Two Days of BCT

Another great weekend for off-road riding. It's been a great year for trail riding in the northeast, really. I've logged the most off-road hours in 10 years this year, more hours than road cycling, running and skiing combined.

On Saturday, Rich B and I did a loop I've been honing over the last year or so. Sections of the Bay Circuit Trail (BCT) help stitch George Rowley State Forest, Willowdale State Forest and Bradley Palmer State Park together in northeast Mass. I call it my GWB loop. The loop hits much of the purpose-built singletrack in Willowdale and Georgetown No overly technical terrain. You can stay aerobically engaged pretty much 100% of the time on this ride. It is superb endurance training material for endorphin junkies. Some of the route I stole from Tim Johnson on Strava. I suspect he rides CX on those portions.

Conditions were nicely frozen starting out, not that there was much mud along the route anyway. Temperatures didn't change much during the day, making it easy to dress for the ride. What we wore starting is what we finished with. For such a flawless December day, I was surprised by how few people were out on the trails, especially with a very wintry week looming in the forecast. Trails were in hero condition.

Open section in Bradley Palmer State Park

Rich rides Georgetown regularly. He pointed out more trails I was not aware of. They will definitely be incorporated into the loop, maybe bringing the loop to over 50 miles. There are some road bits in there I haven't figured out how to eliminate yet. Distance-wise, at least 85% of the route is on dirt. We finished the 46.5 mile route in about 4.6 hours, with a surprisingly large 4000ft of climbing.

Ambushing Rich with camera in Georgetown Rowley. Stupid glove

got in the way.

On Sunday, I got out for a solo afternoon ride a little closer to home. Terrain I used to hit on lunch breaks linked together the Wood and Rafton Reservations with the Deer Jump Reservation along the Merrimack River in Andover and Tewksbury. Interestingly, the BCT links these conservation parcels together too.

The riding on this loop seems innocuous enough, but it has claimed it's share of victims over the years. The loop around Wood Hill entails four significant climbs and some descents that entice you with speed, but perils lurk everywhere, especially with deep oak leaf cover. The bridges along the river can also be unforgiving. Riders have botched the big step-ups, breaking noses, slipped off them and submersing in freezing water, and endo'd launching off them.

Snowing along Merrimack River

I had hoped to beat the snow, but by the time I got to the river section, it started snowing earnestly  The bridges slicked up quickly. I opted to take some road back to Rafton Reservation rather mostly doubling back along the river to save time. I finished the 20 mile loop in under 2hrs just before things got too slippery. The roads driving back were a different matter...

This oak in Rafton Reservation probably dates back to

colonial days

Rich commented how fortunate we are to have so many riding options so close by. We both moved to New England in 1997. When we came here, riding options were quite limited. There were virtually no purpose-built trails in New England. Most riding was on trails that predated the advent of mountain biking. These were hiking or moto trails, either not sustainable or badly rutted out. NEMBA has transformed the state of mountain biking in New England to something that is remarkable. In fact, there has been an increase in the rate of new trails being built for mountain biking recently. Land managers have learned that mountain bikers can be good stewards of the land. We design, build and maintain sustainable trails for all users to enjoy. Our presence also drives out illegal use of land, such as trash dumping or motorized use where prohibited. And the best thing about most riding opportunities in New England? It's free! I've been a member of NEMBA for as long as I've lived in New England and will continue to support NEMBA financially and with sweat-equity.

Swope Park & BuRP Trails

Had a great trail ride today without even leaving town. I hit Swope Park and the Blue River Parkway (BuRP) trails. This growing, purpose built trail system lies in the greater Kansas City urban area. When fully built out, it will entail over 50 miles of singletrack.

You would never think of the heartland being a mecca for mountain biking, but people are beginning to use these terms to describe the area. Volunteer groups, such as ERTA, have gained the trust of land managers and contributed thousands of hours to building and maintaining multi-purpose trails. A local news source said KC could be without peer when this urban trail system is completed. Those are big claims.

My primary reason for visiting the heartland over and extended weekend was to put tires to dirt in a few more states I haven't biked in yet. Having ridden in three new states this trip, I have only three to go before completing all 50. These are Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. Maybe a trip next fall can finish the job.

