Biking the Hoosier Uplands, Fall 2008

Picture Album
Weather: Cool with both sun and clouds

Jojo and I headed out our normal route to the lake, which includes riding to Jackson Creek School on the city bike route and then up Rhorer to Harrell Road, and then down the no brakes hill on Stipp Rd., which leads right to the gravel boat ramp at Moore’s Creek Road. We often then ride up Swartz Ridge Road and head south to go down and back on Pine Grove Road, there is always great bird watching at the near the water, and a good place to take a break and then head back up the hill, and then back home along Knight’s Ridge Road (which runs parallel to SR 446.)

But we knew that Stipp Rd. was closed due to the high water (the lake is just a foot below flood stage, when it start pouring over the spillway and over Mission Valley Road. So we stayed on Rhorer Road rather than go south on Harrell, and we rode down Moore’s Pike instead, but slowly as it was quite sandy all the way down. We rode a little past Schwartz Ridge Road, but we were soon stopped by the flood waters, they totally covered the road. We couldn’t see it, but the bridge over the creek must be totally under water, as well as about half a mile of road.

We climbed Schwartz Ridge, and got bit warm doing so. When I first started riding I never thought I could ride all the way up this road, it is just so steep and straight, there is nothing to do but keep pedaling and pedaling. But once again, we made it all the way, no problem.

Since we did not get the extra miles by going down Harrell Rd., we decided to head farther down SR 446 to Rush Ridge Road, which heads east just before the highway rolls down to the causeway over Lake Monroe. Jojo and I came off the lake ice at the very tip of the pennisula last winter, and found a dirt road that then connected to the paved road connecting the various housing developments back on the main ridge. Jojo spotted a both a pileated woodpecker and bald eagle, which We rode where the road goes left and the dirt road begins. We saw a private property sign, but assumed it was for cars, this was IU property, or so we thought.

We rode on a ways, the road was not even graveled, like a logging road. We went nearly to the end, then pulled over to eat some lunch and watch to lake below. A couple of guys pulled up in a jeep and offered to sell us lots, and the whole place was for sale for $2.7 million. The realtor told us they expected to sell 5 acre lots, put I wondered how many house they could get on this narrow ridge. I asked about the problems they would have with septic permits, but they did not seem concerned, as anyone willing to build here would have plenty of money for what they called “creative” solutions, I guess they think they have enough land for some mound systems, but who knows. If there is anyone out there reading this with a few million to invest in saving this great piece of land, let me know!

Nature Journal: I found a patch of Spring Beauty on Rush Ridge, apparently it has small tasty tubers that are edible, but I did dig any out, they were somewhat scarce. Also along Rush Ridge Road we saw mature Bald Eagle sitting in a tree limb. We heard a couple of red-bellied woodpeckers, and saw a pileated woodpecker in perfect profile sitting on the side of a tree, his bright red cockade a contrast to his dark black and white feathers.

Here’s a link to my IU blog post for “Active for Life” April 2008, “Where the water meets the road”.
My IU blog posts are archived here: Mitch’s Blogs for IU

I got to Jojo’s house late on Sunday as I had been at the MHC planning retreat all morning through lunch. It was drizzling still after hard rain all morning. I put on my kneepads and nylon pants, and we got on our bikes, and it started raining hard. So we waited it out, and then started west on Allen St. to Weimer Rd. and the Clear Creek path. We were able to make it down to Church Rd., and then cut on Fairfax to Schact Rd. If you have to climb a ridge, this is the way to do it, there are number of easy climbs strung together, I usually have some juice at the top, and it is a beautiful quiet stretch of road.

We rode back north on Harrell Rd., then back east on Rhorer Rd. to Jackson Creek School and the city bike route back to the YMCA and home. We got lucky, there was only one short shower on the way back, and we ducked under a picnic shelter and waited. I forgot the camera, and so for the first time in recent memory I took no pictures, and we saw very little wildlife or wildflowers, but we really were happy to get a ride in between the showers.

I left work right at 5 pm Monday (usually it’s 6 or 6:30), and scooted on home to grab a snack and head out for Pine Grove Boat Ramp, I want start pushing up my weekly average, and this would get me to 75 miles for the week with my commuting.

It’s an easy 10 miles to the ramp, I use either the middle route (Covenanter east through through to 446 at Moore’s Pike, or on the Polly Grimshaw Trail to 3rd St. and 446). I always ride on the winding Knight’s Ridge Rd. which parallels the highway, which has a plenty of room to ride, but just feels less safe and is not as scenic. I just turn left on Pine Grove Rd, just past the log church. This road can be quite gritty, so I took it easy coming downhill using my brakes softly. The last steep part at the bottom is safe, so I got up to 36 mph heading into the flats, which had water on both sides another couple of inches and the road will be covered as it is on Stipp and Moore’s Creek Rds.

