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24-27 July: Monkeyfest, the heresy

BadDNA

hophead
Mar 31, 2006
4,257
231
Living the dream.
Location: A-
Sufficiently close to a large variety of trails that there was a ton of riding to have. Nothing immediately proximate to the house.

Accommodations: B
Nice place but...soft water, too much furniture, no area for the entire gang to congregate and BS, overbearing landlord

Meals: A+
Great cooking as always

Riding: A+
I didn't ride one place this weekend that I'm not interested in going back to again

Company: A+
I F'n love you guys. Monkeyfest is always a good time and I think we'll continue to make the best of it regardless of where we end up.
 

mudgirl

Molester of monkeys
Jun 8, 2007
540
6
Tied up in the basement
The riding was superb! KT is wonderful; this was such a nice change, though. There was a good mix of smooth, flowy trails (Norwich U., Green Mountain Trails) vs. techy trails (Millstone, Middlebury). Killington has a much larger trail network than we'd anticipated, which ranged from flowy to techy downhill, sometimes both within a couple hundred feet of each other on the same trail. Much more interesting than Burke. We barely scratched the surface on most of the trail systems and I can't wait to go back and do more exploring. Plus there were other trail systems we didn't get to at all. I'm definitely in favour of going back to that area.

As far as accommodations, it wasn't horrible but I think we can do better. The landlord was a pain in the arse. The water didn't bother me. Would be nice to find something closer to trails for a night ride, if such a place exists in that area. A bigger gathering space would be ideal, too. I did really like the house itself, though, with a third less furniture, as we already discussed.
 
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Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
Glad to hear the riding was good. I'd love to get to more places in VT...but I love being able to ride out the door be it for a quick shuttle or night ride or just up to the trails...
 

ICEBALL585

Bacontard
Sep 8, 2009
6,803
2,041
.:585:.
Glad to hear the riding was good. I'd love to get to more places in VT...but I love being able to ride out the door be it for a quick shuttle or night ride or just up to the trails...
By the way... DH at Killington was pretty sweet! They have done a lot of trail work to create a ton challenging blue square and black diamond trails. They now have a bunch of flowy jump trails w/ berms and also some fairly technical/steep trails with lots of roots and big rock gardens. I definitely want to go back there again!
 

D.2

Monkey
Jun 17, 2010
164
17
Medway, MA
A great weekend all around. Location was decent - weird owners but the place was big and works well for a large group. I agree that the central destination aspect of KT is a big plus, but I wouldn't mind other locations in the future. I learned this weekend that Vermont is FULL OF HILLS! I don't think I've done that much climbing in a long time, but somehow it was all really fun. My one big complaint about this and most MF trips is that it's to too short. 4 days is just not enough time to spend with great people doing stuff that I love to do. I would love to see us figure out how we could do a 4 day trip next year with an option to add 2-3 days on the beginning or end for those who can manage it. It would make for more options too for those who might be busy during the weekend but could make a mid-week thing. Camping might be a good cost effective way to make that happen. There's a great place (with cabins!) just down the road from KT that would work really well for a larger group.
 

ICEBALL585

Bacontard
Sep 8, 2009
6,803
2,041
.:585:.
My thoughts of this year's Monkeyfest agrees with others that have posted.

Location: Centrally located near a lot of good trails systems.

Lodging: Meh... place had a bunch of potential but nosy landlord and sulfur water kind of put a damper on things.

Meals: 5 star cuisine as usual :thumb:

Riding: Liked all the places we rode. Maybe next year we can talk a few more people into coming to Killington for some crazy DH fun (hint, hint, Treesaw and Sq-earl need to dust off those DH bikes)

Attendees: Best group of riding partners that a monkey could ask for. Hopefully a few more of the regular Monkeyfesters who couldn't make it can be there next time.
 
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crombie1

Chimp
Aug 16, 2009
52
20
Ontario NY
Location to trails was great. easy to find, had a local grocery. but lack of cell service was a pain.

Accommodations were ok. Landlords were a bit creepy and the whole not having the hot water turned on during "peak" hours was a pain. I'm not even going to start with the iv bag in the van.

Meals were awesome as always.

Riding and company were top notch as always.