Craptastic

[bdee]

Yeah that sums up what should've been a great ride at Harold Parker for the Wicked Ride today. Instead I dealt with three flat tires today. One on my bike - easy enough to deal with I just grabbed the other bike but... The second was on my car (noticed it as I was about to go to Andover), then another on my car. My jackass neighbor put on a new roof this past week and his crew didn't clean up the mess. So, you guessed it, a roofing nail found itself a new home in my tire. After getting it plugged this morning I was driving home and hit a bridge joint on 195 and the inside sidewall of the same tire blew (complete with sound FX and everthing). After slapping the donut on in less than 8 minutes (a personal best, yaaay for me !) I went back and hung out at Firestone for the rest of a lovely day. I'm going to now go outside and rake all the leaves off the side of the road and hopefully get any remaining nails - did I mention I found another 5 this afternoon ? Good times indeed, I think I'm going to call it a day at noon tomorrow and go for a ride. Hopefully I'll make it to the Wicked Ride next year, I hear it's a good time.

[gnurider1080]

well my chain snapped during the ride and bill and i lost fred. and thats about it for me. so i guess your day was much worse.

[Luckybikes]

Well to put it nicley your day sucked

[MissJean]

Now that’s a bad day bdee. Definitely take half a day tomorrow and ride, Tues it is suppose to rain.
This was the first year I made it to the Wicked ride and I had a wicked good time. There are a ton of good trails in there! We got lost a bit at the end and wound up riding the road back.

[Quo Fan]

Jerseygirl and I rode Great Brook today. We didn't know there was going to be a horse event there. She did very well, although she said that she sucked. We had a great time riding.

[jerseygirl]

Yeah, I'd say we definitely had a better day than Bdee, and the leftover Chinese food really hit the spot after trick or treating all night. Thanks for the kind words about my riding. Leaves are so much better when they're dry and hanging on a tree.

[splat]

Well I had a Good ride yesterday , ( see CT invades thread) , but last night eating dinner On of my crowns popped off ! So I have a call into the dentist now :'(

[antonio]

hey jersey girl and quo fan!

i was at GBF with my wife yesterday, and i'm pretty sure you guys helped us find our way to tophet loop and heartbreak ridge, easier trails not over run with horses.

nice to put faces together with some of the posters on this board. and, yeah, those leaves sure look pretty, but i'd prefer to see the wet roots, rocks, and mud beneath 'em.

ant

[jaime]

Bummer, bdee.

Re; the horses at GBF, I was also surprised at how many there were at Harold Parker, I must've seen 8-10 horseback riders. I usually am pleased to see them, but at one point we came to an intersection of single to double track where two horseback riders were coming up to us from the left. The horses were very skittish and one of the ladies was, too, telling us not to move (even though we were off our bikes standing to the side of the trail). We waited for them to pass and gave 'em a few minutes head start. We figured they'd be continuing on the double, but when we reached the turnoff for the singletrack (marked by double orange arrows) there they were, plodding into the marked mtb loop. Arrgh ::). Mostly the horse riders were fun & pleasant to see, but those two seemed oblivious. Oh well.

Excellent riding in HP: I'd like to get back there with someone who really knows the area...Thanks to the folkw who showed up early to mark out that loop.

[jerseygirl]

hey jersey girl and quo fan!

i was at GBF with my wife yesterday, and i'm pretty sure you guys helped us find our way to tophet loop and heartbreak ridge, easier trails not over run with horses.

nice to put faces together with some of the posters on this board. and, yeah, those leaves sure look pretty, but i'd prefer to see the wet roots, rocks, and mud beneath 'em.

ant


Yes, that was us. Nice meeting you! Hope you had fun

[off piste]

I've been riding on Sunday's with MBTME and the NEBC, a different area each week. This week was Stow Woods.

