Lots of Gravel Roads

I did 29 miles on Monday, heading out to explore the Rohrsburg area as I did last time. I've only got one class on Monday, and it ends at 9 AM, so I was able to get going around 2:40 PM. I headed to Lightstreet, and then to Back Branch Roar, and then to Whites Church Road. Along the way, I noticed some fallen leaves, as well as some yellow creeping into the remaining leaves. But for the most part, the terrain is still green, except for the fields. There was a bit of light rain for the first few miles, but it gradually petered off.

 Tree on Papermill Road

 Tiny cliff on Whites Church Road

Pile of fallen leaves

From the top of Whites Church Road, I sped down to the bottom of the hill and then continued heading north on Lick Run Road. As usual, I turned onto Crouse Hollow Road, passing more of the pretty purple flowers I saw last time. Crouse Hollow Road appears on the elevation graphs to climb a lot, but when I'm there, it seems to be more of a gradual climb. The going was still very slow, though.

Upon consulting a field guide, I found that these purple flowers I see everywhere are possibly wavy-leaved asters.

Crouse Hollow Road

After a short climb on Fester Road, I turned onto Hacks Road, a narrow, quiet country road that headed through cornfields. I had never been there before. I passed some kind of harvesting operation before being spit out onto Bowmans Mill Road.

Hacks Road

A short climb on Bowmans Mill Road took me to McHenry Hill Road, where I passed by a cemetery and a sad-looking Christmas tree farm before coming to the top of a long, steep hill. There was a spectacular view, which I made a panorama of. Now that I have Autostitch, I love making those things. They're so easy.

 Knob Mountain

After a bit, I turned onto the gravel Oman Road, where the descent continued through the woods. At the bottom of the hill, it came out into open fields and I had to climb a little to Kline Road. Here, I turned right and continued ascending past some residential areas. I saw spectacular views of Knob Mountain, and made another panorama.

 Four-shot panorama from Kline Road (view larger).

I then turned onto Trump Road and enjoyed a wild, bumpy ride downhill, barely staying in control the whole way. It was fun to go down that monstrosity instead of up it for once. While going down, I imagined that it was as technical as one could get and still have a road--but I later proved myself wrong.  Soon after reaching the bottom of Trump Road, I arrived at Rohrsburg Road and headed north for several tenths of a mile before turning onto Belles Road, unexplored territory.

 Cliffs, with the usual horde of plantlife clinging on

I thought Belles Road would be sweet and innocent!

Belles Road, strangely enough, rose hundreds of feet on gravel through the deep woods. Once the cars on Rohrsburg Road were out of earshot, there was no sign of human civilization except for the road and the posted signs that were plastered on every tree. After a while, the road became paved and the woods thinned out a lot. I then turned onto Deer Run Road and continued rising, eventually reaching open fields and the ride's high point.

 The road suddenly turned to pavement at the Fishing Creek Township line. Almost as if Fishing Creek Township decided to pave the road, but Orange Township said "No way! We have better things to do than pave roads that get maybe two cars a day."

Lazing around at the top of the hill

Deer Run Road turned to gravel again, but this time it was more like rocks than regular gravel. Slow going. Presently the road entered the woods and became normal gravel, before leaving the woods and turning paved, but becoming very narrow. Roads are strange. After a gentle little descent, I reached Schultz Road.

 Looking back on Deer Run Road. That white gravel was tricky.

 Deer Run Road again

It's funny how all three of these pics are the same road, and that they were all taken within a mile of each other.

Schulz Road was gravel (again) and quickly headed bumpily down through the woods. I wanted to take some pictures, but was having too much fun to stop. Eventually, I did stop to take one picture near the bottom. But I quickly built up speed again. I did the 15th mile (all descent) in 2:59. Pretty respectable for crazily twisting gravel roads.

