Had an awesome weekend... Jim Thorpe rocks!
Got down there Friday about 1ish and got in an afternoon ride... did the ridge trail to the option/bypass/surprise (I have no idea what the actual names of most of these trails are). Consisted of 1ish mile of fire road, a 1ish mile road climb, 2ish miles of good rock gardens (thank god for suspension), a little hardpack singletrack, then a gnarly rocky downhill.
Saturday morning we hit the Tomaqua race course - about 8 miles of awesome flowing singletrack with some pretty aggressive/technical rocky sections towards the end. The single track was smooth and fast in places, and tight rolly in others. A few good rollercoasters and a couple of bridges thrown in for good measure. A must hit trail if you're down that way.
Saturday afternoon we did the ridge trail again, but this time skipped the option/bypass/surprise trail and continued on the ridge trail all the over to the power lines. The powerlines gave us a nice rocky, VERY loose downhill (you didn't really ride down it, you kinda surfed down it as they rocks moved with you the whole way down). Sketchy, but fun. Then we hit some more smooth fast hardpack to a short road ride back down to the main road. From there, we decided to take the switch back trail back to camp. Well, to get to the switchback trail, we had to do a 1mile road climb up to summit hill - that was a bruiser. Took the switchback trail back to camp and ended with a short but nice downhill section.
Sunday morning we did the rim trail which starts behind the cemetray at summit hill. This trail was freaking awesome. Rocky and technical as hell... it beat the crap out of me and my bike, but it kicked ass! Easily the most aggressive trail we hit all weekend - much more technical than the rocky stuff at Tomaqua.
All in all, did a good amount of riding... I pushed myself a lot and was surprised how well I responded. Only took one good header (the rim trail sunday morning), and I don't think I broke anything all weekend.
Got down there Friday about 1ish and got in an afternoon ride... did the ridge trail to the option/bypass/surprise (I have no idea what the actual names of most of these trails are). Consisted of 1ish mile of fire road, a 1ish mile road climb, 2ish miles of good rock gardens (thank god for suspension), a little hardpack singletrack, then a gnarly rocky downhill.
Saturday morning we hit the Tomaqua race course - about 8 miles of awesome flowing singletrack with some pretty aggressive/technical rocky sections towards the end. The single track was smooth and fast in places, and tight rolly in others. A few good rollercoasters and a couple of bridges thrown in for good measure. A must hit trail if you're down that way.
Saturday afternoon we did the ridge trail again, but this time skipped the option/bypass/surprise trail and continued on the ridge trail all the over to the power lines. The powerlines gave us a nice rocky, VERY loose downhill (you didn't really ride down it, you kinda surfed down it as they rocks moved with you the whole way down). Sketchy, but fun. Then we hit some more smooth fast hardpack to a short road ride back down to the main road. From there, we decided to take the switch back trail back to camp. Well, to get to the switchback trail, we had to do a 1mile road climb up to summit hill - that was a bruiser. Took the switchback trail back to camp and ended with a short but nice downhill section.
Sunday morning we did the rim trail which starts behind the cemetray at summit hill. This trail was freaking awesome. Rocky and technical as hell... it beat the crap out of me and my bike, but it kicked ass! Easily the most aggressive trail we hit all weekend - much more technical than the rocky stuff at Tomaqua.
All in all, did a good amount of riding... I pushed myself a lot and was surprised how well I responded. Only took one good header (the rim trail sunday morning), and I don't think I broke anything all weekend.
