What a great cool & cloudy day for Phx! Because it stayed cloudy the whole ride, I opted to do some exploring of gravel trails. This decision was also made since this was a recovery ride to the 200k I did on Saturday in which I got a little low on electrolytes. Also, this weekend I have a brevet weekend in Tucson of Kitt and Lemon with 2 different 200k rides. The gravel exploration was in 3 parts: 1) a gravel approach to Deem Hills park using the gravel section at north end of 49th Ave. It was a great dirt packed, small pieces of ground-up gravel. Only a couple little places where it was not exactly smooth. Check the photos. 2) Once a Deem Hills Park, I had to go out to the street to get the control. Then I finally decided to take the sidewalk on the east side of the play fields. That sidewalk, looped around the north end of the play fields and a very short section of dirt trail dumped me out to the street. 3) Then I used the CAP canal and went further on it than I have gone in the past. Neat. 4) then on way down to the rollers of 92nd, I stayed on the dirt section a bit longer and dumped out into the neighborhood right at 92nd Ave Wind picked up a bit on the return leg. Yet it was a great day of exploring in areas I had never been. See the pics.