Combo ride

We did what I would call a "combo" ride today, a ride that included both paved and dirt roads. Mike prefers to call these "DERRs," (dirt-extended road rides).
Along the way we crossed over Mosquito Brook.

 We stopped at the Sawmill Saloon for pizza.

 We crossed the Namekagon River several times along the ride.

Many trees are beginning to leaf out in that special, delicate shade of green that is unique to spring.

By the end of the ride it was just beginning to sprinkle, but we didn't get wet.
Another perfect ride...

Riding fire roads

In the last couple of weeks we've begun exploring some of the many dirt/gravel fire roads in the area on our touring bikes with 35mm tires. These are mostly hard-packed dirt roads with fairly fine pebbles/gravel so the 35mm tires can handle the terrain without problem (with the exception of deep sand) and the touring bikes with drop bars are more comfortable to ride on this terrain than our mountain bikes.

Some of the fire roads are narrower and more intimate than others; those are the ones we're seeking out and prefer. This opens entirely new areas for us to explore and is a great addition to riding the quiet country roads and mountain biking on the single track trails. It will also allow us to ride routes/loops that we couldn't previously connect/make work when we were riding our narrower 700C tires.

Once the trees leaf out, some of these roads will be like riding through a "tunnel of trees."

Primo Road Ride!

Today's ride was on some of the sweetest roads we've ridden to date. Thirty seven miles on a loop out of Cable that included Lake Owen Dr., Pioneer Rd. and Garmisch Rd.

On the entire ride we encountered only about a dozen cars, an equal number of cyclists, two motorcycles, a bald eagle, an osprey (nesting on a telephone pole) and numerous choruses of frogs in the ponds we passed by; temperature about 70F. Pizza and beer at Rivers Eatery after the ride. What could be better? Perfetto!

Rivers Eatery philosophy. I like it!

"Cool food. Cool space. Cool people." Indeed!