I was pleasantly surprised by both the quantity and quality of trails in the greater KC area. It does not suck to be a mountain biker here. Far from it. Hill Junkie might be a bit lost without mountains though. Denver is about 600 miles over on I-70. The Ozarks are closer.

A cold front moved in overnight, leaving a misty film on the ground by morning. The pavement was wet, but it didn't really rain. I knew the trails would not be muddy, but I didn't like the prospects of riding challenging terrain with the added risk factor of slimy roots and rocks. I had no idea...

A steady stream of mountain bikers were pulling into the Swope Park trailhead when I arrived. Lots of guys on rigid 29er singlespeeds. Not much elevation change here, about 200ft max. I selected a GPX track to follow (I had three variants for this area) and headed into the woods.

I didn't make it 200 meters before nearly hitting the deck. Flat rock armoring was wet, and combined with clay dust, was slicker than wet pond ice. I couldn't even stand up on the stuff. New England brownie mix has nothing on this slickness. It must be just the right combination of smooth rock and type of clay, so even the slightest bit of moisture turns it into Slick 50 surface treatment. That put a major damper on my ride, as I planned to hit all the "black" trails at Swope first. Needless to say, I played extra cautious and didn't even attempt many of the tricky sections that I wouldn't normally hesitate on. The only good thing was the weather was supposed to clear up, become windy with plummeting temps. This would dry things out quickly.

On Woodchuck Trail @ Swope

The Swope Park trail designers did a fabulous job of integrating natural features into the trails. They were well armored for heavy use the trails no doubt see. There was a perfect balance of challenging features and high speed flow. The trail Rancho-D-Lux was more fun than a 50 year old should be allowed to have. I sure had to hit this again at the end of my ride after the rocks and roots dried off a bit (the hardpack tread was dry, presumably because it absorbed the overnight mist).

Switchback on Woodchuck

Several places had overhanging rocks

Meandering through chunks cleaved from bluff

Too much fun on Rancho-D-Lux

About 5-6 miles of Blue River Parkway pavement took me to the other cluster of trails I planned to hit, affectionately called the BuRP trails. I hit Bo-Ho-Ca and Basement trails on the way out (intermediate) and Highline (expert) on the way back. No, I didn't clean Highline. It contoured high on the bluff, working many rocky features in.

Beyond Bo-Ho-Ca and Highline were the Serengeti (easy) and Wagon (expert) trails. Serengeti was high-speed river bottom bombing while Wagon trail sought higher places with interesting rock features. Not as challenging as the harder parts of Harold Parker or MIT/Haystack trails back home, but I failed to clean a couple bits nonetheless.

Speedfest along the Blue River

I also crossed over the river via road to check out a couple easy trails on the other side. Material there was less inspiring, pretty much ride filler that brought the mileage up. I was having so much fun riding here I stopped to get more food before heading back to Swope. Riding at a planned second location today was not going to happen. There was enough here to keep me entertained for a day.

Slickrock ledge along Blue River

When I got back to Swope Park, the sun was out and things were dusty dry, as the rest of my riding over the three previous days was. This time I rode the Rancho-D-Lux loop in reverse. The downhill was insanely fun. There are several kickers along the way. I might have gotten a couple feet of daylight between my tires and terra firma on one of them. Uncharacteristic of Hill Junkie.

First sun in four days on Rancho-D-Lux

I could have ridden for hours longer. My energy level was not waning at all. Alas, all good things must come to an end. I finished with 45mi in 4.3hrs on the Garmin. This was easily my most satisfying ride of the trip.

Overnight, the temperature is supposed to free-fall. Windchills are expected to be in single digits when I get up. My flight doesn't leave until the afternoon, so I may try to squeeze one more ride in at nearby Shawnee Mission Park at crack-o-dawn. I did not bring AmFib tights or wind briefs. May have to improvise protective measures...

Nebraska: Reprieve from gnar

Saturday I drove two hours north to put tires to dirt in Nebraska. The closest place to Kansas City I could dig up was Indian Cave State Park, on the Missouri River. Indian Cave doesn't show up on the MTB radar as a destination riding location. The trails are primarily used by equestrians but are multi-use and open to bikes. Generally, I don't like riding on horse trails, as they tend to be very badly rutted and chopped up. There were MTB destination venues in the Omaha/Lincoln areas, but that was much too far to drive.

