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I was dying to ride my new Windsor Tourist that I bought a month ago from bikesdirect.com (I’ll post pics soon!) So yesterday, I set out with tlp to do McCammon and back. The temperature was a balmy 45 degrees or so, but the wind was blowing steadily from the south at about 15 mph. This made the trip to Inkom and McCammon terribly slow, but this gave me time to tinker with the Tiagra STI shifting on my new bike.
We stopped in Inkom, refilled bottles, and then cycled the hilly Marsh Creek Road to McCammon. About 5 miles before McCammon, tlp and I started feeling pretty fatigued and hungry, so we ate nearly all my granola bars (you owe me big time, tlp! ;-p), and kept going. The part I love most about this leg of this route is the steep decent on Merrill Road; however the wind totally ruined this for me. Sigh.
We stopped at the Flying J in McCammon and relaxed for a bit. I pondered whether or not I should buy some food, but just ate my last granola instead. On the way back to Inkom, as we had predicted, the stiff wind made 25 mph very easy. We were able to sustain 30 mph at some point and it felt very good after the slow southward ride.
Stopping off at the Inkom gas station on the return trip was very welcome. I was feeling pretty damn fatigued and my ass was sore. I either need to get used to the new saddle, break it in, or get a different one. I bought a bag of munchies at the gas station and scarfed a few handfuls and then we began the ride home. Going east to Pocatello from Inkom wasn’t very thrilling; I was tired and the south wind was blowing our left side the whole way. Yawn.
Ah, well, not a bad first-long-ass-ride-of-the-year. Can’t wait to see how much better I can do next time. I still have to put my front fender on and some SPD pedals. Oh, and I’ll probably readjust the front derailleur.
Last Sunday, the 15th of February, the roads looked mostly dry, the temperature was 28 degrees Fahrenheit, and so I said, “good nuff!” and prepared to cycle to Inkom and back! I was dying to get back on my road bike and do some hard and fast cycling.
Here was the clothing I wore (from the top down):
- Helmet with a thermal beanie
- Synthetic jersey, synthetic long-sleeve jersey, hi-viz windbreaker, ski gloves
- Merino wool long underwear and cycling tights
- Regular cotton socks and cycling shoes with shoe covers
This is a winning combo for winter cycling, except for one critical problem which I will talk about momentarily. Ahem.
Setting out for Inkom felt great, but soon the wind blowing from the southeast slowed the ride way down. It was a great workout, but the whole way I was anticipating the tailwind ride back! The route I took on this ride was Bannock Highway and Portneuf Road out to Inkom and then Highway 91 back to town. Bannock Highway and Portneuf Road are at a slightly higher elevation and are shaded by large hills, so I encountered some patches of snow and ice here and there on the road, but it was nothing to worry about.
I was about halfway to Inkom when the cold headwind began to effect one particular part of my body. Yes, you guessed it, my penis was starting to freeze. Every single other part of my body felt fine, but it’s that one area that seems to catch a lot of wind without much blood circulating through the area. I decided to just tough it out until I got to Inkom. By the time I got to Inkom, I was in quite a bit of pain so I stopped at the nearest parking lot, took my gloves off, jammed my hand down my pants and started to warm it up. This also turned out to be painful, and I’m sure some passerbys were wondering why I was moaning with my hand down my cycling tights. Yes, this was rural Inkom, Idaho were people dressed in cycling outfits are already looked at as freaks; so doing this ritual probably didn’t concern them any greater. After about five minutes of drinking water and hobbling around the parking lot, I climbed back on my bike and started pedaling. Thankfully the pain subsided.
The ride back was pretty great and speeds of 22 mph were easy with the steady tailwind. By the time I was halfway home, I felt fine and soon I was back in town and feeling great from the high-gear ride home.
I did some searching around online for solutions to my problem. I think my best bet is to just wear a couple more layers in the general area next time. :-)
Last weekend I successfully replaced the freewheel on my Dawes road bicycle! Here’s the full story.
