Thursday Night NEMBA

Thank you Dave B for hanging back and waiting for me! Just as I was about to leave work I was hit with an "issue" that kept there much past my required departure time in order to hit the 6:05 NEMBA start. Prior weeks I had it down to the minute of when I needed to leave work and still leave enough time to get suited up in the car, check the pressure in my tires, lather in DEET, throw my personal belongings in my camelback, check myself in the mirror (style is everything!) and be ready to go with a minute to spare. But that came crumbling down on me yesterday. I was still committed to riding and just figured I would wing it once I got there. Although admittedly Iʻm not sure Iʻve really graduated to that level in Big River after only riding there 3 times. And all three times, the blood vessels were ready to burst in my eyeballs as I doing all that I could just to hang onto Jasonʻs back wheel (or at least even see it off in the distance).  But no need, as I was rushing to my car Dave called and said the group just took off and that he would hang knowing I was on my way. Now thatʻs a solid! Got to say - so far my mountain biking experiences here in RI have been very cool thanks to some very serious acts of kindness from both Jason and Dave.

Dave led us on some common trails, most of which looked familiar from the previous rides. I can actually remember some trail names this time (see, itʻs finally starting to sink in), but wait, itʻs no that impressive - I know we started out on Hero loop - a fairly mild well traveled loop that starts and finishes on Burnt Sawmill Rd. We pealed off of Hero, but really I had no idea where. I do know we ended up on a trail call Coaster - a fun, fast, banked turns down hill. Other than that it was just following Dave, who at one point wasnʻt sure where we were either. Thatʻs the beauty of this place - for 3 weeks I have ridded there with people who have been riding there for many years, and each week we managed to end up in an area that no one knew where we were. Itʻs simply huge with endless options thrown at you all along the way. It was starting to get dark so we cheated - I pulled up my map on the Garmin and we were able to at least figure out the general direction we needed to be heading in. "Felt like cheating" are Daveʻs words and I totally agree. It took the adventure out of getting completely lost, heading in the wrong direction for hours before you realize it, and wondering back to your car in blackness for at least an hour. Itʻs a situation thatʻs unfolded a thousand times for me in my mountain biking life, and each time the beer at the car tastes that much more worth it. This time, it was nice to get back to the car, but the thought  of wondering if we would be spending the night in the woods and possibly eaten by a bear never crossed my mind and that took some fun out of returning to the car! None the less, as I like to say, it was a blast and Iʻm already looking forward to next Thursday night. Hopefully Jason will be back - he was not as fortunate with his work "issues", and was stuck there.

Wicked Good In Maine - Bradbury with Benjamin

There were many great things about this ride 1) first time riding with my nephew Benjamin who just purchased his first mountain bike earlier this year - and is now clearly hooked, 2) A beautiful day in the Maine woods (low 80ʻs, not a cloud in the sky, 3) my first NEMBA ride as an actual member 4) A sweet, fast, flowy 12 mile loop set up and tagged by NEMBA. There is no way we could have designed a better loop within the existing network this fun. For me, these are my kind of trails, everything I miss from my typical weekend rides in Seattle - Banner, Black Diamond, Tokul. The only thing that could have made this ride more fun would be some climbs. There are short pitches here and there, but nothing of any substance. Other than that, I loved this park - I loved the tight sharp twisty trails that make your head spin, I loved the centuries old stone walls and trails that crossed over them. The roots, the iconic New England rolling slick rock. By no means was this an overly technical network of trails, but it definitely made me work in a few places. The state park map is perfect and every trail is marked with a trail number. The exploring capabilities are endless yet itʻs impossible to get lost. I told Benjamin several times I was jealous of how close he lived to it; this is an evening ride for him. I used to tout about county parks in Seattle built specifically for mountain biking. Now I can taut about a state park that has essentially done the same - not to the extreme as Duthie, but still with killer bridges and burms.  We completed the 12 mile loop and decided to ride the mountain another day (I had a long drive ahead of me). From what Benjamin told me, the climb up to the summit is fairly easy. There are several options for the decent, all fun but quite short. I look forward to returning to this ride!!

