Do you really need a Fat Bike?

I had a couple of hours to kill on Friday after dropping my daughter off at a friends house so I threw the Spot on top of the car and headed down to Pepper Street in Monroe.  No one had been on the Housatonic Rail Trail headed towards Newtown so I headed that way.

Riding in 4 to 5" of light powder is interesting, more so if you not on a fat bike, because the skinnier tire upfront doesn't track well in the snow.  I let out some air before starting the ride but it probably wasn't enough.  

Since fat bikes run at a very low PSI which cause the bottom of the tread to flatten I would think this gives the rider much more stability with a larger surface area coming into contact with the snow (or sand).  Still, as long as there were no other tracks I was fine.

I think it was around 9 degrees (-13C) by the time I got to the Monroe/Newtown line and I was alternating between mask on, mask off because I was working really hard to keep myself up in the snow.  I never got out of the 2nd lowest gear and I could definitely feel the burn.

These snowy tracks are between the end of the "Newtown Trailway" (the trail actually goes all the way to Swamp Rd) and the Batchelder Property, which is an EPA Superfund Cleanup site actually in the process of getting cleaned up.  So there is hope that the trail can officially continue up to Swamp Rd.  That is of course if the back stabbing residents (long story) don't find some other way to block it like the fuss they put up on the initial part of the trail. 

Old Railroad Bridge

The trail down to Cutler's Farm road was also untouched.  In some places, much of the snow was blown off making it much more easier to ride.  While riding the section of the trail that goes out onto the road I got some long looks from those driving by in cars.  

From Cutler's Farm to Wolfe Park it was different story.  There was actually a pretty good defined ski track the entire length of this part of the trail that I tried to stay off of because as I found I get better stability in untouched snow as opposed to disturbed snow.  Riding down this part of the trail was a lot more work and I ended up opening my jacket, my riding jersey and the shirt underneath because I was really hot.  I had three layers on underneath my Windstopper Polar Fleece, which turned out to be too much.  When I turned around at the entrance to Wolfe Park I had to zip up again because everything got really cold, really fast.  By the time I got back to Wolfe Park I had to turn on my head light.

The Lake 303s performed beautifully but I did get a little cold nearing the end of the trail.  Still, for a winter cycling boot rated to 25 degrees (-4C) they were performing exceptionally.  At one point I had to stop and check my junk to ensure it wasn't frozen because I couldn't feel it.  Turns out it was just numb from the way I was sitting on the saddle but Mr Happy was still toasty warm!  Halfway down the last section to Pepper Street some douche bag on a Snowmobile ran down the trail making it nearly impossible to ride, again pedaling in the disturbed snow is a lot tougher than untouched, so I had to weed my way on the sides till I got to the end of the trail.

Overall, it was a great ride.  The only advantage to having a fat bike is that I could have pedaled through more of the disturbed snow and I probably could have gone faster.  Who knows, maybe I will get one next year but I think it's too late to get one now.

Riding with the relatives

My original plan was to ride from my house (leaving at 6:30 AM) and meeting up with Michele's Sister, her brother-in-law, and her step father at Taits Mill in Trumbull.  Woke up at 5:30 but something wasn't agreeable from the night before and thus all my plans changed.  I ended up driving down to the Parking area at Pepper Street and Cutler's Farm and had 30 minutes to ride down to the Taits Mill parking area where I would be meeting the others.

I got down to Taits Mill in 25 minutes!

While waiting for them, I rode around without my helmet to cool off!

 

Michele's 74 year old Stepfather, Larry, led the way up the trail. 

Sondra, Will and I hung back and planned future family rides in which we would bring our kids.

Turn around point for Larry is Wolfe Park.  Sondra, Will and I continued up another 1.5 miles to where I parked and then we parted company, they were headed back to Trumbull and I wanted to ride to the end of the trail and back as fast as I could to get a little more workout and some miles.  I rode past the town line on the 1600 foot section of the ill fated Newtown Railtrail.  It's still bare and the turn around is starting to grow in, so much that I hardly recognized it.  There are a few muddy spots to contend with, too.

Sunday Monster Cross

I have been wanting to do this route for quite some time and today I made it happen.  I wanted to leave at 7 AM but it was just too cold at that time, 29 deg, so I waited until 10 AM when it had warmed up to 40 deg and I didn't need as much snivel gear, in fact the only thing I wore in that department was the ear muffs that come with my BDU patrol cap that I was wearing underneath my helmet.

