On the Spot at the Bluff Point Experience

It doesn't get any better than this!  Bluff Point is an awesome place to ride a mountain bike!

There was a great turn out for NEMBA's 2nd Annual Bluff Point Experience on Sunday.

A few local bike shops were there with plenty of demo bikes!

But the highlight of the event was the ride!

There were so many people out on the trails and those trails were outstanding!

On my ride, unbelievably, there were no flats!

At the big skinny we ran into this guy, Kevin from Oxford, who road the skinny all the way to the end.  One other guy was able to do it, too.  Apparently, it was a popular attraction!

At some point we lost the main group so Kevin, his friend and I just started following the trail signs.

We picked up this guy from Massachusetts riding alone but lost him, too.

If you are going to ride Bluff Point, you have to visit it's namesake and enjoy the view!

I don't know what it is but I love riding my Spot.

 

After the bluff, Kevin and his friend headed back to the venue and I continued to ride another 4 miles finishing the with a 9 mile mountain bike ride!

Riding the Bluff Point State Park

After the Trail Maintenance we set out to ride the trail and Cory took us on an outstanding tour of some of the best singletrack in Eastern Connecticut!

Bluff Point is cruel mistress and lends itself to all sorts of mechanicals.
One of our newest Trail Ambassadors got a stick in the spokes that destroyed his rear derailleur
It was the Walk of Shame for Joe.

Hot and Humid but having fun!

I even wound up with a flat!  My Serface Krest (rear tire) failed me!

Trail Maintenance at Bluff Point State Park

Great group of guys showed up at Bluff Point State Park for Trail Maintenance

Where else can you ride great singletrack and then afterwards hit the beach!

A few showers moved through the area before we were able to start working

Too bad more mountain bikers don't do this.

Jason brought the Bob Trailer so we could ride out to where we were working

The Bluff Point Adventure

All I can say is the The Bluff Point Adventure
was a smashing success!

 

Set up started bright and early!

 

And people just kept coming and coming!

People from all over the state showed up and quite a few from out of state including Washington DC, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts!

 

I ended up working registration and did not get on the bike until 11:30!  It didn't leave me a lot of time to ride since lunch due to arrive at noon.  I wasn't feeling it either, mainly due to the exhausting ride setting up the course and the lack of sleep at the campground due to the weather.  I went out and did a quick 4 miles on the carriage roads on the Kona since my tubeless tires were still failing.  I was wishing for the fixie but took what I could get.

 

  

 

 

  

 

And talk about swag!  Everyone walked away happy!

On the Spot at the Bluff Point Adventure

The CT Chapter of New England Mountain Bike Association scheduled it's first Mountain Bike Adventure Series for 2012 at Bluff Point State Park.  There was a joint event with the Fairfield County Chapter at Collis P Huntington State Park called the Happening at Huntington but this one was put on solely by the CT Chapter.  Hundreds of hours were put into getting the park ready for what could be an onslaught of mountain bikers due to it being summer and the many beaches that are accessible from Bluff Point, that you don't have to pay to get into!

A small core of individuals that ride Bluff regularly assisted by the CT Chapter's board spent the last month clearing trails and posted regular Trail Maintenance reports on the Chapter's Blog.  Saturday's plan was to mark the main trail for the adventure ride and then the family trail would be marked on Sunday morning consisting of carriage trails.

After driving through a few rain showers the weather at Bluff Point was remarkably different.  Partly cloudy and sunny, with a slight breeze out of the west.

The slight breeze didn't help much in the woods because it was still hot.  Paula, Stephen and I rode cleanup, following Cory, Margie, and Karina as they laid out the markers.  We were still doing some clipping here and there, as well as ensuring the intersections were clear so that people wouldn't get confused and going down the wrong route.

Stephen

On the Spot On the Bluff

We got out on the park's namesake, The Bluff and the wind was a huge relief!  On my way up to the Bluff I stopped off and had my tubeless tires recharged at Pedal Power.  Never new tubeless was so much work because I am more of a fire-and-forget rider that tries to keep my bikes always ready to ride so that I can just grab one and go!  Might have to rethink this.  The Spot was running really nice and riding tubeless was a big plus because of all the thorns and prickers on the trails.

 

On the Bluff!

It took us almost 4 hours to mark all the trails and then we all got into the water to cool off!  What a benefit of Bluff Point!  Afterwards, we convoyed up to North Stonington where the CT Chapter reserved some camp grounds for the volunteers that were coming from other parts of the state and Massachusetts to stay over.

After getting our tents set up we all gathered at a picnic table to eat

drink beer and of course talk about mountain biking!

The morning after was not so pleasant because it rained from 3 to 6 AM and my tent leaked.  I didn't have the window frames in, which I had to do at 3 AM and while one worked the pole for the other one was broken and I had to pull the picnic table next to my tent to tie off the guide line in order to make it work somewhat.  Still, I didn't have the fly on right and quite a bit of water got through making sleeping hard.  I am done with tent camping!