At the ramp, the water was so high there was no shoreline to walk along, and across the bay water was right up to the trees. Just a few months ago we walked most of the way east to the ridges, no water there but the channel.

The climb back up Pine Grove Rd. always gets me warmed up after standing around by the water, it comes in several stages with flat areas in between.

Nature notes: Cool gray evening, no large birds other than a buzzard, and a few woodpeckers in the woods. I am thinking of getting some bird recordings for my ipod, I want learn some new calls, you just can’t see everything.

On Sunday, I woke a bit late, the house does not get light till after 8 am. It took a while to get ready, it was in the 30’s and I wanted to be ready for anything, and this was fortunate, because I got everything from a snow squall and to a warming sun and billowy clouds.

Here us a full album of pictures I took that day.

Since it was Easter, the streets were quiet, and I simply rode straight out SR 46 to Friendship Rd. I knew the water had to be high, so I rode down the road, determined to make it to old steel bridge over Stephens Creek. I couldn’t tell how deep the water was over the road, but I’ve run through water several times on Moore’s Creek Rd, so I knew it was possible. However I forgot that my feet got wet last time, and it happened again, but I kept going and got to the bridge without falling.

As usual, I was wearing my sandals and two pair of socks. I am here to tell you, wool does keep you dry even when wet. The flood water was really cold, but after a few minutes of standing around on the bridge taking pictures, and were my feet were fine, I could feel them as cool but not cold. As soon as I got on the road again, I warmed up and did not change out of them for 2 more hours. By then the sun had disappeared, and I was on the ridge in a snow squall. So I pulled out my dry pair of socks, and then wrapped in foot in some plastic from a bag I had with me. This kept the wind off and even with just one pair of socks and 35 degree weather, I was fine.

I headed on up the highway and turned north on Brummett’s Creek to SR 45 at Unionville. Brummett’s Creek valley is a great 3 mile ride, a fertile agricultural valley surrounded by forest ridges, and the climb at the end is not so bad, steep at first, but it levels off before going up again at an easier grade. I rode to the highway, and then back towards town to pick up Tunnel Rd., which I rode to Shilo Rd., a quiet ridgetop ride that ends in the Bean Blossom Valley at Anderson Rd. It started snowing, and I pulled down my earflaps, with the big soft flakes clouding my glasses. I rode to Old 37, and then climbed up through Fox Hollow, I liked this road, it seemed very quiet. I crossed SR 37, riding it south for a few hundred yards to pick up Simpson Chapel Rd. to Bottom Rd, and then south to town and in along Kinser Pike and Cascades Park.

The weather had a little of everything, warm sun, fluffy clouds, overcast skies, cool winds, rain, snow, all in the range of 30-40 degrees. I saw no cranes this week, but spotted a red tail hawk along Brummett’s Creek. I usually see a murder of crows, but not today, and only a couple of buzzards were out. I did see a large bird in the Bean Blossom valley, it had a large wingspan, but not the long legs of a heron or crane. It was flying low over the grass in the field, sweeping back and forth, but headed for the woods when it saw me. It was a dark bird with white on the tail, but not at the tip like an eagle, but rather near the base.

I totaled over 40 miles, I had been waiting for a time I could spend the majority of the day on my bike and this was it. I tried to keep my blood sugar up, Sue recommended 150 calories/hour, and I’ve been liking the Clif Shot Bloks, they are tasty and good to suck on as you ride. They are mostly rice syrup, thus mainly glucose, which goes right to where its needed. I took some time and ate a full Clif bar and drank mint green tea at lunch, just to make sure I had the juice to make it back without bonking. Well, it worked, I came back strong. I didn’t need a nap, helped Eileen a bit coloring Easter eggs, and then we went out to Shanti with Tim for dinner. No problem! But I did feel a bit like a blackboard that had not only been erased, but wiped down well with water and a sponge.

This Sunday morning we headed out to see how it would be to ride to Jojo’s spring job on Shilo Rd. Before I even got the BBC, I ran into Sue at the gates with a bunch of other riders, ready to head out, and to my surprise, Jason and Angela were in the group, that was great.

