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.

Waldo's Hot and Steamy

My original intention for riding on Saturday was a 20 mile tandem ride with my son Elliot but after sampling what summer used to be in Connecticut to and from his Kung Fu lesson he didn't want to go back out again if he or I could help it.  So I threw the Spot onto the top of the car and headed over to Waldo.  I have never used the new parking lot before, in fact now that I think about it, it was never officially open the last time I rode here, so it's been quite some time.  Unbelievably, the parking lot was empty and I had the whole place to myself.

There were some new little challenges here and there which were fun.  There was a huge, dead, oak tree that had fallen across the trail, near the parking lot, that already been re-routed around.  By the looks of the trail it seems to have been there for quite some time.  Further down, there was a change to the trail, too, that I guess I might have heard about but didn't really think much about it.  The main trail, Red Blazed, makes a U turn and hooks back into itself that leads eventually down to the fire road and the water.  Meanwhile the what used to be the route to Captain's Log is now yellow and the section in between Captain's Log and where the new cut off has been closed.  I understand why that it because it's always been wet and it gets rutted out in the spring.  Kudos to Paula for finally making this happen!

By the time I got down to the water I was soaked in sweat.  The front of my riding shorts looked like I pissed my pants!  There was a nice wind coming off the water which made it a little pleasant but the fact remained that it was still hot and muggy.  Getting here I tried the new trail but found that it's not quite ready.  It's has some great benching and rock work but then peters out half way in.  Others have been riding it, though, and a trail is starting to form.  At one point, near the end of the park the flags stop and it's quite hard to follow where the trail is intended on going so I ended up bushwhacking a bit till I found the fisherman's trail that eventually ties into Extra Credit.  That's probably the other part of the trail but the connection to it isn't really marked.  Still, it's a great trail.

I had a great ride and felt great and few pounds lighter after that ride!

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.

Outhouse Singletrack

Looks like this might be last opportunity for while to get some riding in so I decided to make the most of it on second to last day off but I wanted so variety because riding at Upper Paugussett too many times reminds of the popular saying, "If you not the lead dog, the scenery never changes!"

It wasn't going to warm up the later I waited before heading out but at least it stopped snowing.  There was maybe an inch on the ground with more later in the evening expected to come.  Still, a full compliment of snivel gear was required.

For variety I headed over to the Horse Trails off of Pond Brook.  There's a mishmash of old ATV trails that are mostly ridden by a few equestriennes that live in the area.  There is also some singletrack here and there but with all the storms we have had in the past few years most of the trails get blocked and since there are so few users go arounds are created very slowly.

Off to the east of this sign is a small pond or vernal pool and on the other side was an outhouse.  I was thinking that I could use the facilities pretty soon but when I turned around, I noticed some new singletrack coming off of Lake George.  Guess I haven't ridden here in a while not to have noticed this.  The snow, of course, is the unified equalizer and shows you were the trails are every time.  

I headed down the new trail and found it quite flowly and fun.  Very few fall line climbs/descents.  At one point it looked like you could jump onto the old right of way for Lake George Road or continue descending through some barberry (hope I don't get a flat later) and then pops out onto Lake George.  Crossing over the ROW I took an old trail on the other side that I used to ride back up to the town line and then I picked my way to the outhouse.  Only it wasn't really an outhouse, unless it was bucket shitter, fortunately, I really didn't need to use it so I headed on.

Brakes were squealing awfully and I peaked the curiosity of quite a few dogs but non came out after me.  A couple of years ago I had one come after me but it never got close enough to do anything, it just wanted to bark at me.

I like to take a breather at the bench in order to get ready for the big climb back up.  There is so much potential for some killer trails here but yet nothing ever happens.  Hard to believe the trail gnomes haven't found this place.

It starts out pretty good but snow turned it into instant Hike-a-bike.

From here, I rode over to Upper Paugussett State Forest

Rode up the Mulikin Trail

Then on to the Gussy

I looked at the temperature gauge on the Garmin and found that it was 14 degrees
yet my feet were toasty warm!

Ended up riding over 10 miles!

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.

I found NEMO!

Or it found me!  I put off riding as long as possible Friday morning so that I could still get in a decent ride without having to use lights and still make it to the office (dinning room - today's home office) in time since Winter Storm Nemo was shutting down the state.

 

I started out by riding up the Mulikin.  The snow from earlier in the week was virginal and there were no tracks in the snow.  Still, looking at sections of this trail, there is going to be a lot of work involved in a few places.

The ride down the Gussy was nice, someone had come before me and it looked like the rider did an out and back from the Echo Valley lot because the goods were untouched.  I cleaned the Wet Spot, hitting the right line, which everyone seems to shy away from, at least this guy did.  The Reach Around looks like more people are riding from what I can see on Strava  and she is getting broken in really well.  The wind storm from last week blew some sticks down but nothing major.

 

Up and down the Gussy is great ride and while on the way down I didn't notice anything in particular it was on the way up that discovered a new feature.  It appears someone foot raked a path that lines you up with a real decent roller.  It has a great run out, too, and throwing caution to the wind I backed up and went for it.  It was a really nice roll!  Just have to remember to hit it on the way down.

 

Embolden by my success on this new roller I hit the Log Ride Short but slipped off of it mid way through but was able to keep riding.

Still feeling cocky I hit the other big up and over at the yellow trail intersection and cleaned that as well!

Time was running short so I headed down the Poly Brody and it was turning into a fast pedal until I found that the snow on top of the ice near the entrance was not rideable what so ever and went down.  So, I decided to walk the icy parts.

That still wasn't a good idea because slipped on the ice and went down hard, landing on the bike.  I got a nice raspberry in the lower back from my pedal and my back landed on the frame which I think may have resulted in a bruised rib.  Looks like I won't be mountain biking for a couple of weeks.  Then again, with the snow predictions, I don't think the trails will be rideable for quite sometime, either.