MTB Maine: Inland/Pine Ridge

Hats (or lids) off to Central Maine NEMBA! A sweet little network of fun, flowy trails with some technical and a decent little climb that put me into my triple for the first time since moving back to the East coast. I wish it worked out to meet a few of you folks, but I will be back for sure before too long. You guys should be proud of the work you have put into this place. The passion is clear, this is a well loved area. Even the potential is endless - I say that not knowing if there are any future plans of expansion. The network consists of a lot of single and double track. The trails are for the most part well marked, but I did end up on a few trails that faded into nothingness. I also struggled a bit to make the transition from the Inland trails to the Pine Ridge trails. There was a fair amount of riding on snowmobile trails, but Iʻm sure thatʻs just because Iʻm still stumbling my way around. I had hoped to end up on some trails that I once ran cross country on in High School (+25 years ago), but nothing look familiar.  My favorite part of the ride was the section leading to the Pine Ride area and the loop that found once I was there. There is a section of loop-dee-doos which were fun and keep me attentive. The surface was perfect as it rained through the night before giving it just a perfect amount of grip.  Overall, very psyched I rode these trails and I will be brining my bike up every time I come to visit. I highly recommend these trials if you are in the area, or even just passing through and you need to stretch your legs. CeMeNEMBA folks, I look forward to meeting you some day!

Big River Mountain Bike Ride RI NEMBA

Another killer (almost literally) Thursday night mountain bike ride with RI NEMBA. Headed out with fast group, paid the price 2 minutes in. There were just 4 of us in the group. Some similar trails, but lots of new stuff. Seemed like we ended up on road a little more than we needed to. None the less there was plenty of suffering. This ride, I dropped the pressure to what I thought was 28 psi. I knew as soon as we left the parking lot and onto dirt I was too low. The back end was wobbly and I was bottoming out on some roots and rocks. Eventually I hit a rock on an off camber slop and it burped. It felt like the tire came completely of the rim, but that was not that case upon inspection. Despite Stans fluid all over the sidewall, it resealed. Got to love Stans! Just a little CO2 and it was back to suffering. A great ride, nothing I wouldnʻt do again! Off to Maine this weekend to ride with Central Maine NEMBA.

MTB: Thursday Nights at Big River

Shout out to RI NEMBA , my first Thursday night ride. Gotta say, I was impressed with the passion for this weekly event. Despite temps being in the low 90ʻs there were still a good 25-30 fat tire enthusiast. I was told it was a "wicked reduced number" due to the weather. The group gathered by the gate at the route 3 parking lot around 6 and broke up into 3 groups based on level. My guide from the previous Big River ride, Jason, and I jumped into the B group. Iʻm guessing Jason can hold his own and is probably in the A group most weeks. Iʻm still fat and out of shape and working my way into this East coast riding so I thought the B ride would suite me fine. After taking off with the B group, I realized I will not be joining that A group anytime soon (as in most likely never). I wish I knew the trail names to describe this ride because it was awesome. About 10 mins in we ascended a decent climb, longer than I even imaged could be in Big River. I was psyched about the climb but feeling like crap. Seriously, Iʻm in horrible condition. So much for clawing myself back into shape with a couple of commutes a week and a road ride on the weekend. If I have any chance of even enjoying cross season this year, I need to get on it soon! Iʻm pretty sure this Thursday night gig is going to be a step in that direction. The B group comprised of about 10 dudes and a designated group lead. These guys are are pretty committed to this group riding thing to the point that the lead would pull off from time to time and bring up the rear. I was off the back hanging on for dear life. The trails were great, not too technical until we got to the classic New England rock garden riding. Eventually I need to figure this crap out, but on this ride I spent more time off the bike than on through this section. I just donʻt have the Trials riding skills for that. After one section the group was heading for another similar section so Jason and I peeled off from the group for some fast spinning. We went solo from there for another 1.5 hours of some sweet singletrack. By now the temps had drop what felt like 10 degrees and I had my legs back. We did a couple of trails from the last post, but mostly new ones for me. At one point we crossed over Hopkins Hill Road to grab a loop. The network in Big River is huge and the options are endless - which is good, because I suspect thatʻs where Iʻll be doing a majority of my riding. Local to RI there arenʻt a ton of options for fast flowy single track. So for now Iʻll just hunker down, hang onto Jasonʻs wheel as best I can and hope to Buddha I eventually get in shape! Oh and Iʻm not used to it getting dark so early during the summer - sunset is like 8:15 these days. It was pretty much black by the time we got out. Iʻm guessing weʻll be riding with lights before too long. That just doesnʻt sound right!

Overall great ride after the initial suffering. Already looking forward to next Thursday.

North Kingstown/West Greenwich to CT Line

Iʻm still figuring out my way around so this route unfortunately deals with a few crappy roads, but in return covers some killer country roads. Right now, my issue is that I rely on google maps to design a route the night before heading out. A flaw with google maps is that it doesnʻt indicate the non paved roads on the map view and itʻs too difficult to definitively determine using satellite view.

