Midday Hot & Steamy Mountain Bike Ride

I had heard some rumblings that there is another new trail at Upper Paugussett.  Before I could hit the trail I had to pull the Spot out of mothballs and give it a tune up.  After my endo last spring the Spot needed new brake cables and a new seatpost.

It poured like crazy Saturday morning but knowing that the Gussy is real sustainable singletrack that it would be fine for a quick rip.  I went in from Echo Valley and easily got up Poly Brody to the trail head.  Rocks were pretty greasy from the rain so I figured I would take it easy.

Back in the Woods

I had originally intended to go mountain biking in the morning and then ride with Elliot in the afternoon but it was much more colder this morning and then my wife asked for help around the house.  When I got back with Elliot, I changed, and headed out on the Spot.  I think it's been close to a year since the last time I rode at Upper Paugussett so I figured it was high time to see how the trails were holding up after such a mild winter.

Stick in the Mud

It actually felt like summer on Saturday and after I got done with the Honey-Do List I headed out on my mountain bike to Upper Paugussett State Forest.  It's been nearly 3 months since I last rode here and that was with a few inches of snow on the ground so it was going to be a whole different scene.

While all the logs that were being stored in the Echo Valley Parking Lot have been removed there were still quite a few at the Mud Hole, which as you can see is back in business.  Rather than ride through the mud, I prefer to ride the corduroy that someone built last year.  The last time I rode through it was ice so I stopped to make sure everything was good to go before attempting it.  It's kind of at a weird angle so I wanted to make sure it was still functional after the long, hard winter.

As you can see my first attempt was not terribly successful.  It seems that the armored portion sank further down so that when my front wheel went into the center it stopped causing me to endo and finding out the hard way that the water is cold and dirty!  I found a better, flatter rock to sit in the center and rode it again with no trouble.

Further up, the seasonably wet section of the Poly Brody Forest Road was wet.  The nice thing about this part is that it's a gravel road and never gets muddy despite the water.

The Upper Gussy Trail was really nice.  There are some new trees down here and there but nothing impeding the flow.  It appears that someone may have redone the rock armoring at the stream crossing in the picture above.  Further down the trail I came across a father and his sons riding up the trail.  It was their first time on the trail and they were riding it backwards.

Coming down the Gussy to Jeep Trail there were a lot of skid marks and they looked fresh, as in today!  I wish people wouldn't do this because it really ruins the trail.  I usually never ride down this part of the trail but I avoided the Reach-Around because I knew the Jeep Trail would be bogged out because of all the rain we got on Friday and spring melt.

Something needs to be done about this!

Don't Shoot Me Bro

Autumn in Connecticut means hunting season and if I can help it I like to confine my mountain bike rides to Sundays when hunting is not allowed.  However, Wednesday morning the only time I had to ride was in the morning and wasn't feeling roadie. I oranged up, found a bell to mount on the Spot (lost my Bear Bell last spring), put the visor back on my dayglo green commuting helmet and headed out to Upper Paugussett for quick pedal in the woods.

The only change I noticed was it appears there is a new connector trail coming from the Three Bears Roller which seems people are riding that section but ignoring the actual roller.  I don't blame them because it's kind of sketchy to begin with.  I need to go in there and open Mama Bear and Baby Bear back up so riders have more options to chose from.  I am always torn whether to ride that new section or not.  It's really good but I hate missing one of my favorite up and overs.

Riding the Gussy, again!

My skiing plans were a washed out so what's a cyclist to do?  

Go mountain biking!

It's been three months since I have ridden Upper Paugussett and there some big changes.  More logging on the south side of the forest and the loggers created this huge mud pit in the middle of the Poly Brody as a result of their staging operations.  

I guess they ran out of room in the parking lot to store their logs. Somebody started making a corduroy but you could tell it wasn't a mountain biker because the approached sucked.  I had to shift some of the logs to make the approach less drastic and it turned into a really nice feature.  

Further up the Poly Brody I came a across a new Hippy Stack.

I don't get it.

I caught up to Tom and George.  Tom (yellow jacket) I have ridden with before on a Class Cycles ride here last year.  This was George's first trip.  Apparently they rode some of the blue trail and then took the white trail up from the blue and found it to be all hike-a-bike.  Not surprising.  Whoever is taking it upon themselves to re-open this trail is clearly doing it without the State's permission and is a crappy trail builder, to boot.  In fact, the absurdity of this trail is that after crossing Poly Brody it continues into the forest, co-opting part of the yellow trail, crossing the blue trail and then just ending.  

I do want to give a big thanks to whoever cut end off of this tree that was sticking out in the trail.  I had brought my hand saw and was going to start cutting it, only to find it had been cut for me.  So, thank you mysterious log cutter!  Rest of the trail is looking pretty sweet.  There has been a little more foot raking to the Three Bears roller but what is really needed is Baby and Mama Bear re-opened.  Next time I am in there I will try to move the logs.

George tried the Saddle Roller (still don't have a good name for this one yet) and then I took them on the loop around trail.  The section of the jeep trail that it comes out to was pretty wet and muddy.  We parted company and the southern terminus of the Gussy.  They wanted to head back to the cars so I pedaled back up the Gussy do that section in reverse and then dumping out on the ROW, riding past Sidney's place and then back home.  The Spot was spot on!

Do I Mountain Bike?

