20014 Fall Fiesta at Gay City State Park

8 years of visiting Gay City State Park

Gay City State Park is one those riding areas in Connecticut is great for every level of riding.  There is a great mix of single and dual track in which, from a mountain biking perspective, can cover a lot of ground.  The other big attraction to Gay City is that it abuts Case Mountain and you can also get to Meshomasic State Forest, aka Mesh. That's why the Central Connecticut Chapter of New England Mountain Bike Association has it's annual Fall Fiesta there each year.  

It was a crisp fall morning in the eastern part of Connecticut and not a cloud in the sky.  The amount of riders showing up this year was incredible!  With a wide range of bikes of all tire sizes.  There were still some bikes with 26 inch tires but those seem to pale in comparison with all the 29ers and recent addition, 27.5 inch tires.  And don't forget the fat bikes.  A couple of rigid bikes and even a few with front suspension forks!

 

After the advanced ride took off and the other big rides left the area I hung out till 10 to take the late comers out with me which entails riding through the park and then picking up the Ribbon Trail and taking that over to Blackledge Falls and then riding back to Gay City on the Blackledge Falls trail.

We didn't ride the Ribbon Trail last year because of wet conditions and there was an ongoing property owner dispute with a trail that came off it that made riding in that section of the park sensitive but it appears that has been squared away now with a tremendous stone wall.

I ended up taking two guys out with me on my ride.  We headed out on the same initial loop that we have been riding for years but split off from the marked course and started the long climb towards Case Mountain.  We weren't heading into Case but that was the way you need to go in order to get to the start of the Ribbon Trail.

The Ribbon Trail starts off the trail that splits off from the Case Mountain connector trail.  It's a great trail that is fast and flowy with plenty of rock rollers and plenty of technical sections to test your meddle.

 

Along the edge of the disputed property with the Stonehenge like barrier my barend caught sapling and I went down hard.  The funny thing was that I was riding kind of slow.  Got a nice cut and scrape near my ankle but it wasn't bleeding profusely so I left it alone.  Further down the trail though my shifting got a little wonky and then my chain went behind the cassette and we had to stop and get it out.  That's when I discovered that the derailleur hanger was bent.  

Instead of a 9 speed bike I was now down to 3 or 4 speeds so basically just kept the bike in one gear and rode it like a singlespeed the rest of the way which was 3 more miles.  

Getting back to the main trail at Gay City we ran into some of the bigger rides that were returning from their adventures into Case Mountain.  

My route

Once back at the parking area there was the best pizza from Glastonbury and it was bring your own beverage.  I visited with my buddies from ECHO (Eastern Connecticut Hammer Organization), who just happened to be holding their annual ECHOFest at the same time. They didn't do much riding and were a little subdued than previous years, I guess they are getting old.

  

While not riding, they were raffling off a Corona, Full Suspension Mountain Bike.  It was a small. They were seeing who could throw a used rubber (tire) the furthest.  I wanted to stay for the additional events but had to get home to the family.  Maybe they'll start riding and brewing again to make bring back ECHOFest to it's former prominence. 

Gay City Trails in 3d

CT NEMBA's Fall Fiesta

The Connecticut Chapter of New England Mountain Bike Association had it's annual Fall Fiesta at Gay City State Park on Sunday, September 29th and you couldn't ask for a better day to ride!  Coming off the cold week the fall colors were resplendent and the temperature by ride time was already in the upper 60s.

 

 

Cycling Concepts of Glastonbury was on hand providing Tech Support and donated a ton of swag for the raffle!  They are a great shop and promote quite a few interesting rides, of the roadie variety, that I am going to have to try next year, like the two ferry ride.

The advanced and the intermellow ride took off at the same time and there most have been 40 riders in the combined group.  It got a little tense at the first climb when the conga line came to a screeching halt when someone couldn't pedal up the short climb paralleling Route 85 and the ire of some of the advanced riders bringing up the rear could be felt.

The two groups broke off from one another after the bridge on the north end of the park.  I stayed with the advanced group because they were going into Case Mountain and were going to ride a new trail that recently popped up near the Birch Mountain side of Case.  The other group was headed over to the Ribbon Trail.

We met up with the slower group one of the climbs prior to the turn off to the Ribbon Trail.

Rest stop on Birch Mountain Road before hitting the good stuff!  At first everyone thought that one woman, seen bent over in the picture above, was twerking, but she was actually stretching.  Another guy was stretching, too, but he looked like he was puking.

The section we rode into Case Mountain can be seen in Blue on the map below.  Basically we went down the Fern Trail (always rode up it in the past) and then hit the new trail, which doesn't really have a concrete name.  Some are calling it the Fern Trail 2 or Second Fern Trail.  There is a Strava Segment for part of the trail called Shank Juice.  I was out of my league with this group and left in their dust.

