White Mountain NF Loop

This morning I set off for a White Mountain National Forest mountain bike ride.

Welcome to the National Forest.

Jim dropped me off on a forest service road just west of Bartlett, NH and I set out with map in pocket.  The first 4.0 miles on Sawyer River road, a forest service road, were a constant uphill that got my blood flowing quickly despite a temperature in the 30's. 

Steady uphill on a gravel forest service road.

At the end of the forest service road was a gate, blocking vehicular traffic, and a sign board.  From here on the riding would be on double track.

 End of the forest service road.

Still going up, there were some steep and continuous grades.

Along the way I was greeted by some nice views of surrounding mountains.  By this time I had been riding about 45 minutes, all of it uphill.

A view to the west.

About an hour into the ride I reached a "high point", just short of the infamous Kancamangus highway.  I was making frequent map checks to ensure I was on track.  With no cell phone service and a lack of familiarity with the land, it was important to keep up with my progress on the map.

 Map: $7 well spent.

After turning and riding east I joined up with another forest service road for a short distance and then had a decision to make.  Continue on with a good chance of being back by the time I had planned or do the "Owl's Head Climb" trail.  I figured I wouldn't be back here soon, so I headed up the climb.

 Coming down from the Owl's Head climb.

The climb was all good, with no shortage of steepness and some rocks thrown in for fun.  Coming down was equally exciting with rocks spotting the way.  I came to a small bridge and decided it was a good place for the PB&J I had packed for lunch.

Sitting on the edge of the bridge and eating my sandwich I had the idea to set the camera for a self timer shot.  I placed the camera on the opposite edge of the bridge, pressed the button to start the 10 second timer and attempted to walk back to my lunch perch.  Unfortunately my foot slipped in between slats in the bridge and one of the slats broke.  I fell knee deep through the bridge and violently wrenched my left knee.  My right foot also dropped into a space between slats and I ended up with both feet in the stream below.  As I groaned over the pain in my left knee I heard the camera take a picture.  Nice.

Fallen through a bridge.

 This was supposed to be the picture.

With a bum knee I had to modify the rest of the route.  I made my way to the nearest forest service road and road out to Bear Notch Road.  My leg was scraped up from busting through the bridge but I was thankful to be moving under my own power, praying for healing all the way.

An overlook on Bear Notch Rd, snow

covered Mt. Washington in the background.

When I reached Bear Notch Rd. it was a left hand turn, north, and a steady grade up to the notch.  I was pedaling along okay on the smooth road.  Over the notch it was all down hill to get back to Bartlett.  Passing by a scenic pull off I caught a glimpse of Mt. Washington, so I pulled off at the next one for a picture.  Further down I stopped at a pull off and asked another gawker to take my picture.

Sporting the OCC wool.

Despite the unfortunate bridge crash incident, it was good ~4 hour ride and the weather was perfect.  This will be a loop to repeat on future visits.

First MTB Ride in New Hampshire

Here's a post submitted from up north.  We are here in the northeast visiting with KT's parents, staying in their nearly finished new home.  The house is very nice with a great view and there is plenty of mountain biking nearby.  Yesterday Chris, who will officially become my brother-in-law this weekend, took me for an off road ride near North Conway.

The leaves have turned and the trails were covered.

We headed out for several hours of riding west of North Conway, NH.  The trails we started out on are called Sticks & Stones and for good reason.  There were plenty of rocks and roots to roll around and over.  Everywhere you look up here there are rocks and more rocks.

 

We stopped at an abandoned quarry for a look around.

A lathe was used to turn large, granite columns.

After connecting up with some other trails we went up and over a shoulder of a mountain before heading back to the start.  There were some fun, twisty sections and some good climbing on the way up.  At one point we popped out onto a rocky bald before turning back into the woods.  Once over the ridge, we rode some pretty steep downhills that were testing my counter-gravity bike handling skills.  It was a good ride.

 The final uphill to get over the ridge was a
hike-a-bike as it was unrideably steep.  
(Of course the picture does not do it justice.)

I hope to get out a couple more times during this trip, and I will try to get some "big view" pictures to show off the mountain terrain.  Tomorrow morning will hopefully result in a ride.  My map is ready to go.

 It was the perfect fall day for a ride!

Camping with Daniel!

On the way home from work I called KT to confirm the plan... Daniel and I were going on our first camping trip tonight!  Daniel was excited when I walked in the door and we began gathering up our gear.  It was going to be a truck camping trip as I figured this would be easier should it be necessary to come home in the middle of the night, but there was no early bail out on this trip.

