Sunday, September 25, 2016

Ahern Trail Day Recap

It was a gorgeous day to build trail!

A small but efficient crew was able to refine and fully scratch in the new 'Winni Connector'.  Not sure if that name is official yet but I like it so I'm going to use it.  This reroute used an underutilized corner of the park that had a short trail called Connector that was really a here-to-there type trail that wasted tons of terrain.

Winni Connector is a .75 mile winding trail that fully uses the Southwest corner of the park taking in as many of the available natural features that we could manage.  The trail starts at the same entrance as Sunset off the lower fireroad by the lake.  It winds back and forth until ultimately popping out by Backbone and the offshoot of the fireroad that continues to Shore Dr.


There is some flow, some climbing, and some great classic Ahern rock ridge riding.  There are some additional A line / B line opportunities around some natural features but we ran out of time for today.  So I won't call it 'done' but it is certainly rideable and needs to get some wheels on it so get out there and check it out!

trying to solve a rock puzzle

getting there

more Ahern rock ridge

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Updated Page Hill Map

Hey All,

We updated the map for Page Hill with the new extension to Bug Out.  You may also notice that Magikal Mystery Tour has disappeared from the map.  Very mysterious right?!  We're planning a bigger re-route in the near future and it's not getting much attention from riders currently and is getting hard to follow all the way through.

So its on sabbatical for a bit but will return better than ever.

If you want to get involved with its resurrection just holler, more the merrier!


Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Page Hill Social Ride

It appears as if our new strategy of monthly group rides with a cookout is a winner!  Our first attempt didn't have ideal weather at Franklin Falls but this time around the forecast was in our favor and we got a massive turn out!

Many thanks to all those who came out to ride and hang out afterwards.  Next time we'll make sure we have a bit more food but luckily we managed to get everyone at least a little something.

We managed to get lots of wheels on the new Bug Out Ext. and with a bit more refinement work and some more wheels its going to be a great addition to the network.

Next month we'll be at Ahern on Thursday July 21st.  Bring your bathing suit, we'll be right on the lake!  More details as we get closer.




Monday, June 6, 2016

Page Hill Trail Day Recap

The forecast called for a very wet day and while we certainly didn't stay dry the whole time it actually really wasn't all that bad and ended up being a very productive day in the woods.  Many thanks to the 12 or so folks who braved the weather and came out to help build!




Glenn did a great job of getting a lot of the tools and material staged and ready so we were able to hit the ground running.  We actually probably got about an hour or so of work completed before the rain really started and maybe another hour or so more that it had a hard time breaking through the canopy.

The main order of the day was building 4 bridges to span streams and wet spots at various locations on the trail.  Happy to report that we were able to complete all the bridges needed and Bug Out Ext. is much closer to completion.





The trail is roughed in at this point and arguably rideable although a bit rough and tumble in spots.  But the bridges were the hard part and with those in place its just a bit more pruning and refinement work and it will be 100% ready to go.

Now we can all get back up to Hydra without needing to climb the Access Rd.  HOOORAAAAYYYY!

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Franklin Falls Trail Day Recap

A lean but mean crew completed two reroutes this morning.  As planned we added a short new section of trail to Stump Trail right before the awkward left hand hairpin turn close to the bottom of the trail.

We built a small berm to bring you back up slope ever so slightly followed by a short steep downhill into a flat section with a few fun little features.  We built an up-and-over feature with an existing stump and a blow down that we ripped in half.  The new section ends with a fun little knoll into a little berm and then back onto the original trail.

mini berm


 rake and ride!


 up and over


The second reroute was a short little section of Bee Trail.  We diverted around the short little steep climb that has turned into a blown out rooty mess and cut across the slope a bit with a more sustainable bench cut.



We wrapped up a bit after noon and proceeded to eat many grilled sausages.  We'll be looking to keep this momentum going at Page Hill in two weeks time.

spoils of war

Friday, May 20, 2016

CNH Social #1

We ignored the forecast to great effect!

And thankfully there were some other true believers out there and it wasn't just me and Matt rolling around by ourselves! Success!



It rained before and after we rode but we ended up getting a great window of super fun greasy riding on a nice cool evening with no bugs.  I'll take that any day.  We met a rider new to the area, welcome aboard Heather! and even bumped into a trail runner who met back up with us in the parking lot looking to get info to join up with us on future events.  Not bad for an evenings work of bikes and beers.



Hopefully in the future we'll get slightly better weather but I think doing our rides this way is going to work out better for us in the long run.  Keep your eyes peeled for our June event, I'll announce that soon.  The 3rd Thursday is the one right before NEMBAfest and I will be unavailable to lead so I'll probably be picking a different date for that one.  I'll do that soon and get it posted.

Until then get out and ride!

Friday, May 6, 2016

Plans for 2016

Hey All!

A bunch of us got together yesterday evening for a ride and meeting to try and map out our Summer schedule of trail work and events and I figured I would provide an Executive Summary / recap of what 2016 is looking like in CNH

Trail Days:

May 22 - Franklin Falls: mostly maintenance work, de-rooting and a few possible small re-routes on Bee Trail and Stump

June 5th - Page Hill: main project will be an extension of Bug Out that will bring you up to Hydra on singletrack as opposed to Access Rd. doubletrack.

Aug 6th - Elm Brook: prep trails for the Pedaling for Payson event as well as possibly build a new trail.

Aug 21st - Ahern: building a new trail that has been approved by the State.

We may also add some work days in the Fall and these dates could wiggle a bit (but hopefully not).  As always keep an eye on our Events Page for the latest.  We'll also be sending out reminders as we get closer.

Social Rides:

We are changing strategy with our Social Rides for this year.  Less frequent but in exchange much more production value.  We are taking our weekly Thursday ride and turning it into a monthly, much bigger, social event.

On the 3rd Thurs of each month we will have a ride / cookout at one of our local ride locations. Bikes, burgers, adult sodas...everything that we all love.

To kick things off we will be at Franklin Falls on May 19th.  Tell your friends, bring the family these are going to be fun!

New Ride Spots(?):

There is also some growing potential for new trails in the Meredith area as well as some new stuff down by Concord.  Talks are ongoing and things are in the very early stages but we are hopeful.