Kingdom Trails - Bike and Brew Weekend - August 5-7, 2011

Spent a long weekend up in the Northeast Kingdom recharging the mental batteries and draining the physical one's. Pulled into East Burke around 11am on Friday and met up with the rest of the riding group. We got situated in our condo (right at the base of Burke Mtn.) geared up and headed out the back door onto the trail system. Rode a hefty 20+ mile loop which included favorites such as Burnham Down, Poundcake, Sidewinder, Herbs, Webs, Kitchel and the new trail Troll Stroll. Trails were dusty and very dry with the exception of Burnham Down which still had it's signature mud holes. Followed the ride up with a few margaritas and a pasta dinner, perfect end to a great day!

Woke up early on Saturday and headed into town, pedaled up Darling Hill and rolled a nice 11+ mile loop that hit a mix of trails including some repeats from Friday's ride. After the XC ride was done we headed back up for an afternoon of DH at the Burke Mountain Bike Park and the Brewfest later in the evening. Had a ton of fun running the new DH trails especially the newest trail Jester. That trail was frickin awesome!!!! Huge ass berms, jumps, table tops, step ups, etc. and most had multiple lines so each ride down the trail was different. Think I rode the rest of the trails just once but just kept lapping Jester over and over again.

The brew fest was fun and although limited in the number of actual breweries on hand the quality was excellent and there was plenty of schwag to be had! Favorite beer was the smashed blueberry from Shipyard. A dark beer that had a light taste and plenty of kick at 8+%.

Woke up to dark and cloudy skies on Sunday as it had rained pretty hard overnight. The rain did stop and although not fully motivated to get back on the bike and ride, a couple of us diehards did just that! We were actually rewarded with some of the best riding conditions of the weekend. The rain was basically absorbed into the super dry trails and did nothing more than kill the dust and make the dirt super tacky and fast. Even though I was a bit on the tired side and the humidity was over the top the condition of the trails almost made this the best day of the weekend. We ended up rolling around 11 miles in just under 2 hours and did an unconventional type of ride. We rode a lot of the trails in the opposite direction that they are normally ridden. Definitely kept things interesting.

A great weekend of riding for sure and can't wait to get back up there for some more!!


Here's some video..........


Jester





Darling Hill Trails




And the GPS tracks

http://www.crankfire.com/gps/track/10043/kingdom_trails_-_august_5_2011

http://www.crankfire.com/gps/track/10044/kingdom_trails_-_august

http://www.crankfire.com/gps/track/10042/bike_and_brew_08062011

http://www.crankfire.com/gps/track/10045/kingdom_trails_-_august

Nice! I should have gotten over to the Brewfest. So the lift served is some good stuff? Were there lots of folks there (I hope)?

Marc and I were up for the weekend too. First time ever riding up there, it's freakin' awesome! Did a sufferfest 30ish mile ride Saturday around Darling Hill. Tons of great climbs and even better DHs. Had to do two Sidewinder laps because it was just that awesome!

Went downhilling in the wet on Sunday. Super greasy and muddy. Finished off the day by pedaling up to the summit and riding J-bar. It was so ridiculously greasy. Very sketchy but fun. The bottom half below the CCC road was really awesome.

Brew Fest was a good time. Watching the little rascals do crazy shit off the dirt jumps was pretty sweet. Trout River beer is delicious. Never had it before this weekend, now I have to make a trip up to Burke this winter to get some fresh from the tap.

Nice video. I love the sidewinder footage. Every time you fly across the flats I get the feeling in stomach again. Such a fantastic trail, it just needs to be about 5 times longer!

thetrailboss said:

Nice! I should have gotten over to the Brewfest. So the lift served is some good stuff? Were there lots of folks there (I hope)?

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Lift served is pretty good. Impressive for just their first season running a lift. Every run except Knighslayer is very good. Knightslayer kind of sucks to be honest. Flow is awful. Some jumps I'll won't make the landing even if I have a ton of speed, then others I almost clear the entire landing ramp with barely any speed. Very dangerous design, every jump should require about the same amount of speed relative to the terrain. Burke needs to go to Highland and ride Hellion to see how a jump trail should be built.

And it seemed pretty crowded to me, but I'm used to riding down in MA where 5 cars in the parking lot is a crowded day.

Awesome report summed up the weekend quite well! We were up there Saturday and it was a pretty killer day. Conditions were what the others said.....dry and dusty. Actually, the loose sand caused me some issues on Tap and Old Webs. ( came over the top to land on a patch of dry stuff....sent me spinning)

Met a guy from PA who hiked Mt. Washington with his dad Friday. Apparently the father slipped and fell, then finished the hike. As it turns out, he broke his ankles and thought he only strained it. Sweet story.

We had a killer weekend and sadly missed the riding Sunday....just a quick out and back. It was cool though, got to pop my buddies KT cherry. We are heading back Columbus Day weekend for sure.

Great report and videos gents.

Sweet videos! I hate you all!

Nice job on the bridges, MTN-FUN!

Do you guys get a lot of heat for riding muddy trails? I wasnt that into biking when I lived back home but have gotten into the downhill aspect pretty good out here. Its a cardinal sin to ride when its muddy out here, but peeps do put a lot of time and effort into making everything a flow track out here.

Here's some video from the new trail on Darling Hill - Troll Stroll!

AdironRider said:

Do you guys get a lot of heat for riding muddy trails? I wasnt that into biking when I lived back home but have gotten into the downhill aspect pretty good out here. Its a cardinal sin to ride when its muddy out here, but peeps do put a lot of time and effort into making everything a flow track out here.

Click to expand...

FWIW Kingdom Trails closed the Burke Mountain trails earlier this week for a couple days to let them dry out. So I think that they don't like folks biking muddy trails.

thetrailboss said:

FWIW Kingdom Trails closed the Burke Mountain trails earlier this week for a couple days to let them dry out. So I think that they don't like folks skiing muddy trails.

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I don't like skiing muddy trails either! :lol:

The trails on Burke tend to dry out much slower than those on Darling Hill due to different soil types. The deeper sandier soil on Darling Hill results in the trails being open earlier in the season and the trails hold up very well even when a bit muddy. If it is extremely wet, KTA will shut down selected trails or even the entire trail system.

Good catch!

nice! thanks for the stoke!!! especially Troll Stroll, can't wait to hit it in a few weeks!