Trails lead through forests, up and down mountains, over waves, over snow, on beaches, or on roads. Trails are biked, hiked, run, skiied, or surfed. Enjoy whatever trail you follow...
- Trail Conditions: very good, no ill effects from the rain
Notes: Since we hadn't had a chance to test ride the Kona 29er offered by a friend of Patrick's for obvious reasons...what? not obvious? (see what happened shortly after I posted that trail conditions have been the driest in decades...weather map below)...
...so we made an effort to get out for a quick ride before we leave for North Conway, NH on Friday. We both gave the 29er a test ride. Alternate goal was to follow the Bikeworks time trial route. As for the Kona...bottom line, noticeably quicker than any bike we've ridden. Why? Dunno. Seems it converts crank power to speed effortlessly. Is it the big wheel effect? 2 dumb 4 29er physics. Well the "quick" ride lasted a little too long and darkness prevailed...why would I bring the lights? duh.
Tidbits: Bikeworks time trials will be held here each Thursday in Sept (6 pm start) - no cost! Route is clearly marked in orange....I hope to catch a couple of nights.
It was a great day for a ride...so I went riding. Trail conditions couldn't be better for all of the 6 miles. If you're not riding trails this summer, you're missing out on something very rare for this time of year in New England....dry conditions.
Notes: Haven't ridden in almost a week due to the to do list. So I went out about 7am before work...with the dew. Made a real quick non-stop ride on the Swansea short loop...30 minutes.
- Trailhead: Browning Mill Pond lot
- Riders: OMMB
- Distance: 9.4 miles
- Temp: 77
- Weather: clear
- Trail Conditions: dry, rooty, rocky (typical New England)
- Technical Level: some challenging climbs, intermediate
Notes: So I found this cool map of the NEMBA 2010 Fun Ride on the NEMBA Arcadia site. Been wanting to get back there, so I chose the nice little 6 mile pink trail...I like pink, I like riding 6. I headed there after work, the trailhead is a real nice spot with picnic tables and fire pits next to the pond. Off I went. The early sections of the trail map were difficult to follow (what? me? trouble following maps?)...didn't really match the trail turns in an obvious fashion. Regardless, I made my way to the meat of the single track which was awesome (upper section), but I felt really dogged for such a short ride. Hmmm...my GPS odometer, which is notoriously short, was indicating 7+ miles already. Something's wrong. I bailed out after the last section of single track...turns out my track indicated 9.39 miles.
So I emailed the NEMBA VP for Arcadia....
OMMB: "I used your map (attached) from the 2010 Fun Ride to ride the pink 6 mile loop. I got 9.3+ miles logged on GPS and bailed before I even hit the last single track. Was there a mistake on your map? Should the 6 mile actually say 9 mile?"
NEMBA rep: "I arrowed the loop and marked the map but I didn't put the mileage on the map on the web. But the loop you rode is 9ish. The loop marked 9 miles is really about 5.5 and the outer loop is 6 miles."
OMMB is thinking: "So how did I download a map clearly marked with mileage if Mr. NEMBA didn't post it?"
OMMB thinks: "NEMBA’s trying to kill me!!"
Anyway...great loop. Looking forward to trying the other "6 mile" loops to see what I get!
- Trailhead: Campground (East Side)
- Riders: T, Anna, Mark, OMMB
- Distance: AM, 7.4 miles; PM, 3 miles
- Weather: nice...a little warmer than yesterday
- Trail Conditions: very dry, PM ride was VERY technical (the very limit of "ride-able")
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: PM ride on Knight Woods was exhausting, a couple of flop-overs by OMMB
AM Notes: The morning ride turned out to be one of the best technical runs we've had as a group! Although T's bike decided that yesterday's flat wasn't bad enough, it started missing gears and was totally crap in the transmission department. Nevertheless, we had an awesome ride. Somewhere in the middle of the ride, Mark and I attempted to loop back up to the top of a steep downgrade for the video, but turned out actually following some out and back loop we've never ridden. We got all crossed up when trying to return and ended up further away from the girls who were waiting back at the hill. Some 20+ minutes later, we found our way back to a couple of very "perturbed" girls!! (whoops! chuckle-chuckle). Today's ride went something like this... south down Knight Woods (markers 51, 60, 63, to 59). Then down and up a favorite hill challenge from 59 to 58. We then scooted up to our destination, Fox East at 64. The usual very muddy technical trail was nice and dry, with new bridges along the way to avoid erosion. They did a great job with all the new bridges in the park. Marker 67 is just after the drop off hill, where Mark and I headed off on the loop that ends at 66. We somehow get off that trail in the wrong direction...nuff said, my bad. Bearing right off Fox East we took Ginn at 68 all the way up to 71. GREAT section of trail. Down Ginn to Ragan/Lanzo where the group decision was to do the out-and-back loop at 83. Anna, who felt she was on a roll, tore up the whole loop without a stop! The rest of us kept typical group formation and daydreamed about the beer (I mean liquid carb) we were going to have at lunch! Great ride deserved a great lunch break...