 Campin' in a truck bed.

We drove down to Grandma and Grandpa's woods and found a spot to park the truck.  Daniel always likes to play in the back of the truck and he really liked the idea of "sleep all night in truck!" (his description for our adventure).The first order of business was to "setup camp".  We inflated our camp mats and laid our sleeping bags.  I issued Daniel his very own flashlight.

 Ready for bed, the first time.

After peein' on a tree in the woods, with the aid of his flashlight, Daniel and I read some books.  I turned off the lantern and told Daniel it was time for bed.  As he waived his flashlight across the inside of the truck cap I fell asleep.  Apparently Daniel did not...

I woke up to the realization that a flashlight was pointed at the right side of my head.  Without stirring too much I squinted to my side and saw Daniel down on all fours, flashlight in hand, staring at my head.  He slowly whispered to himself with great enthusiasm, "Daniel looking in Daddy's ear!"

After some laughing I told Daniel it was really time for bed and I confiscated his flash light.  We zipped him in his little sleeping bag and Daniel slept all the way through the night.

In the morning we awoke with the sunrise to a 40 degree temperature.  After a walk and pee in the woods we drove home.  Daniel was excited to tell mommy about his big campin' trip.  We'll have to do it again soon but I'm not sure how many more nights will be warm enough this year.

Checking out the woods first thing in the morning.

Dillon State Park w/ the Falks

Last year KT, Daniel and I stayed in a cabin at Dillon State Park and thought it was a fun getaway not too far from home, so we made plans to do it again this year with Ryan and Helena.  From our house it’s only an hour and twenty minutes of driving to get to the park which is located near Zanesville, OH.  In addition to a large lake (actually it’s a reservoir), a well kept beach, and numerous hiking trails, 12 to 15 miles of mountain bike trails wind through the woods.

 Lake views from the trail.

Friday night we moved into the cabin and made ourselves comfortable.  Saturday morning we had a good breakfast before Helena, KT and Daniel set off on a hike while Ryan and I jumped on the mountain bike trail just up the way from our cabin.

Aaron skirting a ravine.

The trail was immediately twisty as we followed it towards the lake.  There were plenty of tight corners and ditches/ravines to make things interesting.  I found a couple good spots to fall, once catching myself on a 2x4 guard rail to save falling into a ravine.  The trail took us along the edge of the lake for a good distance, making it an interesting choice between gawking at the lake or riding off the trail that was cut into the hill side.

Ryan dodging rocks on one of the advanced trails.

Most of the trail is ranked “intermediate” but there are a couple section of “advanced” trail.  The advanced trails contain some fun rock gardens, much rockier than the Mohican rock gardens.  Ryan put on a good demonstration through this section, he could have made a sweet 29er commercial as he rolled it over some boulders!

 Aaron crossing some rocky obstacles.

On the trail back to the cabin there were some surprises in store: plank crossings, ramps, a steep uphill and more rocks and roots.  I’d have to say the trails were more entertaining and challenging than I expected, which is a good thing.  Prior to our trip I found the following trail reviews:

http://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails/dillon-state-park.html

http://trails.mtbr.com/cat/united-states-trails/trails-ohio/trail/PRD_169624_4569crx.aspx

http://www.spokejunkies.com/reviews/ohio/index.php?get_page=dillon

And here’s a link to the trail map:

http://www.joinomba.org/aoa/trails/dillonmap.pdf

After returning from our ride Katie and Helena headed out for some pedal time as well.  There is a beginner section they rode, including a road transit to and from this area.  After their ride, Katie and I rode a loop around our cabin that had some good flow.  Maybe we would have ridden more if it were not for the crying sounds of Daniel we heard through the woods as he woke up from his nap.

KT and Helena back from some pedaling.

The rest of the evening was Daniel’s time to ride.  Before and after dinner he was out on his Strider bike riding on the park road and grass around our cabin.  We were amazed at how well he did on his little bike.  We’ve never seen him get so into the striding motion on it.  He was right on the brink of picking his feet up to coast on down hills, especially as he chased after Ryan laughing the whole way.  Daniel was doing good for a two year old!

Daniel and his Strider bike tearing it up.

 We had to head back out after dinner as the sun was

setting, so out came the improvised flashlight headlight.

Sunday morning we had another good breakfast before packing up.  Ryan and I hit the trail again while Daniel and the girls set off for the beach and playground.  This time we rode the final section of yesterday’s ride in the opposite direction.  Once again, very entertaining trails.  Early in the ride we were crossing planks over ravines and wooden bridges that had me feeling twitchy, but I was able to keep the bike going where I wanted.

