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9-8-09 West Thompson Lake RAW

drjeff

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Got out about 5:30 for what turned into an interesting ride on my usual Orange all the way to the corn field and back via the yellow and a final orange loop. With all this great, dry weather as of late, there was no actual water crossings involved today which was a 1st for me on this loop! Had a few issues with my bike seat as 3 times in the 1st 1/3rd of the ride the cradle that holds it kept loosening up and as a result I had the neck of the seat, well ummm "very aggressively supporting the twins" :eek: :eek: Finally after the 3rd fix and taking the entire seat post out and removing the attachment for my sons trail behind bike and really, really cranking on the bike tool, problem solved (wasted maybe 15 minutes in the 3 fixes :mad: ) Then as I was riding back on the yellow maybe 200 yards South of the Red Bridge at the first real stream bed crossing, I really went for it and cruised across the stream bed and felt a big thud and heard the hissing sound - yup my 1st flat! About 5 minutes later with the help of my hygienist's husband (and a canister of Co2) we were riding again.

When we weren't dealing with my bike issues, we were riding better and faster than we ever have! That extra confidence of really attacking terrain on the big suspension DH bikes at Mount Snow really helped both of our commitmemts to our lines tonight!

Total ride time was 90 minutes (probably 20+ of which was fixing my bike :mad: ) for 6.05 miles and 1845 feet of climbing.
 
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Marc

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Sep 12, 2005
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Wow, I can't believe there's that much elevation gain there. I mean, it's all rollers, but so flat. Glad to see you're getting the trails broken in for me, I'm going to start riding there again after the brevet this weekend.
 

drjeff

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Jan 18, 2006
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Location
Brooklyn, CT
Wow, I can't believe there's that much elevation gain there. I mean, it's all rollers, but so flat. Glad to see you're getting the trails broken in for me, I'm going to start riding there again after the brevet this weekend.

That's the thing with how it rides and elevation gain there. You don't really seem like you climb that much, but when you get 15 to 20 of those 30 to 50+ft climbs heading towards and then away from the Lake plus the other regular elevation gains it adds up over the length of the ride. Heck, my elevation plot looks like a seismograph going off during a solid earthquake and aftershock period.

No long mega climbs, just lots of shortish ones.

As long as we don't get too much rain the next couple of days, the trails should be in awesome shape as even the wettest areas that are doing their best to hold onto some mud are drying out nicely and getting a good track(s) worked in so you aren't forced to ride through the speed zapping thick muck! And Tuesday night, my legs were ALMOST clean enough post ride that I actually thought about not rinsing them down before getting in the car to head home!
 
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