Riding around the country

This summer I'm setting out on an adventure around the United States, as part of the Big Green Bus. [www.thebiggreenbus.org] Thus far I'm two weeks along, and have had some awesome fun along the way. One might imagine that twelve students living out of a single bus would leave little room or time for mountain biking, but one would happily be wrong! Having convinced my compatriots to allow me to stuff a bike into our crowded bus, I've been fortunate to get out for several good rides already this summer. Most recently, I got to check out little creek trails in Durham NC. Sadly the typical action shots have been replaced by still lifes, due to the nature of riding alone.

Hot! Hot! Hot! Oak Hill Bike Ride

Hot and humid weather has returned to the Upper Valley. Today the temps were pushing into the 90s (just barely) and the humidity was up as well. Luckily for us, the mountain bike trails around here are almost entirely under the wonderful shaded cover of trees. Joining me today were my dad and a friend we mostly see when our pond is frozen.

My dad leads us off around one of the early singletrack corners:

Same Old Local Bike Trails

Back to the Lebanon home mountain bike trails. I rode a trail I had ridden many times before, and you know what? It was pretty good. Knowing the good lines through the corners and over the technical bits and how long the climbs are can help sometimes. It puts me in my comfort zone.

A little rain can change the trails fast though. Here Phil slips out of comfort and into a tree:

New (to me) Mountain Bike Trails!

Last night I got to go check out some trails a bit south of me in New Hampshire. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I knew that there would be trails and I would be meeting up with some friends (and maybe some new faces). I was moderately shocked by how many riders showed up - something around 12. Due to the group size it took a while to get going, but after a while we did get started. The trails were interesting and fun from the beginning, starting with a mellow, winding singletrack climb. Parts of the climb were actually fast:

Close to Home

Sometimes the best rides are those that are easiest to access. They can fill in the small gaps in one's day when there is not enough time to go for a long ride, but when a ride is needed nonetheless. Trails don't get much closer than the trail wrapping around my house. It was the perfect destination (if it can really be called that) for a ride in between rain showers. 

The trail starts right next to our pond

Done. Finally Done!

There has been a bit of a lull in posting recently. You may have noticed. I did not. My head was buried in books and my thoughts in studying. Very unfortunate.

However far away it may have seemed, there was a light at the end of the tunnel and reaching it was ever so glorious. We figured the only way to celebrate finishing exams would be to go riding. Katie joined Alden and me and we headed up to Union Village Dam again. I brought along a borrowed lens to try out and had a lot of fun with it. (evidence follows)

Smiles were easy to find:

Hot and Steamy Ride On Oak Hill

In case you hadn't noticed, it has gotten hot here. Really hot...and humid. Yesterday the thermometer read 95 degrees and the humidity made it feel like we were swimming. We couldn't let that stop us though, so we waited until 6 PM in the hope that it would cool down some by then (what a misplaced hope) and then headed out to Oak Hill. The pace was kept around a nice painful level. Between that and the heat it was a shorter ride, but it was a fun and fast one on a day that made one simply glad to be outside.

The world is looking very green here now. Anson surfs through some green waves:

Rocks, Roots, and More

Another day, another ride. This time we went out to some of the more technical trails around and had a blast playing on the rocks and lurching over the roots. Technical riding can be hugely frustrating at times, but when one is in the right mindset it can be a joy. It becomes a sort of game or puzzle, trying to maintain balance and pick the right line through a section. This was one of the enjoyable times.

Scoping a line (can you find it?)

Recovery Ride

After an exhaustingly long but glorious day at Kingdom Trails, we woke up to a cloudless sky in Hanover. So much for a productive work day. Just as I was starting to motivate toward a day of homework, Tom called to go for a ride. I thought about declining, but then I came to my senses and agreed to go so long as it was slow and short.

Turns out that I got my first wish, nice and slow. Short: not so much.

We headed out down to find some less-ridden trails and found some picturesque bridges over some quaint New England streams.

