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Kingdom Trails article in the Boston Globe

McGRP01

McGRP01

beer and bikes
Feb 6, 2003
7,793
0
Portland, OR
Man I look like I'm having fun don't I!! :D It was a tough call, but I'm going to Diablo instead of the KT's on the 22nd. I'd like to get back up there more often next year for sure!
 
TreeSaw

TreeSaw

Mama Monkey
Oct 30, 2003
17,803
2,113
Dancin' over rocks n' roots!
berkshire_rider said:
There should be good foliage the weekend of the 22nd. You guys are going to be missing out. :eviltongu
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I'd LOVE to go, but I am not sure if I can or not...we'll have to see how I feel around then. Maybe Sq-Earl and I will make a cameo!
 
douglas

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
McGRP01 said:
Got a password MBC? It wants me to register to read page 4. :confused:
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age 4 of 4 --At the bottom of the hill, we regrouped. Smiles all around.Curt said, ''That was fun."

Soon after that, we got lost. Well, not lost exactly. It's hard to consider yourself lost when you have a map in your hand and are looking at a sign that corresponds to a point on that map. Yet I wasn't precisely sure where we were.

I had been leading the ride, consulting the sweat-dampened map at intersections. Thrilled by the rush of the Webs, we were looking for Old Webs, another trail that winds through a stand of old pine trees. I looked at the map, turned it sideways, thoughtfully rubbed my chin, looked at it again. We were either on Hog Back or Violet's Outback. Maybe neither.

A couple, in matching black bike shorts and white tops, resting at the top of a small knoll, watched. Finally, the man said, in a slight French accent, ''I think you're here," and pointed to where Hog Back and Violet's intersect.

''Ah, thank you," I said, and noticed that, though in good shape, couple were not hard-core bikers. Their bicycles, leaning against trees, were basic. They were enjoying a quiet ride in the woods.

This is an attractive quality of Kingdom Trails. You don't have to be a mountain bike racer to enjoy it. Of the 110 miles of trails, about half are doubletrack (a wider and easier trail), half singletrack.

The association has marked and mapped all the trails according to degree of difficulty, like ski trails. Green circle is the easiest, blue square more difficult, black diamond most difficult, double diamond experts only.

Kingdom Trails also offers ride and route suggestions. For example, beginner riders get sent to the doubletrack of VAST or River Run, even the in-town singletrack Park Loop. More confident riders are directed to the singletracks that we rode -- Pastore Point and Fence Line -- or Harp, Old Webs, and Riverwood, flat singletrack that follows the East Branch of the Passumpsic. Experts are sent to Poundcake, Tody's Tour, Jaw, or the more traditional New England rocky and rooty terrain of Owl's Peak and Dead Moose Alley.

Recognizing the growing number of downhill bike riders, the association added a downhill trail on a ski run at Burke Mountain and cut a trail that leads over logs and rocks and a 25-foot log bridge. In other words, there's something for mostly everyone.

After getting back on the trail, we still couldn't find Old Webs, and instead took the Border trail through a stand of thick maples, beech, and birch. We came out onto an open field and saw Burke Mountain. After being under the umbrella of woods for so long, it was a stunning view, the mountain looking like a massive, green pyramid in the distance.

After crossing Darling Hill Road, we headed up Jaw, a tough, double-diamond trail, and rode to Sugar Hill, a ridge with thick stands of sugar maples.

Just before we took a lunch break, we rode a new section of trail called Worth It. The trail starts out as a doubletrack, heading up a steep, steady pitch between maple and beech trees. We inched up the climb, gasping for air, cheered on by a father and son who had stalled out. We turned onto the narrow trail, and swooped and looped through the thick, cool, dark woods. We stopped at a trail intersection, and Eric said, ''That was a great trail."

As we headed back to town, he said to me, ''You really hyped these trails."

''And what do you think," I asked.

''You were right," he acknowledged, and sped off down the trail.
 
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