so my wife told me i could do anything i wanted to today, and i was thinking of doing a road ride over to her parents house and play w/ the kids in the pool, but miles' tball game in the afternoon was kinda poor timing, and it was supposed to be in the mid 90s. instead, i decided to hit my local trails in harold parker, a place i've literally ridden in hundreds of times. since i'd made late plans, i just went solo, but brought my camera. turns out i've got loads of mosquito friends too, and they decided to tag along.
starting out from the small lot, there's a really fun twisty singletrack right from the get-go. here are a couple of features:
lots of fun, loamy, rooty, rocky terrain to choose from:
there are sections where it's easy to get thrown off-line; this doesn't look particularly challenging, but string mile after mile of this stuff and add in some short but quick steeps, and you'll see what i mean. i hit my max heart rate to date climbing up a rocky section which eventually brought me back down to this pond:
from here, i noticed a new trailhead on my left (usually i'd bang a right and continue around the pond, on the established singletrack):
but i decided keep to on the doubletrack, and do some exploring in a place of the forest i'd not been in a long time, if ever. after a friendly chat w/ an equestrian, i hit upon a couple of loose climbs, and i saw a big fat garter snake slither off the trailside. a few minutes later, a flash of orange told me that orioles were in the vicinity. after climbing up the doubletrack, i found a singletrack entry (but very overgrown), and took that down a fun, swooping descent to the backside of some farm. when i stopped, i noticed someone curiously looking back at me from the field:
from here, i decided to head back and check out another doubletrack, but since i was by myself and the day's heat was starting to take its toll, i headed back for the climb out which brought me to the farm, and back to the new trail i'd seen earlier.
this trail was built very well; loads of drainage ditches cut where water can run off and not erode the trail, armored sections where it needed it, berms built up, and fun ups and downs.
after stringing together a couple of new sections, i came upon this cool section of trail:
the trail to the right looked a lot easier to roll down rather than climb up, and i decided not to try the heroic ascent. here are a couple of pictures:
closer:
looking down:
i took the left side, which looped around and led to this drop:
that led straight into the rolldown picture just above it.
very cool to find a very well built, new trail.
:love: i made my way back to the car, 2 hr of really fun solo riding.
made it back for a quick shower and the t-ball game w/ my boys.
happy fathers day to all the dads out there.
quality new england-y stuff there
