We had the fourth annual Larry Limestone Tour this Saturday, a favorite club drive-and-ride. It starts at the old school in Heltonville, 20 miles south of Bloomington, and loops through Lawrence County backroads, highlighted by the Devil's Backbone, before taking somewhat more familiar hills between Bartlettsville and Heltonville. Jerry Arveson, who first proposed the ride to the club, and who has led it each year. The ride was originally put on by the Limestone Girls Club of Bedford back in 2008.
Jerry did his usual fine job of leading from behind and being sure no one took a wrong turn.
All his good work did not prevent our group from getting somewhat flummoxed when we came across a "Bridge Out Ahead" sign. We continued anyway with the expectation of being able to get across. As it happened the bridge really was out!
That didn't stop Mike Finger and John Bassett from carrying their bikes down to the creek, a ways downstream, to look for a way across. The rest of us said "no thanks" and proceeded to retrace our route to look for a detour. You can see our retracing toward the lower right of the map.
The downside for the main group was that we missed the main part of the Devil's Backbone and also had to take on a serious long climb. We also had a bit of trouble reconnecting with Mike and John, who really did make it across, because we didn't know who was ahead and who was behind at that point. Mike took his shoes and socks off and carried his stuff. John just waded through with his shoes on!
There's a second, planned appendix in the middle where we did an out-and-back to the convenience store at the south end of 446. (Overall the route has relatively few opportunities for food or drink.)
As we approached the last part of the route (in the upper left corner of the map), leader Jerry proposed that our trailing group take the Ramsey Ridge route back down to Heltonsville, avoiding one last major climb along Dunn Bridge Road out of Bartlettsville. We all accepted the proposal. (I think we did the same thing last year.)
It's always nice to get a little bit away from our standard rides around Bloomington. This is a ride that should stay on our yearly calendar, for sure.
Jerry did his usual fine job of leading from behind and being sure no one took a wrong turn.
All his good work did not prevent our group from getting somewhat flummoxed when we came across a "Bridge Out Ahead" sign. We continued anyway with the expectation of being able to get across. As it happened the bridge really was out!
There's a second, planned appendix in the middle where we did an out-and-back to the convenience store at the south end of 446. (Overall the route has relatively few opportunities for food or drink.)
As we approached the last part of the route (in the upper left corner of the map), leader Jerry proposed that our trailing group take the Ramsey Ridge route back down to Heltonsville, avoiding one last major climb along Dunn Bridge Road out of Bartlettsville. We all accepted the proposal. (I think we did the same thing last year.)
It's always nice to get a little bit away from our standard rides around Bloomington. This is a ride that should stay on our yearly calendar, for sure.
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