Training Log Archive: cedarcreek

First long ride on my new mountain bike, with my cousin Brian, at Scioto Trail State Park and Forest near Chillicothe, Ohio. 34km, which is about 21.1 miles. Climb is about 500m (?), or 1640 feet. Tour Divide is about 42 vertical miles in 2745 miles, which is 1.53% average. This ride today was 0.31 miles vertical in 21.1, or 1.47% average, so it's respectable. The 21 miles is less than I hoped for, but you gotta start somewhere.

There is some singletrack at Scioto Trail, but it had rained last night, so we stayed purely on the gravel and pavement. This is a ride you can do in wet conditions if you're looking for a place to ride. It's not singletrack, but it's a lot of fun. And some people really like the gravel rides (e.g., Ohio Gravel Grinders)

Started at the NE tip of Caldwell Lake, then up Lake Rd (Forest Rd 3) to North Ridge Rd (2), to the N and E back to Stoney Creek Rd (1), east to Three Locks Rd (paved) to South Ridge Rd (6).

Along this road we came upon a car that had slid off the road into a tree. The driver had walked six miles in flip-flops and gotten help, a minivan. But it was too far gone with that meager front-wheel-drive pulling capacity. I didn't drop the "E" word (engineer), but I did what I could, which wasn't much. I did point out that they should work on pulling the rear up while leaving the front against the tree for safety, and that once they got the rear turned, that it was important to have the vehicle well anchored, because it could release from the tree, and then just continue on down the hill (which was very big and quite steep). In my opinion, it was a wrecker job, but they didn't want to drop the cash, so they went home to call friends with four-wheel-drives.

After going all the way west on Rd 6, we did a few minutes NE on Wilson Run Rd (4) to Cutoff Rd (7) to Hatfield Rd (5). All the way east on that to Airport Rd (a WWII emergency landing airfield, now unused), and west on Stoney Creek Rd (1) to Lake Rd and the car.

I was well-hydrated, but this ride really did me in. At about halfway, we stopped on a long climb for a food bar. That really helped, but about 3/4 of the way done, I was having trouble pedalling continuously and couldn't pedal the steepest sections. Luckily, my orienteering involves a lot of walking uphill, so that was a real relief to my muscles, except at the very end when my quads started to cramp, too.

This is a great ride. It's mostly hard gravel with a few miles of pavement. It's not terribly rough, the gravel on the climbs is firm and doesn't cause problems, and the descents are fast enough to be scary. The ridge top roads are very much rolling hills. It's not like the plateaus around Cincinnati----the erosion has formed knife-edge ridges with many saddles, so it's mostly never flat on the ridges. You can predict which direction on the road is predominately uphill and which is downhill. It's much more fun to do the downhill direction. The vertical relief is about 100m (about 330 ft), but you rarely see all 100m at once (with at least one exception, which I didn't attempt. It was a road I wasn't certain about. I was on it in 2003, but only for a bit at the flat-ish top part. It turned out to be a through road! We drove it in the car to scout it out. It seems to be identical to the other park gravel roads, except it has no road number. Weird.

Most of the ride was in mixed sun and shade. It was shocking to ride out into the full sun. It was so hot in the sun. On most of the gravel roads, it was very comfortable.

My map was quite good, although it's very difficult to tell if a road is up or down except for large climbs/descents. I've got some ideas for that.

On the way out, after a quick scouting drive, we drove right by the "Deadman's Crossing" without knowing it.

C • Remind me... 3

Event: OCIN Camp Friedlander
 

Event: Tiomila 2016
 

Event: MISSION 18hr AR
 

Event: OCIN World O Day event
 

World Orienteering Day at Bicentennial Park in Green Township, near Cincinnati, Ohio. Courses by Mike Minium This was Course 3. Advertised as an advanced 2.0km course, it was one of the best examples ever of a 2.0km Red course (a label I normally find objectionable). I boomed on 4, coming up the hill at a lazy angle, and thinking I was still short. I've set at McFarlan a lot, even misplaced controls there, so I'm familiar and extra careful. Really nice course. No criticism of Mike here because it's the only way this event was going to happen, but this is a textbook example of why it's bad to design courses sitting in an airport. (That is, with limited checking of the control locations beforehand.) The points look so reasonable on paper, but the fresh green honeysuckle made it tough. It was awesome and fun! So unexpectedly fun on a random work night. And everyone missed it!

Edit: I just saw the track to 4! So close! Ugh! I was almost immediately suspicious but I decided to keep going until I was sure where I was, which I did when the trail started to descend.

Also, there was a tripod holding a 5-gallon device about halfway between 3 and 4. Looked like a food dispenser for deer. Should we report it?

C • deer feeding 2

Picking up four of the trickier controls. I did two the same way, and two backwards. Should have done them all backwards. Lost opportunity.

Processed lidar for Butler University in Indianapolis, based on a post in O_Joy's log. Fingers crossed! I need to figure out a process to get good aerials in Indiana. The only tool I know of really sucks. You download small pieces and you're not sure if you have them all.

C • sucky aerial process 5

OCIN_World_O_Day_May_2016_Course 3 - Splits

Moving a van load of furniture and other items at my sister's apartment. Up at 6am, with a hard deadline of being back in Cincinnati by noon. I might have pulled a muscle in my left shoulder. I'll give it a few days. Actual moving time was about 2 hours.

I had planned a long (3 hour?) MTB ride at Scioto Trail SP, near Chillicothe, Ohio, but just couldn't work it in.

I did use Strava HeatMap, the iD editor with Slide plugin, and OCAD OSM import, plus some quick lidar 10m contours, to make a 10 x 10 km (approx) map of the Scioto Trail State Forest area at 1:50,000 with a few of the road displayed using MTBO road and trail symbols. (I'm guessing at 90% of them---I've only been on a few there.) It's pretty nice.

I bought an Autopilot MTBO mapholder from OUSA for $80. The mapboard is 28 x 28 cm, which blocks the view of my front tire and hits me at the belt when I start off.

So I spent several hours on Saturday making a smaller board that will fit on the same handlebar fixture. It looks surprisingly good, although I need to make another clear vinyl cover---I made this one a tiny bit too big. I made it work, but it takes a long time to cinch it tight after inserting the map.

Inaugural ride with a new (for me) MTB! 2014 Cannondale F29. Ride at Terrell Park MTB trails cut short by rain.

So much fun, and what a beautiful little park. Probably worth mapping as a foot-O wooded sprint map. Might be usable as a very short MTBO map, but I suspect cross-flow of competitors would ruin it, so it would have to be a very small field. Perhaps for training?