planning gravel routes

mack_turtle · Jan 1, 2020

how do you plan a gravel route?

I live in a city where there are almost no upaved roads. to get to real "gravel" routes, I need to drive 50 miles or so out into the country. Making up a route as you go is not an option that far away and I need to make my trips out that far count.

I've tried GravelMap.com and it does not show any routes or loops, just short little stretches of confirmed dirt road. Strava has a few if you can find a specific rider who as used it and will send you a link. regular maps like Google and Bing are pretty useless because many of the roads on those maps are actually private roads on ranches, although they show up on the map labeled as regular roads.

Any other options? Texas as a pitiful selection of public land for its size, so state parks are relatively small and far between.

CopeIt · Jan 1, 2020

What part of Texas? Assuming not CTX.

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mack_turtle · Jan 1, 2020

Austin area. We rode what I thought would be a gravel route in Llano the other day, but it ended up being 5% dirt. All the turns I planned to take based on Google Maps were private roads on ranches.

I found some better routes near Bastrop. The Castell route good but it takes almost two hours to drive out there. Hill Country Hundy is really only worth it if you do the whole 100K. I want to find more routes in the Hill Country where there's more elevation change.

CopeIt · Jan 1, 2020

Ah same here. I was going to recommend castell and Mason area but you are correct that is roughly 2 hours away. Lots of county roads that May appear to be private since they are gated... But they aren't. Have family land on the Castell route and the area has inspired me to get into gravel. Will share some routes as I find good linkages.

I would think enchanted Rock/marble falls area would have some options that meet criteria but I haven't searched that area yet.

Walnut kinda counts [emoji1787]

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Sparticus · Jan 1, 2020

Wait Mack, you're saying you actually want to ride gravel roads? Here in the logging capital of the galaxy (PNW), we have hundreds of thousands of miles of gravel roads. Maybe more. And I feel like I've ridden about that far on gravel during my life to get to the upper trailheads -- yeah, 100,000 miles. Many of our trails are quasi-one-way (ridgetop to valley) or loops that require gravel sections in order to complete. Anyway here in beautiful, green, rainy, densely forested Oregon, we don't seek out gravel roads, we tolerate them.

To each his own. Carry on and best of luck. Quick suggestion: move to the Upper Left.
=sParty

mack_turtle · Jan 1, 2020

Yes Sparti, that's what I want to do. this is the "gravel bikes" forum, silly!

career and family have me solidly anchored in Austin. moving would be financial and marital suicide. we have TONS of great mtb trails here in Austin, but sometimes I want something soothing and bucolic. I want to grind my way up a hill and see something other than more roads, McMansions, and ugly high-rises.

I'll have to look into the actual legality of some of the country roads I have seen. I just think it's strange to see a road that appears on a map, then ride up to it only to find a locked gate and a "no trespassing" sign. If I know anything about Texans and trespassing, people tend to literally shoot first and ask questions later.

CopeIt- I can easily string together a 50+ mile urban ride that includes a lot of paved bike paths, singletrack, and some gravel paths. it's still a lot of streets though. fine for a cyclocross bike. I also rode Walnut on my CX bike the other day, which didn't limit me nearly as much as expected.

CopeIt · Jan 1, 2020

They typically won't shoot if you shoot first. I'm testing out the hammerhead karoo out there. I'll let you know if the gravel pathfinding in that area continues to be good.

Texas (specifically Austin and hill country) > PNW

edt · Jan 1, 2020

See if Komoot is of any use. Good luck, Happy New Year.

https://www.komoot.com/plan

Ed

Dock Rocker · Jan 1, 2020

For the actual planning and GPS routing Ride with GPS works great. They have several different maps to choose from and allow you to map in areas that have roads but may not be on the Strava maps.

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chazpat · Jan 1, 2020

I have the same issue. I do use GravelMap.com but a lot of the routes shown in my area are mixed gravel and pavement roads and you can't really tell what's what until you ride it and I have to drive around 45 minutes to get there. I've got one route through a WMA that is a mix of multiuser path, road and gravel. I can see that there are more gravel roads there but I'll have to do some exploring. There's another area that my mtb group publishes as a gravel route to ride when the trails are wet. A variation of it was where I had my recent crash during a gravel race. But same thing, mix of paved and gravel and dirt and some gravel roads I'll just have to explore, which is fun though I've ended up having to ride along somewhat busy country highways at times, which I didn't enjoy. My gravel bike is a CX with 32s so pavement riding isn't an issue, just prefer gravel.

I can get to some pure gravel rides (I think) but they are further out. We have a cabin up in the North Georgia mountains and I'm hoping to explore some gravel based out of there sometime, but I'm still exploring mtb options from there as well.

mack_turtle · Jan 1, 2020

I see a theme here. I think we urbanites need to settle for mixed-terrain rides. 35mm tubeless Gravelkings at 35-40 psi is fine on paved roads and also fine on hardpack. the challenge now is finding long, interesting routes that don't involve chunky gnar terrain (lots of that in the mtb trails, which is why I also own a mtb) but is not all plain roads.

