[MMcG]

My girlfriend and I met up with some riding buddies on Saturday morning at Nepaug State Forest in New Hartford Connecicut. Trails were in great shape, with the exeption of some big muddy puddles where vehicles and ATVs ride on some of the fireroad type trails. Singletrack was real nice and rooty and rocky for this almost 2.5 plus hour ride. Nepaug is a fun place to ride with jumps and drops and ladders and whatnot scattered about throughout the trails. You pretty much always have the option to hit them, or if not, to still have a challenging go-around route. It was a good ride overall on a beauty of a day. Good times good times.

Mark getting airborne on a jump.

Phil's Turn

Randee on a trickier descent than what shows in the photo:

Mark on a tough rocky uphill section - took a few tries, but he nailed it eventually.

Randee cleaned that section on her first try.

Laura ridin and smilin.

Randee

Phil about to land back wheel heavy on a good sized jump.

Mark gettin airborne on his Bul-lite!

I took a few photos and thought I'd throw em up for you guys. I also realize that I need to get some tips or take some classes to learn how to take better photos. Got any tips? Add em to the comments if you do.

Cheers,

MMcG

Edit:weird - my damned blog spot doesn't seem to be letting the pics show up here. Weird.

 

[I Are Baboon]

Good ride, Mark!! I need to learn my way around Nepaug so we can go there without needing a tour guide everytime. Huge thanks to Tonyhawk for being our guide! Laura did great for her first MTB ride in a while.

I had a great time despite my uncooperative bike and it's shifting problems.

Here are some pics I took....

 

[I Are Baboon]

Laura riding along...

followed by MtnBikerChk

 

[I Are Baboon]

a few pics of MBC...

going down a rocky descent:

motoring along...

Roots and rocks and roots and rocks. This little downhill is on a switchback. It's harder than hell to clean. The trail comes down from the far left of this pic. I was quite proud that I made the turn successfully.

and MBC on an uphill rock garden, which she cleared with no problem (this picture does it no justice).

I couldn't clear that rock garden, and neither could Tonyhawk as this picture shows. (heh heh....he cleared it on his 2nd try)

 

[I Are Baboon]

Me approaching a skinny mudbog crossing, which I somehow managed to successfully cross using the narrow "bridge."

 

[I Are Baboon]

Last three pics....

Tonyhawk apporaching a drop....

hitting the drop....

landing the drop with a smile for the camera! (friggin hotdog )

Great ride. The only real way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon.

 

[I Are Baboon]

The wife and I also rode Case Mountain today (Manchester, CT), but that didn't go quite so well. We had a great time, but I had some real mechanical issues about 4 miles into the ride. My chain dropped off to the inside of the cassette and got wedged between the hub and the cassette. It took us 30 minutes to get the chain unstuck and I bent the cassette and the derailleur pulley in the process. We decided to ride out at that point, but it was still four miles to the car. I had to keep the bike in a higher gear than I would have liked otherwise the shifting was all screwed up. The high gear really put a hurting on my legs. I'll be riding the old bike now until I replace the drivetrain on the Titus.

 

[MtnBikerChk]

The wife and I also rode Case Mountain today (Manchester, CT), but that didn't go quite so well. We had a great time, but I had some real mechanical issues about 4 miles into the ride. My chain dropped off to the inside of the cassette and got wedged between the hub and the cassette. It took us 30 minutes to get the chain unstuck and I bent the cassette and the derailleur pulley in the process. We decided to ride out at that point, but it was still four miles to the car. I had to keep the bike in a higher gear than I would have liked otherwise the shifting was all screwed up. The high gear really put a hurting on my legs. I'll be riding the old bike now until I replace the drivetrain on the Titus.

...no thanks to the a-hole without the shirt on riding along and coming within inches of us - and not even giving the courtesy of a "everything ok?"

jacka$$.

 

[DRB]

very nice very very nice.

 

[Trainwreck]

Looks like everyone had a good weekend of riding. Thanks for sharing!

 

[splat]

Nice pics , Bummer about chain problems

 

[MMcG]

Nice pics Babs - you'll have to show me a few tips. None of me??

Time for a new drivetrain on the Quasi fo-sho, especially ifn you've never replaced the front chainrings on that bike.

Cheers,

MMcG

 

[I Are Baboon]

Here's the only pic I took from our Sunday ride at Case Mtn. This is MBC muscling her way over some logs.

I'm just posting the link since the pic is kind of large.

:love:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case Mountain/IMG_4301.jpg

 

[Heidi]

Monkey gathering! Looks fun.

 

[splat]

GO MBC GO!!! Looks good!