Jojo and I headed into Cascades Park, across Walnut, up Hillview Rd., then north on Old 37 to Dolan. We decided to go up Robinson Rd. then onto Miller Rd, which ends on Shilo. Robinson was relatively easy to climb, it comes in 3 steep climbs, with nearly level stretches in between, giving time to rest before the next climb. There is a great view through the trees of the wide Bean Blossom valley, but only in winter when the leaves are gone. We were hoping that Miller would be exciting to go down, it is a real monster coming up, but it was covered with sand, really curvey and steep, so we took it easy coming down. The lowlands in the valley were filled with peepers, especially near the streams and swampy areas, and great blue heron flew right over our heads. We climbed up Shilo, it just keeps going up in spurts, kind of like Robinson Rd.

We stopped at the world headquarters of wirelessmoosefence.com (it really works!), where we ate a little and drank some water; we had pretty much hammered the whole way there, with 3 climbs and no stops. We then rode out to Tunnel Rd, and headed for Lake Lemon, riding along South Shore Rd. with the lake and hills all around.

Riding the Causeway Video

We decided to go straight back on SR 45, just to see what it is like, usually I cut off and ride Mt. Gilead, it adds a mile and a hill, but is much quieter. But soon after reaching the ridgetop, just past Lanam Ridge Rd., we started to hear and see cranes flying in from the south, literally hundreds of them in groups of 20-75, they would arrive in a vee formation, then start circling and making their characteristic calls, then more would arrive and melt in, it was quite something. Then just before we left, we heard hawks calling, and watched them rising on the updrafts coming out of the valley, it seemed to be a mating display, they were definitely not hunting.

We goofed around a little, I did an impression of a raccoon climbing a fallen tree, then we hit the road, passing the B & B water tower. We made good time and were back in about 45 minutes. The highway can be a bit stressful, but most drivers were courteous, maybe because there were so many bikes on the road, training for the Little 5 has begun in earnest.

Here is a video of the cranes as seen from the ridge on SR 45 in Brown County. Flock after flock were arriving in V formation, then breaking in the their peculiar circling motion once they hit the updrafts coming up the ridge south of Lake Lemon. Their calls were overwhelming, and could be heard for miles. They must have been reforming the ranks before heading out, as we had seen none done by the lake. We then heard a distinctive call rising above the crowd noise, and we were able to see 3 or 4 cranes in a little V heading away from the group to the northwest, and they were making a single loud, repeated call rather than the gobbling of the group, you can clearly hear the sound in the video below. As we watched the main body begin to follow the little V, we knew they were calling out “Hey everybody, I remember this, we have to go this way!” I guess they get so dizzy from flying in circles on the updrafts, that most of them get confused, and the few scouts have to lead the way.

Summary: 35 miles, 10 mph, 4 valley to ridge top climbs, mating hawks, no leaves, gazillions of cranes, and a lone blue heron. Mostly cloudy skies with blue showing through, west winds and 40 degrees and damp.

Jojo and I went astray on Sunday, his derailleur broke off with a portion of the frame as we were passing through Jackson Creek Park. I rode back and borrowed Eileen’s car to pick up Joe and his bike, which we dropped off at Bikesmith’s for repair. This only gave me ten miles for the day, so on Monday I took an after work ride to Pine Grove, a 20 mile out and back that we often like to ride, it is low stress, and the wildlife is always abundant back there.

The water was finally up, 544.3′ amsl, 6.3′ above “normal” pool level of 538′ amsl, according to the army’s daily reports. It’s amazing to see the lake again, for many months the creek channel held the only water, there are acres and acres of water only a foot or two deep. I watched for birds, but there was not much action, things need to warm up a bit. Last week I saw 3 flocks of cranes flying north. They were in a pretty good V at first, so I thought they might be geese, but they were very high up. Then the flock preformed the characteristic crane parley, where they break ranks and circle up, often making the gobbling sound that can be heard for miles. Then they reformed their big V and headed northwest, a sure sign of spring.

Photo Gallery

Jojo was out of town this weekend, so I decided to scout a new route (to me) on the backroads of Brown County. To get to Kent Road quickly, I road on SR 46 east from Bloomingfoods, there is a bit of paved shoulder most of the way there, allowing cars to pass safely. At the hill I waited for a car to pass, then flew down and was on Kent Road in just a few minutes. I averaged 15 mph over six miles, no doubt a record for me! I stopped and took a picture at the confluence of Brummett’s and Salt Creek, it was full, but nowhere near flooding from the recent melting of the snow and ice.