Once upon a time at work, I was boasting to my coworker, John Bickelhaupt (who also happens to be a long time bike mechanic), that I had put about 3,500 miles on my Dawes road bike without replacing a single part except for tires and tubes! He replied, “you mean you haven’t replaced your chain? Oh, that’s not good.” I gulped.
A bicycle chain should be replaced every 1,500 to 2,000 miles or so depending on riding conditions. The dirtier the conditions, the faster your chain will wear. Consult google for measuring chain wear and learning more about this important topic. After measuring my chain, it appeared to have “stretched” a full 1/8 inch or so per 12 inches. Yeah, not good.
So I cycled on down to Barrie’s Ski and Sports and bought a new bicycle chain (SRAM with the nifty little lock link). They also suggested I buy a chain breaker, which came in awfully handy. With the plentiful bicycle repair tutorials found online, I learned how to replace the chain and did so in a matter of 20 minutes. I then hopped on the bike to test out my new chain and everything went well until the chain started slipping terribly on one of the gears on my cogset. It was the very gear that I use most frequently!
After more poking around online, I learned that this is common if you replace a chain on a bicycle with a worn cogset. Sigh. After close inspection of the cogset, I noticed that my favorite gear had teeth that were triangular rather than the nice, square teeth on the gears that I seldom used. Yeah, this is what happens when you put 3,500 miles on a chain. :-/
Previously to this adventure, I had learned that there are 2 types of cogsets on bicycles: freewheels and cassettes. After determining that mine was of the former type, I looked around online and saw that I could buy one for about $25 at my favorite bike part shop online. I then thought that instead of buying a new freewheel, I might be able to just yank the one off of my old Wal-Mart mountain bike that I had been scavanging parts off of for quite some time. I took a look at the freewheel on the mountain bike and it appeared to be the same style of freewheel that my Dawes had.
Next, I shopped around locally for a freewheel remover and picked one up at Rob’s Ride On Bikes And Snow. This is a small tool that you use with a wrench to unscrew the freewheel from the rear hub. Specifically, the tool used most commonly to remove Shimano-style freewheels is the Park Tool FR-1 (see http://www.parktool.com/), and most of my bicycles use this style of freewheel.
Next I watched this youtube video on freewheel removal, grabbed my toolbox, and got to work! The guy in the video recommends using an enormous wrench with the freewheel remover and now I know why. After securely attaching my 12-inch wrench to the freewheel remover, I had to brace the wheel/tire against the metal railing on my front porch while stepping on the wrench with my foot and putting a lot of weight on the wrench handle before the freewheel finally budged!
After ensuring that the mountain bike cogset was only mildly worn and screwing it onto my Dawes rear hub, it suddenly occured to me that I was replacing a 7 speed freewheel with a 6 speed one and that it might not work so well with my 7 speed indexed shifter. I smacked my forehead. But during the test ride, it worked fine except that I had to shift a couple of clicks before it’ll go into the next gear. Bah, close enough! I now can torque as hard as I want and none of the gears slip! Eureka!