The night before I almost changed my meats but then realized I was saving the 700x38c for the Centurion Iron Man Dave Scott Expert build that I am still working on (slowly, ever so slowly painting) which will be my first geared road bike that I keep for myself.  I ended up keeping the Cross Marks because once I got onto the Rail Trail, the knobbies would be handy.

It was 7 miles from my house to the start of the rail trail in Newtown, which is technically closed but people run and ride through there all the time so I figured why not.  The first part isn't that great and there are quite a  few trees down making it somewhat difficult to ride and of course my 44:18 gearing wasn't a lot of help in the single track.  Thinking about going to 44:20 and maybe try a little fixed action with Tomi Cog on the Larkin Rail Trail sometime.

The unofficial Railtrail turned into the official Newtown Railtrail, 1600 feet of dead end greenway in need of gravel and drainage improvements.  Then you hit the Monroe Section.  North of the Purdy Street Parking area, it's pretty empty but south of that it get's busy.  Didn't bring a bell so it was a lot of "On your lefts" called out in front of me.  After Wolfe Park, which was closed - never seen that before, the other end of the Monroe section to Vitrinox is usually pretty empty and into Trumbull until you hit Old Mine Park.

Between Old Mine Park and the Rt 25 underpass I saw some mountain bikers riding new single track between the rail trail and the Pequonnock River.  Never seen that before and thinking the next time I ride Trumbull from Whitney Avenue I am going to have to check that out.  

About a 1/2 mile before the terminus I tried to feed while riding only to have to stop and put my hydration pack on again and then stop again when my dried blueberries fell out of my jacket.  I realized that I should have picked up that top tube back from Brookfield Bicycle Center on Saturday so when I go to pick up the diSSent after it's checkout I might have to pick one up.  That way, I can put the camera, black berry, and snacks in there while the shoulder bag holds the more bulkier foods and I won't have to rely on the small back pouch of riding jacket that I usually can't get into while riding.

Got down to Taits Mill Road, turned around and headed north, stopping at the Kiosk to Tweet and take a Goo shot before starting again.  Took off the riding jacket only to find that it was the only thing keeping me warm since my long sleeve and under lying t-shirt was soaked.

While the ride down to Taits Mill is a gradual downhill, the way back is the opposite but I had plenty of energy.  The one thing I realized is that it did take me longer than I expected to get down there but there were some issues that were issues that I don't think I would have next time around.

The ride home seemed to go quicker or maybe I was just in more of hurry to get home because it was taking longer than I expected.  I would say the most boring section of the rail trail is the Monroe Section, there is just nothing there except the old Station at Stepney, while the Trumbull section is fraught with history from Old Mine Park and Parlor Rock, to old foundations for the ice house at the old reservoir, the dam, and various roads that crossed the tracks along the way.

However, it's the Newtown Section that I like the most because there are still rails in place.  They will never hold a locomotive or a rail car but it's cool to think about the trains that used to travel on these rails.

Not to mention, Botsford Junction, like Hawleyville was a major railroad intersection back in the day.

Random Tandem

After using Katie's camera for Saturday morning's ride I found a bunch of pictures she took of when we rode together on the Tandem back in April.  I think they are pretty good.  She has a good eye.

Fabian

Tweeting the Ride

Now we are on the good path!

Brodie and I went over to the Monroe Railtrail for trail-a-biking Saturday morning and we headed up to check out the new Newtown section.  Much to my chagrin it hasn't changed since the last time we visited this section, Katie and I rode to here in the spring only it was too wet to ride any further.  The Newtown Bee reported last week that this section was now open, the only difference between then and now is that the trail is much drier..  Hate to say this but if this was an Eagle Scout project, the Scout needs to get busted down to a Cub Scout and start over!  All that was done was cutting back growth.  Where's the gravel and the stone dust?  Trail braids have already formed around the we areas that are still wet.

Notice anything wrong with this sign?

Cool thing at the northern terminus of the trail is there is an actual turn around.

Love how the existing rails have been incorporated into trail

If you haven't figured it out already what's wrong with the sign, it's facing the wrong way!  My bike is pointed in the direction of travel coming down the trail to this point and it appears that one can easily pull the sign out of the ground and turn it around.  Also, I thought there would be more stuff blocking the trail to keep people from continuing north but that twig pile doesn't seem to be doing the job.

From here, Brodie and I headed all the way down to entrance to Wolfe Park, turned around and headed back to Pepper Street.  It was a nice 9 mile jaunt and riding the Stinson was a blast.  The extra weight from my son and the trail-a-bike made for a really nice workout.