Sunday, October 24, 2010

Hope your life insurance is paid up!


Avon, CT from the Pinnacle

CT NEMBA and REI held a joint Trail Maintenance day at Penwood State Park, which is on the Talcott Mountain Range that separates the Farmington River Valley from the Connecticut River Valley.  After working on the trails for a couple of hours and big lunch provided by the Flat Bread Pizza Company in Avon Tren, Glenn and myself headed out for a ride along the ridge over looking the Farmington River Valley.  



Paula riding a new section of the trail

We ran into Paula Burton, who was responsible for designing a trail re-route on the yellow trail in which we worked on.  She wanted to try the new trail and then headed home.  We continued on towards the Pinnacle.


Tren riding up to the Pinnacle

At the Pinnacle some walkers were kind of enough to take a picture of us.  Then I reciprocated and took one of them with their iPhone.  They were a little nervous at the cliff's edge for the photo just as Glenn was in our group shot.  It's a long drop.


Left to Right:  Glenn, me, Trenn


Approaching the Pinnacle


The Dillinger atop the Pinnacle


We rode the Yellow Trail and then took the Orange Trail.  Hooking back around we followed an old cart road but missed a turn that would have put us on some singletrack.  We also found a bootleg trail which had green spray paint blazes.  Glenn and I rode a section of it and it was laid out nicely but we figured that it must connect to the Blue Trail and didn't take it any further.  The unfortunate thing at Penwood is there is only one trail to and from the Pinnacle.  To work in a complete loop you would have to ride one of the formerly paved access roads.  We opted to ride the Yellow trail in reverse, and ride the reroute again.  It's funny how re-riding trails in the opposite direction is a whole new experience.

4 comments:

Rick said...

Great fall pics. Love the views. How's the climb to the Pinnacle?

Mark said...

Coming from Rt 185 is easy but the other way it's more difficult.

Greg Heil said...

Switching directions does totally change one's perspective on a trail.

This thought is especially crucial when trail building: I've got mad respect for people that can make a trail flow well in both directions.

Also, I find that if I'm getting bored with my home trails that if I just ride my normal loop in reverse, I find myself having tons of fun again!

Brendan said...

thanks for doing this.