Check out the old school MTB picture

on the Dew machine!

At the playground area we had lunch and played on the slides and swings.  Then, we headed for home thankful for such nice weather and a fun weekend with friends.

Helena, on the Brontosaurus, chasing

Daniel, on the Triceratops.

Mohican Fording

The uncertain weather had Ryan and I move our ride to later in the afternoon today, so it was probably 3pm before we made it to Mohican.  We rode through mile 15 before doing a time check and realizing we needed to be home for dinner KT had made us.

The new hike and wade section of the loop.

The trail was really dry in most areas, despite the rain of last night.  In particular, the downhill corners were dry and rutted.  But the biggest surprise of the ride was at the covered bridge.  It was closed for construction, which was not the biggest part of the suprise, but they left no way for mountain bikers to get from one side to the other, at least not without breaking through orange snow fence.  Oh well, a river crossing added to the excitement of our ride.

Croft State Natural Area

Today after work I headed the opposite direction as I did on Tuesday, east towards Spartanburg, SC.  I rode at Southside Park in Croft State Natural Area.  Croft is a former Army training base, last in use during the WWII era.  The local rumors say not to stray from the trails as there is unexploded ordinance throughout the park.  While this is sort of hard to believe, I stuck to the trails as usual.

A bridge crossing early in the ride.

I had a map of the trails but had never found a recommendation on a specific route.  There is a trail called the Southside Loop that encircles the entire Southside Park, I figured it would be a straight forward way to tour the park.  There were no other bikers in the parking area to talk to, so I headed off.

The route was all single track.  There was not much elevation change throughout the whole ride.  The trail wove through forested areas and was rooty, very much so in some places, with some rockiness..  Markers nailed to trails confirmed I was staying on the Southside Trail as opposed to riding one of the trails that cut through the center of the park.

Much of the trail was sandy.

The whole way around the 10 mile loop I only saw one other mountain biker.  Actually, he was the only other person I saw the whole time at the park.  It seemed pretty abandoned on a Thursday evening.  At an information kiosk I read the park contains ~7,500 acres.  So maybe there were other land users out there and we just didn't cross paths.

The sections by the river were interesting,

twisty trail through lush vegetation.

It was a good ride in the 94 degree heat.  Once again, I wouldn't come down from up north just to ride here, but it's a good stop if in the area.  I think if I had only one day to ride and had to choose between Croft and Paris Mountain, I would choose Paris.  It seemed more interesting due to the elevation changes and rockiness.

Plenty of fungus at Croft too.

Back in Germany... in Greenville

My plan was to go to downtown Greenville tonight.  Part of the attraction was to visit George Hincapie's store but when looking up directions I found it closes at 5pm.  With one less reason to fight traffic and decipher directions I decided not to go downtown.

When searching the web for restaurants near to my hotel I found a German restaurant, the Schwaben House (www.schwabenhouse.com).  It was less than 10 minutes down the road.

 The restaurant was in a plaza.

I ordered Sauerbraten (marinated roast beef) served with dumplings and a Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen.  Wow, the food was good.  It brought back memories of my week in Germany a couple years ago.  This makes sense because Schwaben is a district in Bavaria, Germany.  Part of my stay was also in Bavaria.

This is what followed a nice salad.

Tomorrow after work I'm planning to head over to Croft State Park to check out their mountain bike trails.  I think tonight's meal topped off my energy stores in prep for another ride.

Paris Mountain Trail

Promptly after work I jumped in the Jeep and drove to Paris Mountain State Park.  I changed into riding clothes and geared up in the parking lot.  Before hitting the trail I talked to another mountain biker, he suggested a slight modification to my intended route.  With a map and a plan I rolled out.

The trail intersections at Paris Mountain are

prominently marked and the map is good.

After some fun, flowing trail I came out to the only road section of the ride.  But it was a heck of a road section, it was a looong climb.  I was breathing hard pedaling up what must have been Paris Mountain and the uphilll corners just kept coming.  At the top I did a map check and was back on singletrack.

A long, twisty downhill brought me to a lake.

The trail around the lake was flat but entertaining, then it was time to climb.  The climb was sort of long, there were a couple switchback but it was mostly just a meandering, uphill trail.  Rocks and roots made things interesting.

At the top of the climb I was back to the downhill section I had done prior to the lake.  I road the downhill again, faster this time knowing what was ahead, and turned away from the lake at the end.

