I decided to do a few big rides this week. First up on Tuesday, I did the Dirt Bohlman. I'd been meaning to try this one on my gravel bike basically ever since I built it up, since it's pretty much the ideal case for it: a relatively smooth fire road at the far end of maybe 6 or 7 miles of pavement. I'd done this a few times before on my XC bike, and found it to be maybe a bit overkill for the fire road and less than ideal for the pavement leading up to it.
The only major downside to this ride was the weather this week. The temperature was good, but an inversion layer was trapping wood smoke from fireplaces, back yard fires, and wood stoves in the bay, so it was a good idea to chew the air thoroughly before inhaling it.
On the bright side, it did make for a pretty picture of Lexington Reservoir.
Anyway, on Friday I decided to cross another route off my gravel bike to-do list: Kennedy. Much like Dirt Bohlman, I'd done this one a few times before on my XC bike, which was a bit overkill for the fire road. Unlike the aforementioned route, though, there was only a few short miles of pavement before the dirt started, so it really suited either bike just fine.
The air was still plenty smoky though, but luckily, like the previous ride, I spent most of my time above the inversion layer.
You can just barely see the Mt Um cube in the distance from the upper helipad here. The trail network actually continues over the ridge, then drops down and back up again to reach the peak of Mt Um. I did that Dirt Cubed ride a while back, but didn't feel like repeating it this time; just getting to the top of Kennedy without keeling over dead is enough of an accomplishment.
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