Mixed terrain ride at Tanglewood Park on a perfect September Day

I didn't really have time to go for a ride today, but considering the perfect day, I went for a couple of hours anyway. It was sunny and around 70 degrees in the Winston-Salem, NC area this afternoon. 

Yesterday was a fairly long solo ride for me, so today I just wanted to have fun. A mixed terrain ride, one on more than one type of surface, is always a good adventure. So I rode over to Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, NC to do just that. It's only 6 or 7 miles on good roads to get to the park and traffic isn't to heavy during the mid afternoon hours.

I think the best adventure bike is a cyclo-cross bike. Knobby tires do not roll so well on pavement, so I like to run 700x28mm road tread tires that feature a puncture resistant belt in them. Most manufactures make these. I think a road bike with 700x25mm tires would work well for this type of ride also. On the ride over to the park I did feel some drag from the larger and heaver tires while climbing hills on the road. I had mine inflated to 90 psi to make them as efficient as possible on the pavement. These tires and pressure worked fine for me since I am aware to be a little cautious off  road. 

Tanglewood provided many different riding conditions. It's always been a good destination for me. In a little over two hours of riding I was able to ride on paved roads, gravel roads, grass fields and single track trails. Different types of riding keeps cycling interesting and helps to develop bike handling skills. I had a great time enjoying riding my bike on this perfect September day. I hope you did too.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

This long double track road across this grass field is a fun place to crank up the speed ! Having my tires pumped up to 90psi did make if rather bumpy. But that's OK, it's all part of the fun.

Smooth pavement and beautiful scenery make riding on the roads through Tanglewood Park a real pleasure.

This shady gravel road is a treat to ride on.

This trail is more suited to mountain bikes, but if you are a little careful , most any type of bike is fun on them.

This is another section of the mountain bike trial.

Tanglewood Park is down by the river. The Yadkin River that is.  Right now it is the mighty muddy Yadkin River because of all the rain we have had in the previous couple of weeks. This is a nice shady spot down by the river to take a break. A Great Blue Heron flew up from the bank and across the river just as I was about to take this photo. The Great Blue Heron is the largest North American Heron. They have a head-to-tail length of 36-54 inches and a wingspan of 66 -79 inches. Great Blue Heron make a loud squawking noise when they are disturbed. That's exactly what this one was doing as it flew across the river. It was huge and looked like some pre-historic creature.

On a September day back in 1969, at Big Sur, California, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sang a song titled "Down by the river".  Happy Hippies does not seem like such a bad thing when you consider all the problems we are currently facing in the USA. Below is a video of that performance.

Poor ole' Joe always keeps me company as I clean my bike up after a ride.