I was out riding my "training loop" at the Res. today. It has evolved over close to 2 decades from an 8 mile loop to the 16 miles it is today.
The Res. works great for me as I can ride there from home or it's right on the way home from work (when I drive). It gets beat down by all the traffic, but you can't beat it's convenience.
At first I just followed the flow of traffic and rode the standard loop everyone rides. The more I rode, the more I'd find lessor known trails.
As I craved more mileage I would piece sections together to increase my ride's length.
Then I started riding it backwards. Turns out there is more climbing this way.
Charlie likey climbing.
Another bonus of riding trails backwards is you don't get stuck behind someone riding at a different pace than you.
For about a year and a half I would do an out and back starting backwards and turning around before I descended off the ridge. If I timed it right I would miss a lot of the after work crowd on the "and back" part of the ride. But some times traffic was a hassle.
This year when I get to the turn around spot, I started descending on a fireroad to work on leg speed and loosey goosey descents; things guys on geared FS bikes tend to blow me away at.
But this leave me a little short on time and mileage, so I head back up and hit a couple more climbs and some fun techy stuff.
But anyways, let's cut to the chase. As I was (just) riding along, I looked down at my computer and realized I was on a record pace. Then I realized I wasn't working very hard. Then I realized how awesome the conditions were. I was going so much faster because the trails were in the best shape they've been in all year.
I've felt a little guilty about not riding to work this week, but I'm over it now. I say
Get out and ride some trails now! The conditions will not be any better!
3 comments:
So, how much TM have you done at the Rez lately? Not trying to bust balls or cause embarrassment, but I see a lot of people riding these days but there appears to be very little TM going on. At some point we are going to have a problem.
I am not trying to egg you back into any sort of organization but don't you think it's time to start giving back to the trails?
Every ride I clear deadfall and litter. I volunteered to put in a 1/2 day on my vacation to do more constructive trail repair but was not taken up on the offer.
If a trail maintenance day was organized by CTNemba with adequate notice (ie more than a couple of days), I would gladly join in.
Frankly I don't feel I have the trail building knowledge or authority to just go out and start digging up MDC property.
I rode there a week ago and picked up a bunch of branches that had fallen also. There was some bigger stuff that needed to be chainsawed IMO. Would the MDC object to that type of thing?
I may ride there today. Without the chainsaw.
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