What's in a name

Just a couple updates for today.  First this post is going up because I'm sitting at work on a Saturday morning waiting for a machine to fail.  I was in pretty late last night working on it, and it shut down again after I left, so I came in this morning and started it and am not waiting for it to shut down again so I can attempt to diagnose what component is failing.  That's boring stuff though, the non working part of yesterday was much more fun and interesting.

My friend Molly called me up Thursday afternoon and asked if I wanted to sneak out for a bike ride on Friday.  It was supposed to be over 50 degrees, possibly the last great biking day before the snow comes (soon hopefully) so it was too good of an offer to pass up.  She came up to Northfield to meet me so I needed to find a route that would show off some of Northfield's best road cycling while fitting within the 3 hours of daylight we had available.  It wasn't a hard route to plan.  It looks something like this:

A great route, but what is it called?

After a quick warmup climbing out of town on 246 the route turns off onto a section called Valley Grove, named after the valley grove church which is located on this ribbon of pavement that winds through the countryside.  There is a great downhill with a wonderful view out over miles of farmland when this route is ridden anticlockwise.  The road then features a couple more scenic climbs before meeting back up with 246 just outside of Nerstrand.
There is just enough time after making the corner to set up for the Nerstrand town sign sprint, if you're into that kind of thing.  A flat reprieve awaits for the next several miles, small rolling hills only, before turning onto highway 14, another winding stretch of pavement with good hills and plenty of farm scenery to take in.
HWY 14 drops you off right in the little hamlet of Sogn at the base of the best paved climb in the area.  From the bridge at the bottom to the crest of the hill is a full mile long an average grade of 5%.
After this it is a downhill roll into Dennison, with another town sign up for offer on the outskirts of town, and a nice cruise back in to Northfield by any of several different routes.

At almost exactly 40 miles it is a great route when a couple hours are all the time available to ride.  It is easy to add on a spur heading towards Cannon City or Cannon Falls if more time is available, or to cut out the eastern portion of the ride if a shorter ride is needed.

This was probably the first "long" ride I did with the fella's who would form the core of the EMVC, we rode this on 4th of July weekend my first year living down in Northfield.  Several riders were on mountain bikes, including Jeff who rode a Giant Rincon with a basket on the back.  I rode most of this route as part of the Tour de Nick, my first group ride with the Northfield bike club, and my first long ride with my fixie.  I had planned to ride it with my bible study group before some mechanical issues drew us up short.  I rode it earlier this summer with my friend David who over the last couple years has built himself up from 20 miles on the flat Gateway trail being a long ride to a 65 mile day with hardly a flat spot to be found.  Riding it Friday was a great opportunity to share some fun roads and a wonderful sunset with another friend.  Once the crops are in and the farmers are fertilizing heavily is not the ideal time for riding from an olfactory perspective, the horizon is just as large, and so are the hills.

One habit of Jim's is to name all the regular routes/features that we ride, but as far as I know this loop in it's entirety does not have a name.  Parts of it are well known and do have names, but this great route needs a name of it's own.  Any suggestions anyone?  If anyone is interested in going out for a road ride and trying this loop out let me know.  It may be getting late for it this year, I'm ready to get the skis on at this point, but when the snow goes away there will be plenty of time for some good rides next year.  I also have it on my bucket list to rollerski this next summer, so if anyone is interested in that we'll make it happen.