Shoals Gravel

So over the past week or so, I've been working on this route trying to link up some new gravel roads I have found in my explorations of Surry and Yadkin counties. I knew that if anyone would be intrigued by this route and it's requisite climbing and dirt, Erich would be. Very quickly after figuring a way to link the roads, I sent the map to Erich and plans were firmed up for riding it this morning. After yesterday's HP and A route, my legs were already feeling a bit soft, and I knew this ride seemed a bit ambitious after yesterdays investment. For the two days, the totals are 105 miles and 9000 feet of climbing. Somewhere along the way, my GPS stopped registering, but I don't think it was too terribly long without a signal. The seven secteurs of gravel were in this order: Kiger, Sam Scott, Crissman, Atkinson, Stanford Church, and Reeves. The highlights were Kiger and Crissman. Kiger had some long wide open views, as evidenced below



Crissman was a road that I had driven, but to be honest I wasn't sure about its ability to be ridden on a road bike. The descent and corresponding climb were both steep on very loose gravel. They did both end up proving to be rideable, at least when there isn't a dropped chain. Atkinson was a suprise gravel section, but it appears to be going through the process of being paved. About halfway up the road there is new blacktop, and the gravel sections appear to have been widened to allow for eventual paving. After the first six sections of gravel, we were cruising pretty quickly down Quaker Church from 268 and ran into our last strip of gravel on Reeves Road.



This dumped us out by the Ararat River. Throughout the ride, I slowly revealed to Erich the nature of the roads we would be travelling. I hadn't really explained what to expect from Crissman or Sam Scott. The tail end of the ride as we descended towards the Ararat, I mentioned to Erich offhand that our highest elevations were going to be beyond this point. Now, here, when faced with our longest sustained climbs of the day, my legs were reminding me of the effort exerted yesterday, and I had a few twinges of cramps starting to creep in on me. I finished out the ride soft pedaling and Erich was kind enough to oblige by staying with me. Overall, I am pretty pleased with how the route turned out, I might try to loop in another road that I have been thinking about, but it would up the mileage to about 50 to 55. Of the 41 miles, probably 6-8 of it was gravel, with a bit more exploration I'd like to get this route to about 10 miles of the good stuff...we shall see!