It was another long day on the Ural. We logged 291 miles. We left the hotel in Dubuque, IA and headed for the start of the trail in Illinois.
We stopped at the Holy Ghost Church to visit "the grotto" which is a unique religious site. From 1925 to 1930 one man made a huge garden or grotto by gluing small rocks and crystals together. The end result is impressive and word really do it justice. You will have to check out the photos I took with my phone and posted to flickr.
We finished about 290 miles of the trail's 550 today. It was a pretty aggressive run with not any stops outside of gas and turning. I would prefer to go a bit slower and savor the sights a bit more. The pace of the group is a bit frantic on paved road. They slow to something reasonable on gravel and even more in the sand.
The Ural is in its element when the road changes to something loose. I was able to keep up easier since the rear drifted out on the gravel nicely. The sand was easy since I was't worried about falling. Just before we reached Black River Falls (hotel for sat night), we ran into our first fire road. We nearly missed it as it just looked like a gap in the trees.
It was a narrow two track and full of sand. It didn't take long for the sand to claim it's first victim.
One of the riders crashed hard and sent a huge plume of sand in the air as his panier dug in upon impact. Nearly everyone in the group crashed at least once, some multiple times.
The Ural was great in the gravel and sand. It was a joy riding today, and my shoulders are extremely sore from it. We experienced our first few water crossings with the Ural and found out most of the water sprays into the sidecar and onto the occupant of the same. My wife seemed to enjoy the spray. She also loved bouncing around in the sand whoops this afternoon. She's great.
We are both looking forward to more trail tomorrow.
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Dear Chris:
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine the strain of fighting that ural through sandy curves... But it sounds like superb fun. How is Paul doing?
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
Dear Jack: The sand and gravel were the easy parts. The Ural just plows through them. The paved sections are the toughest because it has too much traction. On the loose stuff, the rear end slides slighty making it much easier to turn. Paul is hanging in there. See my day 3 post for details.
ReplyDeleteChris
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'd like or the rest would like, riding in a group of two-wheeled vice urals. The performance difference in the twisty parts is markedly high.
Charlie6: Yea, the paved sections were exhausting, but I was not expecting so much pavement. On the dirt, I was easily able to keep up.
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