Having been beat down the last two days riding technical terrain, I was looking for a lighter day of riding, perhaps just a "token" ride in Nebraska so I could check that state as ridden. My expectations were low.

The weather was going to be the same again, overcast, dry, a bit cooler, but still warmer than average. A cold front moves though in the evening, potentially bringing a few flurries on Sunday, when I have a long urban ride planned.

Arriving at the park, I got the feeling I was the only visitor. The place was deserted. The only GPS track I could dig up was from an equestrian that did a simple, short loop. I planned to ride that, but explore the rest of the park too. The map and signage were pretty good.

I picked up the first trail after bombing down a paved road to the Missouri River. I froze with frost still on the ground. The trail went straight up, something like 20% grade. Lead legs and no warmup. Total shock. I was surprised how good of shape the trails were in for being used primarily by horses. They were generally ATV width and well maintained. Oak leaves were a bit of a problem on steep descents, as sometimes horses cut a deep rut down the middle and you couldn't see it buried under the leaves. And there was nary a rock to be found in the place. This was just want I needed after two days of boneyard picking.

What goes up goes back down. Again and Again. There was no flat terrain in this park. Similar to some of the central Vermont riding I've done. I guess horses have no trouble going up and down 15-20% grades. Many of the climbs lasted several minutes. This was the kind of terrain you could get a serious workout in. It definitely got the Hill Junkie seal of approval.

At one point, I popped out on a knoll with a beautiful view of the Missouri River. The trail began to plummet. I thought about riding it, but reconsidered with patches of oak leaves part way down. I would have been royally screw had I attempted it. It started at around 30% grade and steepened to probably greater than 100% grade. I would not have been able to stop and would have gone into a free-fall. The lower portion was exceeding difficult to scale down with a bike. You've heard the term HAB (hike-a-bike) before. This was a SOB descent (slide on butt). I held the rear wheel with one hand and slid down with bike. This was definitely not a horse trail! The drop at mile 8 in the GPS track is not where I forgot to restart the Garmin. It really did drop like that.  A sign up top would have been nice.

This popped me out at the river close to the Indian Cave. A little bit of road took me back into the trail system. A big climb brought me up to some open meadows. Honest singletrack followed the perimeter of several large open spaces. It was nice to cruise effortlessly for a few minutes.

Having ridden about 80% of the trails in the park, I decided that I had a good day and best to wrap it up on that note. I came to some horses on the loose on my way back to the car. Most were still in the split-rail fence area. They were all curious to check me out despite my strange mechanical contraption and garish clothing. I stopped by the park office to report loose horses but nobody was there.

Indian Cave State Park turned out to be a surprisingly good place to ride. I suspect few other mountain bikers would see it in my light. There are no technical features, just extremely steep climbs and descents with occasional HAB's. I never saw another person on the trails. Great scenery and well worth the drive up. Here are a few photos from the ride.

Cruising the meadows up top

Indian Cave. Supposedly petroglyphs here, but all I could see

was punk graffiti carved into the sandstone.

Missouri River from observation deck.

Beginning the plummet. Pretty much a cliff over the edge.

Starting the ride out along a ridgeline

Another view of the Missouri

Paved climb back up from river. It's cut 10ft deep the whole way

up. Why?

Typical trail terrain

As a Matter of Fact, We Are in Kansas

Clinton Lake State Park
I had high hopes of hitting the Switchgrass Trail in Wilson, Kansas on Friday. Checking the radar when I got up suggested a little mixed precip was in that area. I didn't want to risk 6+ hours round-trip drive only to find the trails greased up. I wasn't motivated to spend that much time in the car to begin with, no matter how cool of a riding destination. So I heeded the advice of a Hill Junkie reader who used to live in Kansas and picked a much closer destination.

There are two trail systems not far from each other less than an hour west of Kansas City. One is at Clinton Lake, close to Lawrence, the other a bit north on Perry Lake. These are huge man-made lakes. The trails are on Army Corps of Engineers land and purpose built for mountain biking. Perhaps I'll get a breather from the rough terrain on Thursday? Yeah, right...