I have yet to perfect the art of writing as life events happen. Usually, life catches you up in events to the point where there is little time for writing about them. Alas, I have now found the time to write about the memorable things I’ve learned about cycling in October and November 2008. :)
Attempt At Cycling To The Top of Kinport Peak
 Ever since I began this cycling craze portion of my life, I wanted to try out some serious mountain biking. I had already given China Peak a try on my mountain bike earlier with some success, but now I wanted to give Kinport Peak a go! So, in the second-to-last weekend of September, I set out on my mountain bike to give it a try. This is a poplar time to explore the Kinport and City Creek Trail areas because the deciduous trees are showing their fall colors which makes riding or hiking the trails a very cool experience. I rode up Lincoln Ave. to the start of the west trail that leads up to Kinport since I wasn’t in the mood for the up-and-down single track at the bottom of the City Creek trail system. The uphill riding was pretty arduous since most of my riding has been on roads this year, but soon I got to a fork in the trail. One path led downhill and the other went up, so I chose the uphill thinking that it would get me to Kinport quicker.  This turned out to be the wrong way and it was an extremely steep trail; it was at this point that I began feeling some pain in my lower back, especially when I was walking my bike up the horribly steep sections of the trail. Eventually I discovered my folly in choosing this route, and then I did some white-knuckle downhilling back to the fork. Between the terrifying vertical down-hilling and my lower back bothering me, I was pretty grumpy by the time I reached the fork. Yeah, I’m not a very extreme mountain biker. I’m more of a nice, safe, road and jeep-trail type. But, don’t worry folks, my cycling tastes are constantly evolving, so eventually there’s a chance I may fall in love with <insert strange cycling style here>.
 After getting on the correct trail, I encountered the steep section that is unavoidable to get to the top of Kinport. And this is where I screwed up my back some more. I shot some photos and turned back after reaching a section of the trail that was both steep and littered with fist-sized rocks. I really don’t understand how people cycle to the top of this god-forsaken trail. Yes, yes, don’t mind my negativity, for I am yet an intermediate cyclist. Give this trail a try and create your own opinion. :)
Needless to say, by the time I got home, I was in a lot of lower-back pain and this injury never fully healed for about 3 weeks. Yeah, lower-back strains last a while. According to some sources I found on the Internet, to avoid this problem in the future I might consider A) raising my handlebars a bit and B) trying some lower-back exercises. Currently, my theory is to just give the finger to anything greater than a 15% grade. Ok, I might still be a little bitter. :(
The Two 92-mile Circum-Reservoir Trips
After a month or so of healing and waiting for a cycling-weather-friendly weekend to happen, I decided to hop on my favorite road-racing bicycle and do a ride I had never done before: ride around the American Falls Reservoir, the shortest route being about 92 miles. I like to do at least one long ride once a year and so I thought this would do nicely for this year. This route goes north from Pocatello into Fort Hall, then west across the Snake River on Ferry Butte Road, on to Springfield, then south to Aberdeen, then American Falls, and then back to Pocatello. Yeah, you get to see lots of Idaho in this trip! And at this time of year, you get the added benefit of checking out the giant mountains of sugar beets around Aberdeen ;) Ok, it is kind of a boring ride, but it has its own uniqueness and curiosities.
Attempt number one at this trip was disappointing. The whole thing took me about 7.5 hours and I had to repair a flat tire twice while pumping up the other tire every 10 miles or slow due to a slow leak. This wasn’t supposed to be happening to me since I supposedly found the holy grail to avoiding flat tires (tire liners). Yeah, I was pissed to say the least.
After closer inspection of my tires and tire liners, I found that the problem was with the slippery tire liners sliding up on the side wall of the tires when trying to mount the tire/tire-liner/tube combo onto the rim. It is literally impossible to keep the skinny, slippery liner laying flush against the tread portion of the tire. My next idea was to buy some 1.5 inch wide mountain bike liners and put those in my 23 mm road tires so the liner would cover the entire inside of the tire. Then again, I had already purchased a couple packages of the skinny road tire types, so I thought I’d think of another way. I discussed it with my good friend and bike mechanic, John Bickelhaupt, and he suggested that I might try a little rubber cement to keep the liner in place until I got it all mounted onto the rim. After giving this a shot, I discovered that rubber cement doesn’t bond to the tire nor the urethane liner at all. I might was well use oatmeal as an adhesive. After digging around in my basement, I found some automotive Seal-All brand glue that I used to use for fixing things on my old 1985 Volvo 240. I was pretty desperate to get my tire problem solved, so I used a very thin coating of this stuff. I made sure beforehand that it wasn’t the kind of glue that hardens into sharp crystals, since I knew that such a thing would eventually tear up the tire.
