Notes
Quite the fun ride today. I needed to get coffee, and thought, why drive there when I'm gonna bike today anyways? So I planned a route that ended up being just a little over the normal distance. Surprised it was that low. And I had another great surprise during the ride. I realized my coffee place was along the future extension of the Salem rail trail. I did a little research, and although one road crossing farther north is impassible on the trail, the continuation all the way to Mass is already graded dirt trail. My winter/commute bike already has 2.3s on it so I figured it'd be at least passable, even with the threat of large mud puddles.
Turns out the trail was fine, great even, and my bike is a surprise gravel bike. The trail was firm dirt with lots of small rocks and some unevenness but overall fine. Think typical camp road. When I got to it, I just went down to my middle chainring and cruised at a comfortable speed. I ended up being able to go at what felt like a decent speed. Perfectly confident and smooth cruising. The tires are slicks but with wide tread and low pressures, they didn't seem to care. It was fun! I will be sorta sad once this finally gets paved, and will look to doing other similar trails.
Overall ride was good. Shoulda planned it to be longer. Next time. Warm enough despite the wind and the sun was welcome.