It was another seasonably mild day but heavy, dark overcast. Very gloomy, but very dry. The water reservoirs around here are crazy low from the severe drought this summer. Water levels look like they are about 20ft low. Bad for agriculture, but it makes for clean riding.

The Clinton Lake trail system is a folded loop. I went out on the white trail, the up-slope trail from the lake. I returned on the blue trail, which was sandwiched between the white trail and the shoreline. I could often see the blue trail below me while riding the white trail. If you didn't like the terrain heading out, you probably weren't going to like the return trip either. Or so I thought.

Not 60 seconds into the ride, I had a WTF realization. I was in for another rough ride. No buff singletrack here. I thought the heartland of the country was flat grasslands? The white trail "contoured" just below the rim, or the height of land. That meant it was always rocky, as there was often a rocky outcropping just to my right from which chunks over the millenia must have broken off from.

After a while, I didn't bother shifting to my middle ring. I just left it in the granny. You could never let your speed run out for more than five seconds anyway, then you be right back to 2.5mph, chest to bar, barely grinding up another boneyard. Another estimated riding time blown way out of the water.

I was so glad I replaced the Racing Ralph tires with sturdier Panaracer Fire XC's. The RR's wouldn't have lasted five minutes on this terrain. A 29er would have been nice on this terrain, but I'm glad I didn't bring my 29er hardtail. I was taking a beating on my dualie the way it was. I would have taken my hardtail had it fit better in the shipping box.

After about two hours, I reached the far end of the loop, covering all of about 14 miles. For those familiar with the Long Trail at FOMBA, this was just like that, except rockier and with much bigger, steeper climbs.

All my pre-conceptions about riding in the heartland were being destroyed. Is this good or bad? I tend to enjoy more flow, steady aerobic output and speed. I must say, riders from around here would do just fine on the burliest trails in New England.

My legs were torched at the return point. A hundred 1000W bursts trying to clean steep rises will do that, especially not doing much interval work right now. Fortunately, the blue trail heading back had much nicer flow to it. It was further down from the rim most of the time with lengthy stretches you could haul-ass on. I met two solo riders heading out on the blue trail on my return. Otherwise I had the place to myself.

I finished with 23+ miles in nearly 3hrs moving time, a testament to how technical this terrain is. I quickly packed the bike to head to my afternoon riding destination, Perry Lake.

Clinton Lake photos, in no particular order:

White trail heading out, just below rim

Blue trail coming back

More blue trail. Clinton Lake reservoir crazy low.

Baked dry, hard as concrete.

Massive terrain park with dozens of big features

End to end see-saws.

"Steeper than it looks." Almost cleaned it.

My WTF realization seconds from parking lot.

Perry Lake State Park
I thought surely Perry Lake will offer up some buff singletrack. I couldn't handle another couple hours of pounding. Plan was to ride the full perimeter, then see if I wanted to add an inner loop.  Heading out, I thought this is more like it, finally being able to carry a little speed. But initial elation was crushed when I encountered more choppy terrain. Perry lake was looser. The thin slabs of rock would sing like rock chimes as the flipped up.

The half box of wheat thins I inhaled between rides didn't serve me well. I should've eaten more during the morning ride. I bonked hard, one of those hallucinogenic, detached body kind of bonks. I started seeing trail gnomes even though the place was deserted. Not a good situation, riding 1400 miles from home, extreme terrain and spotty cell phone coverage at best.

Eventually the wheat thins kicked in and I came out of my bonk. I cleaned some pretty hairy stuff. The terrain wasn't fear of permanent loss of bodily control like at Landahl the day before, but certainly fear of great bodily harm.

I worked my way north on the Copperhead trail. This trail was chocked full of gratuitous dive bombs into gullies, with saddle to sternum, only grind 2.5mph back out of them with saddle to tailbone. Copperhead was the lower trail, and I feared returning on the upper Twin Peaks trail would be even more challenging. I lucked out. Twin Peaks tended to stay up top more and flowed nicely in places.

I finished with nearly 16 miles in just over 2hrs on the Garmin. Another very hard, slow ride. There certainly seems to be a recurring theme in the riding around here.  7.7hrs of rough terrain riding in two days has beat me up more than a full week of riding in Durango with much more climbing. It's what I came out here for. I want to experience trail riding in all parts of the country.  I'm planning to ride in Nebraska on Saturday. A mellow "gravel grinder" is sounding pretty good right about now.