The very next weekend, I set out on the same 92 mile ride. I wanted to prove to myself and to those reading this blog that it is possible to have a flat-less ride using road racing tires in territory littered with glass and thorns! This ride was very pleasing indeed. The wind was calm, I had no problems whatsoever, and I beat my previous time by like 1.5 hours. Well, it appears that the glue and tire liner idea brings me closer to the zen of riding a road bike.
And now here is a more recent update to make this article even longer and more bloated. On Friday, November 28, the day after Thanksgiving, I was riding this very same bicycle slowly along Highway 91, coming back to Pocatello from Inkom, casually chatting with my friend when all the sudden we heard a sound similar to a .22 caliber round going off! After pulling over and giving the situation a closer inspection, I found that I had worn my rear tire down to the threads and it had finally succumbed. Well, I was just happy that it had nothing to do with my bloody tire liner soap opera! After using part of the blown tube to cover the 1-inch tear in my tire and inflating to about 70 psi, I was able to make it home. The moral to this story is, do not become so preoccupied with preventing punctures that you forget to change your worn tires. Or something like that.
I admit that I am a pinch-penny. My family says I have a bit of Jewish heritage, so I usually use that as my excuse. :-) But, really, I bicycle because it’s fun and it saves me money in commuting costs and in vacationing costs. Bicycling to work is fun and very feasible, and I consider cycle-camping an absolute blast.
Buying tires that are tough enough to withstand the vast majority of punctures can be expensive and require some research. In Idaho, we have a thing called goat-head thorns and those things can go right through any regular tire and force you to stop every 10 miles or so to patch a tube, like I did on this ride. On that ride I was using some cheap Kevlar belted tires I bought online for about $12 a tire and, as you can read in the article, they didn’t work out so well. In the past, I’ve purchased Specialized Armadillo tires for $35 a piece at a local bike shop and they lasted for a good 2,500 miles of riding without a single flat. However, they were pretty dang rough to ride on and not very comfy at all. And besides, what budget-minded cyclist wants to spend that much per tire?
I believe I have found the holy grail for bicycle riding penny pinchers. Tire liners! Yes, these wonderful urethane liners are very flexible, but they completely impenetrable by the vast majority of sharp objects found on roads (glass, thorns, metal, etc.). I first bought some 2-inch wide ones for my mountain bike. After about 1000 miles of on and off-road riding, I have never had a single flat. In fact, recently, I noticed that my aging mountain bike tires were starting to crack and split and I could see the liner through the tire in a spot or two. If the liner had not been there, either the tube would have burst or something would have punctured the tube.
Months later, I wondered if they made tire liners for road bike tires (700×23 mm, 25 mm, etc.). Local bicycle shops seemed to only carry tire liners for wider tires, so I visited froogle.com and did some searching. If you search for the phrase “tire liner 25 mm” you’ll get several results for Mr. Tuffy tire liners for road bike tires, which are about $12 for a pair. The “Orange” version of these liners fits 700 mm tires with widths of 20 mm on up to 26 mm or so (Mr. Tuffy brand tire liners are a different color for the different widths of tire they fit). I’ve personally used this size with my 23 mm and 25 mm tires and they fit fine. When I first took them out of the package, I noticed how shiny and slick the surface of the liners were, which I later found greatly aids slipping the liner in between your tire and tube. Also, if you try to stab your thumbnail into the liner, you’ll notice it is very difficult to make any kind of indentation. Yeah, urethane is some tough stuff.
Installing them can be a little tricky at first, but it is not that bad. If you search google.com for “how to install bicycle tire liners” or something similar, you’ll get some good advice. Here’s how I do it:
- Take your wheel off of your bike and deflate the tire.
- Take the tire and tube off of the wheel and then take the tube out of the tire. You do this because the tube is usually pretty much adhered to the tire.
- Lay the tire on the ground and place the tube back in the tire. It helps to inflate the tube a little bit to do this.
