This Gravel Grinder is special. This was the first gravel route that I ever rode. One day when I was lucky enough to be off work on a weekday and after having a gravel bike for a few weeks and too scared to ride I dared myself to go where I have never gone before…on a gravel road.

The ride that day was short, scary, hard, and FUN!!! The adrenaline rush that I got rolling some of those early hills tapped into a part of me that I didn’t know. How the hell was that fun? Damn it, dust in my eyes…a-gain?…Oh well. My inaugural gravel ride was only 13 miles but on that trek I intersected a horse. Daring and giddy, I slowed and asked the rider if I could mount his horse. He obliged. What? No, way? Yes, way!!! The horse must have felt my energy because he was as uneasy as I was. I dismounted before things got out of control and carried on. I exited gravel at 13 miles but was still 7 miles from my car.

I detoured because I forgot to check the weather that day. When rain drops turned into pitter patter I pulled over and opened up the weather app. Thunderstorms were approaching within the next hour. As I raced against time, I smiled as I thought about the last hour. As soon as I made it back to my car the skies opened, rain poured, and I smiled looking out the back of my old minivan at the prospect of what graveling could be.

Riding those road again this year made me happy. I was recovering from COVID and struggling to breathe but all of that was a distant thought to what was really in front of me. I’ve been graveling for a year! Look how far you’ve come I thought, look how far you’ve come.