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.