West Hartford Rez - 05/19/09

[MR. evil]

I will keep this short & sweet for now. I was in the zone this afternoon a kicked the Rez's a$$. I was really hauling ans even sessioned a few small drops & rollers. Got started at 4:30 and was finished with the entire loop by 6:00. My GPS says 7.7 miles but its usually a little short.

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=213288

 

[Greg]

5+ MPH average. Wow. I'm not worthy to ride with you anymore.

 

[MR. evil]

5+ MPH average. Wow. I'm not worthy to ride with you anymore.

I honestly think that loop is more than 7.7 miles. Last week my GPS was almost 1/2 mile short on the Wed. night ride. Everything just clicked tonight, I was riding hard and really agressive and felt really good. I only took one 5 minute break at the top of the first climb at that small drop where you enter the woods.

You have to get back to the Rez soon. The newer section of trail at the top of the ridge (that by-passes the rocky down hill down to the stream) is quickly becoming one of my favorite sections of trail anywhwre. It has a nice long flowy downhill with lots of fun stuff to play on.

 

[MR. evil]

Here is my full TR, I was just too beat to write it last night.


The plan was to ride Nass with Greg, but that fell thru. I still wanted to get a ride in but didn’t feel like driving all the way to Nass from Hartford to ride alone. I narrowed my choices down to the West Hartford Rez. or Case Mt. in Manchester. Both spots are equally distant from my office but I ended up choosing the Rez because I know the route very well and wanted ride, not explore. I got to the Rez and was on the bike by 4:30. The initial climb up was easier than usual, but I did have to hike the last steep switch back. I have yet to see anyone ride up that section. From there I rode the power lines for a short stretch and then took a sharp left back into the woods to hit some single track. This is a section that parralles the power lines for about ½ mile and is pretty fun and techy in spots. It pops out on top of the ridge near that large rock feature we usually session trying to ride up. There was no need to session that rock this ride, nailed it first try and bombed into the DH. Shortly later I rode down that steep narrow step (the one near the picture Brian used as an avatar for a while) for the first time in over a year since I went OTB at that spot. Finally riding that was a weight off my shoulders. Just having cleared two spots in the course of a minute that usually give me trouble felt great and got me really pumped up. From that step I turned on the gas and made it to the upper ledge with the small drop where Steve-o crashed last season and took a short 5 minute break and had a snack. Along the way there were a couple of rocky spots that usually give me a little trouble. But on this ride I was so pumped that I hammered through them like they were not even there.

After my break I hit the small drop and took a line that let me play on a bunch of fun rock features that ran right next to the trail. I made it to the spot where a usually end this line and noticed a couple of other techy rock features / rollers that I could add to this line. Instead of just hitting these new ones I decided to ride back and start the whole line from the drop. This is a really fun line and I nailed it from beginning to end. So far I had cleared everything I have tried and was getting more and more pumped with each feature I cleared. I was now in the single track on top of the ridge riding at a good pace with a lot of confidence. I was dropping / launching off any trail feature in my path as long as it wouldn’t impede the flow of my ride. I eventually ran into a pretty wide log, about 12” in diameter that was setup as a skinny. I rode up onto it first try and made it right to the end when I started to loose my balance. I used my brakes to help regain my balance and then from a full stop I pulled a wheely drop to the left side off the skinny and just kept riding. Now I am feeling even better! A little while latter I got to another steep rocky roller, the one I sessioned last season when I rode there with Brian and Greg last. Last season it took me about 5 tries to get the nerve to ride down this rock face, but had so much confidence I just rode up to it with speed and hit the line down to the right side. Again something I though was hard seemed so easy, and now I am even more pumped! Its amazing what a little confidence can do for you.

From there I bared right into the newer section (new to me anyway) of single track. This section by-passes that long rocky DH down to the stream bed. This newer section is very twisty and has some fun banked corners that you can take with speed. I rode for a little while on the twisty single track and came up to a spot with steep rock face roller that I knew was coming up from a previous ride. I took the by-pass to the roller and just went for it with out stopping. Again it was super easy and I was even more pumped up! Not wanting to ruin my groove I just kept riding. Right after the roller was a nice low pitch DH section with lots of small trail features to launch. Most of them are water bars and log piles, but they all had such a smooth entry to could hit most all of them as jumps……which I did. I was also riding in a big gear pedaling the entire DH and was flying.

Very quickly I made it to the dyke where I ran into a group of riders. I asked them the time and was shocked to find out it wasn’t even 5:30 yet. Till this point I was just focusing on clearing techy sections and trail features without stopping, this was when I first realized how fast I was riding. This realization gave me a second burst of energy as I was off. I flew through the dyke and up the last long double track climb in no time. I was soon in the last stretch of techy single track and still in a groove. I was in a big gear the whole time and just plowing over any technical section that dared get in my way. I came up to that really large log pile to find a few people walking their bikes up it on the far left side……but not me. I just kept up my speed and hammered over that thing. I felt really good to clear the log pile that easily while a group of guys walked up it. I knew the ride was almost over and I just pedaled my ass off the rest of the way. Got back to the truck and reached into my pack for my GPS and saw it was 6:00pm. Did the whole ride in 90 minutes, which is by far a personal best for this ride. I then drove home and pigged out.

 

[bvibert]

Sounds like you had a good ride Tim. I love it when everything seems to come together. :beer: