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Nepaug 10/19

2knees

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I'll give this a shot but hopefully some others will chime in with better details and peoples names. I suck at remebering names.

Met up with Mr.Evil, Greg and o3Jeff at 9:00. we waited a few minutes for any straglers and some crankfire (i assume they were) showed up. Rueler was with them and they headed out and so did we. Greg and Tim took us in and immediately started to climb. anyway, we found a downhill with 4 hits, or was it 3? we all took turns hitting those for a while and then headed into the great unkown. meaning we were lost for about the next 30 minutes just backtracking and going nowhere. I could tell greg wasnt into it as he wasnt feeling well. sorry man, i know you wanted to go with the crankfire guys. finally we found those guys coming up the trail and we hooked up with them for a while. one of them, Duffy, i believe, did this amazing rock/wall ride thing. just sick. they also rode the most sketchy double fall line rock infested ridge i've ever seen. One guy bailed but got back up and cleaned it.

After that, Greg had to bail but everyone else continued on. These guys were clearing uphills like nothing, just sick technical stuff. Finally we stopped at some really big rock roller type thing. Being stupid is a strong point of mine so i decided to try it too. Almost wiped on the approach but pulled it off. I almost had to change my underwear. Not sure where it ranks, but dayum it seemed big and steep to me. Next came this run of hits on a downhill that just looked so tasty. first hit was a pretty big gap jump, then a couple of ramps, a berm and a small gap jump at the bottom. The guy with the single speed and yellow shirt went first (forget his name i suck at that) and just went down smooth as nothing. I said wtf and went for it too. Hit the first big gapper clean, nailed one of the ramps and then just wiped out on the berm. :roll: total gaper move. got back up hit the berm and cleared the bottom gap but promptly washed out on the landing. At this point, the yellow shirt dude said "Look, i dont really tell people what to do but maybe you should dial it back a little" Yeah not bad advice at that point.

From there we hit something called the tower of power which was just as fun as a roller coaster. downhill flowy and lots of little ramps. Duffy hit this 7 or 8 foot drop which just blew my mind. it was between to trees and had a very sketchy landing. just sick sick sick. From there, with the yellow shirt guys advice fresh in my mind, we came across two more gap jumps. one that wasnt too big but had a HUGE gap between take off and landing. Duffy, no problem. Yellow shirt guy, no problem. Again, i forget names but the someone else tried and didnt clear the lip. Pretty ugly crash but nothing seemed broken. After that was a large gap but in reality much more doable. That one is eating at me for not doing but again, i felt like i had pushed my luck and wasnt about to find its limit. the other two guys killed that one.

after that, some more single track goodness till we came to a long dowhill under the powerlines. A monster road gap was cleaned by duffy. the rest of us just passed on that and hit the long uphill kicker at the bottom.

all in all a great ride for me. Rueler and those guys are some incredibly talented riders. Tim was pushing himself and i was writing checks my skills cant cash. not a good idea.

good seeing everyone again, Jeff and Tim must be dying right now. They rode from 7 till after 12 oclock.
 

rueler

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I'm glad that our groups combined today! The crankfire guys you met and rode with today were Adam (adrock), Duffy (dufman), John (jakejohn), Aaron (aeroplane) on the SS, boulderroller (forget his first name) and me (rueler). My buddies that I originally planned to ride with from Guilford bailed last minute!!

It was nice to finally meet Jeff and Mr. Evil.

Pat went waaay big for his first trip to Nepaug...and everyone was definitely riding really well. There were a couple scary crashes that fortunately were injury free (Adam). As always my favorite part of the ride is doing Tower of Power, then linking up with "The Bobsled" at the end of the ride. All flowy downhill with some dirt ramps here and there. There is a bunch of other really nice singletrack that we didn't do....is right at the top of the gap jump trail that Pat went big on!! It is flowy and seems to go forever!! You would have all liked that one....we'll do it next time!