Here's another useful rabbit hole: dual sport motorcycling. I don't know a lot of about motorcycles, but the forums about this style of riding seem to have a lot of discussion about exploring paved/dirt roads.

Hurricane Jeff · Jan 1, 2020

In reality, I hardly ever ride "gravel" roads. Most of my local roads are graded dirt roads. We do have a few of these roads which the USFS has laid down a gravel base though.

mack_turtle · Jan 1, 2020

At risk of splitting hairs and defining "gravel," I think the idea is to seek out unpaved roads. These might be hardpacked dirt, sandy, or what is commonly agreed upon as gravel. The specific kind of unpaved surface is irrelevant. The point is that you're avoiding tarmac in favor of ... anything else.

In other words, "graded dirt roads" is what most of us have in mind when we think "gravel."

chazpat · Jan 1, 2020

mack_turtle said:
I see a theme here. I think we urbanites need to settle for mixed-terrain rides. 35mm tubeless Gravelkings at 35-40 psi is fine on paved roads and also fine on hardpack. the challenge now is finding long, interesting routes that don't involve chunky gnar terrain (lots of that in the mtb trails, which is why I also own a mtb) but is not all plain roads.

Here's another useful rabbit hole: dual sport motorcycling. I don't know a lot of about motorcycles, but the forums about this style of riding seem to have a lot of discussion about exploring paved/dirt roads.

Definitely for me. One of my local rides I can stop off for after work is a mix of bike lane, multiuse trail including a big boardwalk built on the river through a swampy section and crushed gravel sections, pavement and a short gravel road. Another one is a crushed granite path through a NPS NRA, bike lanes and paved multiuse paths along roads and through wooded areas. The NPS is talking about joining the two together, which would be awesome. They purchased a historical farm that connects them, they just need to make a trail and allow bikes on some trails they currently aren't allowed on. I hope it isn't a paved trail, though.

I've ridden both of these on my straight up road bike, but they are a bit more fun on the CX. As mentioned, I have to get out a bit further to do a real gravel ride.

Here's my daughter riding on a crushed granite section. This area is really underused. There are a lot of road bikers on the road these come off of but for some reason, they stick to the pavement. Fine by me, nice having it more to myself.

Crash_FLMB · Jan 1, 2020

I have the same problem here in Phoenix. I'm mostly stuck to a mix of dirt/pavement canals. They're great to stay off the main roads but get boring very quickly. Another problem I have is most of my riding buddies are strictly MTB so I'm exploring on my own or with a friend who's fairly new to riding.

I simply don't know where to actually find gravel routes. I'll check out some of the links already posted in this thread to hopefully find some routes.

And I know all about the gravel riding in the PNW. I lived there for 8 years and Seattle has the best MTB riding of anywhere I've ever ridden. I too am 'stuck' in Phx for at least another 5years.

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evasive · Jan 1, 2020

Check your county’s GIS page. They likely have a web map that includes a county road layer.

connolm · Jan 1, 2020

Be sure to know the definition of "private road" in your state.

In my state of Massachsuetts, the legal definition is a road that is not maintained by the town/county. It does NOT mean "No trespassing."

Now that doesn't mean people wont put those signs up to keep others out. And someone may try to bully you over it. But if they don't actually OWN the land the road uses, they have no claim. And most people don't own the road because they don't want to pay property tax on it.

We had a whole thread on the topic here: https://forums.mtbr.com/gravel-bikes/private-road-barrel-through-turn-back-1106413.html

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ericzamora · Jan 1, 2020

I was in a similar situation last year. Where do I ride my gravel bike???

The first key is to realize you may not be the first asking that question in your area. Gravelmap had nothing in my area except for mtb singletrack in the mountains an hour away. I found that my local cycling club has an off-shoot group dedicated to "all-roads," with their own facebook page, and the "founder" has found a ton of dirt roads to ride. I now try to join as many of their group rides to explore new areas.

Some of the best riding still takes an initial 45 min drive, but once there, countless dirt ranch roads await in the foothills.

The owner of my LBS also rides gravel and he hosts a weekly evening ride. Hanging out with all of these people has been a gold mine of information for my own excursions.

eric/fresno, ca.

Hurricane Jeff · Jan 2, 2020

I got you. I do believe that most of us ride on dirt roads and not full on gravel roads although there may be area's where most of the dirt roads are covered in gravel.

chazpat · Jan 2, 2020

mack, any of these gravel rides you do? The WMAs around me tend to be gravel roads. It looks like the Texas site is more geared to bike riding than here in Georgia as it says you can ride a bike on any of the hiking trails and search for locations to bike but I guess that is more mountain biking but maybe there are gravel roads to ride?

planning gravel routes

mack_turtle

CopeIt

mack_turtle

CopeIt

Sparticus

mack_turtle

CopeIt

edt

Dock Rocker

chazpat

mack_turtle

Hurricane Jeff

mack_turtle

chazpat

Crash_FLMB

evasive

connolm

ericzamora

Hurricane Jeff

chazpat

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