Yesterday was one of the first warm days this year and I had nothing to do in the afternoon, so I went on a short 17.1-mile ride to get back into biking. It was a sunny day in the high 60s. I started out on the same course that most of my bike rides start on, getting onto Papermill Road shortly after leaving the neighborhood. Upon getting to Paperill, I rode down Dennys Hill, so-named for the Dennys resturant at the top. Dennys Hill is a quarter-mile-long hill that descends over a hundred
feet. It's the hill against which I judge all other brutal hills. I'm not sure why; it's not even the most brutal hill I've ridden up (that honor would probably go to Kramer Hill, the nasty-looking spike around mile 15 here). Usually, Dennys Hill is a poorly-paved, bumpy ride, but it must've been repaved over the winter, because it was completely smooth all the way down. I didn't use the brakes once until the bottom of the hill. After the hill, Papermill Road turned and followed Interstate 80 before going under the highway and becoming unpaved. After that, the road went through the fields and woods and eventually dumped me out in Lightstreet. I rode up Lightstreet's main street and then briefly turned onto Back Branch Road before turning onto a trail that was part of Kocher Park and paralleled Fishing Creek. I was glad to have a rugged off-road bike; the trail was narrow, rocky, and bumpy. I probably would've fallen over within five seconds had I been riding one of those racing bikes with quarter-inch tires. I saw some people kayaking down Fishing Creek and at one point stopped by the creek briefly. I continued forward and passed through Kocher Park before traveling a bit on Pennsylvania Route 487 and then turning onto Lee Road, completely unexplored territory.
Lee Road was semi-paved and rose very quickly; within a couple of minutes I was a good hundred feet above Route 487. It would've made for a great view had the road not been surrounded by trees. Eventually it flattened out and I was worried that it would dead-end into someone's driveway, as Google Maps seemed to imply. Luckily it didn't, and after a brief downhill, I arrived at Stoney Brook Road. Soon afterwards, I crossed a stream (Stony Brook, obviously) and began a long and arduous climb out of the Stony Brook valley. Eventually, I got out of the woods and encountered some very spectacular views to the west. Then there was a lengthy downhill to Route 487, which in turn took my to Orangeville. I went around the outskirts of Orangeville and went west on State Route 4020, passing over a little hill and crossing Fishing Creek. Not long afterwards, I came upon Deihls Road, which I had planned to explore last year, but never got around to it. Deihls Road proved to be an extremely hilly road that paralleled a little stream through the woods and up to some kind of campground. It was easily the hardest hill of the whole ride, climbing well over 300 feet in about three quarters of a mile.
The views were well worth it, though, for I could see for miles in almost every direction. To the east, I could see the majestically long, unbroken ridge of Knob Mountain running for miles. To the southeast, I could see the woods and fields and rolling hills that I had passed through on my way to Orangeville. To the south, I could see a narrow, almost gorge-like part of the Fishing Creek valley. To the southeast, I could see the scenery of Mount Pleasant Township for miles. I flew back down the hill at a tremendous pace and then continued west on the fairly flat State Route 4020 at a more modest speed. Eventually, that road intersected with Whites Church Road and I crossed Deerlick Run before climbing another hill. It wasn't nearly as steep as the Deihls Road climb or even the Stoney Brook Road climb, but it was long. I passed a farm with a few black cows, but mostly this stretch passed through woods and fields. At the intersection of Whites Church Road and Oman Road, I decided at random to take Oman Road, which was slightly longer and hillier, but more scenic. After a small climb with some more views of Knob Mountain, the road made a short and steep descent before making another small rise and then a long and steep descent. I spent much of the 13th mile on that descent and it was by far my fastest on that ride: 3:05.
From the bottom of Oman Road, the remaining four miles were a fairly ho-hum ride along Back Branch Road, into Lightstreet, along Papermill Road, up the infamous Dennys Hill (it's always so much harder on the way back than the way out, I wonder why</s>), into the neighborhood and up a much smaller hill on Shawnee Road. Total time was 1:23:00; average pace was 4:51/mile. About 20 or 30 seconds per mile slower than my usual for that distance, but I had ridden about two miles in the previous six months, so perhaps it was to be expected.
I took a lot of nice pictures with my ancient flip phone, but for some reason it's impossible to download them onto my compute. So here are some maps instead:
(elevation profile)
(Google Maps)
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