- With the tube inflated a few psi, slip the liner in between the tire and tube. The liner is rather slippery, so this is pretty easy. I joke with my friends that the liner almost feels like it’s pre-lubed with K-Y. ;-)
- The liner is a little longer than the circumference of the tire, so you’ll overlap a little which is normal. After the liner is all in, check with your fingers that the liner is well centered with the tread of the tire.
- Put the tire/liner/tube combo onto your rim carefully so as not to move things around too much. Inflate carefully to make sure your tire is properly fit onto the wheel and you’re good to go!
I’ve taken my road bike out to some well-known thorn territory to give the liners a good test and I was absolutely elated that I didn’t get a single flat! So, anyway, I believe the tire liners are the perfect choice for those who want to buy cheapo tires but who want a puncture-proof ride at the same time. By the way, you can buy some really cheap tires online for around $10 a tire. Yes, yes, the cycling connoisseurs will scoff and say “but the rolling resistance of those tires are absolutely ghastly and they weigh far too many grams!” However, the vast majority of cyclists in the world really aren’t concerned with those things. Your commute to the grocery store to pick up some beer probably isn’t going to be effected by the quality of your tire; however, you may want to have some tire liners for some protection against those nasty thorns ;)
Above is a terrain map of Inman Canyon near Inkom, Idaho (courtesy Google and MapMyRide.com). The path starts on Inman Road off of Rapid Creek Road and then it turns into a dirt jeep trail that goes up to about 6600 feet in elevation up the Portneuf Range, the same range that contains Bonneville Peak and the Pebble Creek Ski Area. About a month ago, Travis and I checked this trail out a little. I was trying out some slick 38 mm wide tires at the time, and they handled ok on the trail, but I missed the stability and traction of my knobby 2 inch wide mountain bike tires.
 On Sunday, September 7, I decided to put my knobbies back on my mountain bike and explore this canyon. I took 3 liters of hydration and my regular supply of granola bars, spare tubes, and tools and headed off to Inkom. I pulled into the same park in Inkom that I always visit on these trips to top off my water supply and there was a couple of 40s-ish women on road bikes who obviously do the same thing. We chatted for a bit and then headed off to our destinations.
I made my way up Rapid Creek Road then right onto Inman road and soon the road turned into trail. The loose dirt and rocks on this trail made me thankful I put on my mountain bike tires. I had to pull off to the side of the trail about 5 times during this trip to let ATVs and pickup trucks go by. On my way up, I stopped at a small pull off and took some photos of a near-by stream and said hi to a mountain biker and another guy who was looking for a good place to shoot. My water supply was getting rather low so I knew that I had better just try to make it to the apex of this trail and then head home.
 Next, the trail began getting pretty dang steep; I had to hop off and hike-a-bike a couple times because I was so pooped. Finally, the trail opened up into a clearing and forked off down the opposite side and south side of the mountain. Later, I identified this location as Inman Pass and the two trails lead to Chesterfield and Lava Hot Springs. I desparately want to pack more supplies sometime and cycle to both! However, that would certainly turn into a multi-day cycling trip in order to get back all the way to Pocatello. This certainly underlines the fact that 100 miles on flat asphalt and 100 miles on a mountainous trail are two completely different things ;-) Photo gallery is here.
 What is an S24O? It is an acronym that stands for Sub 24-hour Overnight bicycle camping trip, coined by Rivendell Bicycle Works! I say that this was my first successful S24O because, last year, I attempted one with a couple of friends and we made some poor decisions. I’ll leave it at that for now. :-)
Anyway, my friend Travis Poppe and I decided to give it another shot this year and this time we were going to keep it simple, easy, and fun. We decided to camp at the Goodenough camp grounds near McCammon, Idaho and just bring along the bare minimums. Ok, actually, I went a little crazy and also packed 6 cans of beer as well. After all, the destination was only about 30 miles away.