We rode back to Gay City on the power line access road and I contemplated hitting the Ribbon Trail (In Pink) but didn't think I was going to last so I bailed.  Still the ride back was pretty tough.  Not sure what happened to my endurance, guess I have been riding roads, too, much which seems to have slowed me down in the woods a bit.

At the end of the ride was the pizza!

The Riding Life, Vicariously

Riding Gay from Cycle Snack on Vimeo.

Since I am still not riding trails yet, the only thing that I can do is make riding videos and dream about riding.

Case Mountain: Trails Perspective

I uploaded my GPS Track from Friday to Crankfire.com, the only GPS website that I know that allows you to see multiple tracks over a given map, and also has a good base map of the local trail system.  Friday's puts things in perspective for me because it shows just how close we were to Gay City State Park, a location that I ride at least once a year.  And just think what you could do riding out of Gay City?  The possibilities are endless!

Fall Fiesta: The Wafflers' Ride

 (l to r):  Mike, Tren, Mark, John

After the rain let up and all the other rides took off, Tren and I hung out for any late comers.  Sure enough, we had a taker.  Mike wasn't sure the ride was on but decided to check it out anyway.  Same with John, only he was coming down from Massachusetts so while he was getting ready the three of us took a practise loop.  Once back at the tent we picked up John and headed off on what was to be a 6 mile XC ride the Intermediate Route for the Fall Fiesta.

Leaving as late as we did meant we probably wouldn't wouldn't be hitting the trail out the Blackledge Falls and with all the rain we got the Ribbon Trail was a no go.  So today's route (in blue) followed the route that was laid out for the Fall Fiesta, for the most part.  

The rain shall pass and we'll be riding in no time!

It was pouring when I got to Gay City Sunday morning

but on the horizon there was a break in the clouds

the rain wasn't finished just yet

but it was quickly becoming apparent that the day would be great

though a few more drops needed to fall

It was like Herbert von Karajan conducting the

Vienna Philharmonic's rendition of 

Also Sprach Zarathustra

(or the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey) 

The riding shall begin!

Another Wallk of Shame

Seems busted spokes were quite prevalent on Sunday. There was Joe's pre-ride mechanical that he fixed prior to us leaving on the straggler ride and this pour soul was returning right before we left.

Three busted spokes! When asked how big he went the answer was no drops at all, just normal riding.

Eric, from the ECHO group, also busted a few spokes. Apparently on a $400 rear wheel!  Can't believe mediocre Gay City is really taking a toll on bikes!

Single and Gay

Took the Single Speed to Gay City State Park in Hebron, CT for the annual CT NEMBA Fall Fiesta.  We had a pretty good turn out but many of the rides kicked off later than usual, largely because our usual spot, near the entrance to the park was taken by some religious outfit doing some sort of mass baptism.  As usual I take the last group of stragglers out with me.

This was the first time we ever had a pre-ride mechanical.  Joe is seen here putting his wheel back together after replacing a broken spoke that he noticed while riding around in the parking lot.  In the meantime, I paid a visit to the ECHO MTB and Fitness Club.  I think this was their first MTB event since the spring.  We have been meaning to get together for a Tour de Mesh ride but it never panned out so this was the next best thing.  

Their usual antics were in full swing buy putting up a wanted poster of me.

I think they are just jealous because I ride a single speed 29er, Monster Crosser, and a fixed gear on the roads!  Not to mention the inventor of the Fetish Fixation 69er.

Clem is seen here with his pre-ride morning eye opener:  a bottle of Jamison and a Long Trail.  After paying my respects I gathered the stragglers and we headed off only to have another straggler drive up as we were heading off.  We waiting for him and then we were off.  I decide to follow the Intermediate Route which was flagged with yellow markers.  This was an awesome ride that put us on some trails that I had never ridden before.

One such trail was the Ribbon Trail which has to be some of the best Single Track in the state of Connecticut!  You pick it up off the gas line by cutting up towards Birch Mountain Road and then it's one continual, flowy, windy, curvy descent to the double track in the Black Ledge Falls Park.  Sweet single track!  There were little hucks and rollers along the way, as well, as some bigger ones, too.  Plenty of tech, too!  Some of the technical sections reminded me of the Black Diamond Dave trail at Wilton Woods.

We got to the power lines by 12:30 and were thinking about cutting a chunk out to get back in time for the Pizza and Swag raffle but then it dawned on me that I had all the swag locked up in my car, so I decided, the group decided to press on and we did!

Holly

Mark

Joe

Interesting bog

The Straggler Ride

We rode 11.78 miles today.

You can check out the ride on

Crankfire.com

or

Garmin Connect

After my presidential duties were taken care of I headed back to the Echo Party to sample some of their infamous Giles Corey brews, which included an Oktoberfest and German Dark Things which I renamed to the actual German:  Dunkles Dinge.

Lady Lindsay and Sir Zac

Nothing beats a good micro after a hard ride!

Drinking the Dunkles Dinge while giving my acceptance speech as an honorary ECHO Member.