I was also very happy to hit a couple of things that previously were a bit out of my comfort zone....a steep techy roller and a 2 or 3' rock drop.
 

o3jeff

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The guy in the yellow was Aero from CF. Adam(ad-rock?) was the one that took the hard fall and did crack his helmet, definitely a hard fall right on his shoulder/head, glad he was ok.

That roller was about the better part of a 20 foot roller/drop/hill, great job Pat letting them know you meant business:-D. Also there was a skinny that was about 6' in the air that had a teeter on it and then it just ends forcing you to take a 8-10 foot landing without much speed, great job by Duffy on all the big air that he makes look so easy.

Thanks to Ruler and the CF crew for showing us around, the only fireroad we hit was pretty much on our way back to the cars. I even hit my first knee high jump, felt good to finally get the gremlin out of my head on leaving the ground.

I am really beat, will post up a CF gps link later.
 

MR. evil

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Great ride today guys. Very nice meeting you Ruler.

Pat you are F'g insane! I am still amazed how high you were on that last gap jump. You seriously could have jumped over me standing up. The roller that Pat hit right after Greg took off was sick. That thing looked almost vert. Jeff and I were standing at the bottom with Adam as we watched the crazy guys roll this thing. I just assumed Pat was standing behind me until I saw him at the top making his approach. I was scared just watching Pat ride down this thing but he made it look easy.

I pushed my limits todays and did some things I never thought I would. I was really happy that I hit those 4 hits on deli slicer. Next time I will link all 4 in a row. I was only able to do the first 3 in a row, and then it took a couple of trys to get myself to do the last one. I also wheely dropped the 3 foot rock drop Ruler mentioned. That things was not even close to 2 feet Ruler. I was really proud of hitting that only to watch Duffy launch that 8 plus foot drop from the ladder. That was sick! That guy has some serious skillz. While Duffy, Pat and a couple of the others were hitting that last gap jump Ruler and I played on some smaller hits in the same area. They were all pretty easy so I decided to take a crack at the gap. The first time I approached it slow with no intention of clearing the gap. I just wanted to launch of the lip which was pretty steep and land on the flat before the transition. That felt really good and I went at it again. The next time I carryed alot more speed (but not enough) and landed front wheel firts into the back side of the transition on the other side of the gap. Lucky for me that back side of the transition wasn't a verticle wall like the man made stuff but more like a gentle up hill. My front tire landed righ on the face of the uphill and I sort of went OTB.......but somehow landed mostly on my feet. As soon as I picked up my bike and got out of the way Pat launched the same hit and got some serious height.
 

2knees

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i'm still riding high from this. i cant wait to get back there.
 

Greg

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...and then headed into the great unkown. meaning we were lost for about the next 30 minutes just backtracking and going nowhere. I could tell greg wasnt into it as he wasnt feeling well. sorry man, i know you wanted to go with the crankfire guys.

I was just frustrated since I didn't know Nepaug really at all so if I seemed a bit bent it was just because of that versus wanting to ride with the Crankfire guys who are all well beyond me anyway. Still hooking up with them was cool. All really nice guys. Duffy is an amazing rider. He just seems so comfortable on his bike and rides stuff that I would consider almost impossible if I didn't see him hit it.

I was really digging the trail that we were riding once we met the CR crew. It took a lot for me to turn around, but I had plans with the family and I had to hit it. I hauled ass out of there making it back to the car in about 15 minutes. I got another run on the bobsled trail which is great. I think Nepaug is going to be a place that I'll really like once I get to know it better. I got a good feel for where the deli slicer and bobsled trail is so those are a few areas I understand now.

I was happy I hit 3 out of the four ramp jumps on the deli slicer as well as trying the ladder over the VW beetle. I wish I was able to continue on to see the rest of that crazy stuff you guys rode. We'll have to get back there soon.
 

MR. evil

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I was really digging the trail that we were riding once we met the CR crew..


