Hills, Hills and More Hills

Last Thursday was another blue-sky day in the farm country of Nothern Indiana. I had finished work at 12 noon (a rare exception these days) so I decided to take a ride. The plan was to ride for an hour and then come home get cleaned up and head up to my parents house on the lake to hang out with my brother who's in from Colorado. I checked the wind; it was coming from the North at 8 MPH with gusts up to 16 MPH. Per the normal routine I decided to ride North into the wind and since this took me towards my parents house, I told the lovely wife to go ahead and drive up to the P's. I was going to ride up. I quickly made a copy of my Indiana map and headed out. About 6 miles North I began to encounter hills. As I hammered up and down these first of many hills I began to think, "these hills are getting a little steeper." Sure enough the farther North I got the steeper the hills got and there was no leveling off it was just hill after hill after hill. Thirty-one or thirty-two miles of hills some of them matching or exceeding the height and grade of the hills that nearly claimed CK and HR's life not too long ago. All in all the ride was 37.6 miles long and better then half of this journey was on loose gravel roads as well. The wind was in my face for the entire ride adding to the thigh burning exhilaration. Just shy of three hours after I left my house I pulled into my parents driveway. A beautiful ride, a tough ride, a good ride. Had I known the hills were going to be so relentless I may not have ridden to my parents but when it was done I was glad that I had. Ignorance is bliss! A couple of days later while talking to my father-in-law he informed me that some of the highest hills in Indiana are located in Steuben County. They're part of a range of hills that runs from Hillsdale Michigan down through the Northeast corner of Indiana. The whole trip has me thinking that a Cyclecross bike might be the way to go... thinner tires... road geometry... 1100 to 2000 dollars! Oh well looks like the MTB is the bike of choice for now.