The guy in the parking lot, some guys in a bike shop and people online had warned not to do a certain trail back to the parking lot unless you are on a downhill bike.  I decided I'd hike a bike down it and hopefully there would be some rideable sections for me.  It was steep, dropping parallel to the road I had ridden up, and I only road about a fourth of it, but I thought this was more entertaining than riding down a road.

Too steep for me.

The final section back to the parking lot, the same section I road on the way out, was really fun.  Twisty and flowing with the occasional rocky or rooty section.  It actually felt somewhat similar to Mohican only the trail was a little sandy.

I was really happy with the riding at Paris Mountain.  What is missing in quantity is made up for in quality.  This would be a great place to ride after work.  However, I wouldn't make the drive down from the Asheville area just to ride here.  But if in the area already, it's a worthwhile destination.

There were many interesting fungus
growing along the trail.  I ate none.

Hotel Maintenance

In preparing for this trip I tried to think of everything I would need for multiple days of riding.  The past two days in North Carolina I've had everything I needed.  Today, however, I realized I needed to wash two days of trail residue off my bike and I didn't bring anything for such a task.

After work today I went to Walmart to buy a roll of heavy, shop paper towels.  The bike went in the bath tub and I used about a dozen paper towels, soaked in water from the sink, to wipe down the bike.

Can't say I've ever washed a bike in a bath tub before.

The next challenge was lubricating the chain.  If I had brought my seatpost and saddle in with me it would have been easy to turn the bike upside down.  To put the bike in the back of the Jeep I removed the saddle and I didn't want to go back out and get it.  So, I found the ol' hotel ice bucket worked well to prop up the bike.  I could pedal by hand and apply lube.

Ice bucket work stand.

Now the bike is ready to go again for tomorrow.  After work I'm going to head 30 minutes north to Paris Mounctain State Park.  It's supposed to be a pretty good network of about 20 miles of single track and is very close to Greenville.

Dupont Riding

After a decent, but not spectacular, night of sleep in the back of the Jeep I headed south.  It was probably about an hour and a half drive from Asheville to Dupont State Forest.  The drive was pretty straight forward but upon reaching the northern end of the forest I wasn't sure where I would ride.  The Guion Farm trail head was the first one I came to so I pulled in to park there.

My morning view straight ahead...

... and to my side.

A pretty good arrangement for flying solo.

There was one guy getting ready to head out for a ride and I asked if he minded some company.  He invited me along and said his two sons were already out riding around.  We headed out, met Doug's sons, and hit the trails.

Unfortunately I really have no idea where we rode.  I never got out the map and the frequent trail intersections, all with signage, were somewhat of a blur.  Gravel roads were frequent and allowed us to connect together some long climbs that were followed by long, flowing descents.  

Doug and his sons were flying along and my legs, tired from yesterday I suppose, were challenged to keep up.  They were very considerate and sat up a couple times to make sure I didn't get off track.  I'll have to try to get in touch with Doug to find out what loops we made, they were great fun.

At an abandoned runway, from back in the day when Dupont execs would fly in and out of the formerly private land, the guys were at the end of their ride and headed back.  Doug left me with directions for another good loop.

I found my way to the start of the loop and met up with Matt and Ellen.  There were making the same loop and welcomed me along.  Wow, what a cool loop.  Climbing, some descending, more climbing, and a stream crossing or two.  This one loop seemed to have it all.

Matt coming through a switchback, Ellen just behind.

The loop brought us back to the runway and peeled off from Matt and Ellen, once again thankful to have found such friendly people to ride with.  I refilled my hydration pack at a spigot on what must have been a former small plane hanger and Matt gave me some advice on how to get back to where I parked.

Ellen passing by.

On the way back to the start of my ride I made a detour to see some waterfalls Doug had told me about.  I dropped down some gravel roads and was quite impressed to see a really large waterfall.  A couple hikers, Mike and Cheryl, told me how to get down to the falls, so I stashed my bike in the woods and walked down to the pools at the bottom of the falls.

 Above the falls.

Back on the gravel road I caught up with Mike and Cheryl.  By this time it was probably 2:30pm and the only thing provided to my stomach since breakfast, besides water, was two Gu packs.  I was hungry and starting to feel weak.  It must have showed because Cheryl offered me an extra PB&J sandwich they had packed.  I didn't even consider turning the offer down and was thankful for their generosity.

The falls from the pools below.  Lots of water!

It was 3pm when I made it back to the Jeep.  Yet another nice couple gave me directions to Brevard where I hit a Mexican restaurant to fill up.  It was good food and I definitely filled up.  From there it was less than a couple hours down to the Greenville, SC area.  I'll be here, at a training class for work this next week.  There are two nearby state parks with some trail, hopefully I can check them out later this week.

