Northeast reconnaissance

I've threatened for months that I plan to circumnavigate Wake County. For years the southern and western routes have been clear. Today I rode most of the northern portion. Though I have no map to offer at the moment, I can say that I followed the northeast border of Umstead State Park along the remarkably crappy Ebenezer Church Road for a crucial portion of the route. Even in its remarkable crappiness — mostly because it desperately needs resurfacing — I could manage the other traffic. Shoulders on the other roads were at least good with decent sight lines too. I made it to Six Forks Road, which was my plan unless I decided to go farther. A few miles to the south, Six Forks is an Amazon of traffic flow. Where I need to catch it to go north before going east toward Wake Forest, it is a tranquil country stream. The rest of the route from Wake Forest seems obvious: south on N.C. 96 to N.C. 42 into the dark heart of Johnston County, west on 42 out toward Moncure and routes northward into the extremes of Chatham and Wake counties before heading east toward home. With today's link under my belt, the circumnavigation could be next weekend. Or maybe later. Stay tuned.

Ah spring

"Hey asshole — get a car!"

Now that the weather's nice, more windows are rolled down. The witticism came as I pedaled past a passenger in a vehicle turning left from Tody Goodwin Road onto Beaver Creek Road to go even more deeply into the comparative nothingness of southeastern Chatham County. Except to emphasize that the bon mots emanated from the passenger, who may have been letting someone else drive, draw your own conclusions.

Greetings aside what a day to ride, even in Chatham County. I got in about 70 miles. The distance kept me on track for two goals: at least one 100k ride per month and a monthly tally of 416.7 miles, to put me on pace for 5,000 miles for the year. Though I made it for March, I'm still 205 miles behind for the year. Rationalization: summer months are better for piling up miles than winter months.

I expect my fan reached his destination hoarse as assholes were everywhere. The weather is cyclingtacular. And I own three cars.

A glimpse of the buffalo

There I was, closing in on the middle of nowhere. Another cyclist turns right from a side road to my left and starts coming toward me. "Huh," I said. "His jersey has blue sleeves and a red body just like the one I'm wearing." As we near, I realize his jersey has the same message as mine: "New Belgium Brewing Company." Go down a couple of entries and you'll see what I'm talking about. I didn't just give a polite cyclist's wave, I pointed. I've never thought of southeastern Chatham County a site for synchronicities but maybe I'll have to reconsider.

C'dork's Friday ride guide: going around in circles

Despite last week's injunction to get myself lost, likely time constraints will probably lead to the same old thing. It's lame to whine about it, especially when generally it's a pretty ride with light traffic. That doesn't change the fact that I need to find a route to get me to the unexplored northern and eastern portions of Wake County.

C'dork's Friday ride guide: get lost

The fact is I need to find some new routes. I'm fond of the favorites I've been posting every Friday. They are mildly scenic and fit my mileage-and-time needs. But when the highlight of my ride is will a particular — and friendly — dog be sleeping in a particular yard it's time for something new. Most of my rides are also to the west through northeast Chatham County. Nothing wrong with that. Light traffic through the woods with a good shoulder is more than you get in a lot of places. But I need to figure out how to blaze trails around Raleigh to get to northern (and rural) Wake County. If I can concoct a way to the south to Ten-Ten Road without offering myself as a sacrifice on Kildaire Farm or Holly Springs roads that could also be fertile fields for new riding. Otherwise it'll just be the same old thing. I guess it's really time to woodshed with my North Carolina Atlas & Gazeteer and GoogleMaps.

