RAW - Burlington, CT 2009-08-14

[WoodCore]

Great ride with Brian in the woods of Burlington, CT this evening! We originally planned to start at 5:30 but Brian was running a little late so I jumped on the bike and rode down from the car to check out the progress of the logging while I waited. It appears that not much more had been done since I last checked on Tuesday regardless the southern end of the Scoville twisties remains completely blocked by downed trees and is pretty much un-ridable.

Anyway, Brian arrived shortly before six and we promptly started onto to the trails. We rode the following loop which turned out to be super nice ride with a ton of flow:

E. Chippens Road>4-way>Downhill to the BSB>Jug a Lug>Hinman>Jonnycake Climb>Orchard Downhill>*New ST*>Scoville twisties>Jug a Lug>Cemetery twisties>Reservoir Road on the fire road bypass>B Street>4 way>E. Chippens and back to the cars

The loop came in at 8.31 miles with around 1040 feet of climbing and we managed to roll it in under two hours with an average speed of 5.3 mph. Not to shabby! With the little bit of riding I did before Brian arrived I was closing in on the 10 mile mark for the evening! Can't wait to try and roll the full route I had planned this weekend!!

Anyway, after riding every day for the first 12 days of August and then taking two days off due to the wrath of Mother Nature, I felt like Superman on the bike tonight. Perhaps some of the fastest riding I've done to date and so looking forward to getting back out there and pushing myself a little further over the weekend.

 

[bvibert]

Burlington - 8/14/09

EDIT - oops Woodcore beat me too it, well here's what I wrote in my thread:

Met Woodcore for a ride after work tonight, sorry I was late dude... Nice ride, interesting loop with some new stuff, which was nice. The trails were a little greasy in spots, but not too bad. Kinda weird riding there without anyone else around. The normal parking area was completely empty the couple of times that I went by there. We rode for about 2 hours and covered probably 7 miles or so. Woodcore was on fire again tonight. He really dusted me consistently through the ride. I, on the other hand, felt really slow and weak. I also couldn't seem to clear anything, which didn't help. At one point I did a superman impression down an embankment, when I got up I was covered in dirt and my bike was still up on the trail, about at the level of my head.

Good times though, glad to get out! I guess I could have done without quite so much heat, humidity, and bugs though. I did a lot of sweating!

 

[WoodCore]

Forgot to mention the young male deer that I rode up on towards the end of the ride. He was just standing there in the middle of the trail and I literally had to yell at the top of my lungs to get him to move out of the trail. Even when he did move off to the side it was only by a few feet and as I rode past I was close enough to reach out and touch him. Pretty cool!

 

[rueler]

I alerted Brian that you guys may come up on him!! It was not a typical deer sighting for sure...the second I stopped to check him out, he started coming closer...kind of confusing....Really cool, just not normal deer behavior that I have seen. He was not spooked or concerned about our presence in the least. I agree that you could practically touch or pet him as you were riding by. Good sighting!!!

Was the deer still in the middle of that double track heading towards Route 69??

 

[bvibert]

Yup, he was on that section. He was standing right in the middle of the part where it narrows down to ST for a short section. If Woodcore hadn't gotten him to move by yelling we would have had to stop since he was completely blocking the trail. I also saw a deer running off on the JC downhill towards to orchard field.

 

[rueler]

Yup, he was on that section. He was standing right in the middle of the part where it narrows down to ST for a short section. If Woodcore hadn't gotten him to move by yelling we would have had to stop since he was completely blocking the trail. I also saw a deer running off on the JC downhill towards to orchard field.

I've seen deer in that same location near the orchard field. It's a hot spot over there. Good seeing you guys out there yesterday!

 

[WoodCore]

Our new friend decided he wanted to live life in the fast lane today, literally!!

Spotted him from the car on my way to Sessions Woods WMA munching some grass just feet off Rt 69 completely oblivious to the passing cars, trucks and motorcycles. Didn't see any carnage on the way home so hopefully he'll live to see many more days.

 

[bvibert]

Nice to see you out there too Scott, especially since we hadn't run across anyone else the whole time...

I should also mention that I finally nailed all the sections of the newly configured jug bridges, going in the opposite direction. I nearly rode off the edge of the skinny one (the wider bridge left over from last year isn't an option anymore), but held on barely. Last time we rode through there I made it over the skinny one only to take a spill between the little connector and the wide bridge. I was pretty psyched to get it this time! :beer:

 

[rueler]

riding the jug bridges in reverse is always more of a challenge for me due to the usual muckiness of the approach to the skinny one...I certainly don't get it everytime...i have the standard direction dialed in a bit better...personally, I think it's all in my head going in reverse...i put too much stock in the potential for muckiness and should just freaking ride the darn thing.