That trail only got better as the ride went on! We will have to hook up with Ruler for another tour of Nepaug so we can learn more of the trail system. Once you split I was completly lost until we hit the bobsled trail towards the end. From the time you left until we finished it was pretty much all single track.
 

MR. evil

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Duffy is an amazing rider. He just seems so comfortable on his bike and rides stuff that I would consider almost impossible if I didn't see him hit it.


If only you saw the stuff he hit later...insane is the only work for it. But like everything else he made it look so easy
 

2knees

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I was just frustrated since I didn't know Nepaug really at all so if I seemed a bit bent it was just because of that versus wanting to ride with the Crankfire guys who are all well beyond me anyway. Still hooking up with them was cool. All really nice guys. Duffy is an amazing rider. He just seems so comfortable on his bike and rides stuff that I would consider almost impossible if I didn't see him hit it.

sorry, i shouldnt assume to know what anyone else is thinking. I just kinda feel paranoid being new, dressed like an idiot (nice backpack huh?) and riding a pos bike. those guys must've been like, where the hell did you find this moron. lol, so i was kinda relieved when we went off on our own at first but i thought maybe you guys were feelin the exaxt opposite.
 

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Jeff and Tim must be dying right now. They rode from 7 till after 12 oclock.

It weird...after 5 hours of riding my body is not really tired. But my mind is totally spent. Working myself up to take all those hits / drops and the constant adrenaline rush really took a toll. It was also stressful just watching Pat, Duffy, Adam and Aero take some of those big hits.
 

MR. evil

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sorry, i shouldnt assume to know what anyone else is thinking. I just kinda feel paranoid being new, dressed like an idiot (nice backpack huh?) and riding a pos bike. those guys must've been like, where the hell did you find this moron. lol, so i was kinda relieved when we went off on our own at first but i thought maybe you guys were feelin the exaxt opposite.


I think those guys are some of your newest fans. They all knew your were new to the MTB scene and were really impressed with your skillz, balls & lack of common sense. Seriously, if you keep hitting stuff like today on that bike it is just a matter of time before it snaps in half.
 

2knees

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Once i got out there things were fine, but in the parking lot, i felt like a fish out of water. I was like, wtf am i doing here.

all those guys were really cool. funny, when people are that good at something, they tend to be one of two ways. Just really mellow or get way too uptight about newbies and just want to rail them. I see it in bump skiing all the time. Some really good skiers but you wouldnt want to spend 5 seconds skiing with them. These CF guys were totally the former, not the latter.
 

Greg

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Here is the CF gps track http://www.crankfire.com/trails/data.php?dataid=506. 10.08 miles, not bad for a morning ride.

I was going to upload my track, but it's basically just like Jeff's except for the stretch to the northwest which sounded like it was an awesome area. I ended up riding 8.82 miles so not bad considering the head cold.

That trail only got better as the ride went on!

If only you saw the stuff he hit later...insane is the only work for it.

Hmmm....how about rubbing in the fact that I had to leave a little more?? :roll:

:razz:

sorry, i shouldnt assume to know what anyone else is thinking. I just kinda feel paranoid being new, dressed like an idiot (nice backpack huh?) and riding a pos bike. those guys must've been like, where the hell did you find this moron. lol, so i was kinda relieved when we went off on our own at first but i thought maybe you guys were feelin the exaxt opposite.

Once i got out there things were fine, but in the parking lot, i felt like a fish out of water. I was like, wtf am i doing here.

all those guys were really cool. funny, when people are that good at something, they tend to be one of two ways. Just really mellow or get way too uptight about newbies and just want to rail them. I see it in bump skiing all the time. Some really good skiers but you wouldnt want to spend 5 seconds skiing with them. These CF guys were totally the former, not the latter.

