Biking the Hoosier Uplands, Fall 2008

Sept 23, 2007

We got going about 9 am, hoping to get a long ride done and get home before dark. We rode down SR 446 to Cutright and stopped their on the other side of the causeway. Needless to say, the water was low and as usual, buzzards were circling overhead. About 40 feet from the water we found catfish bones laying on the stones. There are a couple of persimmon trees that the state mows around, and they were great, as were the flowers in the tall weeds surrounding the trees.

We then climbed the hill going south on 446, and I got a shot of the most northerly Lawrence county water towers. I like taking pictures of water towers, they are always at the highest point around, it is usually downhill in every direction! We took the right off 446 at Chapel Hill and went west, then south, down the great long hill to Bartlettsville. We headed south out of town on the Bedford Road, we passed Ramsey Ridge Rd, and then had to twice climb out of the Little Salt Valley, from 500 ft. amsl to over 770 ft. to the broad ridge between Leatherwood Creek to the south and the Little Salt to the north. We stopped there at the corner of Bedford and Clovis Hearth Roads, and took a picture of the intersecting valleys to the northeast.

We then headed east on the newly paved CR 500, It is a great ridgetop ride of about 4 miles, nearly no cars smooth and “flat”. We stopped for lunch in the woods, sitting in the pawpaw patch underneath the oak and beech trees. Once refreshed, we started back east. The road traverses well kept farmland, passed Turner Doll Factory, Gilgal Church, as well as the water tower and baseball diamond at the intersection with the road down to Heltonville (in the Leatherwood Vally). We got to 446 and started back north to Lake Monroe. We climbed the hill (over 200′ of elevation between Hunters Creek and Dutch Ridge Roads, not the hardest we climbed, but we already had over 35 miles on the road, and it was a test, so we took a short break in the pine forest. We then road the ridgetop and sped down the hill, over the causeway, up the hill and home.

Distance: 50+ miles at about 9 mph with 5 big climbs.
Weather: Warm to hot and sunny.

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