One down, 11 to go

As I believe is mentioned previously, cycledork accepted the "2007 Metric Century a month Challenge" posted in the Cycling Plus forums. Predictably the plan is to use many weekend rides over the next year to meet this challenge. So expect to see maps for 100k rides, such as those posted the last couple of weeks, in the Friday Ride Guide. That said, it may become habitual that the trip described in the Friday Ride Guide is not the one that occurs in the two days following. Readers may recall that on Friday, CD mapped out an ambitious, 78+ mile route that would go through parts of five counties. What actually happened is that on Saturday cycledork took the trip described the week before.
Regardless of the route, I got in 65.6 miles in about 3.5 hours of riding time. It was a gorgeous day here even if a tad breezy. Dozens of cyclists were out. Lots of them seemed to have flats but when questioned said their situations were under control. I also got to meet Pete and Mark at the Wilsonville General Store, the popular cyclists' oasis, gas station and bait shop at the intersection of U.S. 64 and Farrington Road. Anyway it may be another month or two, until the days are noticeably longer, before any long ride I outline is the one I actually go on that weekend. My sympathies to cycling brethren and sistren in the UK who get even less than we do here.
Note: while preparing the second map, I was unable to compel GoogleMaps to find the actual location of Pea Ridge Road so the route description shorts me about 3.8 miles. However, in the first map it found the correct road. If anyone can offer any insight into this situation I would appreciate it.

C'dork's Friday ride guide

We'll confirm that the weather's supposed to be sunny in the morning since the 'dork is thinking about going long, or at least longer, this weekend. This route, an extension of last week's unfinished fantasy, would take in bits and pieces of Wake, Harnett, Lee, Chatham and Durham counties over about 78 miles. Part of the incentive is that it would discharge a twelfth of my pledge on the Cycling Plus forum to ride a metric century per month this year.

C'dork's Friday ride guide

This Saturday, assuming no rain and that I get confirmation from cyclebuddy, is going to be cycledork on the 2100, cyclebuddy on the recumbent and anyone with the fortitude to join us on our homemade, somewhat scenic and partially predictable ride through western Wake and northeastern Chatham counties. Meet at 8 a.m. at the ATT trailhead on White Oak Chapel Road. From there, south along White Oak to Green Level Road. West on Green Level to Wimberly Road. Then east on Jenks Road to Davis Drive (one big hill). South on Davis Drive/Salem Street through Apex (caution: traffic and parallel parked cars) to Old U.S. 1. Hammer on to Beaver Creek (south of US 64)/Farrington Road (north of US 64), where we turn north. Depending how studly we're feeling we can go all the way to Durham, where we turn east on Stagecoach Road, come south on NC 751 (hilly) and then east on O'Kelly Chapel Road (cyclebuddy's recumbent will hit hit 35-40 mph), south on Green Level to Durham (two hills) and back into Cary Park. If we're feeling merely mortal, we turn east on Hollands Chapel Road, jog along 751 for a second and onto Lewter Shop Road and back to White Oak Chapel. My guess is that these rides are in the 50 and 40 mile ranges, respectively, at a speed between 17 and 19 mph. There may be a Plan B to deal with the rain, in which case I'll pass that on.

Meet cyclebuddy

Most of my riding I do by myself. It's not that I'm antisocial; it's that I don't like getting up on Saturday morning. I'll do the occasional charity ride but I'd rather get out after lunch and hammer for two or three hours. But over the last year and a half there's been one guy that I've meshed with, even to the point of sacrificing Saturday morning sleep. We've missed connections though over the last several months and weren't staying in touch the way we should have. So yesterday I was out at the edge of nowhere in northeastern Chatham County pedalling back toward somewhere when I saw a recumbent cruising toward me. It was none other than cyclebuddy. We rode together for about four miles and he smoked me over the flats. We talked for a few minutes after we got back to his far west Cary driveway and talked about riding over the next couple of weekends. Today, I was a few miles farther west in nowhere and here he comes hauling ass toward me. Same routine as yesterday: more smoke followed by more catching up. The great thing about cyclebuddy is his enthusiasm combined with an ungodly ability to get the most out of his machine (there's more coming on the recumbent). The upshot of today's ride was a firm commitment to ride this Saturday. Route to be determined; check back on Friday.