We just got back to Alabama after traveling up to Wisconsin for Christmas and New Year’s. On the way back home, we stopped to visit Kristine’s grandmother in northern Indiana. During the trip, I got to ride in Wisconsin and Indiana. Then yesterday I did a 54 mile ride with over 6000 feet of climbing…
The weather forecast called for a cold rain pretty much all day today back here in Birmingham. But as I was working from home, I noticed a huge gap in the rain clouds on the radar. So I decided to go for the 60 mile climbing ride that I’ve been wanting to do after the…
The weather forecast for today included a winter weather advisory with really cold temps. We went to visit some friends about 30 miles away near Hayward, WI. I took my bike along to try to ride back to Shell Lake if the roads were clear enough. I mapped out a route that took me near…
We are on a mini-vacation within our vacation staying in a remote part of northwestern Wisconsin, where the nearest traffic light is about 50 miles away, and even then, that’s the only traffic light within about 100 miles of here! Anyway, today’s ride involved shuttling out the two miles of unplowed road from our cabin…
Seven and a half years ago today, Kristine and I got married in a beautiful little town called Shell Lake followed by our wedding reception about 45 minutes away even further north into the northwoods of rural Wisconsin at a retreat center called the Schwan Center. Today, I biked from Shell Lake 32 miles up…
We left Birmingham on Christmas Day just before noon and arrived in Wisconsin a little bit before 11AM on Sunday – 23 hours total trip, out of which almost 20 was me driving. Instead of sleeping once we got here, I went ahead and decided to push through the training and enjoy the beautiful winter…
Awesome training rides today. Two rides totaling 65.5 miles and 7,360′ of climbing. First, I did a quick commute into O’Henrys on Lakeshore for a progress meeting on a collaborative research project for Samford. I wanted a lot of climbing so I picked out a route that climbed over Little Valley Mountain part of the…
I explored three new climbs today on a somewhat epic 103 mile ride in the rain with nearly 8500′ of climbing. Classes ended last week, and my students finished up their finals online today. With the icy roads and a very busy day of grading yesterday, I decided to take yesterday completely off. That opened…
The Samford student chapter of the ACM organized a ride today leaving from Chelsea High School and climbing up one of my favorite climbs – Double Oak Way. Three brave students and one crazy professor (me) met at 1:00 to complete the ride. We were waiting on one person before the start of the ride,…
Double Oak Commute What do a midterm exam, excellent students, and a beautiful day all equate to? Answer: a 55 mile commute with nearly 5000 ft of climbing. In the map above, I have numbered and labeled the six major climbs on the route. Also my ride crossed four different river valleys – Shades Valley,…