REVIEW OF THE PASKENTA INSANITY LOOP.

So I road on a rocky dirt road with a Road Bike!   Did it work Yes, was it super bumpy, Yes!  Was is scary going down hill at 25 mph on a rocky road.  Fuck yes.  Now add the wind that was whipping the bike around my concentration level was at super alert.  What was I thinking the majority of the way? 
My tires are going to pop and I'm going to fly off the bike.  As you probably already know my bike is a Diamondback Airen 1.   Unlike a regular road bike that has very thin tires, my bike tires a bit wider and thicker so it make riding on gravel/sand a little bit easier.  
This was my first long ride on gravel and it was very bumpy and jarring.   The whole way going and back I focused on riding in the areas the other riders had used in front of me.  Which was not that hard to see.   I had to be very wary of areas that I was not use to a patch of sand would pop up and I'd had to go, Oh not going that way, there was also deep groves created from water and hitting those to fast was not good.     You don't really how jarring the ride is until you get back on smooth pavement.    There were some small areas were the gravel was not gravel but rocks.       I'm really amazed that I didn't wipe out on this ride. 

Oh and the realization of how strong the wind just hit me today on my WOW group ride.  We did 25 miles and I was like holy fuck....(???) that was so fast.   On the Paskenta insanity loop 25 miles felt like 45 miles. 

Would I do this ride again with the wind. Hell yes.  If I had it my way I wanted to keep going.