Mountain Trail Goodness

After a week that saw me mostly riding on my local roads and rail trails, I was anxious to get on some real dirt. Better yet some real dirt in the mountains.

I pretty much had my normal loop planned. By "normal" loop I mean the one that was my standard last year, and the one that I did with Don, Aaron, and Brad earlier this year, but have not done again since. I haven't done it that often for no other reason than I was experimenting with some other loop options. I did add some extra Lookout Loop single track in, so my time was a little slower, but anytime I can add more dirt in, it's a bonus.

The only drawback (pardon this rant) to the ride was the conditions on the low parts of Mountain Streams trail. 95% of the trails on the mountain were bone dry. This trail had deep mud pits from horses pounding the trails with their 3 ton asses and hooves after the rains.

Nothing against the horses (although at times on Mountain Streams I would have roasted one over a spit in a second), but DAMN! Mud bogs filled with hoof prints, shit, and all the disease that comes with a pool of baking mud/shit is not that fun. Mountain bikers are encouraged to stay off the trails after the rains, we're forbidden from riding in places like Roaring Run and yet the horse people tear the shit out the trails. I'm all about multi use, but what the eph?


Truthfully, there are parts of the trail that are in need of bridges and/or drainage. Easier said than done though, since the bridges can't be the simple homemade bridges you often see on your local single track, they need to stand up to the weight of horses, riders, etc. Given the fact that our great state (or commonwealth) is considering CLOSING state parks, etc., I don't see them dumping money into trail bridges anytime soon.

Anyway, sorry for that small rant, because the ride really was titz! There were times I realized that I was pedaling along with a grin on my face. Plowing over the spider web of roots with the Dos Niner on Lookout was particularly fun and the downhill of Mountain Streams was ass puckering as usual, but still damn fun. There was a funny part climbing up out of the North Woods trails towards Tunnel Road when a HUGE gang of pheasants/quail/grouse whatever took off beside me. The result was me letting out a scream of "HOLY SHIT!!", raising my heart rate another 100 beats, and nearly dumping breakfast in the chamois!

Climbing up Camp Run was slower than usual. The heat was pretty intense, and the road is really deteriorating. The gravel is super loose right now and there are ruts everywhere, so I had to do more sitting and spinning. Standing was hard to do without spinning out on the loose gravel. As I climbed a few friendly hillbillies on quads came towards me. They asked what was at the bottom of the hill. Without stopping a yelled "381!" over the sound of their quads. They thanked me and continued on. 10 minutes later they would pass me coming up the hill. One dude half jokingly asked me if I wanted a ride up the hill. It WAS tempting, I will say that. But I just waved him on.

Finally made it up CRR and to the xB. 35+ miles, 4+ hours, a shit load of climbing, 2 bottles of CytoCarb II/Gatorade, 1 bottle of water, 1/2 a flask of Hammer Gel (leftover from a recent race), a Snickers bar, and God knows how many gobs of muddy horse shit later.

The ride felt great. It was nice to do the full loop again. I did spy some trails off of Mountain Streams that I would like to 'splore someday, and I of course continue to think of new options to the loop. Better giddy up! Only a couple months or so left, before the weather up on the mountain could turns cold, wet, and snowy. Yikes!!

Taking today off the bike, gonna chill and get ready for another week.

BTW- I want to add get well wishes to friend and XXC contributor GNAT (Jason). Dude crashed on Friday, separated a shoulder and did some bone wreckage to his arm. Hang in there Jason!

Later.