My New Spot

Within about 12 hours of returning from Ashland, I set out to my new town of Louisville, KY. Its a move I'm making to be with my girlfriend, to get away from Fort Wayne, IN, and to be in, as I see it, the 'cross capital of the midwest. Its not uncommon for the Wednesday night 'cross training rides to have 60 or 70 riders. Its also got great training grounds for road and mountain stuff too. I discovered Cherokee Park yesterday. It is a massive park east of Downtown, and right across the street from my new shop. Its called the Cycler's Cafe and it is a pretty cool little place. Great burritos, good coffee, and great bikes. Its tailored to established cyclists, and is a great environment for any cyclist to be in and around cycling culture. We sell BMC, Felt, Kona, and Santa Cruz for the most part, but Orbeas are also on the menu. I've started this week, and its really a nice change from my old shop, Summit City bikes in Fort Wayne. There it was not about culture, but just making money. The staff at Summit are some of the best bike dudes I know, but it is ruined by the owner. Well enough of that.



Back to Cherokee Park, it has a nice rolling scenic loop with offshoots that can link back up to the main loop in any way you want. There are a few steep climbs off of it, and a bunch of nice long gradual climbs. My favourite climb is Maple Ln, its kinda rough, narrow, and is bordered on one side by rock faces, and on the other by a small river, and woods. There are also some fun little descents as well. The best so far is coming down a road to the dog park. It is great smooth road with big sweeping right, a switchback to the left and then a tight switch back onto the scenic loop. According to the guys at the shop, there is also about 15 miles of singletrack in the park too!

Well, I think that this will be a great move for me, and I can't wait to get an apartment lined up.
But I may be flying different colours for the road and mountain season down here. We'll see what happens.