Cycling Backcountry Roads

By Michael Hooper

This summer I was thrilled to get on my bicycle and ride the backcountry roads in search of new adventures.

I prefer riding on gravel or dirt roads. I love seeing nature all around me. Cycling connects me to the Earth. I feel I'm part of the land as I roll over it. I feel alive with life on the road.

I like riding to nowhere and everywhere. I appreciate lonely places, where you are the only person witnessing gigantic beauty. I welcome the opportunity to ride to a pub or coffee shop.

Traveling to a familiar place might result in a good encounter. Perhaps I will see a friend and indulge in an interesting conversation. The ideas floating around may open us up to new ways at looking at things. You never know who you might meet, perhaps a shaman may offer you a piece of wisdom that guides you for the rest of your life.

This is why I belong to so many groups: book clubs, nonprofit organizations, and loosely fit clubs, starting with bowling In the early 1990s in Grand Island, Nebraska. I played golf every week for 15 years, but quit to save my hip.

Investment groups are fascinating to me. I’ve run into a few scams over the years, but generally, I have met people in these groups who are eager to learn how to invest their money better and were willing to study stocks and business, and figure out better ways to get ahead financially. With my poetry and art groups, I really got into local artists’ vibe, their passion for creative works.

After I gave up golf, I went deep into cycling, looking for the best bikes. I wanted a durable off-road bicycle that is also smooth on pavement, with solid engineering for its sprockets, chain and gears, and overall feel. I found that and more in The Surly Ogre. The bike, with 29-inch rims and 2-inch tires, rolls over everything. It's got beautiful balance. It's the best bicycle I’ve ever owned in my lifetime, and I’ve been cycling since 1970 and participated in Ragbrai in Iowa in 1983 with a classic Peugot road bike.

Hooper's Surly Ogre

I’ve ridden the Surly Ogre since 2013 in multiple conditions: gravel, pavement, off-road, rain, mud, mountains and pastures, I felt safe in all those conditions. With the Jones H bar handle bar set up, I sit up fairly high, I love the comfort and ease on my back, hips and knees. 

In 2016, I rode the Surly in the Dirty Kanza (Unbound Gravel) through the Flint Hills around Emporia, Kansas, my bike performed beautifully. I had no flat tires. The chain worked great, although it was quite dirty by the end of 50 miles. The gears were marvelous. At the 25-mile mark, I remember a young man gave me some water. I said how are you doing? He said I’m tapping out. He didn’t want to go up the hill. I put my Ogre into the granny gear and pedaled all the way to the top without stopping. I surveyed the rolling flint hills all around me, what a lovely sight.

Endurance is a valuable skill in long distance running, cycling and for that matter, life. If you have the endurance to finish the race, you are a winner.

I recently rode my Surly to the Long Pine Bar about 2 miles from our cabin in northern Minnesota. With no traffic on West Ponto Lake Road, I rolled over the pavement feeling free and open to beauty all around me. I saw a warm western sun glimmering through the trees and onto the water of Ponto Lake. I stopped at the top of the hill and parked my bike on a bench and sat down and examined the view. I’m looking out over the southwestern bay. Purple flowers in pots dangle in the wind hanging from a trellis.

I take a swig of water and get on with my bicycle, going down hill, pedaling hard so that I ride up the next hill with momentum. When I arrive at Highway 84, I’m going into a strong south wind. It’s about a half mile more in distance to the pub. I stop in a driveway and look out over this big field of alfalfa and take a picture of my bicycle. I ride The final 300 yards to the pub. When I enter, I see it’s filled with maybe 50 people hanging out on a Saturday afternoon. I sit down at the bar and visit with Randy; we talk about Northern Living, ice fishing, cabins. Catching pan fish and northern Pike. He says pike is good eating if prepared correctly, but I never eat them preferring bass and sunfish.  

I bought him a beer and I had a second beer and felt pretty good, a little tipsy, but not too bad. I got back on the bike and rode the highway. With the wind at my back and smooth pavement under my tires, I flew like an eagle. I stopped at the little lending library to check out the books. I almost took a novel by Jimmy Buffett, but passed for now, I have enough to read. I road with the wind, breathing and riding steadily and easily.

Among my favorite bike rides are in a 100-acre forest near our cabin in northern Minnesota. My friend Bernadine Joselyn and I were riding bikes along this road through the woods when she saw an extraordinary tree, a white pine about 250 years old. She saw another old white pine nearby, about the same age. These trees can live to be 400 years old. What ancient magnificent giants? Still alive, towering over most trees in the forest. 

The bike ride home was sobering  with a sense of awe at what I had just experienced. A sacred moment worth remembering.

Old White Pine in Northern, Minnesota