Kingdom Trails

Last weekend we had a great trip up to Kingdom Trails. The trails were in great shape and everyone had a blast. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we were all thinking of our next trip there as soon as we were on our way home.

Here are a few highlights from the trip:

A Gnome Home! (on the side of one of the first trails we rode):

Sunny Day

The weather was nice and all signs were pointing towards dry trails. It was time for a favorite.

Why is it a favorite? Could it be the view? Maybe the sweet sweeping corners? The beautiful forest wrapped around the trail? You decide.


The view:

Return to the Dam!

The new trails were so good we could not stay away. We returned with a larger group and a little more preparation (still insufficient though).

Photos: Tom Collier

We were greeted by the remains of a previous ill-prepared visitor:





















 

Quick Ride

A short jaunt into the woods on some of my favorite trails. It was one of those days where it is hard to gather enough momentum to get out on the trails, but so worth it once you do. Sometimes technical trails hit just the right spot.

Photos: Tom Collier

Home...

...where many of us spend most of our non-riding hours:














 Photo: Tom Collier

New Trails!

We got the rare and wonderful chance to ride new trails near home this weekend. The weather was gorgeous.

First and Third Photo Credits: Tom Collier
Second Photo Credit: Alden Adolph

The trails were great. Here we were discussing the matter:

Introductions

One of my favorite things to do is introduce new people to mountain biking. The more people I introduce, the more fun. With 2 girls new to the sport and two who had never mountain biked, this Saturday ride looked to be a great one.

Photo Credit: Tom Collier

Excited to ride!

Mapping!

The local trail situation is typical of many places around the world. There is a lot of riding, and many of the trails are really good. Unfortunately, very little of it is both legal and public. Hopefully, that will be changing soon. One of our favorite riding areas is Oak Hill. The trails are normally closed until May 15th. However, this year has been incredibly dry. Looking to open the trails early Anson talked to the authorities and got them opened. Good work Anson! We took the chance to set out with a borrowed GPS to map the trails, as a hopeful first step in a trail legalization process. Photo Credit: Tom Collier

Anson Checking out the GPS:

The Dark Woods

Having been biking a lot recently, we decided that it was time for a change. We would take our bikes for a walk. First, we noticed that our pace was slower than usual on the road approach to the trailhead. However, it was not long before we were surprised by the speed with which we could clear technical sections. Here we see Rob tackling a technical ledge climb:

Tight and Technical

With many local trails wet and muddy we explored some of our favorite rocky, rooty, and seemingly waterproof trails. I was again riding with Ben and Rob. We had some bike trouble with Ben breaking a derailleur hanger almost immediately after we entered the woods. However, we accomplished the rarest of trailhead fixes and found him another bike to ride.

Rob ripping a turn:

Photo: Tom Collier

Still Riding

The weather was great last week and that made for a lot of riding, but very little posting. Luckily, things have changed and the rainy weather has kept us off of trails leaving plenty of time for blog posts, homework, etc. What could be better?

Here are some random shots from rides in the last week. Photo Credits go to Tom Collier

East Coast Bikers in Their Natural Environment

The afternoon was spent in search of the New England mountain biker in its natural environment. We have already seen them in North Carolina, an unusual place to find them. Our hopes were that the hunting would be even easier closer to home.

Mountain bikers can be a sneaky bunch though. While hiding behind a fallen tree we caught our first glimpse, through the roots:
















Photo: Tom Collier

Trailwork!

Max and Anson decided to take advantage of the sunny spring weather on Saturday to do a little trail maintenance. A favorite trail of ours had a sketchy log rollover followed with a hard turn that we decided to fix up a bit. We grabbed a rock bar, shovel, rake, and a hand saw and biked and hiked out to do some work.

As we made our way up the trail, we found what some people call a "widowmaker", a rotten tree about ready to fall across the trail. After some serious huffing and puffing we got the tree down so it couldn't hurt anyone. Instead of moving it off trail, Anson rocked around it to make a little rollover feature.