Dude - we've all been there. I think it was my second time riding Nassahegan when Nate (the Crankfire admin) offered to give us a tour. He was real awesome about just hanging back. At one point we got caught up with the rest of the Crankfire guys. I think rueler was there at the time. Anyway, here's toolbox Greg on the side of the trail fiddling with the seat on his $300 bike as they come tearing through. I got caught up in the middle of the pack and felt like a total gaper. At least you have big balls to make up for lack of experience.

I think those guys are some of your newest fans. They all knew your were new to the MTB scene and were really impressed with your skillz, balls & lack of common sense. Seriously, if you keep hitting stuff like today on that bike it is just a matter of time before it snaps in half.

Yes. Once that bike is killed, you'll need to just invest in a big hit bike, some body armor and a full face. Then you will be on a tear. And you probably won't want to ride with us posers anymore... :lol:

It weird...after 5 hours of riding my body is not really tired. But my mind is totally spent. Working myself up to take all those hits / drops and the constant adrenaline rush really took a toll. It was also stressful just watching Pat, Duffy, Adam and Aero take some of those big hits.

Big props today. I didn't see the gap jumps you tried but you manned up and hit all the ramps on the deli slicer. You almost ate it on the bottom one, but at least you tried it. Must make you feel silly about skipping those ladder drops after the A frame at Nass, huh? You also attacked the ladder over the VW too. Nice! I only tried it after being inspired by you giving it a go so many times.

The verdict I had after today was Nepaug has a lot to offer if you know where to look. The maze of fire road is confusing, but there is a lot of singletrack in there with some craziness if you know where it is. Next time I'm up for stuntry, I'll head to Nepaug. Pat probably thinks Nass is pretty gay now. :lol:
 

rueler

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When I was an inexperienced rider, Duffy and Adam took me under their wing and really helped me out A LOT... Every time that I ride with them I pick up something new. When I first started riding with them about 5 years ago, I felt like a fish out of water too...that only lasted half of the first ride. Their helpful attitude set me at ease and they showed me what can be possible on a bike...on top of that, they are very encouraging and willing to share their knowledge...riding with them has definitely made me better. As I said in the original post for this ride, you guys are always welcome to ride with me or any group I'm with. :grin:

I'd love to show you guys around there another time. I'd def. like Duffy or Adam to be with us though....because as much as I can figure my way out and back, the middle is sort of a choose your own adventure book for me....it get's a little muddled in the middle.
 

rueler

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we also missed a really nice section that goes out to the overlook!! There's more insane stuntry, but the crowd pleaser going out there is the epic single track that seems to be mostly downhill or flat twisties for a couple of miles!!
 

MR. evil

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Big props today. I didn't see the gap jumps you tried but you manned up and hit all the ramps on the deli slicer. You almost ate it on the bottom one, but at least you tried it. Must make you feel silly about skipping those ladder drops after the A frame at Nass, huh? You also attacked the ladder over the VW too. Nice! I only tried it after being inspired by you giving it a go so many times.
:

As gaps jumps go it was pretty tame with little risk. It was in the power lines right near the ladder bridge over the VW. When we finished sessioning the VW we rode up a small hill and crossed the power lines. This jump was right there. you actually jump over the trail we rode on to cross the lines. Above the VW up the hill was that insane road gap. Well about 100 feet to the left (looking downhill) was another larger road gap in that power line trail. This is the one that Duffy hit. The smaller one Pat and I hit was down the hill from that one. One thing I didn't get to do was try the VW again. We spent to much time playing on the jumps. I really wanted to clear that stunt in the other direction which is much harder.
 

Greg

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Duffy and Adam took me under their wing and really helped me out A LOT...

Those two are a whole 'nother level of riding. Just effin awesome to watch.

we also missed a really nice section that goes out to the overlook!! There's more insane stuntry, but the crowd pleaser going out there is the epic single track that seems to be mostly downhill or flat twisties for a couple of miles!!

Man....gotta get back there. I have a whole new appreciation for Nepaug now and didn't even hit the northern end of your ride today.
 
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