4:30
weather . . . really nice!
dudes... Dan, Mark, Bart, Mike, Ryan, Zach and myself.
this ride was a wierd one... in a good way. By that i mean, we pretty much all split up at different points and kept randomly bumping into eachother.
lots of stories... but the best being that mark and ryan gapped new jumps for the first time this year, dan broke a lever and finished his ride with no back brakes, and emma the dog can offically keep up now
we covered pretty much the entire forest network of single track... every single trail is in good shape, new jumps look good. A bit woods-man style for my liking, but i don't like gaps.
starting up the road from the parking area we went left at the top of the trail to connect to a single tracker that brings you up to the power lines. We gather at the lines and drop into a run with a step down and a handful of mini ladder ramps. Good fun. For dudes who aren't into drops or jumps, these are a great way to get a bit of enjoyment without taking risks. Plus it gets the heart going a bit, as it's quick and turny.
Back onto a fire road we climb. past the green gate and up teh gravel road of crap. this is where the group splits. some decide to pedal the blue trail, and others just crank on up a jeep road to Storm Chaser to check the new jumps. I decided on a hybrid haha, i went up to storm and met up with the other guys on the blue trail to LookOut. mark ryan and zack decided to session, which they got on film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRgMcTzlKTU&feature=channel_page
on teh way out to Look OUt it became very apparent that most of the traffic in nepaug this spring has been from free riders and jumpers, as the trail still had some leaves on it. Not slick, but a bit wierd considering there's been good riding for almost a month now.
I like this section, its got a lot of roller style up and downs that if you are willing to keep a good pedal going, you can really cruise and float the rocky sections, dip through the turns and breeze up the short ups. its pretty fun as far as mountain biking in CT goes.
For some reason we skipped the free ride trail and went towards the rock... wierd choice, but whatever. its more of the same of the blue. On the way back, Dan flips over the bars trying to make it over some stacked dead fall. Pretty funny. Pretty much because he called it heading towards it "lets see if i can't flip over my bars"... he got screwed by a rock under some leaves on teh other side of the stack and it grabbed his front tire and pretty much whipped him. I had to yell praise, it was the best wreck i've seen while some one was in 1st gear in a long time.
just after a few pedals coming from Look Out rock and heading towards the free ride trail theres a down hill rocky section. Its all off camber and moss covered. Pretty gnarly if you're the timid type. Dan goes for it, he wanted to rip for the first time. i guess the crash took all the fear out of him.... well, he cranked it... right into a tree... and broke his brake lever off. poor bastard, cause we're about 30 minutes from the car at this point... and ontop of the highest area of the forest. hillarious for the rest of us. Everytime we'd get to a tech section you could hear in hte back ground F%$^&!!! Sh!$#% COME ON!!!!
See, Dan was still trying to ride... with his clipless pedals... and no brakes... so he was just getting tooled. Bad news ... i think he ended up hurting his wrist on one bail out, but he never said.
We blast up the next crap-tacular climb and cruise the rest of teh fun section until we get to Missing Link...and we meet up with everyone. Unplanned. Fun stuff. Bust out Missing link like a nice old death train and go to Lower Tower to watch some dirt jumps before heading out down Bob Sled. (Best exit of any forest i've been to) Bob Sled is a twisty, "single" track trail that encompasses everyhting awesome in this sport. and it dumps you pretty much right at the cars. sweet.
then beer!
that was nepaug yesterday
we're going again at 4:30 today... dudes are going friday, but i can't
then creek on saturday and pennwood on sunday
weather . . . really nice!
dudes... Dan, Mark, Bart, Mike, Ryan, Zach and myself.
this ride was a wierd one... in a good way. By that i mean, we pretty much all split up at different points and kept randomly bumping into eachother.
lots of stories... but the best being that mark and ryan gapped new jumps for the first time this year, dan broke a lever and finished his ride with no back brakes, and emma the dog can offically keep up now
we covered pretty much the entire forest network of single track... every single trail is in good shape, new jumps look good. A bit woods-man style for my liking, but i don't like gaps.
starting up the road from the parking area we went left at the top of the trail to connect to a single tracker that brings you up to the power lines. We gather at the lines and drop into a run with a step down and a handful of mini ladder ramps. Good fun. For dudes who aren't into drops or jumps, these are a great way to get a bit of enjoyment without taking risks. Plus it gets the heart going a bit, as it's quick and turny.
Back onto a fire road we climb. past the green gate and up teh gravel road of crap. this is where the group splits. some decide to pedal the blue trail, and others just crank on up a jeep road to Storm Chaser to check the new jumps. I decided on a hybrid haha, i went up to storm and met up with the other guys on the blue trail to LookOut. mark ryan and zack decided to session, which they got on film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRgMcTzlKTU&feature=channel_page
on teh way out to Look OUt it became very apparent that most of the traffic in nepaug this spring has been from free riders and jumpers, as the trail still had some leaves on it. Not slick, but a bit wierd considering there's been good riding for almost a month now.
I like this section, its got a lot of roller style up and downs that if you are willing to keep a good pedal going, you can really cruise and float the rocky sections, dip through the turns and breeze up the short ups. its pretty fun as far as mountain biking in CT goes.
For some reason we skipped the free ride trail and went towards the rock... wierd choice, but whatever. its more of the same of the blue. On the way back, Dan flips over the bars trying to make it over some stacked dead fall. Pretty funny. Pretty much because he called it heading towards it "lets see if i can't flip over my bars"... he got screwed by a rock under some leaves on teh other side of the stack and it grabbed his front tire and pretty much whipped him. I had to yell praise, it was the best wreck i've seen while some one was in 1st gear in a long time.
just after a few pedals coming from Look Out rock and heading towards the free ride trail theres a down hill rocky section. Its all off camber and moss covered. Pretty gnarly if you're the timid type. Dan goes for it, he wanted to rip for the first time. i guess the crash took all the fear out of him.... well, he cranked it... right into a tree... and broke his brake lever off. poor bastard, cause we're about 30 minutes from the car at this point... and ontop of the highest area of the forest. hillarious for the rest of us. Everytime we'd get to a tech section you could hear in hte back ground F%$^&!!! Sh!$#% COME ON!!!!
See, Dan was still trying to ride... with his clipless pedals... and no brakes... so he was just getting tooled. Bad news ... i think he ended up hurting his wrist on one bail out, but he never said.
We blast up the next crap-tacular climb and cruise the rest of teh fun section until we get to Missing Link...and we meet up with everyone. Unplanned. Fun stuff. Bust out Missing link like a nice old death train and go to Lower Tower to watch some dirt jumps before heading out down Bob Sled. (Best exit of any forest i've been to) Bob Sled is a twisty, "single" track trail that encompasses everyhting awesome in this sport. and it dumps you pretty much right at the cars. sweet.
then beer!
that was nepaug yesterday
we're going again at 4:30 today... dudes are going friday, but i can't
then creek on saturday and pennwood on sunday
