Fall has arrived. We spent a week processing peaches from our two trees, and we’ve put up 10 pounds of tomatoes, with many more to come. It’s harvest season, a busy time here at the cottage. But there is always time to get 30 or 40 miles of High Plains gravel fun on Saturday morning. It was cool, cloudy, and foggy as I prepped for the ride.
It even rained, so while I waited for it to stop, I took the opportunity to clean up the mess in the garage from the peach harvest. Then I lubed the chain and added a bit of air to the tires on “Trucker,” the latest addition to the stable. I completed the Surly Disc Trucker build this Spring and have been rotating between “Double Cross” and “Trucker” for the last couple of months.
I purchased the frame a couple of years ago during their yearly sale, but took my time with the build. My vision was a gravel-road touring bike for fully loaded touring. It was fun to build and turned out exactly the way I had envisioned. However, it was so pretty, I didn’t want to get it dirty, so I stayed on the pavement and used it mostly to haul groceries until recently.
I have been enjoying the new bike a lot out on the dirt. It has an amazing one-of-a-kind drivetrain that I designed to have the very wide gearing required for loaded touring on steep terrain. Double Cross has a custom hybrid road/mtn drivetrain too, but the low gear isn’t anywhere close to Trucker’s. Climbing out of the creek bottoms, spinning 100 RPM is actually fun.
The plan was always to move my Brooks B17 saddle to the new bike before going on a tour, but since it’s getting most of the work now, I decided to switch saddles this morning while I waited for the rain to stop. I adjusted the stretch and applied some conditioner, and the 15-year-old leather saddle looked like new. By the time the rain stopped and I mounted up in the old saddle on the new bike it was deep into the morning.
It was still cloudy, cool, and damp, so I donned my trusty stocking cap and wind jacket to meet the weather head-on as I headed out of town. Vickie was creating some amazing egg, meat, and cheese breakfast muffins while I was working in the garage, so I loaded a few up in the trunk bag and was looking forward to the brunch stop. The clouds were low and looked threatening, but the forecast and radar said not to worry, get “out there” and ride.
The light breeze was from the NE, so that’s the direction I headed and formed a route plan as I rode. I checked the windsock at the hospital helipad as I rode past and again at a tank battery a few miles out of town. It looked like the breeze was more from the east than the north, so I turned into it and headed for one of my favorite roads that follows a ridge between the Smoky Hill River and a tributary. The views were amazing as always and I decided to continue east to the small town of Arapahoe.
There are a pair of old trees a few miles north of town that I have stopped at numerous times, and I was thinking it would be an awesome place to stop for brunch. Trees, like people, are few and far between on the High Plains, and like the people, I know almost all of them by name and where they live. The brunch site did not disappoint, even though no shade was required. The grass was soft and green with nary a goat head or sand burr. Vickie’s savory breakfast muffins were awesome and made the moment.
As I packed up and left the idyllic brunch spot behind, the sun was busy burning off the clouds, and I was able to ditch the stocking hat and jacket. It was an amazing morning; a perfect day to celebrate the end of summer and welcome the fall. The Autumnal Equinox marks a time of balance, with night and day each lasting 12 hours. Sadly, the days will continue to get shorter for the next three months as we head toward winter. But Autumn is always amazing on the High Plains and I am looking forward to logging hundreds of miles on my new Trusty Steed – “Trucker.”
