2019 MTB log

[2manyhobbies 66]

Decided to check out Franklin yesterday with some friends. It was mostly dry except for a couple of mud holes we had to walk around.

[Cannonballer 637]

3 hours ago, 2manyhobbies said:

Decided to check out Franklin yesterday with some friends. It was mostly dry except for a couple of mud holes we had to walk around.

Nice!  I have to get back there.  Last time I was there was April 30, 2010.  It was a freak 2 foot snowstorm at Cannon the night before.  We skinned up in the blazing sun, drank a few beers, took a slushy run down, drank some more beers, then headed over to Franklin.  We didn't have much left in the tank by then so I can't say I experienced the place.  I'm looking forward to getting in there this season for some legit riding. 

[2manyhobbies 66]

14 hours ago, Cannonballer said:

I'm looking forward to getting in there this season for some legit riding. 

It's a fun place to ride. No epic climbs or super technical riding, just fun, flowy trails.

[Puck it 255]

I got my fat ass out for first ride last night in Andover.  5 miles.  About a hour.  Couple of climbs were tough and stopped.  I did not feel to bad after but ass was sore.

[Cannonballer 637]

With the weather this spring it's been tough to get consistent rides in.  Every time out feels like starting over and I've been getting frustrated.  But then I just went back and compared this year to last.  Now I'm feeling a lot better how the spring went.  In 2018 I only had one, 4 mile ride under my belt by May 7th.  This year I'm at about a dozen rides and 80 miles.  Really looking forward to the meat of the season now. 

 

[Cannonballer 637]

Got a few rides in this week so far. With the consistent rain I expected the bugs to be intolerable, but they haven't been bad at all. It's the pollen that's been the issue. Just clouds of it in the air...and in your lungs and eyes.

[2manyhobbies 66]

On 5/7/2019 at 8:11 PM, Cannonballer said:

What app is this that you're using to track your total distance?

[Cannonballer 637]

28 minutes ago, 2manyhobbies said:

What app is this that you're using to track your total distance?

'Elevate for Strava'.  It's an extension (Chrome and Firefox) that pulls in Strava data and adds a ton of additional analysis and features. https://thomaschampagne.github.io/elevate/#/landing

 

[Puck it 255]

Second ride last night for 5 miles after a couple of weeks for brake issues and hip problems.  Both appear to be fixed.  I hope to get out consistently now.

[2manyhobbies 66]

Got a couple rides in over the long weekend. Did a trail ride in Lebanon Saturday and hit Sunapee on Sunday morning. Sunapee was a bit disappointing since they only had three trails open, but it was better than doing yard work  They only had Dirt Serpent, Half-pipe, and Out-n-Back open. According to one of the trail crew, the other trails are still pretty wet and will need some TLC before they can open them up.

[2manyhobbies 66]

Made my way over to Suicide 6 Bike Park for the first time this weekend. This place is great! It's more natural than bike parky. They have 3+ trails. A green, blue, and a black that has a few different options for getting down the hill. Every berm that they've built is pretty much perfect. The green trail is really the only buffed out trail, but it has a lot of fun little side features here and there that makes it a perfect trail for riding with someone just getting into the sport. The blue trail has lots of nice berms with a couple of small table tops, a small step up, and lots of places to create your own doubles. It gets down to nice single track for most of the sections between berms. The black trail was definitely my favorite. Steep, tight switchbacks, crazy off camber traverses, roots, and rocks made it a hoot to ride. There are a couple of drops on the black trail that have B-lines around them and a big table top at the end that has two options that are rollable. One of the coolest things on the black trail is they've opened up a glade. It provides all kinds of different lines to choose from as you ride through it.  Most of the trails intersect at various places as you ride down so you can create a bunch of different variations for getting down the hill. I think it's better suited to a long travel trail bike or enduro. I found myself wishing for my trail bike on some of the tighter sections on the black trail. This place is definitely worth checking out and you'll pretty much avoid any crowd. The other bonus is you can hit Worthy Kitchen in Woodstock after for beers and incredible food.

[Cannonballer 637]

21 hours ago, 2manyhobbies said:

Made my way over to Suicide 6 Bike Park for the first time this weekend. This place is great! It's more natural than bike parky. They have 3+ trails. A green, blue, and a black that has a few different options for getting down the hill. Every berm that they've built is pretty much perfect. The green trail is really the only buffed out trail, but it has a lot of fun little side features here and there that makes it a perfect trail for riding with someone just getting into the sport. The blue trail has lots of nice berms with a couple of small table tops, a small step up, and lots of places to create your own doubles. It gets down to nice single track for most of the sections between berms. The black trail was definitely my favorite. Steep, tight switchbacks, crazy off camber traverses, roots, and rocks made it a hoot to ride. There are a couple of drops on the black trail that have B-lines around them and a big table top at the end that has two options that are rollable. One of the coolest things on the black trail is they've opened up a glade. It provides all kinds of different lines to choose from as you ride through it.  Most of the trails intersect at various places as you ride down so you can create a bunch of different variations for getting down the hill. I think it's better suited to a long travel trail bike or enduro. I found myself wishing for my trail bike on some of the tighter sections on the black trail. This place is definitely worth checking out and you'll pretty much avoid any crowd. The other bonus is you can hit Worthy Kitchen in Woodstock after for beers and incredible food.

Sounds sweet. And not a soul in those pics!

