30 Days of Biking - Day 5

Ride After Work

I got up late Sunday and as I was contemplating what to do with myself when my boss called and wanted to know if I had some time to finish up an analysis that I had been working on the week prior that was needed for Finance. I said sure and worked the rest of the morning, through lunch, had a few conference calls and by 4:00 PM we called it quits. I decided to jump on the bike and ride North to visit the cows at Topland Frams in Roxbury.

Although overcast, the afternoon warmed up somewhat that I felt bib shorts would be fine but complimented my kit with long socks and arm warmers. 

I only saw one car while riding up Painter Hill

And this cow greeted me at the top

The weather looking omniscient but it never rained 

There's a new heard of cows at Toplands.
I think the last heard in the freezer now.

I wish I could have hung out on Painter Ridge to see the sun shine up from under the clouds. While descending Davenport Road I heard this roaring sound coming from my bike and thought at first might brake was sticking but I wasn't slowing down.

No matter where you go these days there is always someone walking or riding and while its not an N95 mask I figure my neck gaiter would give me some protection. Granted, moving as fast as I was and given the trajectory that any droplets from someone else's respiration produces there is a slim to none chance I would come into contact. Still, given the thickness I think it would still provide some protection.

I got home in time to have a socially distance happy hour with the neighbors. The say on their side of the driveway and my wife and I sat on ours.

30 Days of Biking - Day 4

La Tour de la Dirty Pandemica

I replaced the brake pads on the Sex Machine Friday night and decided to do a Dirty Thirty around Newtown. I couldn't have asked for a better day with temperatures near 70 degrees. Only a half mile to First Dirt was on Pond Brook Road, too.

It's been over two years since the micro bursts tore through our neighborhood and I decide to ride down the old Shepaug Railroad bed to see if the Equestrians did any work to re-open the trail.

Initially it looked good. A few loan trees down here and there, some I could ride over and a few I had to get off the bike but then at one little gully there was a big tree crown that was blocking the path and then after that more and more trees were down which led me to turn around. It's too bad because this would be a great addition to the area if you could ride through here.

Then I headed over to Sturges Road off of Old Bethel Road. On paper it's still a town right of way but its definitely not rideable going up unless you are on a mountain bike and even that would be sketchy. Maybe it would be better coming down, still on a mountain bike. No thanks.  So, on this ride I am 0 for 2 and I am only 5 miles into the ride!

I rode over to Plum Trees Road when I passed the entrance to this little bit of open space called the Franc Preserve. Riding down the dirt road to the parking lot and found a sign with a map on it. It looked like there was a trail that connected to Newtown Forestry Association's Brunot Preserve and another to Shelly Road. I rode Brunot once 14 years ago and it was just a bunch of old ATV trails.

Shelly Road appears to be considered a ROW owned by Bethel that comes out on Old Hawley Road.  Looking at the map, I should have taken a picture of it because I haven't found anything online as of yet, I didn't see any no biking signs so I headed down the trail that I hoped would take me to Shelly Road. When I came to a stream there were two options, to the north a sketchy rock and lumber bridge and a nice bridge to the south but not wide enough for handlebars.  The trail seemed to have gotten a little maintenance recently and eventually came out at Shelly Road like I had hoped

So now, I am 1 for 3 on my explorations of new dirty connections. I rode up to Holcombe Hill where there was a spectacular view looking north to the foothills of the Berkshires. 

I took the opportunity, while enjoying this wonderful view, to have another one my Layla Bars. My supply is dwindling fast and thanks to the COVID-19 Pandemic Steve has suspended operations. From here I took the grass trails over to Birch Hill and the seeing a bridge in the woods headed in to cross it and then turning south I rode the Holcombe Preserve Memorial Trail.

When the trail turned west again it went through a a muddy section and I found a trail not listed on the map above that went out to Partridge Lane. It was a tough trail to ride and the first part was OK but then it went through a couple of stone walls, or over them, and with a few trees down along the way made it really tough to ride.

I headed over to Robin Hill and took the town trail up to the housing development that is being built. There was a new No Trespassing sing at the end of the trail signifying that the fun is over, not that the Robin Hill trail is all that fun to begin with. There are so many wet sections and trees down that riding through there is really tough. With the new sign it looks like we might need to blaze a new trail down to Sugar Street. After crossing Sugar Street, I climbed Sugar Hill Road and took the continuation of the road on the town right of way along the Shepard Property. It appears that someone with an ATV is using this ROW, I hope it's a tractor.

