three days. I found that if I support myself by putting my right hand on the tops, and rest my left gently on the hoods, riding is tolerable as long as I’m careful not to hit any big bumps. Using this methodology, I’ve managed to ride ~80 miles over the last 3 days.

This is Brown Road, very close to home. I just took this picture because the dead plants in the swamp remind me of an alien from the original Dr. Who series.

On Monday, I decided to figure out what lies at Trail’s End. Although I am opposed to out-and-back routes or roads that dead end, I mapped this road on Ride with GPS and found that it includes a pretty decent climb with 15% grades. I was also curious to see how far back into Catskill Park I could get…perhaps this could be a shortcut to Yeagerville Road?

Unfortunately, when I got to the top of the road, I saw it continued on icy gravel. Normally, that wouldn’t stop me, but I really did not want to fall on my hand again. So I’ll save this discovery for a little later in the year.

On the way home, I took a new route on Kelder Highway, which is actually a narrow 2-lane road. I’ve ridden past it dozens of times, but for some reason it never occurred to me to take it. Nice views.

Again, close to home. The road to the right, DeWitt, is some beautiful nicely groomed gravel. The road to the left is Brown Road, which leads back to my place.

This is, I believe, Mill Road. As you can see, it was a wet n’ muddy ride to say the least. I’ve said this before, but I actually really enjoy riding in a nice cold rain, perhaps even more than a riding on a perfect 65-degree day.

The rains led to significant flooding. This waterfall along the side of the Vly road is usually barely a trickle; in fact, I hadn’t noticed it previously, even though I go this way all the time.

I installed some SiCCC rotors on the winter bike (after taking this picture, obviously). I’ll have an initial review for you tomorrow.

I did a lot of gravel grinding over the past few days, resulting in a lot of laundry. This is Kozon Road, which leads up to Ricci Road, which in turn leads to Lower Sahler Mill Road.

If you’re planning a route in the area and want to have a good time, try to include Lower Sahler Mill Road, starting from County Road 2. It’s the most fun you can have on two wheels. It starts with a gentle descent for about 1.5 miles–I usually get going about 40 miles an hour. Then, it turns into a gentle gravel descent for another 1.3 miles. Then, you can take a left on Dug Road and enjoy another 2-3 miles of gravel, albeit uphill. A map of this short segment is below, and GPS can be found here. Include this section in your route, I promise you’ll like it.

Finally, this is what today’s ride looked like. I’m using an Exposure Diablo here, which I suppose I should review at some point, if for no other reason than to thank them for manufacturing the finest battery light ever made. Believe it or not, this is on low power, which I believe provides 12-14 hours of battery life with an output comparable to that of an Edelux.

That’s all for now. I’ll review the SiCCC rotors tomorrow and perhaps post some more images of my shorter rides later this week. I’ll get back to route finding shortly, just have to wait for the wrist to heal a little more.

John

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