About 1/2 way through the ride, we came across a group od 4 on horseback. We all stopped and quietly waited for them to pass. Only. we learned that they were in a group of 50 people out riding horses that day! For the rest of the ride, we couldn't come to a trail junction or go more than 100 feet down a path without running into riders and waiting for them to pass! I ended up bailing early.

[MTBME]

What's with all the horsies yesterday. I was riding in the Conservation Woods in Stow MA. yesterday with about 17 riders. After about an hour or so we started running into one horse after another. They told us there was a group ride of about 50 horses in there. We had to change up the ride a bit. But the good news... my tires were nice and clean when I got back to the car ;)

[AA]

I probably should have posted that the Horsie event was going on in Stow last weekend (I live 1/2 mile from there) they were out during the week marking the trails with yellow ribbons. They generaly have 2 or 3 events a year so on these day I dont even bother riding there. To be honest I didnt think people from out of town drive to Stow to ride there. I did the Harold Parker ride and it was really nice.....

Oh yea, there are no good trails in Stow so dont come back ;)

[MTBME]

"I didnt think people from out of town drive to Stow to ride there."

First time I've ever been there. It was a pleasant surprise. I'll leave it at that ;)

[Quo Fan]

It was nice to meet you, Antonio. We were ending our ride when you guys found us. We were glad to help out fellow mountain bikers.

[hammerhead]

I guess my day yesterday qualifies for this category. Sunday 10/31: I get up at 6:30 AM to go ride with the usual group. I'm feeling great about the day as I drive west up out of the valley into a beautiful sunny Indian Summer morning. I arrive at the hill-town parking lot just a bit behind schedule. We set off with a group of 11 down the muddy double track and take a right onto the first single track of the ride. About a quarter mile in I hit a root and hear a slight tinkle. I don't really think much of it as I pedal up the knob in the trail and coast down the other side. When the trail levels off I notice something doesn't feel right. I stop and discover I snapped a titanium rail in the saddle - so much for that 3 hr epic in the woods. I turn back cause there is no way I'm riding that long with my a** at an angle, and I can't find the broken piece.

At least I got in 50 miles on the road in the afternoon - so the day wasn't a complete loss, though the morning was certainly the best part of the day.

[off piste]

"I didnt think people from out of town drive to Stow to ride there."

First time I've ever been there. It was a pleasant surprise. I'll leave it at that ;)


I was looking at the GPS log and we doubled back on ourselves several times. But, the way Neil put it together, it all felt like new terrain!

[Slider]

Some things I've used to trail-fix a broken seat: Zip ties, a tube, a t-shirt, twine, and rope.

It ain't pretty, or very comfotable, but better than "ridus interruptus." Three hours - might have shortened that a little if I was sitting on a knotted tube!

My version of craptastic happened last week, but I was lucky to get most of the ride in first. My shin was spurting like Old Faithful, sending a three inch stream with every heartbeat. I ought to write a letter to the zip tie folks. I used them to pressurize the sock I used to cover the woulnd. They got me outta the woods and to the hospital, and the bleeding stopped before I got there.

If it was not possible to have craptastic days, riding would not be as fun!

Slider

[AA]

"I didnt think people from out of town drive to Stow to ride there."

First time I've ever been there. It was a pleasant surprise. I'll leave it at that ;)


I was looking at the GPS log and we doubled back on ourselves several times. But, the way Neil put it together, it all felt like new terrain!



I'd be curious to see the loop you guys did. Can you post the GPS tracks? I may be biased but I like the trails in Stow, granted there is no super technical stuff but lots of fun singletrack if you know where to look. Another bonus this year is the motorcycle traffic has been almost non existent so the trails are nice and firm in most places.

[off piste]

Sure! Here's the ride from Sunday:

http://home.comcast.net/~wi1w/stow.JPG

[AA]

looks like you hit most of the good stuff, there are a few "hidden" singletrack sections that it looks like you missed but for the most part you got the full tour.

[off piste]

I did notice a lot of trail junctions that had very faint trail going off from them. Also, the GPS cut out for some of the ride. You can see broken tracks in the north west part of the log.