At 5:30 I was on my way to Loudonville having already stopped at home to grab my bike and gear up. I parked at the Discovery Forest parking lot with a new plan in mind.
Gettin' ready in the Disco Forest parking lot.
A short distance down the road from the parking lot I jumped on the trail between mile markers 8 and 9. I felt cool in the 50 degree air but warmed up soon on the way to the downhill stretch that begins before mile 11. Before long I was at the covered bridge and ready for some climbing.
Near the top of Mount Doom I caught a rider, the only other rider I would see today, and rode with him to mountain bike trail head 2. I immediately noticed his Luv Bars and Groovy Cycles frame made by Rody Walters, a local frame builder. Turns out Mike, the Groovey pilot, is a good friend of Rody. Mike mentioned his other Groovy frame is the “rattlesnake frame”, which I immediately remembered from reading Rody’s blog.
Without too much delay I headed out on my own from the trailhead, Mike was back to his truck and done for the day. I knew it was going to be cutting it close on making it back to my truck before sunset.
As planned, I detoured at mile 23.5 and took the short loop connector up to mile 4. I was feeling pretty decent, if not a little hungry, and continued to mile 8. The sun was quickly dropping and it was getting dark in the woods. If there had been leaves on the trees I’m sure it would’ve been darker.
From mile 8 to my road crossing is the only substantial section of non-singletrack on the course. I guess it’s a former logging or well access road. It felt like I was going 25 mph as I blasted along this section and I was back to my truck in short order.
It’s going to be much easier to tolerate three days of rainy weather with 20 miles of mountain biking in my legs!
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