Approaching Rohrsburg

At the end, I took a little gravel side road to Utt Road, crossed Green Creek, and headed past some farms. Along the way, I noticed that my right pedal had a big crack in it (!) but it held up. I headed over to Turkey Path Road. Whereas I've always gone up Trump Road, I almost always go down Turkey Path Road; this time I would be going up for a change. The ascent was difficult, slow going, but I did survive. There were a few close calls, though. So to speak. Once, a dog charged out of its yard and chased after me for a bit, barking, before growing bored. Another time, while stopping near an overlook showing Greenwood Valley, I heard about half a dozen gunshots before scramming.

 Vandalized street sign

 Rising on Turkey Path Road

Moar climbing

Turkey Path Road spit me out on Bowmans Mill Road and I headed south. Along the way, I passed Montaque Hollow Road, a no outlet road that upon further inspection proved to go nowhere interesting. I continued on to Welliversville Road.

Montaque Hollow Road

Welliversville Road was scenic in a quiet way, but a bit boring. No spectacular uphills or downhills. But along the way, I did suddenly spot a very rough-looking gravel road. Naturally, it called to me. I explored the road, which was Huckleberry Hill Road (there was definitely a hill, but no Huckleberries). It was probably even more technical and hilly than Trump Road, as it rose about 200 feet in just over 0.4 miles. Really, it was more of a one-lane dirt track. I took lots of pictures on the way up.

 

Huckleberry Hill Road. It had a sign saying "Travel at your own risk" with no explanation. I guess none is needed... 

 Looking back

 Crawling slowly upwards

 Another view
 
Hideously steep

 

 Summit

Looking south and west from the summit (view large)

Huckleberry Hill Road then descended for a short while to Fester Road, which descended to Lick Run Road. I headed straight onto Schatz Road, which was possibly the most technical road of all, in the beginning at least. There were a lot of leaves and big rocks strewn all over the road in the beginning. And there were deep, massive ruts that gave my bike a good shaking every time I went over them. After a while, it mellowed to a dirt road, and then to a gravel road, but then it began to ascend. Presently I came out of the woods to a pretty view of a power line passage.

 Fascinating beginning to Schatz Road

 Ascending

 Power lines heading off into the distance. Some say power lines are ugly. That is subjective.

One-lane gravel road

In addition to fields and power lines, I even saw a couple of buildings. Strange that people live here. I wonder how they get down without an ATV.... After the buildings, I made a short descent to Mount Pleasant Road. Looking back, it does seem easy to miss from that side.

  

Schatz Road again. Funny that it has a road closed sign on this end, but not the other end.

The last eight miles weren't that remarkable. All of the new exploration and most of the gravel was behind me. I headed east for a mile or so on Mount Pleasant Road before reaching Whites Church Road. From there, the last seven miles were pretty much what they always are. Not much to report about that. My time was 2:26:40 and my pace was 5:03/mile. All that gravel slows a person down.

 It was also very hilly, with 2740 feet of climbing (5488 feet of elevation change) and one 500-foot climb in the middle.

Route map

I'm hoping to do one more really long ride before it gets cold, but time is running out according to the weather forecast.

First Autumn Ride

I did 32.3 miles on Wednesday, the first day of autumn. For whatever reason, I didn't have any school on that day, so I headed off for a bike ride. I got started an hour later than I had wanted to: around 3:30. No matter. I rode to Lightstreet following my usual route, and then headed to Back Branch Road, and then up Whites Church Road. I rode fast for a while, faster than I have ridden in a long while. I averaged around 15 miles per hour for the first seven miles.

 Sycamore

Autumn

I began to slow by the time I was heading up Crap Hollow via Crouse Hollow Road. Of course, that was to be expected since it was a long gravel climb. After about a mile and a half on gravel, I came to pavement on Fester Road, which continued ascending to Bowmans Mill Road.

 Lick Run Road

 Pretty flowers

 Crouse Hollow Road

Cornfields

 Road through the corn

I rode for a mile on Bowmans Mill Road, through fields lit by a golden, early autumn light. Then I turned onto Turkey Path Road, which was, as usual, a wild ride down into the Greenwood Valley. After navigating the sharp turn at the bottom, I crossed Mud Run via the Kramer Covered Bridge--where I almost fell.

