Being new to the area, I don’t know anything about Bull Valley, or McHenry County, but Activator Cycle Club member, Omar, recommended this route. Molly and I headed out west on some familiar roads, but soon we were in new territory. Here we are about 30 miles into the ride, seeing the Fox River for the first time.

Image

It was a beautiful day out here, after yesterday’s ‘scattered thunderstorms’. 

At the mid way point of the ride was a loop with some hills. That’s right, HILLS. They weren’t too bad because we only did one loop, but as Omar points out, doing repeats of this 5 mile loop provides some good hill training. The climbs were mostly 6-9%, with the steepest grade I saw on my Garmin being 17%.

We finished the 84.4 mile route in time for lunch while watching the Tour before I head out for a long run. Looking forward to the recovery at the Bluffinia Summer Concert tonight.

My ride on Strava is here.