Our main project was to work on the off-camber rollover. Once we got up to it, we realized it'd be a lot of effort to correct all its faults, but we shored up some of the logs and piled a little bank up in hopes of improving the flow a bit. Maybe save it for another time?

Our final improvement involved an unnecessary turn around two large trees, which causes you to loose all your speed. So we cleared the brush and entrance between the trees and rerouted the trail a bit. Hopefully we improved the flow a bit better, only time will tell if it gets ridden in.

Though we did a bit of work we made sure not to cut down any living trees and use natural objects for our features.  No pictures, but we'll try to get some photos of the trail later in the season.

Back to New England!

We are now safely back to New England. On arrival we were greeted by classic New England rain and cold weather, only to be followed by the best surprise a New England mountain biker can have: warm, sunny weather, and dry trails!

Early season riding was in order.

Photo Credits: 1&2: Tom Collier, 3: Max McClorey

We were careful to choose typically quick drying trails and were rewarded with a dry, fun ride, with conditions more typical of June than April (at least before June became a continuously rainy month, as it has been recently).

The Drive Home

There's about as much to say here as you'd expect, given the title.  The drive was smooth, except for some traffic.  We kept ourselves entertained, though.

More correctly, Dave kept us entertained.

Slippery Conditions

On Tuesday we got our act together and drove the 3.5 hours down to Windrock, TN to do some downhilling.  The area was established mainly for ATVs and rock crawlers, but there's a section of shuttle-able downhill biking. We wanted to check it out.

We got down there, and Tom, Rob, Max and Anson took the inaugural run while Dave and Chris shuttled.  We were greeted with techy rock sections and steep switchbacks were interspersed  with wet clay.  Stopping became difficult as the dirt sections were a bit too slick, and your clay filled tires made the rocks a bit interesting.

Towards the end of the first run, Anson's rear derailleur fell victim to some vicious chain-suck and broke clean in two, so that bike was out for the day.  At the bottom of that run, we were all a little down.  After a long food and water break, we rallied and took a different descent with Anson shuttling. This time we found ourselves in a quite heinous, sustained rock garden... Another long food and water break ensued to get our stoke back.

After much discussion and more than a few snickers and PB&J's, we decided to hike the first trail we'd come down and session a series of plank banks and jumps, work on jumping, and take pictures.  What was looking like a bummer day because of conditions turned around, and we got some pretty sweet photos.

Anson takes a trial run off of the top jump.  Photo by Max McClorey

Adventuring

Our goal for today was the Trace Ridge trail in Pisgah.

The first hiccup of the day occurred when we went to turn onto forest road 5000, only to find that it was gated and closed due to weather damage. The second hiccup was when we realized a few minutes into the climb that we were sans guide book. Getting it would have required repeating the initial climb and the route had looked simple. This was where our learning experience began. Our climb went without a hitch (except riding right past the trailhead without realizing it). We arrived at the top and found that our path intersected a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway that had been closed due to a landslide. We explored and found three cool tunnels (how often do you get to ride through tunnels?). We also realized that we had no idea where the trailhead was.

The (Sorta) Sunny South

Our first several days down here have gone remarkably smoothly, all things considered.  Our first day down here, after rolling in to town, we rallied to go ride Kitsuma, a trail only minutes from our house. Unfortunately, we never got the camera out.

Day two saw us driving out to the Bent Creek area of Pisgah National Forest, and exploring that area.  We rode some pretty long climbs, and ended the day with the feature-laden descent of Sidehill Trail.

 

Tom dialing in a berm on Sidehill

Towards Warmer Climes...

While Hanover was unseasonably warm, there was still a frustrating amount of snow on the ground.  So, six of us (with the help of the DOC) headed south to Asheville, NC.  While Asheville had recently been under more snow than New Hampshire, when we arrived it was warm, sunny, and most importantly, dry.