“Metric #1

Last Friday my wife and I woke up to the news that we were grandparents.  Two weeks early but that is ok.  We were so exited.  The plan was to leave @ noon to head out and see our first grandchild, but some loose ends at work for my wife put a  5 hour delay on the plans.   That was plenty of time  for an unplanned ride.

I will call this the Miscellaneous Metric of Scout County.  I ride this area  often.  It is the farthest West county in Cental Il before the IL river. A lot of the good gravel is in the flood plain but  there are times that some of the roads are flooded out.  When that happens I end up doing several out and back sections. Today however turned out really well.  The river was down so it was nothing but clear sailing.   How can you go wrong with gravel roads named Rattlesnake Hollow and Sugar Shack Road. There is even one named simply Gravel Road.  The best part about this day was that the day before I rode, the county  and did some work and laid a new layer of fine hard packed gravel on some of the roads.  Sweet!

Metric #2

A tour of Pike County.

Pike county is located between the Illinois and Mississippi River in  Central Il.  It is the home of any and all types of gravel you can imagine.   Rob and I frequent this area often and some day hope to invite all our gravel friends to join us in an event.   It’s only a 40 minute drive so it makes for a great day trip.  Park anywhere on the squat in Pittsfield and you are only a stone’s throw from a coffee shop, tavern or café. After 5 years of riding the area we still come up with new gravel.  This time the road found had 3 old bridges on it. 

The ride started out really well but then clouds turned to sprinkles, that turned to on and of rain and that turned to just rain. 

The temp started to fall and it all turned sour.  I froze my butt off.  I stopped at a gas station to use the hand dryer in the bathroom to warm my hands and then bought a dry pair of gloves.  The lady behind the counter even offered to give me a pair of those plastic glove that they use for food prep . 

 As the ride came to an end naturally the sun finally found its way out.  By that point everything was soaked through.   Despite the poor weather, it was a trip worth the taking.  Maybe next time I will hit the tavern but his time it was the coffee shop for a red-eye and a cappuccino chocolate chip muffin.”

-Pete L.