 We set out after work on Friday, August 29 at around 6:30 pm. We met up at Travis’ apartment and we lifted each other’s bikes to compare packing weights; both bikes felt very heavy even though we really didn’t pack a ton of stuff. Cycling toward McCammon felt very easy to us, however; we thought it may be due to the fact that our momentum was enhanced by our mass. By the time we began cycling up Goodenough Road in McCammon, darkness had fallen and we were very glad for Travis’ hub dynamo and uber-bright headlight on his Surly Long Haul Trucker touring bicycle to light the way. Upon reaching the campsite, we used Travis’ little flashlight to set up the tent, drink our much-welcomed beer, and eat our dinner. As we ate we called a friend and chatted with them about our experience so far.
During the night we heard an owl constantly as well as the occasional yapping of some coyotes in the nearby hills. I slept very well, but Travis didn’t fare so well. Between his insomnia and the owl, he only got about 4 hours.
The next morning we walked around the area a bit and Travis shot a short movie with his camera. We took everything down, packed up, and cycled further up Goodenough Road to check out the other camping areas. Then we cycled into McCammon to get some much needed coffee! After that we were off back to Pocatello. Again and again we exclaimed about how much of a perfect success this S24O was. Especially compared to last years. But that is for another blog entry sometime… :-p
Here is the photo gallery of this expedition as well as a movie that Travis made at the camp site!
 Just about every Sunday morning, my friend Travis and I go on a long-ass bike ride. However, last Sunday the 27th of July, he wasn’t feeling well, so I went off by myself. And here is how it went.
After learning that Travis wasn’t going anywhere that morning, I thought that I would try the ride around American Falls Reservoir I’d been planning. Or at least I’d scope out the territory a little. So, I headed for Fort Hall to find Ferry Butte Road which is the southern most bridge across the Snake River on the north end of the reservoir. As you can see on the map, I kind of wandered around before finding it. But, hey, it’s fun to wander and just see what there is to see! There aren’t very many landmarks out there, except for the one hill that looks like a lump in the vast Snake River Plain: Ferry Butte. It was how I knew I was in the general correct area, but I was on the wrong side of the butte. Doh! There was a bit of straw on the side of the road that I ran my bicycle through merrily, and shortly thereafter I got my first goathead thorn deflation. Actually, thorns were stuck in both of my tires and so I had to repair both tubes. This wasn’t supposed to happen since my tires were supposedly made with Kevlar. Obviously the Kevlar wasn’t thick enough. After making repairs and chatting with a local farmer who came to my aid, I carried on. Note to self: stay out of the debris on the side of the road!
At the Ferry Butte crossing, there’s a parking lot and restroom where people park and can enjoy the scenery or go boating on the river. After taking a look around (and finding that my camera batteries were dead), I continued west and then turned left on Hilltop road towards Rockford.
Hilltop road seems to go on forever, but it is very smooth and I had a south wind pushing me to an easy 25 mph. The houses along this road look very pretty and picturesque and they got even prettier when I turned right onto Thomas road. Lovely landscaping and giant homes; it made me want to move to Blackfoot… almost ;-) After cycling over the bridge and going through a bit of Blackfoot, I was on Highway 91 going back to Pocatello. And then I felt the familiar wobble in my rear tire. Gah! Another flat. Sigh. This time I angrily pulled my patch-polka-dotted tube out, stuffed it into my trunk rack and replaced it with a brand new tube. I was growing tired of flats on this journey.
I cycled on toward Pocatello at a slow pace of 15 mph, pushing against the south wind. I got into the drops and spun at a low gear, then shifted into my highest gear, stood up and do a slow cadence to rest my weary quads and my sore hiney; lather, rinse, repeat. Soon I was in more familiar territory on the northern end of Hiline Road. I saw a hill ahead so I shifted up, stood up, and began climbing the small hill. My balance began getting wobbly and I thought to myself, “gah, I must be bonking or something” and then it dawned upon me that my front tire was going soft. Yes, another frickin’ goathead thorn. I swore to myself as I performed the repair that I didn’t care what it cost, I was going to buy the most expensive nuclear-bomb-proof tires on the market. I mean, really, I had taken great care to stay away from road-side debris for the last 40 freakin’ miles and I was still getting flats. As a matter of fact, the only place around Pocatello that I seem to get flat is in the Fort Hall Reservation area. Hmph.