 Fields on Bowmans Mill Road

 The aptly named Mud Run

Looking back on the Kramer Covered Bridge

After that, I headed north on Thomas Road, past the Van Houten Farm and across Little Creek Creek to Austin Trail. The ride up Austin Trail was pretty unremarkable. I was there for 2.5 miles and it climbed very slightly most of the way, getting steeper as it went. At one point, I passed by a pond and noticed a heron flying away. There was another heron sitting by the pond, but it turned out to be fake. Still, I've been seeing a few real herons floating around.

 Turkey Path Road, with the Kramer Covered Bridge in the background

 Fall is now here

 Some kind of seedy plant, possibly milkweed

 Looking

A turtle on the side of the road. Not moving, but definitely not fake.

I then turned onto Milroy Road, which I had noticed on my ride to Benton last week. which quickly turned to gravel and headed into the woods. It soon took me to Morris Road, an even more rugged road, where I began what had to be the most hideous climb I've done since Nescopeck Mountain. Morris Road was all loose gravel and the trees were so thick overhead that it was almost dusky. A few times it was so steep that I was actually stopped in my tracks for a few moments. The loose gravel also kept making my tires slip, making it take even longer. After traveling half a mile in more than seven minutes, I came out of the woods and reached the summit. I happened to notice a spectacular view behind me and took some shots of it. At home, I made it into a stunning three-shot panorama.

 "No winter maintenance. Travel at your own risk."

 Heading up in dense woods. I wonder if there are bears here?

 More climbing

Finally, close to the top

 Panorama (view larger file here [the full file size is even larger])

After that hill, which went up 368 feet in half a mile (368 feet in one mile is steep), I was too beat to do much of anything. Fortunately, there was a long, spectacular gravel downhill. I passed by some more spectacular views before heading into the woods and coming out at another road, which went past open fields for a while.

 Spectacular view to the south

 Heading downhill

 Pond in late afternoon light

Typical northeast Pennsylvania

I followed some more unpaved roads through fields and woods, and over rolling hills, for a while before crossing Little Green Creek at returning to Austin Trail. From there, it was not far to Rohrsburg.

 More scenery

 Owl Road, if I remember right. Lots of bird-named roads in the area.

 Greenwood Valley

 Interesting bridge surface

Little Green Creek

By the time I got to Rohrsburg, it was getting late and I was pretty tired, so I decided to cut my ride from 35 to 32 miles and head back directly along Rohrsburg Road. The shoulders are narrow, but it's not that busy and the drivers tend to be pretty nice. I was on Rohrsburg Road for about 2.5 miles; most of that was flat or very gently rolling.

 Rohrsburg Road

Moonrise at the majestic Knob Mountain

I then turned onto Green Creek Road for a couple of miles. Nothing much to report; the terrain was much the same as Rohrsburg Road. The sun was beginning to get low in the sky, though, and I got a couple of nice pictures of Green Creek.

 The very greenish Green Creek

 Green Creek Road and the setting sun

Mouth of Green Creek

At the end of Green Creek Road, I turned onto Mount Pleasant Road and then headed Whites Church Road. Such a minuscule climb after the brutal ones earlier in the ride. I tried to get a picture of the algae pond on the hill, but it didn't turn out well. On the other hand, I did get a spectacular picture of the sunset from the top.

 Pylon, cornfield, trees, and the moon.

 Late afternoon light

Pretty sunset picture

I then glided down the other side of Whites Church Road for nearly two miles before turning onto Back Branch Road, and then riding through Lightstreet. A couple of miles on Papermill Road--some of it forested and on gravel--took me to Dennys Hill.

 The unnamed stream I call South Whites Church Road Run because it runs along the southern part of Whites Church Road.

 Scenery off Papermill Road

 Papermill Road itself, in the lowering light.

Dennys Hill

Soon after I got to the top of Dennys Hill, I was home. I got dark about half an hour after that. Sadly, the days are really getting short now; they're shorter than the nights. My time was 2:32:40 and my pace was 4:44/mile.

 4770 feet of elevation change

Route map. (source)(license)