MR. evil
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Randi and I decided to ride Batchlor street this afternoon, it was a very interesting ride to say the least. The trail system is part of the Mt. Holyoke State Park located in between Mt. Holyoke College and Hampshire College in Granby / Amherst MA. In total there are about 60 miles of sweet trails in this area.
I was a little worried that the trails would be a soupy mess after all of this rain, but a friend that rides there a lot told me not to worry because the trails all drain very well. So while there was no mud or standing water the trails were slippery as sh#t. Most of the trails of covered in roots, rock and ledge and nothing is flat. All the trails are up and down, many parts were completely un-ride able and had to be hiked. We tried a few rocky DH’s that were just too slick, our rear tires were slipping all over the place. From there on out we hiked down anything covered on rock, which was pretty much everything. I think we may have hiked more than we rode. A little less than half way through the ride Randi was having some issues with her fork, there was a bit too much air in it and it was feeling a little harsh. I should have known better, but I decided to let a little air out of the fork with a small branch. I let a little too much air out and I didn’t have a shock pump with me. So for the rest of the ride / hike Randi’s 130mm fork was riding more like a 50mm fork.
One of the great things about this area is that it is a very popular hiking and MTB spot. The entire area has been mapped and laid out with trail markers and way finding points. What I mean is that you will come up to a tree with a sign that reads ‘219’, you look for ‘219’ on the map to find where you are. This is great if you can actually read a map. So after a long hike a bike on a trail called Serpentine (Image the Nass twisty’s only with steep ups and downs covered in slippery rock) we came to a trail intersection to find marker ‘219’. Now I must have been reading the map upside down or something because instead of heading right to the parking area I went left. This turned out to be a bad call. This was the fire road from hell. Actually there is no way it was a fire road, only the most serious off road vehicles could make it up this thing. We hiked / biked about 2 miles uphill on this trail. Under better conditions we could have ridden much more of it, but the entire thing was rock and ledge and was just way to slick. Well after about 30 minutes of hiking and riding we came to marker ‘230’. I found the marker on the map to realize we had been heading the wrong way for the last half an hour. The only good thing about this was that the rest of the ride back was all down hill. I am not sure how, but Randi was able to ride the entire DH with only 50mm of travel on her fork. I was having a tough time in the rocky mess with 145mm of travel and rear suspension. We made it back to marker ‘219’ very quickly (the spot I made the wrong turn) and headed in the right direction. Turns out the parking area was only about 5 minutes away
I was a little worried that the trails would be a soupy mess after all of this rain, but a friend that rides there a lot told me not to worry because the trails all drain very well. So while there was no mud or standing water the trails were slippery as sh#t. Most of the trails of covered in roots, rock and ledge and nothing is flat. All the trails are up and down, many parts were completely un-ride able and had to be hiked. We tried a few rocky DH’s that were just too slick, our rear tires were slipping all over the place. From there on out we hiked down anything covered on rock, which was pretty much everything. I think we may have hiked more than we rode. A little less than half way through the ride Randi was having some issues with her fork, there was a bit too much air in it and it was feeling a little harsh. I should have known better, but I decided to let a little air out of the fork with a small branch. I let a little too much air out and I didn’t have a shock pump with me. So for the rest of the ride / hike Randi’s 130mm fork was riding more like a 50mm fork.
One of the great things about this area is that it is a very popular hiking and MTB spot. The entire area has been mapped and laid out with trail markers and way finding points. What I mean is that you will come up to a tree with a sign that reads ‘219’, you look for ‘219’ on the map to find where you are. This is great if you can actually read a map. So after a long hike a bike on a trail called Serpentine (Image the Nass twisty’s only with steep ups and downs covered in slippery rock) we came to a trail intersection to find marker ‘219’. Now I must have been reading the map upside down or something because instead of heading right to the parking area I went left. This turned out to be a bad call. This was the fire road from hell. Actually there is no way it was a fire road, only the most serious off road vehicles could make it up this thing. We hiked / biked about 2 miles uphill on this trail. Under better conditions we could have ridden much more of it, but the entire thing was rock and ledge and was just way to slick. Well after about 30 minutes of hiking and riding we came to marker ‘230’. I found the marker on the map to realize we had been heading the wrong way for the last half an hour. The only good thing about this was that the rest of the ride back was all down hill. I am not sure how, but Randi was able to ride the entire DH with only 50mm of travel on her fork. I was having a tough time in the rocky mess with 145mm of travel and rear suspension. We made it back to marker ‘219’ very quickly (the spot I made the wrong turn) and headed in the right direction. Turns out the parking area was only about 5 minutes away
