Thursday, April 19, 2012

Announcing GGGRRR 2012

On June 23rd 2012, at 7am, some friends and I are going to get together at Blanding's Landing in northwest Illinois for the Galena Gravel Grinder Rustic Road Ride (GGGRRR). This is a roughly (no pun intended) 116 mile long ride through the rugged terrain of the Driftless region of Illinois. This route is specifically designed to cash in on the hills in this little corner of the state, with every attempt made to go straight up and straight down as much as possible. The route is certainly "rustic", being roughly 55% gravel, 35% pavement and 10% trail of some kind or another. There are many sections that must be hiked (one in particular in Mississippi Pallisades State Park is MANDITORY since no biking is allowed on the trails there), fences to be hopped, gaping gullies to be traversed.

The route is not easy. However, along with its grueling nature comes a lot of great scenery, regular rest-stop opportunities in the many small towns along the way and, perhaps most importantly, many opportunities to short-cut the route once you realize there is no f!@#$%* way you're going to be able to finish the whole thing.

With all that said, I'd like to invite any adventurous cyclists out there to come join my friends and I. This is not an organized event in any way, just a group ride. You are responsible for yourself and your own safety and navigation, but I'll try to get some maps and/or gpx files for anyone who is interested.

The campground at the landing should provide a good place to stay. For those hoity-toity types that want beds and air conditioning and junk like that, the closest indoor lodging can be found at the Chestnut Mountain Resort, just 4-5 miles up the road from the landing. Just about a mile south of the landing is the Old Blanding Tavern featuring "fire" wood, ice, "famous" hollisburgers, fish, steak, sand, and according to the sign, bath"rooms". Both Galena to the north and Savanna to the south offer full dining, lodging, grocery and gas facilities. Galena is basically the Wisconsin Dells of Illinois, but instead of water parks there are a bunch of old buildings and the corpse of a president.

So, wanna ride with us? Post a comment and I'll try to keep everyone up to speed on any unfolding details.















11 comments:

  1. Put me down as a strong maybe on this. If I go, I'll try to talk at least one other person into coming with me.

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  2. I'd give it a shot! keep me posted, please.

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  3. UPDATE: added a couple more miles of delightful road for a total of 118 miles. There is, however one short 'cut-off' that will make it an even 100 miles.

    Route will be finalized first week in June.

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  4. I've got my friend and my wife about 95% convinced we should do this! I'm pretty sure you'll see us there!

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    1. Hey Manny, get in touch with me via email or Facebook, we should be able to come up with some 'special accommodations' for you and the little lady.

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  5. This looks ridiculously fun. Will have try to make the trip up from Champaign.

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    1. Are you the Aaron from CCB? If so you can probably car-pool with Val and Eric.

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    2. Unfortunately. my work schedule has changed and I won't be able to make the voyage. Hope you all have a good ride.

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  6. This looks incredibly awesome. The camping part of a camping/gravel riding weekend at Dirty Mudd'r fell through, but we're aiming to try again, with two riders (and two wives and two kids camping) from Chicago.

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  7. Hey Kids, I just added some updated info in a blog post. Check it out. http://frankonabike.blogspot.com/2012/06/gggrrr-update.html

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  8. So, are any of you guys planning on meeting us tomorrow then? email me at frank dot hassler at gmail dot com.

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