More Stories from Jared

Sit in your favorite chair by the fire for another story from The Book of Jared Morford's Swashbuckling Adventures:

August 28th in an effort to get my cup o dirt rides in I decided I would ride from Ames to Stratford. I would choose to go from Ames, to Story City, to Stanhope, to Stratford.  I figured if I went through some towns on the way there it would be fun and break up the ride. I thought it was about 65 miles so I figured it would be perfect, the weather was suppose to be warm but that doesn't bother me as long as i stay hydrated. Me and five friends rode from Ames to Story City on the Greenbelt trail and called it cyclocross practice.  At Story City we stopped at a gas station got drinks and chatted about bike nerd stuff, you know wheels and carbon stuff. Then we split up, me and a friend from the shop were going to make the 65 mile ride.

It was great, we were cruising along on hard packed gravel and made it to Stratford. My buddy was tired but he was doing fine. I felt great and probably over confident as usual. Up until this point the gravel was amazing! Nice and hard packed and we were talking how great the roads were and remeniscing about the two b-roads we went down.

The tides turn, I swear the wind changed and we now riding into the same head wind we rode to Stratford into... No biggie though, we are strong enough riders to deal with headwinds. Just quit whining and ride... But it got worse, once we got onto gravel and start heading southeast towards Ames the gravel was terrible. It wasn't gravel, it was said from being so dry.  On the way to Stratford, we were going 16-20 mph and having a blast! We could hardly maintain 13mph and I couldn't find a hard packed line to save my life. Once climbing a hill a quarter of a mile west of highway 17 mile rear wheel washed out climbing a hill and I got off my bike and walked no only the hill but the next quarter mile to the highway. I was hoping to get a little rest as well better gravel on the other side. Not the case. Not until about 15 miles Northwest of Ames did the roads get hard packed again.

Despite all of that, it was a great ride. I got to ride on a beautiful day with great friends. The moral of the story is, "Don't Ride Gravel in Boone Country!"

I did take a picture of the B-road street sign we went down at 370th and Queens.  The other b-road we went down a couple more miles northwest was a b-road then a road that had been returned to the farmer... that was a pleasant surprise...