I figured after all the rain a forest loop was in order. I assumed the whole group would want to go. After all it had been raining Biblical proportions for the past 3 days. Much to my surprise only Dirt Hippie and The Kid actually showed up, and The Kid doesn't count. He kept asking who was going, I guess he was afraid of getting stuck with me for 3 hours. It's been like that around the house lately.
Anyhoo we left the St. Marks trail head late since I had an emergency to attend to before I could get away. Dirt Hippie was in surprisingly good spirits. Usually somebody being late sets him off but I got a pass this time. We rode the new route out which is so much nicer than riding those forest roads, then picked up some single track that we hadn't ridden before. I'll admit to it being just a little bushy. That combined with spider webs and wet leaves made it a tad uncomfortable in front. I was determined to make a loop out of this route, hoping to only use the new section in the middle as an out and back, making the trail on my Garmin look like a dumbbell.
We never had to bushwhack but it was close. It wasn't exactly fun trail but it was better than riding the roads. I got a few complaints from my little group but not as much as I expected. We eventually popped out at the old Springhill pit and they had to endure my "back in the day"stories of riding moto out of there. We came out on LL Wallace right across the road from Trout Pond, where we got water.
From there we rolled down the paved bike path and hooked into the section of single track north of Fisher Creek. This had been ridden in and turned out to be fun. The Kid found out how slick pine trees are, especially when they're at a 45' angle across the trail. Dirt Hippie was partially responsible for the crash since he was in front. My complete lack of skill with logs saved me since I wasn't going to ride it anyway.
The old moto whoops keep the speed down. It's hard to pedal when the back wheel keeps lifting off the ground. Still, I can't help dreaming what these trails would be like if they were trimmed just a little.
We put in a couple of efforts on the way back in. Unfortunately I was low on water so we cut the trip a little shorter than I'd planned.
During our 2.5 hours in the forest we only saw people at Trout Pond and on Munson. The rest of the time we had the woods to ourselves. If the feds would just be more aggressive about their burning it would take care of the face slappers. I think I can get a loop with 30+ miles of single track, not including Munson/Twilight.
In the end my knees were a little scratched up, I had the forethought to wear arm coolers which kept my arms from looking like I'd been fighting cats. Both The Kid and Dirt Hippie were scratching at their arms by the time we got back to the truck. I know the time is coming when these trails will be hotter than hell, there's not much canopy, and the yellow flies are sure to appear, but I'm happy to have another option of places to ride. We're pretty fortunate to have so much so close.
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