MiddleMarch

The earth is still in browns, yet another mild March weekend holds the promise of greener times ahead. The hills beckon, and we are back out to Stockton with bike in Blazer.

This time, we’re on the cyclocross Las Cruces heading northwest out of town along gravel roads bypassing a big climb up Binkley and a relatively busy Canyon Park Road.
In layman’s directions, head north on Park Road, jog west on Binkley, and continue up Park Road and another jog west then northwest up to Townsend Road.

Once over the hill, we cross Canyon Park Road and continue west on Townsend Road which, wavy of surface, can be busy with vehicles to and from Apple Canyon Lake.

Finally, we drop into the valley across the Apple River. We ride to the stop sign at Scout Camp Road and climb north up Scout Camp to the first left which is Schapville Road. We sigh relief and shed impatient traffic on our way west to the hamlet Schapville.

March legs stiffen in the hills over two climbs before we arrive at a favorite Upper Left Hand village. Just past the church at the intersection of Stadel and Shapville Roads, we turn right on Mill Creek Road.

Now, we truly are free of the beaten path as we ride northwest over chip and gravel in the midst a lovely long valley along Mill Creek. The rock outcroppings and trees offer cool shade in Summer, but this is March, and the sunlight sparkles through the naked canopy as we ride easily in bucolic splendor. Last Fall, Peggy Badget, Dennis Robinson, and I celebrated Dennis’s birthday along this road on our way to New Diggings.

Too soon, we pop out at Elizabeth Scales Mound Road and turn left. Immediately, our legs awake to an arduous grade as we head south towards Elizabeth. Just past Shapville Road, we take the next left on Menzemmer Road and cruise southeast on a long descent.

At the intersection of Stadel Road, which leads back up to Schapville, we continue straight into the gravel on Menzemmer. Back on the chipped surface, it’s up the hill to Hoffman Road. We turn left on Hoffman and left again as it meets Goosehollow Road. Caution is advised on the descent into the corner before Hoffman intersects with Grebner Road.

Keeping the creek on our left, we ride south on the Grebner Gravel. We don’t turn left over the bridge at Salem Road but stay on Grebner until it curves left across the creek and climbs over the hill and the new bridge over the Apple River. At the stop sign, we turn left on Apple River Road and ride east to fork at Woodbine Road and thence up to Woodbine. Once there, it is the third right at Brown Road which crosses Highway 20 and heads south along the east side of the golf course.

At Center Road, we could turn left and ride straight back over to Stockton. But we’ll continue climbing up Brown Road until we reach Baugh Road. Then we’ll loop around Baugh to Eden Road back down to Center. The Las Cruces helps us explore beautiful hilly gravel roads like Baugh and Eden. The Maxxis cross tire on the back wheel grips the gravel over the rollers back east to Stockton.