Sunday, October 13, 2019

#coffeeneuring 2019: Ride 2, one gear, one coffee

Taaaaailwind!
Ride one of Coffeeneuring 2019 was warm and wet; ride two was cold and dry. What the rides had in common was a blustery wind. Temperatures had dropped rapidly from Friday to Saturday, and by Sunday morning it was barely above freezing. I did not appreciate that all and spent a good portion of the morning pouting on the couch, feeling sorry for myself, and reading indoor trainer reviews. By 10:30 I had finally pulled myself together and was determined to get out on my fixie, collect a tile or two, and get another coffeeneuring ride on the books.
Camrock connector trail

The wind was coming straight from the west, and I decided to ride it on the way out. The obvious coffee location was Kindfolk in Cambridge, a relatively new and hip coffee shop in this village of 1500. I took the most direct and navigationally easy route, the strong tailwind powering me along. The route is flat enough that I rarely spun out my 40x17 gear, and Strava says I got a number of PRs.

The coffee at Kindfolk was excellent. A light roast from Kickapoo, prepared as a pour-over. As I was drinking the coffee, I flipped through an old copy of Barista magazine that featured a special about coffee in Wisconsin, including Kindfolk. I always find it enjoyable to read trade publications of trades that I don't know a lot about -- what kind of themes do they cover, what products are advertised, ...
Crossing Koshkonong Creek

The way back was a different story. After leaving Kindfolk, I picked up one tile on the far side of Cambridge and then it was time to head into the wind. My gearing now was anything but ideal and I struggled along on my way to the second and last tile collection of the day. A previous attempt to get that tile had failed, and so this time I took it safe -- which meant riding on the shoulder of US 12/18 for a couple miles. The paved shoulder is narrow, but as there wasn't any truck traffic it wasn't too bad. A brief moment of excitement came when a a badly secured hunting blind fell off a pickup truck just after it had passed me. Fortunately there weren't any cars following closely and I was able to quickly stop and pull the debris to the shoulder as the driver backed up.

A few miles farther I got to the Glacial Drumlin Trail, a rail trail lined with trees that provided a little shelter from the headwind. Nonetheless, I was still struggling a bit and finally decided to stop and flip my wheel. I have a fixed/fixed flip-flop hub, and going from a 17 to an 18 cog made my life much easier. By the time I arrived home, I still was pretty done -- but happy that I had convinced myself to get out the house!
Kickapoo are a Wisconsin-based roaster. Out of respect for the Kickapoo nation, they're going to rebrand soon.

Rider name: Harald
Ride #: 2
Date: 10/13
Total mileage: 54 mi (93 km)
Drink: Kickapoo Guatemala Concepcion pour-over
Location: Kindfolk Coffee, Cambridge (WI)
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