Camp Sherman Fail - Sort of

My Camp Sherman, 1st attempt, exploratory ride was aborted. Sort of. Maybe modified is a better description. This is a ride with some single track, some gravel, and some pavement. The gravel was loose and not all that enjoyable on 32mm tires. I wasn't sure how many miles it went on, and since I had no decent map, out and back was the only option. I really didn't want to ride back over that stuff.

If I'm going to ride this kind of stuff I need real maps and fatter tires. Fatter tires attached to a new bike! Just had to throw that in there. Mac forest roads are packed gravel for the most part and easy to ride with skinny tires. That's the kind of stuff I like.

As for maps. I knew going in that mine were inadequate at best. Offline digital versions that failed when I needed them. Apparently you still need a satellite/tower signal of some sort for these to work. I don't have a paper map of the area, so rather than become a statistic of the lost in the woods bunch, I opted to not wander into the great unknown.
I hate loose gravel and boring straight roads - meh! Give me packed gravel or no gravel any day. And curves. Curves that beckon me to see what's around the corner. Above is the road to Round Lake. Five mile in and five back out. I didn't want to ride that. In hindsight now that I'm home, I see that this was to be my exit from Round Lake, not the entrance, still I was hoping for packed gravel and a road a little less travelled. I know there is some sweet riding here, I just didn't find it today.
I had some sweet single track near the start. Single and sometimes double. Sandy and mostly packed, though I did hit a few soft spots.

I don't trust ride with gps offline maps. I'm in a group that allows for downloaded maps, but out in the land of low-signal Ride with GPS decided I didn't have that feature after all, and wouldn't open the map. Google worked, but only very slowly, and only occasionally.
Make my maps old school. Paper. Glorious lovely paper.

Fun ride despite everything. Probably won't make it back until next year. Snow will be here soon enough. Or maybe I need a fat bike too!

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