We're finally back from a long weekend in East Burke, VT and a nice run on the trails there. Rain and other odd weather made life difficult, but we did manage two days of riding and about 32 miles all said and done. The first day was just an easy ride to get used to the terrain, and there are no pics of it, but here's the second day's ride:
We met up with another couple (Dawn and Joe) who we rode with the majority of our time there. It made for some good times, and some really twisted humor sprinkled among the riding. But without further ado...
We climbed from town up to the top of East Darling Hill Rd (about 300 feet vertical according to the map) and got a great view from the top:
There were loads of riders at the top, and we stopped to check all our equipment before heading out.
We started out on Beamis (Beavis jokes were had) and crossed a nice long bridge to get into the woods.
We made a turn off onto Tody's Tour, which was excellent fast, twitchy singletrack.
Beth:
Some random guy who was running his puppy.
Another part of Tody's, with Joe now the focus of attention:
Dawn, same spot:
We bombed out of Tody's onto River Run, and ran into the much talked about Kingdom sand pits:
Instead of hanging out on double track, we jumped into a pine forest and hit Webs for a little bit of very fast singletrack.
Dawn was having a blast:
And I finally relinquished the camera:
We split off River Run onto Dry Feet and encountered another cool bridge:
We snuck on over to Hog Back and found some cool rooty stuff to roll over:
And yet more sand:
Next we hit a freshly cut trail, not even on the printed map, but recommended by the Kingdom office...Sidewinder. Probably the most wickedly cool trail we've ever ridden. Basically, they cut a series of weaving trails along the sides of a drainage basin. If you can imagine it from above, it weaves down one side, up the other side, down that side, up the other, etc etc, like a sidewinder snake's trail.
First drop was about a 45 degree pitch, slick mud and maybe 100 feet long:
After the first drop, we pulled a hard 90 degree left and came down into the second drop - an off camber, decreasing radius turn that was slathered in mud. Splat will LOVE this little series:
Splat, you ready?
And there's your crash thread pic:
Beth came down the same chute:
She, however, did NOT eat mud:
So she kept going:
And really hit the next series with emphasis:
After I dusted myself off, I tried the second set, and did much better there:
More Sidewinder:
Bad stitch job to show the flow and general idea of the trail:
We jumped off Sidewinder after a brutal climb and hit some more smooth, fast singletrack on Old Webs:
Dawn:
Beth in the same spot:
We hit all that smooth singletrack with huge grins on our faces:
Coming around the corner among the towering pines on Old Webs:
More trees:
We finished off the section on Border, which was more smooth, well groomed trail:
Shortly after this point, it began to thunder and the skies opened up. We had a brutal torture ride, soaked to the bone and tired as hell, back to town through vast, East Branch and River Wood. It was excellent stuff. It would have been worlds better without the rain, but it was definitely great stuff and was worth every moment.
Tomorrow I'll get the second day's ride pics up.
We met up with another couple (Dawn and Joe) who we rode with the majority of our time there. It made for some good times, and some really twisted humor sprinkled among the riding. But without further ado...
We climbed from town up to the top of East Darling Hill Rd (about 300 feet vertical according to the map) and got a great view from the top:
There were loads of riders at the top, and we stopped to check all our equipment before heading out.
We started out on Beamis (Beavis jokes were had) and crossed a nice long bridge to get into the woods.
We made a turn off onto Tody's Tour, which was excellent fast, twitchy singletrack.
Beth:
Some random guy who was running his puppy.
Another part of Tody's, with Joe now the focus of attention:
Dawn, same spot:
We bombed out of Tody's onto River Run, and ran into the much talked about Kingdom sand pits:
Instead of hanging out on double track, we jumped into a pine forest and hit Webs for a little bit of very fast singletrack.
Dawn was having a blast:
And I finally relinquished the camera:
We split off River Run onto Dry Feet and encountered another cool bridge:
We snuck on over to Hog Back and found some cool rooty stuff to roll over:
And yet more sand:
Next we hit a freshly cut trail, not even on the printed map, but recommended by the Kingdom office...Sidewinder. Probably the most wickedly cool trail we've ever ridden. Basically, they cut a series of weaving trails along the sides of a drainage basin. If you can imagine it from above, it weaves down one side, up the other side, down that side, up the other, etc etc, like a sidewinder snake's trail.
First drop was about a 45 degree pitch, slick mud and maybe 100 feet long:
After the first drop, we pulled a hard 90 degree left and came down into the second drop - an off camber, decreasing radius turn that was slathered in mud. Splat will LOVE this little series:
Splat, you ready?
And there's your crash thread pic:
Beth came down the same chute:
She, however, did NOT eat mud:
So she kept going:
And really hit the next series with emphasis:
After I dusted myself off, I tried the second set, and did much better there:
More Sidewinder:
Bad stitch job to show the flow and general idea of the trail:
We jumped off Sidewinder after a brutal climb and hit some more smooth, fast singletrack on Old Webs:
Dawn:
Beth in the same spot:
We hit all that smooth singletrack with huge grins on our faces:
Coming around the corner among the towering pines on Old Webs:
More trees:
We finished off the section on Border, which was more smooth, well groomed trail:
Shortly after this point, it began to thunder and the skies opened up. We had a brutal torture ride, soaked to the bone and tired as hell, back to town through vast, East Branch and River Wood. It was excellent stuff. It would have been worlds better without the rain, but it was definitely great stuff and was worth every moment.
Tomorrow I'll get the second day's ride pics up.
