Mmmm Soupy

I said it in the email blast earlier this week and I'll say it again.  Rides like this one make you really appreciate warm weather rides.  All but 3 three of us had enough sense to stay home tonight, but there's nothing like getting soaking wet riding through countless puddles in the rain when it's dark and 35 degrees out and then finishing the evening with some nice wet snow.  There aren't too many rides under 10 miles that you can call epic, but this was one of them.

I broke out #5 and #9 of The Velominati Rules to make this ride happen!

Lakes Region Planning Commitee needs feedback!

The Lakes Region Planning Commission will be holding a series of public meetings to obtain input on pedestrian and bicycle needs. We encourage anyone to attend and share with them the needs and obstacles to safe and accessible biking and walking.  The public meetings will be held as follows:

v     Wolfeboro Public Library – Thursday, November 3 @ 6:00 pm

v     Tamworth Public Library – Tuesday, November 8 @ 6:00 pm

v     Bridgewater Town Hall – Wednesday, November 9 @ 6:30 pm

v     Belmont Corner Meeting House – Thursday, November 10 @ 6:30 pm

                   v     Laconia Athletic & Swim Club – Monday, November 14 @ 12:00 pm

They have also developed an online survey on biking and walking to help them better understand how people bike and walk in the region.

Let your voice be heard! 

Page Hill Trail Day Sunday, November 6th!

We built over half of "Trail #4" during our last work day on 9/25. Since then, we've continued work from the far end and have roughed-in about another quarter of it. We need your help to finish of that last quarter and complete the trail.

Come to Page Hill on Sunday, November 6th. Registration will be from 8-9am at the base of the driveway to the cabins on Murray Hill Rd. in Hill, NH. Paste these coordinates into Google Maps for directions: 43.533398,-71.768072

Parking will be on the driveway and in the grass lot. Please avoid parking along the road.

A map to the work area will be left at the registration area after 9am in case you are running late and you need to find us.

Tools and water will be supplied. Bring snacks and some work gloves. You might also want to bring your bike to ride out to the work area, it is a ways off the road and would be accessed quickest by bike. We hope to see you there!

Spooky

Given the weather forecast today, it looked like tonight's ride would be a washout, but when 5 o'clock rolled around the roads were dry so I headed up to see who else might show... Nobody!  Oh well, if it had been raining I wouldn't have even gotten out of my truck because I am a wimp this time of year and I'm nursing a back injury that just sucks, but since it was dry I figured I give a whirl anyway.  

There's something eerie about riding alone at night and when I had to turn the light on when I got to mighty chicken, it was like riding something new; never quite sure what was around the next corner because the darkness skews perception.  I usually spook myself when I am out alone in the woods after dark, but with the exception of one grouse that I stirred up, I remained strangely calm.  No 'Blair Witch' images or thoughts of Bigfoot chasing me down.  All in all a good ride and just for fun I mixed things up by finishing differently.  I usually ride out Pine Snake and onto Moose Gully, but tonight I turned off onto Caddywhumpus from Pine Snake and climbed up to the end where I picked up Sniper as a last trial.  A good change from the normal ride.

Every time I ride Sniper I like it more; it keeps getting faster and more swoopy as it beds down.  It rides nicely in both directions but I prefer it from the far side (farthest from parking lot off Middle Trail) right now.  

Page Hill Night Ride

There's nothing like being one of the first to experience a new section of technical trail, everything you encounter is like solving a puzzle because there aren't any cues that you see once a trail is bedded in. It's always exciting, sometimes scary, but always a good time. Couple that with a cold October night, a bunch of mud, and lots of leaf fall to obscure the trail and you in for a treat.

Four hearty souls showed up for last night's ride at Page Hill to ride out the trails including the partially complete The Dude Abides. Being a single speeder I was a bit reluctant to get out there knowing that there is quite a bit of climbing but I had an absolute blast. I rode way more than I thought I would and some of the technical rock gardens at the top are really fun.

Did I clean everything? Not even close, but it is all rideable and with time it will bed in and become a truly great technical trail. The two existing trails Bearclaw and Hardhat are riding really well in both directions and coming down Bearclaw was incredible.

This place is well worth checking out; right now it's fairly short but the mileage from last night was deceiving. We rode just short of five miles but it felt like 10 since there is a fair amount of climbing. Don't forget to bring your big set of lungs.