Rocky Woods, Saturday 6/7

[Mr_Cheeze]

As it turned out, we didn't get a lot of rain, so the conditions should be fine.
Anybody who may be interested in checking the place out, please consider joining in tomorrow. I would like to get a regular contingent of people riding in there to keep the trails ridable.

So... Tomorrow (Saturday) morning, 10:00 start. Park at the AMF Bowling lot on route 44 (Winthrop St.) near the Range Ave. side. I drive a green Subaru.

We'll head in from the top of Rocky Woods St. and hit a section of trail on each side of the road. Should be about a 2 hour or so ride with a possible option to go longer. It'll be steamy, so be sure to have enough water. There will be stops for rest.

For anyone not sure of what to expect, the trails are fairly challenging for a novice. Probably mostly intermediate level with a good assortment of hills and some rocky terrain. Very fun. I will head out at 10:00. Don't want to go later, as it's going to get pretty hot tomorrow.

[bdee]

I must've missed you guys, I rode the 'cross bike out there and rode in right at the end of Glebe St. I rode the main dirt road to the end down by the school and then some of the spur trails off that dirt road. Not too bad, muddy but nothing too horrible. I ran across a pretty large snapping turtle on of the trails, nice to add a little excitement to the ride. I spent about 40 minutes in there before heading home. It made for a 50 + mile ride with a few woods mile for good measure. Longest road ride this year so far and the heat didn't help. Thank God for SPF 50..

[Mr_Cheeze]

Well, "you guys" ended up being just "you". And it's probably a good thing. Apparently I left my bottle of Cytomax on top of my car before leaving home. Halfway through the very sweaty ride, I reached down to replenish the electrolytes and much to my dismay, it was absent. By the end of two hours, water only didn't cut it. The wall was near and I called it quits. But I was able to do an entire loop. The going was slower than anticipated, with the soft ground and, every so often, deep tire ruts from our dirt bike "friends", ebbing any flow. Still, I was heartened by the condition of the trail. Only last summer this very trail was laden with downed trees. For the most part they have been either cleared or detoured around.

Where you came in by Glebe, it was unlikely you would have seen "us". The section of trail you were on is one of the longest in the area, and mostly separate from the loops I usually hit off of Rocky Woods.

When I was on my weekday ride, I saw an Eastern Box Turtle. Never seen one in the wild before. It looked exactly like this:

http://gallery.cs.umb.edu/gallery/d/370150-2/box_nesting.jpg

Very docile, the box turtles. This one made for some good soup.











Just kidding.

[ahathaway]

LOL, Well I wanted to join you but the kids did not go down for a nap until 12:30. So I decided at about 1 that I would ride to Travis to pick up a bike computer. I was about 3 miles in when my chain went snap. As I did not brink my chain tool I was able to partake in my first walk of shame and had a nice 3 mile walk back home. The worst part was that halfway home I realized I could have walked half a mile to Travis and had them fix my chain for me. DOH!!!