PM Notes: I managed to drag Mark along to the Knight Woods 2.5 mile "O" Trail which we've never tried. Five minutes in and we were glad the girls chose not to join us...it was nasty! Mean boulders with roots on them, 90 degree angled switchbacks, logs, rocks the size of ROUS's, and steep up and downgrades. It really KICKED our already tired asses! I gave Mark several opportunities to bail out to smoother ground, but like a trooper, he wanted to push on (damn him!) :)
Tidbits: We've finally covered all but a few of the trails here... TBR are East Side from marker 62 to 57 and the whole 66 to 67 loop, on the West Side Tote Road/Northern Loop from 17 down to 2, Switchback, and Boundary.
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: Nothing memorable, although I am posting this a week late!
AM Notes:
We had the pleasure of excellent, clear, dry, cool weather for our yearly camping and biking trip to B berry! First ride in the morning was on the East Side, from the campground headed down link then up Lanzo and Ragan. Lanzo's a good trail to get started on for Bradbury, it's mainly smooth but gets you ready for what Bradbury has to offer (although there was a girl in the group that said it was too difficult as a warm up, that same girl was powering ahead on much more technical trails on Day 2!!). Down Ginn (always good with tonic) and Fox West hitting the coolest switchbacks and log bridges. Survey at the bottom of Fox West indicated that more riding was preferred before breaking for lunch. So down to the south end of Knight Woods on the unnamed trails (marker 58 to 56 to 54) then back up Link for lunch. After hours of tinkering, T's bike was shifting nicely, but don't speak too soon...
PM Notes:
After some custom made power sandwiches ala Swede and some "liquid carb", we decided that we should attempt climbing to the mighty "summit" of Bradbury Mountain on the West Side, which we've never ridden. About a 200 foot elevation gain to a 470 foot summit (West coast riders can stop laughing now). We took Northern Loop using the Ski Trail cutoff to the summit. A pretty nice view for such a short climb. Mark spotted the ocean and an island off in the distance (I need to get me some of that laser surgery that worked so well for him!). We descended on Tote then at marker 17, we jumped down to Boundary Trail and Northern Loop...nice downhill run. After goofing around a retired Feldspar mine and collecting some nice black Mica for souvenirs, we went back to the lot. ...spoke too soon about T's bike, a flat tire started a mechanical downward trend.
Tidbits:
1) M. Doughty from Soul Coughing played the free concert series at LL Bean Saturday night...sounded great as a solo act!
2) Mark wants everyone to ask Anna what happens when you leave Mica in your pockets during the wash cycle...hmmmmm.
- Trailhead: Swansea Library
- Riders: T, OMMB
- Distance: 4 miles
- Temp: 77
- Weather: great
- Trail Conditions: nice and dry
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: Nope...nice clean quick ride!
Notes: We continued our series of rides in prep for Bradbury State Park this weekend. BUT with a twist...we rode the usual loop in reverse for the heck of it. It was surprising how different a trail looks in the opposite direction! We rode it pretty quickly with T rippin it up in the lead. No mishaps and seemed like a more pleasurable ride. Let us know whenever you get the time to join us!
Tidbits:
1. Just found out that this area is actually called "Village Park". Some Indian history... Abrams Rock and a-local-haunted-history-tour (kind of makes me re-think my night rides here).
2. Info for Bradbury in the event you want to ride with us this weekend (or run the trail race on Sunday). We'll be camping with M & A... http://www.bradburymountain.com/
- Trailhead: Swansea Library
- Riders: T & OMMB
- Distance: 4.5 miles
- Temp: 76
- Weather: clear and dry
- Trail Conditions: very dry
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: Another near end-of-ride wipe out for ATK! Banking a right turn over a boulder full of roots and her left bar clipped a tree...yikes with an exit bike right to a heap on the trail. Scapes and bruises (I threatened to get her full body armor for the next ride...wasn't well received). :)
Tidbits: We are hoping to get the legs primed for riding Bradbury State Park near Freeport, Maine this weekend...looks like GREAT weather ahead.... ww.intellicast.com
There's also a 9 mile trail running race scheduled at Bradbury on Sunday... Hey Greg... you ready???
+0+00+19-12.jpg)
+0+00+15-13.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)