Stowe Epic - Sep 26th 09

[BigJay]

I was in need of a Stowe Epic. Last time didn't work or we got rained out. Now with the riding season in full swing, leaves changing and perfect dirt, all the stars were lining for a great day of riding. We left Jay @ 9AM with a great 34F and really dense fog. As soon as we got on route 100, everything cleared up and temperature started rising.

A Stowe Epic needs a whole bunch of ingredients to work. Good vibe, good trails, sense of exploration and of course, not minding going back and forth to try and remember where the next trail is. Seb and I have been guided a whole bunch of times in Stowe before... but this time we were on our own.

We started with the long climb on the singletrack and then hit Maple Run and back towards splitrock trail. We were on this trail back in Sept 06 and no one in Stowe seem to know about that trail... luckily, the GPS remembered! We came back on the catamount and went up to Peek-a-view to enjoy the beaty of autumn in Vermont. Simply beautiful.

In all, we rode for 25mi and climbed nearly 3900ft for a total of 5H on the trails. We didn't see much people... 2 hikers near the pond, one rider at the end of our ride. We were suppose to go to Imburno after... but our legs needed food and after a sandwich, we decided to head back up North while the sun was still out. We took a more scenic road all the way to Montgomery Center. We finished the evening by sharing a DogFish Immort Ale (Vanilla and Maple, 11%) and we were totally done by 9:30PM! Hmmmmmmmm!

What an amazing day!

 

[tjf67]

BOOOYAAAA Nice. Seems to me you people on the other side of the pond know how to enjoy yourselves. Thanks for the pics.

 

[Trekchick]

Beautiful.
I'm officially inspired!
I need to get a nice day that I don't have to do stuff around the house and go enjoy the fall riding!

 

[bvibert]

Great TR and pics!

The old tractor is cool, I love finding old stuff like that in the woods.

I moved this to the TR forum, and changed the title from Oct 26th to Sep 26th, since I assume that you don't own a time machine.

 

[BigJay]

I moved this to the TR forum

Great! Thanks!

and changed the title from Oct 26th to Sep 26th, since I assume that you don't own a time machine.

...or so you think!

 

[Trekchick]

I sent this link to my friend Epic from EpicSki.
He said, Man, that's Big Jay. He called me but I couldn't go.
You'll be glad to know he's sick about missing this ride.

 

[BigJay]

I sent this link to my friend Epic from EpicSki.
He said, Man, that's Big Jay. He called me but I couldn't go.
You'll be glad to know he's sick about missing this ride.

LOL! Yeah, i gave him a call on Sat. morning and got the message when i came back... And he can't make it for our "show-and-ride" at East Hereford where we'll show the 3 building techniques we've used on our network of singletrack: handbuilt, mini-dozer, mini-excavator. But i hope we'll catch a ride before this season's end!

 

[Trekchick]

LOL! Yeah, i gave him a call on Sat. morning and got the message when i came back... And he can't make it for our "show-and-ride" at East Hereford where we'll show the 3 building techniques we've used on our network of singletrack: handbuilt, mini-dozer, mini-excavator. But i hope we'll catch a ride before this season's end!

He's going to be soooooo jealous! He drools over the heavy equipment that I operate for my business. I can imagine that its killing him that he'll miss out on running a mini excavator.

You can count on me to rub it in.
Way to go!:beer:

 

[BigJay]

I can imagine that its killing him that he'll miss out on running a mini excavator.

We had that seminar back in June. Now we're showing different clubs and groups the results of all 3 types for our kind of terrain and forest.

What kind of machine do you operate?

 

[JD]

Nice J. God Street Seamus Spring trail back down? Or Waterfall StoweSchool?

 

[Trekchick]

We had that seminar back in June. Now we're showing different clubs and groups the results of all 3 types for our kind of terrain and forest.

What kind of machine do you operate?

Here's a brief description;
http://forums.alpinezone.com/63583-what-did-you-want-when-you-grew-up-4.html#post464644

It just so happens, he's jealous of me because he wants to run big equipment, but I'm jealous of him because he gets to ski at Stowe all season long.
Grass = Greener over there Eh?

 

[severine]

Nice pictorial! Looks like an awesome ride!

 

[BigJay]

Nice J. God Street Seamus Spring trail back down? Or Waterfall StoweSchool?

????

I don't know... pretty much parallel to the one we climbed but you take a right on the way down and end up by the road after a few steeps and a cool bridge. I ran into 2 riders climbing up that... Couldn't believe someone would climb there instead of the other trail that is much more mellow... they were Stowe locals i guess cause i've seen one of them before... but then figured that if they don't know the other one exists... then it's a really big climb to the top!

 

[gorgonzola]

niiice!!! i need to plan an epic/mini epic in the next few weeks

 

[JD]

You rode laurens loop back out to maple run right....then went left...descended....then what. You parked at the shop right?

 

[BigJay]

You rode laurens loop back out to maple run right....then went left...descended....then what. You parked at the shop right?

Rode Laurens loop out to Billings and then a right after the old shack... Out to a sort of open field (kind of like a ski hill... then climb left to a single that goes to a long stretch of doubletrack out to the road... Week hill i think and back to Tamarack on the way down via a doubletrack on the left where i took a shot of the old tractor...

 

[JD]

Singletrack after the shack=God Street
Singletrack on left after blazing descent down grassy hill=Seamus
right turn after buff doubletracky section (blazing singletrack descent out to road)=Spring trail