Segue -Gravel Roads

Segue - Gravel roads.

I have traveled a quite a bit of gravel again, and while I have not yet experienced the full psychological range of gravel this trip, I am reminded that one can try to negotiate with gravel, but gravel remains at best neutral, to damn passive aggressive at times. One way to think about this is as one long optimization problem, broken down into 50, 100, or 200 foot subsegments for which to find the local minima for rolling resistence and ease of pedaling. Looking for lines of lesser gravel, with smooth underlying road surface poking through the gravels rough exterior. Sometimes a futile search, and resignation of cranking continues. A joy to find a long smoothish run, which peters out all too soon. Rinse; Repeat. This can go on for miles.

Riding to Holland Lake. At 90 degrees added another vector to the optimization. The added variable is SHADE! It is notably cooler picking a line in the shade. I am riding edges more, to prolong the hide and seek with ol' Sol. When toiling up hill, with no shade, the number of optimzation segments seems to sttetch away and approach infinity. But the climb always ends. (And then weeee all the way down)

Gravel Corollary - Flotsam and Jetsam
When one is cranking along the road,  especially up hill or fatigued, you end up looking around and down regularly.  One sees all sorts of detritus from our fellow humans marking the way.  Most is trash, some inadvertent contributions, with occasional treasures along the way. A later post to cover some finds.