[Cannonballer 637]

Finally got up to Kingdom Trails for the first time of the season on Saturday.  The weather was about as perfect as it gets: 55-65 degrees, light breeze, no humidity, not a cloud in the sky.  The trails were almost as perfect.  They still have a couple of trails closed for wet conditions (only about 5%) which is pretty impressive considering the winter and spring they had.  It's a good testament to how well managed the place is that they keep people off trails rather than letting them get trashed.  We typically ride KT on Sunday mornings, so being there midday on Saturday  was a different world in terms of crowds.  Tons of people in the parking lots and in town. But we never felt crowded on the trails. We did about 14 miles with a lot of climbing and felt great!

We were pretty worked over the next morning, but really couldn't get enough.  So we headed back over for a shorter ride on Sunday morning.  Also have been wanting to check out some of the more northerly trail sections.  Trails like Coronary and Coronary Bypass are more of the same great flowy, bermed single track descents and nice switchbacky climbs

 

Did another ride on my local trails Monday morning.  I was really missing all of that expert trail building and maintenance!  

[2manyhobbies 66]

Annual trip to Stowe. My 15 year old son is officially faster than me. He beat me to the top of Cady Hill and the Trapp cabin and back down the hill at both. I guess it was just a matter of time Scared (and scared by) a pretty f'in big black bear on the way down Growler at Trapp's.

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Northeast Mountain Sports mobile app

 

 

 

 

[Cannonballer 637]

4 hours ago, 2manyhobbies said:

Annual trip to Stowe. My 15 year old son is officially faster than me. He beat me to the top of Cady Hill and the Trapp cabin and back down the hill at both. I guess it was just a matter of time Scared (and scared by) a pretty f'in big black bear on the way down Growler at Trapp's.

 

 

 

Nice!  Seems like a lot of bears this year.  I've seen 6-7 in the past month in NH.

 

[Cannonballer 637]

Rode Pine Hills in Plymouth, MA today.  A ton of fun, but far more technical than I was expecting.  Unfortunately one of out group took a good spill onto some rocks and had to ride out with a broken nose!  The place is a lot to bite off.  6.5 miles felt like a lot more.  There are some trail builders doing some serious work in there. 

 

[Cannonballer 637]

I need to retire.  With the holiday break I was able to ride 7 out of 10 days.  3 states, 6 different trail systems, 65 miles.  Now it's back to the grind and I'll be lucky to get out at all in the next 2 weeks.  

[Puck it 255]

2 hours ago, Cannonballer said:

I need to retire.  With the holiday break I was able to ride 7 out of 10 days.  3 states, 6 different trail systems, 65 miles.  Now it's back to the grind and I'll be lucky to get out at all in the next 2 weeks.  

I was on shutdwon last week too.  I only got 21 miles in with company in town though.  I have 15 miles so far this week after work.  I hope for another 7-8 tonight.

[frapcap 86]

That is A LOT of mud! Looks like a blast.

[2manyhobbies 66]

We started house renovations when we got back from Stowe, so I've only been out once since then  Good news is I went from this $h!t:

To this:

All the major work should be done tomorrow, so hopefully back to riding this weekend. And I did get to see Phish last weekend!

 

[2manyhobbies 66]

Haven't posted in a while because I haven't really gone anywhere new until today. My son and I went to Green Woodlands in Dorchester for the first time. It's an amazing trail system. The amount of work that has gone into these trails is pretty amazing and they don't charge a penny to use them. The Norris Hill trail is as good as any park DH trail and is an absolute hoot to ride. It's definitely worth the climb. There's over 50 miles of trails in the system. We'll definitely be going back to explore more.

[Cannonballer 637]

My son and I went to Green Woodlands in Dorchester for the first time.

That's great, I've been dying to get over there.
I've been kind of confused by the difference between Green woodlands and D Acres. Are they actually the same tail system? Or are they interconnected, or completely separate?

[2manyhobbies 66]

1 hour ago, Cannonballer said:

That's great, I've been dying to get over there.
I've been kind of confused by the difference between Green woodlands and D Acres. Are they actually the same tail system? Or are they interconnected, or completely separate?

 

I don't think the D Acres trails are part of Green Woodlands, but you can access Green Woodlands from D Acres and vise versa.

[Cannonballer 637]

I don't think the D Acres trails are part of Green Woodlands, but you can access Green Woodlands from D Acres and vise versa.

Planning to ride Green Woodlands tomorrow. Got any other useful beta (obviously you already recommended Norris)? Best climbing routes? Best parking? Local beer?
Riding with the wife, who is a very solid rider but somewhat timid. So won't be crushing the whole place. But looking forward to the exploration!

[Cannonballer 637]

Just finished a ride at Green Woodlands. Wow!  Everything that @2manyhobbies said about this place is spot on.  The down is an absolute blast!  I only wish I had some decent DH skills to really do it justice. Next time I will ride flat pedals for sure. I was a little freaked being locked in for some the high speed berms.  The climbs are extensive but they are so well built that they are relatively painless.

The whole time riding I was trying to figure out what the deal is with the place. So much land, time, effort, and money has gone into it, but it's free to use?  I came up with a million theories about what the real agenda must be. But then I got talking to some folks in the parking lot who know the landowner. Apparently he's just a guy who made a ton of cake in tech. He bought ~20,000 acres and decided to turn it into an outdoor playground for the community.  Amazing!

It doesn't quite have the aesthetic charm or vibe of Kingdom Trails, but they trail quality is definitely on par and it's way less crowded. I'll be back for sure...a lot.