Self portrait on rare buff section

Perry Lake is probably the biggest man-made lake I've seen.

Lots of switchbacks

Typical climbing terrain

Typical descending terrain

The trails are litterally "stacked" here.

Show Me the Singletrack

Southwest Airlines brought me to Kansas City smoothly this morning. Had my luggage, rental car and bike before noon. What to do? It was too early to check in to the hotel. I thought about running today, as I didn't think there be enough time to get a worth while ride in. On a whim, I decided to head over to Landahl Reserve just east of KC in the show-me state of Missouri.

There was heavy overcast.  The temp was quite mild, not quite short sleeves mild, but mild enough for shorts. Judging by the dustiness of the parking lot, it hadn't rained in weeks here. The clay trails were hard as concrete.

I hadn't researched Landahl, but I did print out a trail map and pulled a promising GPX track off Strava to get me started. I figured maybe there was 90 minutes of riding. Being smack dab in the middle of the country, there couldn't be any technical features, right?

Not even two minutes into my ride, I hesitated over a big rock drop and had to dismount. Hmm, maybe I won't be flying through here so quickly. I methodically began hitting everything the Strava track hit, which was pretty much everything there. With trail names like Rim Job, Tasty, Gunbarrel, Long Tech, I should have known I'd be in for a little work.

The trails are rated just like alpine ski trails, green circle = easy, blue square = intermediate, and black diamond = expert. I'd say less than 10% of the trails were green. More than a third were black. There was even a double black downhill run, with numerous big launches, berms, doubles, table tops, etc. The black trails generally followed the rocky rim outcroppings that are everywhere out here. Screwing up in many sections would come with severe consequences. The section called 10&11 was wicked gnarly, even by east coast standards. Repeated steep ups and downs on nothing but jagged rocks. I could ride it a hundred times and still not clean it. Not exactly what I was expecting on my first day out here riding solo. But it was wicked fun.

The ride went past three hours elapsed time and I started to worry about daylight. Then I realized this is on the western side of the central time zone, so it gets dark about an hour later here than back east. There were a few cars in the parking lot when I started. When I finished, there were numerous cars.

I met a young guy on the trail who rides there almost every day when he's back home from school in Georgia. He dreams of visiting Highland Mountain Park in New Hampshire and couldn't believe I hadn't been there yet. I like to keep my tires on the gound. Anyway, my 90 minute planned ride turned into 2:40hrs and covered 21.6mi with a couple thousand feet of climbing. Some mighty fine purpose built singletrack.  I'll leave you with photos from the ride.

Top of ISH, the downhill run. I avoided the big jumps and

maybe acheived a tiny crack of light under my tires in a couple places

further down.

Lots of craggy stuff to hop up or drop off.

Point on Long Tech trail. Almost a view of horizon here.

Lot's of 26" wide gaps between slabs to stuff my little wheels into.

An Osage orange. Inedible except for seeds. Had these

in Michigan too. Seen an osage orange tree only once in the NE.

Filled with sticky latex.

Step-ups.

There's a limitless supply of rocky features to incorporate into

trails here. The designers made good use of it.

Strava: Friend or Foe?

Seems almost everybody is on Strava these days, just like Facebook. Some active people upload all their workouts on Strava. I've been uploading most of my activities since this spring. Strava's database is open, which means any third part app can access the millions of tracks logged into Strava.

I just learned of another nifty Strava app, Multiple Ride Mapper.  You can enter your Strava athlete ID number and date range, and the app will pull all of your rides into a single interactive Google map at once. Here are screen shots of the three areas I've ridden in so far this year, the northeast, Arizona and Colorado.

The northeast. Sad I haven't visited Maine this year.

Arizona. Rectangular loop in middle was 100km death-march Dave and I

did this spring.

Colorado and New Mexico

I'd zoom in further in southern New Hampshire, but I'm afraid I'd incriminate myself. That brings me to the point of this post. Strava may seem like all fun and games, but it is increasingly being used against cyclists. You've probably heard of the cases out west where pedestrians and cyclists have been killed while riders were attempting to regain KOMs. Strava data was used as evidence in civil trails.