I met this fella while filling my hydration pack.

As good as the trails I've ridden these past couple days were the people I have met.  Everyone has been so friendly and helpful.  It has really made the experience memorable.

Back in Asheville... but with wider tires!

The short story is I'm on a business trip in South Carolina.  I need to be here over the weekend as I had business last week and all next week.  So... I brought my mountain bike with me!

This morning I woke up at a hotel in Greeneville, SC and after stuffing myself with the Hampton complimentary breakfast, I drove north towards Asheville.  Last night I studied the maps and decided Bent Creek, SW corner of Asheville, would be my destination.

Map work before turning in for the night.

I left the hotel before 8am and was on the road for Asheville.  My hydration pack was full of energy drink, I had a banana in the pack as well, and I knew exactly where I was headed thanks to map work the night before.

 Hydrapak fill mixin' and fillin'.

It was about 9:15 when I pulled into the Rice Pinnacle parking lot at Bent Creek.  I found it funny how many sights I recognized from the times Ryan and traveled to and camped in the Bent Creek area.  

For whatever reason it took me a little while to change clothes and get my gear ready to go.  I kept debating whether or not to try to find some other guys to ride with.  There were plenty of cars in the parking lot and every 10 minutes a group was hitting the trail.  I wasn't liking the idea of crashing someone's party, so I reviewed a route I had printed from the Pisgah Area Sorba web site and head out on my own.

There were a good number of intersections and I was stopping to check the map at each one.  After what must have been 45 minutes of riding, including some good climbing to get up on a ridge, I came to an intersection and met up with another solo rider.  Greg and I decided to ride together.  He is from Birmingham and was also playing the frequent map check game.  We both had a similar route planned for the day and figured two clueless mountain bikers checking each other on directions would have a better chance of staying on track.

We were both headed for the Green's Lick trail, a notorious downhill reputed to have a huge fun factor.  The trail is 2 miles long, almost all downhill, with a bunch of bumps and banks.  Google it, check out the YouTube videos.

Greg checking the map before we drop down Green's Lick.

From everything I read Green's Lick was supposed to be "doable" for the average cross country mountain biker, provided you keep your speed in check.  I called for Greg to go first, as his descending skills were certainly better than mine, and we got to it.

The next couple miles were a blur, a ridiculously fun, grin while you ride blur.  I've never spent so much time in the air while riding a bike. I was really getting into pushing off the bumps to get the bike off the ground.  My brakes were my friends as I scrubbed off speed as needed.  There were some rocky, bumpy stretches that sort of beat on me but it was an enjoyable trail and I kept it within my limits.

As Greg and I laughed and smiled at the bottom of the trial we meet some other rides.  One of the othe riders offered to show us through some more trails.  Brent, a local to Asheville, directed us around for the next couple hours.  It turns out, before getting a "real" job, Brent was a mountain bike guide.  He took us on some great trails.  Uphill, downhill, curvy but nothing too technical.  I guess I'd say there were no trails too technical for my current ability at Bent Creek.  Mohican has been good training for me.

  Getting ready to climb.

I'd say we made for a good complimentary group of three.  Greg could light up the downhills, I often lead the way on climbs, and Brent knew where we were without looking at a map.  It was really great to meet up with these guys.

It was sometime after 1pm when Greg and I returned to our vehicles.  Brent had headed back to his car, which was parked at a different trail head.  After some food and map studying, Greg and I headed out for some more fun.  I was glad he was going back out as my legs still felt pretty good.

Of course it was different without Brent's guidance.  We were checking the map at most intersections and thought we had a good plan to climb back atop the ridge we had been on in the morning to come down a trail we had gone up.  Unfortunately one of the forest service roads on the map didn't so much exist.  We tried, I've got brier scrapes on my arms and legs to prove it.  Oh well, we modified course and were still able to get up the ridge an fly back down.

By the time we were back to parking lot it was pushing 4pm.  It was a good time to be back as I think my legs would've started a protest had I made them work too much longer.

Back to the Jeep for the second and final time today.

Wow, what a great day out in the woods!  The trails were great and I'm thankful for the company I met up with.  This will definitely be a place to come back to in the future.

The next stop for me was a shower at Lake Powhatan campground, where Ryan and I have camped in our trips to Asheville, and dinner.  Being that I didn't really eat lunch, I ate a big steak dinner and enjoyed every single bite.

What trails did we ride today?

Tomorrow I plan to head down to Dupont State Forest and check out the trails there.  I hope to have as good a day there as I did at Bent Creek today!