Easter Dirt Ride

Easter weekend and we have a full schedule.  Fortunately I planned ahead and had my bike and gear ready to go for a trip to Mohican between a soccer game and birthday party.

Ready and waiting. 

There were a good number of cars in the parking lot.  I'm guessing there were more than a few Mohican 100 racers out on training rides.  The weather was just perfect, 55 degrees and sunny, as I rolled out.

I was not certain how much I was going to ride today, but I did a better job of packing food for this ride than the last.  About five miles in a downed a GU and was feeling good vibes about going for a full lap.  My handling seemed to be on today and I was enjoying front suspension.  The gears were nice too.

Coming up to the covered bridge I met two fisherman who looked to be having a good day.  I stopped and chatted for a couple minutes as I admired their catch.

Easter dinner?

After adding some more food to the tank I started up the climb and continued to feel good.  I reached the second trailhead and was excited to see the trail ahead was open.  At this point I figured I would ride down to mile 19 and see how I felt.

 Feeling good in the pine forest.

At 19 I crossed the road and stopped for my last bit of food.  May as well keep it going now.  Within a mile I was slowing down and felt some pending leg cramps.  After a little bit of slower riding I seemed to recover and felt a good push to the finish.

It was a much better ride than my last one at Mohican and I really enjoyed the day.  It was a nice time out in God's creation the day before celebrating our risen saviour!

Rays Indoor Bike Park

For all the acclaim and the close proximity, I've never been to Ray's Indoor Bike Park until today.  Ryan and I loaded up and drove north for an afternoon of fun.  We had planned to go since new years but never made it until now.  The park closes for the season end of April, so sunny day or not we were going to ride inside.

First time to throw two bikes in the hatch.

All good with a couple blankets.

Ryan had been to Rays before which came in handy right away in finding the place.  Its in an old parachute factory in a rundown industrial park.  The entrance is not very noteworthy.

The front door.

Inside is a mountain bike and BMX playground.  I've seen many pictures and videos over the years but it was quite impressive to walk into.  The place is really sprawling and woven into the factory structure.

Ready to ride.

Rays is divided up into different areas with a cross country trail connecting it all together.  We had fun in nearly every area.

Rolling some logs.

I was amused to ride the perimeter and take different options with each pass.  It took a couple hours to really understand how all the separate rooms and area connected together.  A wrong turn just led to more fun.

 Up in the rafters.

Several places ramped up into the ceiling structure.  An incredible amount of work went into building this place.

Bike park.

We spend some time in the bike park, it's own dedicated room.  Certainly more geared for BMX bikes but we had fun on our 29ers.  This was the case throughout, most other riders there today were on BMX bikes.

Ryan navigates.

The pump track was a lot of fun.  I went around for at least a dozen laps and was amused all the way.  It was easier than I expected to get out of breath working the bike and features.

Ryan rolls a rock drop.

The sport section was a main spot for us.  There were many entertaining and challenging options to go from one side to the other.

Sport section choices.

We were there for about four hours.  Every hour and half or so we were back to the lounge for food and drink.  It's a cool place to hangout and watch the action on the Red Bull expert section.

Good times at Rays!

It was difficult to know when to be done, but hunger for dinner helped us call it a day.  We stopped at the Brew Kettle in Middlesburg Heights on the way back and had a good dinner.  It was a fun day riding bikes inside a building!

Tough at Mohican

Sunny and nearly 60 degrees.  The weather was nice but will the trail be dry?  I headed to Mohican to find out.

Plenty of brown leaves on the ground.

In the first 5 miles there were a couple wet puddles to be found but it was overall pretty good.  The woods felt more like fall than spring.  Lots of brown and not much green.

Spring has not yet sprung.

There were a few other cars in the parking lot with bike racks but the only people I encountered on the trail were runners.  Arriving at the covered bridge there were lots of parked cars and people hiking about.  It was a nice afternoon to be outside.

As I started up the Mt. Doom climb I realized it was going to be a challenge on the single speed.  Seems I should have packed some food to go with my water.  I kept it going the whole way but had some slow speed, low cadence pedal grinding along the way.  I was glad to make it around all the switchbacks without stalling.

Trailhead B.

At the second trail head I reached the closed section of trail and rode out to SR97.  I probably would have been wise to take the road back to the parking lot and been satisfied for the day, but I turned up the park road and got back on the trail at mile 19.

Good thing for glasses or this would've

been a direct pupil shot of mud!

The next four miles were tough.  I was pretty worn down and without energy; I might even call it a mini bonk.  Why didn't I bring food?  Not sure.  Oh well, it was still a good roll through the woods.  The rigid singlespeed mostly kicked my butt.  I was probably not riding very efficient either, as my handling skills seemed to be absent today.  I limited the damage and arrived back to the car glad for the ride!

Worn out legs!