This route covers some of the same ground as my previous ride North Kingstown/West Greenwich ride but using my new "gateway" west out of Wickford Village and covers additional roads south and west therefore adding a few miles (like 20ish). This is a route I really want to perfect in terms of finding better ways around some of the less desirable roads. One day I will post a route called "The epic NK/WG Loop". That route will definitely include Mail Road, Escoheag Hill Road, and Plain Meeting House Hill Road. So far these are the best roads Iʻve been on, including some of the connections. Iʻm convinced Plain Meeting House Hill Road heading East towards 102 is THE best climb in the state. I know this sounds ridiculous for most of the other states, but itʻs a 1 mile grunt with pitches up to 15%. I would laugh too hearing that from my previous riding lives, but none the less this is the now and itʻs a real fun grind. Mail Road also has some nice rollers with a couple very short steep pitches.

My new discovery for this ride is Escoheag Hill Road, a beautiful newly paved country road with some decent short climbs. I just need to seek ways of approaching this road better. I crossed under 95 on Route 138 from where I got on at Stilson Road. Generally I would avoid all riding on 138, but there are also limited opportunities to cross 95 and this seemed like the best. It wasnʻt too bad, but it is a busier road that ever prefer. Thankfully I was only on it for about 1 mile before turning North on Route 3. My intention was to hit Skunk Hill Road off Route 3, which I did, but it turned into a gravel road a few miles in. I turned around and chose a new route using my iPhone. This time I headed North on Arcadia Road, a real nice road in good condition. All was good until I got to Route 165 (Ten Rod Road) which was my plan to head West. Despite the great climb on this road, overall it sucked. Shoulder was in horrible condition in many sections and itʻs a high speed limit road. My future attempts to get to Escoheag Hill Road will be via either Summit Road or Bald Hill Road (I know nothing about these roads yet).

Escoheag Hill Road eventually turns into Hazzard Road where I eventually turned onto Muddy Brook Rd and then connect onto my original NK/WG ride. I took Plain Meeting Road to Route 102 and then head South East on 102. Route 102 is another section I hope to eventually cut out of this loop. Itʻs not horrible, the shoulder is extra wide, but itʻs a high speed limit road and totally exposed. I took 102 to Route 3 and went South to Dawley Park Road and eventually connected back onto the roads that I was on earlier in the day heading the opposite direction and a sweet pedal home.

Again, one day I will have this loop dialed in to be comprised of [mostly] country roads. Until then, Iʻll have fun discovering new ones - some good ones, some sucky ones.

Big River Mountain Bike Ride

Finally, my first mountain bike ride here in Rhode Island. Yes, pathetic that we have lived here for more than 4 months and Iʻm just now getting out. Well, my excuses are: laziness in getting my bike unpacked and assembled, I will not lie. Also contributing is that once I did finally get it unpacked my drop out was bent beyond repair, so that took a week to get. For the most part the Moots is running well. But if I EVER suggest going for a ride with both brakes (front and back) rubbing on the rotors again, please kill me. The rubbing didnʻt seem too bad, you know on the rack and spinning the wheel with my hand. Holy crap, I seriously under estimated how that "little bit of rubbing" could affect my strength. For someone with not a lot of power in their legs, taking away just a few percent can really hurt. Thatʻs my excuse and Iʻm sticking to it!

Other factors not helping - temps in the low 90ʻs. None the less, I had a awesome guide - Jason Clark who is a hucker at heart but a beast of a XC riding with incredible power. Seattle folks think - Chris Green.  Granted Iʻm not in the best of condition right now, but I was run into the ground 2 miles in. I recovered well enough to have a blast on this relatively short ride.

I canʻt explain too much about the route since nothing is marked and therefore donʻt know the local names for trails. Rhodies familiar with Big River will be able to tell the loop we did looking at the course plot (clink on the image to zoom in). What I can comment on are 1) Big River mountain biking and 2) East coast riding...

1) Big River is sweet, and a HUGE area. Itʻs broken up into three major sections - Route 3 (or exit 6), Hopkins Hill Road, and Exit 7. We rode from the Route 3 main parking area and just barely hit 10% of this sectionʻs network. Since this area is only 20 minutes from my house (and literally right across the highway from work), I will  spending plenty of time here and exploring.

2) East coast riding - I was surprised to find the trail building similar to PNW - tight turns, burmed corners, steep short climbs, fast and flowy. The major difference is the surface. PNW is for the most part always packed and grippy (gee, wonder why). Here, itʻs soft and lose on top. I was pretty timid for most the ride just trying to get a feel for this kind of surface. I was probably running my tire pressure too high (35 psi) so I need to figure that out too. I lacked the confidence to charged into sharp corners at full speed or get out of the saddle on steep climbs. The terrain is somewhat similar with lots of roots, but a little more rocky than what Iʻm used to. And Iʻm not talking a bed of baby-heads, but larger stationary kind.

Overall a great ride. Thanks Jason for showing me a few killer trails. I canʻt wait to get back out there. The Moots is going into NBX for a reset of my break pistons. That will make all the difference!