Biking the Hoosier Uplands, Fall 2008

June 3, 2007

Jojo has been working demolition on his own house, an old one to be sure, and he had insulation and black soot in his soul, so we decided a lake ride. (After all we were surfing just the week before.) Jojo hooked up the trailer and brought his waterproof duffle and 2 floating pads to play with, as well as towels, food, sunblock the whole thing. I had both of my wateproof saddlebags, packed similarly. We wanted to test our ability to travel while fully loaded. As it turned out swimming and sun took more out of me than traveling with weight! But it seems quite possible to pull a load at least 50 miles a day, I am sure we could do more, I have done more, but I was not my best the day after. Right now I think I could do 50 miles/day for a few days, perhaps I would get better as I went, but then again we could bonk. We are hoping to make some 2 day trips with equipment to see how it goes, I think a ride to Spring Mill is about 40 miles, and very scenic. I would love to go the longer way back to the west and stop at the rise of the Lost River in Orangeville.

This Sunday, there were heavy clouds in all directions, we started about 10 am. It felt damp and cool, I remember wearing my light shell. We had a quiet ride to the water treatment plant, and then road downhill and past the big parking lot. We looked at the beach by the yacht club, but then move on to a path in the woods. My recumbent had the advantage in the woods, most of the branches went over my head, while Jojo’s face was perfectly aligned to meet them. As we rode the first hundred yards, a doe leaped across the path right in front of us, and disappeared in the trees, even though they were only 30 feet thick before dropping away to the lake. You just can’t see them once they stop.

We found a path down to the lake and took our gear to the stoney beach. We waited a few minutes, hoping that the sun would emerge, it was warming up a bit, but the cloud cover was still heavy, big moving boomers in every direction.

We started into the water with Jojo’s floatation pads, I jumped in though it seemed cool with no sun, but after paddling about a bit, the water felt fine. We floated around for a while, relaxing in the cool clear water. There was a log mostly submerged that stuck out into the lake. I checked around it for underwater hazard, but it was clear and about 6 feet deep. The underwater portion was covered with green gunk, but we tried and succeeded in walking out to the end and diving into the water, big fun!

Yep, hard to believe but while we were in the water, the clouds parted and the sun shone through. We swam out from shore a ways and I tried to touch bottom, but could not. I freaked, I admit when I was down 12 or 15 feet, and I could not see the bottom, only green water. WHAT’S DOWN THERE? screamed by old brain, I came back up, twice. It is much easier to dive when you can see!

We ate lunch, and watched a pretty little water snake swim along shore line and disappear the other side of our dive log. We swam some more, but finally had to come in due to the number of boats cruising near us. We packed up and headed back home. The ride was easy other than the climb from the lake, and we took our time, swimming and sun can put the burn to you.

Route & Distance: Bike route to Jackson Creek, Rorher to Harrell, and over to Handy Rd to the end, and then down the hill to the boat ramp. Totals miles:30
Weather:75-85, Clouds, some rain, blue sky and sun, a typical Indiana day.
Sightings: Water snake, deer on the path, buzzards, peacock screams, the smell of wet pine on a warm wind, one squashed turtle.

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