Every fall in Harrisonburg is colored by a weekly group mountain bike ride. The Six Pak downhill series is one of the most popular and fun group rides in the Shenandoah Valley. A few weeks we had over forty people show up to ride downhill. The entry fee is a six pack of some beverage (usually beer). Everyone casually goes uphill then races down in 30 second intervals. The culmination of the season is the Invitational, where you are invited only if you completed two requisite trail work Saturdays out in the George Washington National Forest. Well the trail was selected by the infamous Invitational committee and then we were committed to improving the trail before the big dance. Went out there on Tuesday and took the leaf blower to the trail in an attempt to make it a little safer, also did some tread work on water crossings. Wednesday brought rain and Thursday saw us back out at the trail but all the Wednesday rain in town turned to four inches of snow at the top of the trail. We spent Thursday with the leaf blower blowing snow and the remaining leaves off the trail instead of doing tread work.

All of us out at trail work that day made a pact to not tell anyone in town that the trail was covered in snow because we knew some people may not come and ride on Saturday if they knew about the sloppy conditions. The big day rolled around on Saturday and nearly all the snow was gone but it was an incredible transformation in two days time. These pictures are both of the same trail.

Observations, Trails
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