Trail Riding during this difficult time

Jerry Milne, CT DEEP Forester, reached out to me the other day about trail etiquette.

Some mountain bikers are not yielding to hikers. They are coming up behind them, startling them, and saying “coming through”.

Don't let your favorite riding area turn into another Mianus, where access to one side of the park has been shut off to mountain biking due to poor rider etiquette.

Rigid in Mianus

Took the Dillinger to Mianus this morning. I would have preferred to have had the 'Horse but I am still waiting on the replacement hanger that I ordered, but Mianus is great for riding it rigid as I found out so long ago when I first got the Qball. The dark purple track on the map above was today's route and you can look at it interactively on on MTBGuru: Turkey Burner.

When I got in the car it wasn't raining but it had obviously rained the night before. The radar map showed a 50/50 chance of getting more rain this morning and the drive down to Stamford certainly proved the weatherman's accuracy. When I got to Merribrook Lane I was taken by surprise by two things: (1) the new parking lot between the road and the red bar and; (2) the fact that the parking lot was really empty. Seeing that I was also a half hour early I got ready. Decided that it was too cold for shorts so I put on the bibs.

Shortly thereafter Glenn, the CT NEMBA Secretary showed up, then a few other people started to trickle in and by ride time we had 9 people raring to go. By this time it was raining however, it was a light rain and nothing heavy.

The trails at Mianus are perfect for singlespeeding and no suspension. I tried a few smaller hucks, hit just about every up-and-over, and had no trouble keeping up with everyone else. Two hours into the ride the rain stopped and a half hour later the sun even poked out for a bit. With the exception of a few stream crossings where you would always expect to find mud the trails were not muddy at all, except for the Swamp Trail, but what would you expect?

Took the 'Horse to Mianus

I don't think I have had Veterans Day off from work since I got off active duty from the Army so in honor of Veteran's day, Tren and I hit up Mianus River Park. I know, I know, there are all sorts of euphemisms for Mianus, especially when the trail conditions are wet and muddy. Only today the conditions were dry and pretty leafy, which actually made it slippery.

Tried some new stuff, rode some old stuff, did some stunts and all in all had a pretty good XC fest. Rode the River Trail that Friends of Mianus River Park built on the Tree Tops property that the State acquired a few years ago. Thanks to those salamanders and vernal pools this adjacent section of the park is now for ever preserved as openspace. Gott Sei Dank!

I think this trail is probably the newest trail in the park and its pretty good. Quite bit of little rocks to roll or huck along the way and it passes by Indian Rock, there is a witty little description of the terrain feature www.crankfire.com, a carved out bowl in a boulder.

We also ventured over to the parking lot in Greenwich off of Connewagh Road that I have never seen. Alot less parking there but there are some nice log rides, drops, and rollers worth hitting up along the way.

Following the new map that I had some input on and helped out with my GPS along the Swamp and Laurel Trails, we hit up alot of stuff that I have ridden before but always with someone else leading the way.

At one stream crossing on the Greenwich side, not sure what I was thinking, but trying to avoid the water, I rode the rocks to side, stalled and when down. Good thing I was wearing arm guards or it would have been bad, and while trying to avoid getting wet, boy did I get wet! Fortunately, since we were hammering, I never had a chance to get cold.

We did 8 miles altogether. Mianus is great little nugget tucked away within some pricey neighborhoods.

CT NEMBA and Mountain Bike Action

We had a member's meeting and ride on June 6th at Wadsworth SP. Besides the BOD, there were two members. Wadsworth is a nice little place if you are a beginner. Some tight single track and many carriarge roads. Little falls and Big falls are worth looking at. I posted some pics at CTNEMBA.org. After the ride we had Pizza, conducted our board meeting, and then I officially became a trail ambassador. Got a couple of Jerseys, a folding saw, and a Topeak multi-tool. Now when I ride, I can log my hours and report on any problems on the trails that I might come across.

The following Monday, I showed a photographer for Mountain Biking Action around Huntington SP. Spent the weekend trying to coordinate some other CT NEMBA members to show up and was about to get Ed Perten and a riding buddy of his to come out. We ended doing a mile of Rock and Role and the photographer probably shot 100 or more pics at about 5 different spots. You had to ride through the "kill zone" (where the camera would take the picture and the flashes would go off) 10 or 15 times, each of us and then in groups. "Posing" for the camera while riding is tough work.

On Thursday of that week, I led my first CT NEMBA RAW (Ride After Work) ride at Mianus. A friend from work, Paul F, was there and there were two more NEMBA members. One guy that I only know as Marc F., who I don't think is an active member or I just couldn't find him in the membership database, and then a guy by the name of Dave M., who I happen to know from www.bikerag.com. It was good ride, we basically recreated the ride that Paul and I did with Alex F last month. Dave had to bail half way through due to back problems. It was great ride.

I rode with my GPS mounted to my top tube and surprisingly, that is a very accurate position because we were in some dense tree cover and I never lost signal. I took a extra cell phone belt clip and zip tied it to the top tube and handlebars and I can see the screen for the most part.

Mianus River Park

Mianus River Park, brings back memories. Long before I became a mountain biker, I was on the Board of Directors for the Mianus Chapter of Trout Unlimited and of course our namesake meant we were quite involved with the Mianus River and especially this park, and one of the things back then (mid 90's) we were vehemently opposed to in the park was of course, Mountain Biking. However, all that animosity has been put by the wayside thanks to Paula Burton and CT NEMBA. Apparently NEMBA has done quite a bit of Trail Maintenance there starting in 2002 and has gotten TU involved, too. Kind of ironic.

Well, the day started out with one big worry after yesterday's little problem with my rear derailuer but I was able to get it fixed, between meetings today, by Brian at Hickory and Tweed in Armonk Village. Ironically, Brian said that he was probably going to be riding Mianus and sure enough we ran into him. Brian rode with us for most the time out and like Alex, Brian can hammer.

Mianus is an intense place to ride with a ton of variety in the trails. You can ride flats (river valley, duh) or you climb hills. On the sides of the valley the trails tend to be gnarly rooty and really techy and there hucking opportunities all over the place. Nice little ones right in the middle of trail to 3/4/5+ rocks surrounding the trails. Trails are maintained well, too. Bunch of fishermen that spoke to in the parking lot complained that the trails were really getting worn down but I didn't see that. From their purview, I think they were speaking of the trails that get them to the river. Trails that lead away from the river are nicely maintained and well marked.

So, of course I uploaded my track file into SportTracks and found in the latest version you can export the map so here it is below.

The track is pretty good as it lies on the map. Also what I like is it shows you the direction of travel and a little flag at the start of the ride, the distance and time of the ride. This is a great program. Of course what would make it even better is if it showed elevations in colors like GPSVisualizer does. Another thing that I don't like about the export map is that the track is hard to see on the map. It looks better in the software but not by much. What would be helpful is if you had the ability to change the color of the track and you could vary the map's opacity so that the track stood out. Might have to suggest this improvement to SportTracks along with asking why it won't read my GPS.

And here is the same track shown in GPS visualizer. Obviously, each program has its strengths and weaknesses. GPS Visualizer lets you also display multiple tracks, as you probably have seen in my earlier posts, and waypoints. So from a mapping perspective, GPS Visualizer is much more handier.

Let me know what you think is more helpful, GPS Visualizer vs SportTracks.

[Post Ridem Report]This is the first time I have ridden two days back to back and my legs are screamin'!