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Solo ride for me this morning. I got to Scoville around 7:15, surprised to see two other cars in the lot, and a third pull in behind me. I decided to hit the big route in reverse which I've been wanting to do for some time, for whatever reason. The stretch paralleling 69 to the north was fun, but rides better in the counter-clockwise direction. The entire loop does actually, as expected. I did find a new little break-off where there are a few stunts I've never seen. My riding was crappy overall with a lot of stepping out. I've found that I ride terribly when riding solo. I think it's because I tend to be more conservative (read: wimpy) for fear of getting hurt while alone. Probably a smart approach actually.
I crossed 69 and took the main Tunxis trail versus the twisty switchbacks to the north of it. Once to the bridge I discovered a bypass around that washed out techy downhill (this time climb) so that was good. The rest of the climbing (which we normally descend) was sucky. Lot of stepping out and stop and go. The loop is way better the normal way. Crossed Cornwall and then the forest access road. Descnding that rock ledge right there is much easier than climbing it.
I took the trail at the big rock which heads East towards the Stone Road area. After the ledge, I headed right which basically just loops back to the blue trail. So repeated my track on that trail again that heads towards Stone Road. Cruised through there and then hit the sweet downhill.
Once on the doubletrack, I headed towards the cemetery twisties. Took those up back to Lamson corner. At the lot, I still had some time (it was 9 am) so I decided to hit a new variation on the warm-up loop and then head down into Sessions/B Street. Found several stunts I've never seen before getting back to Scoville. I can't believe with all the riding we do in this area, we've never seen these before. Crossed Scoville and headed towards E. Chippens.
I was riding well at this point. I seem to always get a second wind on the last third of long rides like this. I made it over the famous OTB log without incident. I also climbed that small boulder after crossing E. Chippens. I actually sessioned over there a bit and took that boulder as a drop (small) in the other direction. Then onto B Street. Cleared the ledge with no issues which I skipped last time so I was feeling good. Took the B street section a little further than we did last time (past the MR evil OTB tree) taking the two small hits in there. Returned via the rooty climb. got back to E. Chippens area and decided to take the twisties back with a slightly different variation (nothing new).
Once back at Scoville, I crossed back into the twisties to the north and hit still some more new stretches in there, crossing the stream via a very well built bridge. I think I had been on that trail with Nate last month. 10.9 miles later, I was back at the car. I finished up a bit after 10 am. Here is my track:
http://www.crankfire.com/map/index.php?tid=7&t=450&w=0
I actually had to piece part of it together using some other tracks since my GPS shut off somewhere around the trail heading towards Stone Road so I chopped up some other tracks to reconstruct the downhill and the cemetery twisties. A little tricky but now at least I know how to do it using TopoFusion.
All in all a great ride. It was absolutely beautiful first thing in the morning with temps approaching 60. I wish my riding was better, but again, that's typical when I ride solo. I was able to keep a pretty good pace, logging the almost 11 miles in under 3 hours. Each stop was very brief (under 3 minutes). Cool to see a few new trail variations. I think I have a pretty good handle on the riding in this area now.
I crossed 69 and took the main Tunxis trail versus the twisty switchbacks to the north of it. Once to the bridge I discovered a bypass around that washed out techy downhill (this time climb) so that was good. The rest of the climbing (which we normally descend) was sucky. Lot of stepping out and stop and go. The loop is way better the normal way. Crossed Cornwall and then the forest access road. Descnding that rock ledge right there is much easier than climbing it.
I took the trail at the big rock which heads East towards the Stone Road area. After the ledge, I headed right which basically just loops back to the blue trail. So repeated my track on that trail again that heads towards Stone Road. Cruised through there and then hit the sweet downhill.
Once on the doubletrack, I headed towards the cemetery twisties. Took those up back to Lamson corner. At the lot, I still had some time (it was 9 am) so I decided to hit a new variation on the warm-up loop and then head down into Sessions/B Street. Found several stunts I've never seen before getting back to Scoville. I can't believe with all the riding we do in this area, we've never seen these before. Crossed Scoville and headed towards E. Chippens.
I was riding well at this point. I seem to always get a second wind on the last third of long rides like this. I made it over the famous OTB log without incident. I also climbed that small boulder after crossing E. Chippens. I actually sessioned over there a bit and took that boulder as a drop (small) in the other direction. Then onto B Street. Cleared the ledge with no issues which I skipped last time so I was feeling good. Took the B street section a little further than we did last time (past the MR evil OTB tree) taking the two small hits in there. Returned via the rooty climb. got back to E. Chippens area and decided to take the twisties back with a slightly different variation (nothing new).
Once back at Scoville, I crossed back into the twisties to the north and hit still some more new stretches in there, crossing the stream via a very well built bridge. I think I had been on that trail with Nate last month. 10.9 miles later, I was back at the car. I finished up a bit after 10 am. Here is my track:
http://www.crankfire.com/map/index.php?tid=7&t=450&w=0
I actually had to piece part of it together using some other tracks since my GPS shut off somewhere around the trail heading towards Stone Road so I chopped up some other tracks to reconstruct the downhill and the cemetery twisties. A little tricky but now at least I know how to do it using TopoFusion.
All in all a great ride. It was absolutely beautiful first thing in the morning with temps approaching 60. I wish my riding was better, but again, that's typical when I ride solo. I was able to keep a pretty good pace, logging the almost 11 miles in under 3 hours. Each stop was very brief (under 3 minutes). Cool to see a few new trail variations. I think I have a pretty good handle on the riding in this area now.
I might have hit it over during cleaning it though.