Kent Road is gravel from McGowen to T.C. Steele Rd., and as I had to travel more slowly, I was conscious of the wonderful views of the floodplain, the road runs just south of winding Salt Creek. I stopped for a minute on the T.C. Steele Rd. bridge, then headed west on hilly Schooner Valley Rd. It ends on SR 46, so I had to take a short jog back west to catch Yellowwood Road. I went up over the little hill and into the valley, and on to the old bridges over Salt Creek; here Dubois Ridge, Green Valley, and Yellowwood Roads intersect at the creek. I stopped for a few minutes and listened to the hawks calling me to climb Dubois Ridge, they can be heard at the beginning of the video below.

At the intersection of Green Valley, Yellowwood and Dubois Ridge Roads:

Dubois Ridge is gravel all the way from here to SR 46, about 4.5 miles of forest solitude. The first climb is about 100 ft, so it is not too bad to gain the ridge. But there are number of other climbs, the bottoms are at 561 feet AMSL, while the ridge at the north end of the ridge is over 900 fee, so you climb about 340 feet in height, on gravel. The dreaded Boltinghouse climb is less than 200 feet to put that in perspectiveve.
The roadbed is clay some loose pushed to the sides and middle by cars. This day the road had long stretches of sticky mud, and I left tracks behind especially when I was climbing, and I actually started to spin out on one climb (so I walked.)

Here I am complaining about the goopy mud as I ride through the empty forest.

I stopped at the Tecumseh Trail head, parked my bike, and walked down to the little pond along the ridgetop. As there were pine trees to the south and west, the pond does not get a lot of sun, and so was still frozen, even though it had been 40 degrees for several days. I then rode on to Lanam Ridge Road and headed west towards SR 45.

I hit the highway, and was going along fine when I felt a wobble just as some cows were calling out to me from the fence line ‘Moo-ve overer, Moo-ve over”. I pulled over and found my back tire going flat. I located my trusty pump and went to work, got it pumped up and headed out. I had to stop in another 5 minutes and pump again, then again. I stopped at the Unionville fire station and called Eileen to come and get me at it was sunset and though I had pedaled only 25 miles by the odometer, it felt like a lot more from riding the gravel roads. She showed up quick like a bunny, and I was home before dark.

We didn’t have much time today as it was really cold and rainy till well after mid-day. We stopped at the Bike Garage to adjust Jojo’s handlebars, and then headed up Lincoln towards Cascades. As soon as we hit the hill, I noticed my backrest acting funny, and so I stopped and found both sides loose. The screws must have worked their way loose during our rough winter rides, then finally dropped out. We rode back to the Bike Garage, got some help with new screws (thanks, Bill!), and got back on the road.

We rode our normal route north through Cascades and then up the hill (it is a good hill, just enough to warm you up without wearing you out). and rode Kinser Pike out across SR 37 to Bottom Rd. We rode out Bottom for a while, but time was short and we came back with just 20 miles, but that included 3 good climbs.

Cascades Creek was flowing freely, we rode along the wall away from the road for a while. Bean Blossom Creek was deeper than we have seen since last January, and had an interesting mud green color. We notice a copse of trees in the middle of a large field, and we wondered why the farmer had left them. I walked over and peaked in, there was a stream in the middle, but it only ran the length of the trees. Next time out when it is not so muddy, I will explore further to find the spring or seep that must be there.

Nature Journal: It was cool (mid-30’s) and damp, but nothing was flooded, though most of the week’s ice had melted. We saw lots of crows, a hawk on a wire, and not much else, unlike us, most creatures were hiding out somewhere waiting for better weather.

We took our short route to the lake today, both Jojo and I had early dates this day and so we had to get back early. It takes 20-30 minutes to get out of town on our low stress route, following the bike route to Jackson Creek Park and School. The path was covered with mud near the bridge after you cross the creek. I rode through and my tires became covered with mud clods that then jumped off and hit me in the helmet. We then rode up Rohrer Rd. (wouldn’t it be great to have a climbing lane for bikes here?), and to Harrell Rd and south over the hills to Stipp and Handy Rds. We rode very slowly down Stipp Rd. as it was covered with sand and quite hazardous.

When stopping at the lake, and at the bridge over Moore’s Creek, we noted the water was now way up, higher than anytime since last January, when the road was flooded. Moore’s Creek was at least 5-6 feet deep at the bridge, and clear and clean. If it had been a bit warmer, we could have had fun diving from the bridge.

On the way back we climbed Schwartz Ridge Road, and near the top, I spotted something moving in the wood down in the ravine (I call it that as the hillsides are so steep. We stopped to look and then saw it was a large flock of wild turkeys, about 2 dozen of them, winding their way up from the valley floor along the wooded ridges. We could hear their feet shuffling through the leaves and an occasional gobble as they quickly disappeared into the woods, their feathered camouflage blending subtlety into the forest’s brown to black color palette.