Last Sunday I ran in the Middlesex Fells. I used to ride there a lot until it became just too hostile of a place to ride. Little has changed. There are multiple websites documenting mountain biking transgressions against the land and other trail users. Friends of the Fells has always been hostile towards cycling in the Fells. Check out the article in right column. You may want to see the anti-mountain biking video they recently put up on YouTube. Our adversaries can be quite resourceful.

Not only are riders publicly documenting their high-speed prowess in a highly used trail system, they are doing it on illegal trails. This can't make the mountain biking community look good when petitioning the DCR for greater access.

Private landowners have also become aware of Strava and search for people trespassing on their land. I've learned of local cases where this has happened with riders being confronted by landowners later after they trespassed.

If you ride posted private property or illegal trails, please don't broadcast it to those who will use it against us. If you ride unposted or questionably legit trails, carefully consider posting these rides on Strava. Even if you label the ride private, it is still in the data base and can be accessed. I demonstrated this a while back.

Hopefully I can added another cluster of tracks in dead center of the country over this weekend. With visiting Michigan over the holidays, that tallies up to about a quarter of the states biked in this year.

Spousal Interference

Posts have been sparse lately. The title of this post has nothing to do with it. Work, holiday activities and upcoming trip planning have pushed posting to the sideline. Those who follow me on Strava see I've been getting at least one good ride in on the weekends. The bike has been de-emphasized during the week for a while now, with increased emphasis on running and rollerskiing in hopes of an actual 2012/2013 ski season.

Group MTB rides were planned each of the last two weekends, 50 miler stuff, which some might call epics. Neither materialized. Last minute, ride participants bailed, leaving me to ride solo. Spousal interference was cited in both cases. The fact it was snowing out would never have anything to do with it...

A week ago it was just as well the others bailed. The prior three days of the Thanksgiving weekend left me pretty cooked, and hammering out 50+ miles with others would have surely put me in a bad place. I rode 30+ miles at a comfortable pace instead, having a very pleasant ride.

This past Saturday, I planned to hook up with one other rider for a 45 mile Willowdale/Bradley Palmer/Georgetown loop. The snow started early, but it was light. It also was well below freezing, so things stayed dry. Literally keys in hand, ready to get in the car, phone rings. I just knew.

I opted to ride a little closer to home instead, where I knew all hurricane Sandy debris had been cleared. I often refer to this loop as "tour of the C-towns," starting in Chelmsford, passing through Carlisle to Concord and back.

First tracks on a connector trail from rail trail in Chelmsford.

Mid morning a brief snow squall moved through, dropping close to an inch of snow. Riding became quite treacherous. Go figure that a year-old, bald Racing Ralph tire doesn't hook up on snow glazed rocks and roots. That isn't what nearly caused me to wreck bad though. It was the snow crusting over my glasses to where I missed seeing a protruding root on fast section in Estabrook. Pedal found the root.  In an instant, my bike was 90 degrees in the trail and I was hauling ass. Over compensating, I almost went down on the opposite side. Could easily have hip checked on the fallen tree right there. That wake up call put a damper on my pace for the rest of the ride.

The loop in Wright Reservation is always meticulously clean.

I cut a couple of the more technical bits out of the ride as an act of self preservation. Still managed 45 miles at a nice, steady endurance pace.  Other then the rail trail sections, I pretty much had the outdoors in this fairly urban area to myself.

On Thursday I head to Kansas City for an extended weekend getaway. On my bucket list is to mountain bike in all 50 states. Six states remain. This weekend I hope to color in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. You may ask "Wait a minute Hill Junkie, are there mountains there?" Nope, but it's not flat either. One area I plan to hit is Wilson State Park to ride the Switchgrass Trail system. It was just designated an IMBA Epic.  The Hell Creek section will surely challenge me with scary ledge riding above water. Switchgrass is a long drive from KC, but the novelty of the terrain looks worth it.  There are numerous other destination riding areas in and around the greater Kansas City metro area on both sides of the Missouri/Kansas state line to keep me entertained. Maybe even a night ride is in the works. For Nebraska, the riding is much more limited in the nearby accessible SE corner of the state. I plan to head up to Indian Caves State Park, an area popular with equestrians. Hope it is not too choppy. Bike is already there waiting for me. Psyched to get away for a few days.