Climbing up the trail I wasn't in the right gear and I stalled and fell over. I landed on my hip and elbow and while it was smart it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  However, it wasn't good for the bike. I landed on the derailleur hanger side of the bike and I think I bent the hanger because shifting got really squirelly. Shaking it off I rode down to Shepard Hill and then through Fosdick and then over to Cherry Grove. Quite a few people were on the trails.

From Cherry Grove I worked my way back to town hitting as many dirt roads as possible and then road over to Upper Paugussett State Forest. Riding up the entrance just past Sydney's house there were a bunch of cars parked at the start of the Blue Trail and another car blocking road with a guy talking to the driver. I couldn't maintain proper Social Distancing space so I waited for the car to move.  Finally it did and I was off. The parking lot was jammed and people were hanging out there as well. Not cool - that kind of behavior is going to get this place shut down.  CT DEEP has already started to close parking lots for parks and forests because of this.

I rode up the Poly Brody and blazed through the wet section because I have fenders! Came across a few groups of walkers on the forest road, too.  At the intersection with the White Trail I met up with Sean Sheradain who rides Upper Gussy a lot on his mountain bike. Today he was taking his daughters for a hike. 

After chatting with Sean for a bit I climbed up to the Mulikin Trail Head and then descended down the forest road for a bit and then turned in on the trail that connects to the Mulikin and road the buff singletrack down and then out to Hanover Road and home.

30 Days of Biking - Day 3

My first virtual ride for the 30 Days of Biking Challenge. 

I wasn't feeling terribly motivated to ride any significant virtual distance so I opted for a Crit so I could try the new Crit City Race Course. I am not a particularly fast rider so I rarely race but this evening I pushed it. I think the D class Wattage range was 100 to 250 Watts, so the first place finisher was definitely a sandbagger. At least I didn't come in last.

30 Days of Biking - Day 2

Today was a double header. I rode with the Lunartics on Zwift in the morning. It was a good ride but I am a lot slower than them so it was harder for me to virtually (and literally) keep up. I only did it because they missed me because we can't ride to Ovens of France anymore.  We used a Discord server and it was like a conference call for work, only all of us were pedaling on our trainers.

After work I headed back out to Upper Paugussett, only this time I approached the Gussy Trail from Hanover Road by riding up the Mulikin Trail. My goal, once I get the re-route done and some bridges built is to include Mulikin as the Gussy Trail, but that's a few year off.  One thing I noticed right off the bat was how clean the trail was. It looks like someone has been leaf blowing the trail.  At first I thought that it might be to all the traffic the trails are seeing since the only thing you can do outside during this time is go for a walk or hike in the woods. The fact that the run up to Flight Simulator is also cleared points to leaf blowing. 

In the picture, directly above you can see where leaves have been crushed into the trail. This how the trails should look. Why, you might ask?  The crushed leaves form a moisture barrier between the underlying treadway and what ever moisture is on top of it.  Without the treadway absorbs much more water which leads to muddy trails. 

Here's another example on the Upper Gussy Trail with crushed leaves on the trail. I posted a comment in the Upper Paugussett Face Book page and someone replied that thought it was good idea because it made the trails easier to follow. I replied that its unnatural and if you want pretty trails you should go to a park, this is a forest.

Prior to hitting the Brew Crew Roller I met with Paul Cumberton riding the other direction and while we discussed various things we maintained a lot more than 6 feet separation. It was good to catch up with Paul since we both worked at GE Capital before GE sold the unit.

The main reason for the double header today was that I wanted to clear this blowdown from a part of the trail that I wanted to do a little flow project.

Using just a handsaw, I was able to cut up the wood so that I could move it out of the way. The bigger pieces will be basis for a nice berm, too.

There was, however, one little casualty. On the ride up the Mulikin I stalled out and fell off the bike and hit my shin on a rock.  I know it looks bad but I barely noticed it until I got home.

30 Days of Biking - Day 1

This year I decided to do the 30 Days of Biking Challenge, in which every day of April you need to ride your bike. The advantage this year over the last time I did the challenge is I can now ride indoors on Zwift but my goal is to ride outside as much as possible.

April Fools was an exceptionally beautiful day despite a mandatory Stay at Home order issued by Connecticut's Governor, but it doesn't mean you can't go out for a hike or a bike ride. So I headed out to Upper Paugussett State Forest, near my house for a quick loop up the Poly Brody Forest Road and then down the Upper Gussy Trail.

It was a Goldilocks day!