I know that sounds like a rhetorical question but after 800+ miles of road riding it was pretty weird getting out on the Spot for the first time in three months.  We got some intel that the Blow Hole was dry enough to ride but of course, getting out of work when I wanted to and then Rt 84 traffic meant that it looked like I was only going to get small ride any way.

The feeling was just all off.  Not sure if it was the geometry or the fact that I was riding for the first time with an inverted stem that everything just seemed off.  Also, my seatpost was squeaking up a storm so that was unnerving as well.

Still, it was worthwhile getting out and re-learning to mountain bike again.  After awhile I started to get the hang of it but I think I might have to go back to bar ends.

After Glenn and Dan split off to get ready for the meeting I rode the ridge trail south to the spot overlooking the Connecticut River.  

Then I rode back to the lot trying a different way, some other green blazed trail that had me in circles until I found the trail back to the lot.  All in all, it felt pretty good.

Riding with Lake 303s

Been awhile since I have ridden Upper Paugussett and for that matter the Spot but with the recent warm up that got rid of all our snow and then refroze I figured I should could head out for a quick mountain bike ride to test out the Lake 303 riding boots that Santa Claus brought me for Christmas.  I brought some lights in case it got too dark to the see the trail and sure enough by the time I got to the top of the Gussy I figured I should light the way.  For some reason, my bar light wasn't working but I brought that to try it.  My main light was fully charged. 

My new Lake 303s are so warm that my feet never got cold during the whole ride and the temperature just kept dropping.  When I left the house it was 31 degrees and by the time I got home it was 27 and my feet stayed toasty warm the whole time.  The only thing I had some trouble with was unclipping because I set my cleats up for 20 degree release angle when I should have made it 15 degrees.

While on the Gussy I was trying to figure out if there was one rider or two but after hitting the reach around and coming back up to the Gussy I saw the rider's track just did a turn around at the jeep road.  Too bad he doesn't know about the Reach Around.  I hate getting to the end of the trail and turning around like this.  I am so glad I found that hunter's trail coming off the Gussy to be able to ride down to the Jeep Trail and then come back around to ride back up the Gussy.

 

Daffy has a longer Duck!

Headed over to Waldo Sunday morning after hearing that the continuation of
Daffy Duck was now open for business.

One thing I noticed right off the bat is someone took a leaf blower to all the trails.

The Mickey Mouse skinny is finally complete and it's basically Mickey Mouse!

Because I could do it!

The view down at the beach was spectacular!

 

The Spot is rocking!

The feature is called Captain's Log and it's where the Daffy extension comes out.  Unfortunately, I only had enough time to ride the extension in one direction.  Going to try and come back this week and give it, along with the Hunter's Trail and Waldo a thorough rip.

Ran into the these riders from the City all on steel, rigid bikes riding here for the first time!

While Waldo in general is not overly technical the times I have ridden rigid here I always feel like I was beat to crap.  These guys are pretty hardcore to be out for the first time on rigid bikes!

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!

"We May Die, but Never Will Surrender"

Does anyone know what Cinco de Mayo is all about or do we celebrate this day because a Mexican beer has turned it into a reason to drink more of their beer?  Ironically, it has huge significance for another country and a famous military organization:  Légion étrangère, but it seems a lot of that is lost in commercialism.  Well, I wasn't yelling Camerone while riding today but the way I was feeling, maybe I should have been.

Well, before I cracked open a beer today, I headed out to Upper Paugussett to check on the trail conditions seeing that I hadn't been on the trails for almost a month and I don't think I have ridden the Mulikin Trail at all this year.  Found some hoof prints on the Mulikin, which is a good sign because the Equestriennes are always complaining about going up the Poly Brody is too hard on their horses hooves.  The Mulikin makes a great alternative and I am surprised there are more tracks.

Looks like some trail gnomes have been tweaking the trail.  It definitely looks like it's getting a lot of use by the way it looks ridden in.  I fear when I get around to building the new reroute it will be hard closing this section of the trail.  Of course, what I have planned might just draw everyone's attention from the old trail to the new trail.

This is the first time on Spot in about two months and I am finally riding the new Alex wheelset in Pimp Red. The only think I might add at some later point is a red saddle but I like the plush Terry saddle that I have on the bike right now.

There are some new blow downs on the Gussy.  The one pictured above occurred right where I took care of another one post Hurricane Sandy.  A route around it has already formed but the tips of the branches still stick out into the trail and need to be taken care of.

Since everything was clicking for me today and I was padded up, I first hit the log ride short before the Sandy Reroute and then this little roller and I found that it's really smooth.  Didn't stop to pull the chain out of the ground but might do that later in the week when I come back to do a little TM.  I did notice that someone moved the rocks that I had previously used to try to armor the last turn on the Sandy Reroute.  I admit that it was a rush job and the rock store wasn't selling any good flatties.  Granted, it's so dry right now that it doesn't really matter.  We'll see if that changes in the fall.

The 3 Bears roller also took a hit with three real big branches down on top of all three rollers.  Someone created a new roller just to the right of Papa Bear but I wasn't comfortable with the run out so I didn't try it.  Looks like I will be coming back Monday to do some Trail Maintenance.

Just down from the 3 Bears I met another rider by name of Keith from Southbury.  Looked like he was riding with his son.  He said he loves the trail and thinks that more people aren't riding it because of all the climbing, according to Strava I climbed 1000 feet.  Not bad when you think about it, riding up the Mulikin to the Gussy, down and back is a 6 mile ride.  It will get even better, and longer, with the new reroute I have planned.