Searching For Hills and Some History

I’ll try to keep this short, but yesterday I went for my long ride of the week with a 40 miler out to Fort Ben. I was in search of hills, and in Indianapolis the bluffs along the White River and Fall Creek provide some opportunities, although you have to specifically search for these “climbs.” As the Strava track depicts, I made several detours to track down certain hills. Thanks to Strava, I have been able to zero in on hills with the highest elevation gain for my rides. Only problem is I’m not sure how accurate the GPS track is on my phone. I think the tracking uses a library of topographical information to estimate the climb and is not as accurate as if I was using a dedicated Garmin (or other GPS unit) with an altimeter. Sometimes I feel like I climb endless hills only to arrive home find that Strava says I climbed all of 900 feet. Times like these I feel jealous of my fellow riders from southern Indiana who only have to walk out their front doors to find hilly country.

On the way back home I swung over by Crown Hill Cemetery, which I frequent quite often due to it being less than one mile from my home and possessing a few hills.  While there I did some hill repeats on Crown Hill proper, which depending on your route up, has between 80 and 90 feet of elevation gain.

For anyone visiting Indianapolis I would recommend swinging by Crown Hill. It is one of the largest cemeteries in the country and provides a quiet park like atmosphere, complete with herds of deer, a large network of nicely paved roads for riding or walking, and art installations throughout. Plus, the view from the top of Crown Hill is fantastic:

And not to be morbid, but the gentleman whose tomb possesses this prime real estate in Indianapolis is Indiana’s own, author and poet James Whitcomb Riley.

You can’t see it from this photo, but there are usually several bouquets of flowers as well as dozens of pennies left on the grave. I think the pennies relate to how a statue of Riley constructed in his hometown of Greenfield was paid for by donations of pennies from school children all over the United States.

History lesson aside, this week’s weather is supposed to turn to crap rather quickly with rain and then snow for the next few days. Today is beautiful, but thanks to the ride yesterday, my commutes will be easy. I’m eyeing early Saturday for a possible snow ride at Fort Ben. I haven’t been on a trail in a few weeks and this road and greenway riding is getting a little old. Although I will be careful with any ice covered log crossings…