By this time, I was hot and pissed. The temperature outside had risen to about 95 degrees and I just wanted to go home and drink a gallon or two of cold beer. Luckily I made it home without anymore flats. I drank a few refreshing beers, took a shower, and then drank some more. Ah, there’s nothing like soothing sore muscules with a hot shower of lots of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Mmm, life is good.
P.S. My trip meter on my bicycle computer said 68 miles at the end of the trip. Also, for reference, the wussy tires of which I speak in this article are Hutchinson Quartz Kevlar tires (700×23) that I bought from nashbar.com on sale for like $9.99 a peice. Yeah, for that price, no wonder they didn’t perform the best agains the evil thorns. In the past, I’ve purchased Specialized Armadillo tires from a local bike shop for about $35 a peice and I never got a single flat in those tires for thousands of miles of riding.
As I have stated in previous posts, I love my bicycle basket. It works great for shopping, taking a lunch to work in a cold-food bag, and other various package hauling. Recently I discovered that the basket fits a 24-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon perfectly! Here’s some photographs I took of it:
  
Cycling around with 20 pounds of beer on the front of your bike takes a little bit of finesse. Steering feels heavy and slower and I wouldn’t recommend whipping around any corners or performing any other tricks while hauling heavy objects. Also, as you can see in the photos, I have a bungee cord strapped firmly over the top of the beer since hitting bumps tends to toss things out of the basket. However, this is a very convenient means of hauling stuff around without having to fire up the family sedan. Save money, stay fit, and enjoy your beer!
 Just when I think I’ve conquered all the toughest road climbs in the area, I meet a longer, steeper road. But I guess that’s life in the Rocky Mountain Range, aye? That and I’m pretty new to cycling compared to many people I know :-) Inkom, Idaho is on the west side of the Portneuf Range which contains Bonneville Peak and the Pebble Creek Ski Area. Green Canyon Road is the road that goes up to the ski area and this is the road that I set out to climb two weekends ago. I didn’t quite understand what lay before me!
A friend of mine told me that the road turned to gravel at some point so I decided to take my trusty mountain bike. After cycling to Inkom, I refilled my water bottles at the local park (Glenn Park Field) and continued on to Green Canyon Road via US Highway 91 and Inkom Road. Upon entering Green Canyon Road, I felt that I knew this place and almost immediately I recognized it as the place my mother grew up. I remember her showing me the house and the pasture so many years before and I stopped to take some shots of the house. As I continued my cycling, I was shifting down, shifting back up and standing up, and doing every other technique I knew to keep pushing on at a decent rate. Either I was tired or this road is pretty friggin’ steep; later I found a sign that proved that the latter was true!
 The area is pretty scenic and green, thus the road name. I passed forrest and pastures and felt like I was in Hobbitville or something. After pausing to take some snapshots of some birdhouse art (see the gallery), it was confirmed that I was indeed in the land of Hobbits. A pretty cool work of art and congrats to whoever built it! After pausing for a rest and a granola bar, I came upon a sign that said “12% grade 2.2 miles” and that confirmed for me that this was one of the steepest roads I’d ever cycled on.
After getting to the part of this road that begins switchbacking up the mountains, I realized that I needed to get back home since I promised Emily I’d be back by 2:00 pm and the time was nearly 1:00. I knew this probably wouldn’t be a problem because I’d probably break the sound barrier on the downhill. And the downhill was absolutely exhilarating, hauling ass down the snaking road. Lots of fun. I recommend this ride to anyone who loves a good hillclimb!
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