Driftless Cycling

This weekend I had a chance to drive out about two hours west of Chicago to Stockton, Illinois, an area on the Wisconsin/Iowa border, near Galena, where my bicycle group was doing a 75 mile long ride through the “Driftless” region, an area of the midwest that was not flattened by glaciers, so as a result, is very, very hilly!  Here’s a picture of the route we took, as well an overview of the hilliness of the region, overall 6,500 feet of elevation, with most of the roads being loose gravel rather than paved.

To say it was a little out of my league, is probably an understatement, but the region itself is really pretty, with lots and lots of rolling hills, some quiet steep indeed!

In case you’re wondering, the cycling team, along with organizing the rest stops and support crew, also threw in a professional photographer to take photos of the trip and while we’re cycling, hence the upgraded quality of the photos from what you typically expect from me!

Here’s me quiet happy at the beginning of the ride:

Here’s me following one of the very steep hills

And here’s me a little later on when I basically gave up smiling for the camera (I’m the one at the back with his head down!)

Definitely pretty grueling, but after a while I got a handle on managing the pace of the ride and the ascent of the hills, so shockingly I was able to finish, and really enjoyed the back half of the ride, in no small measure to the fact that at one point we cycled by a lovely little coffee shop/bakery that served the most delicious iced coffee and bagels!

All in all quiet an adventure, but delighted to discover this region, and if you haven’t already noticed, an amazingly remote area, where we basically saw about 10-15 cars the entire 75 mile cycle, so definitely something I’ll be trying again!