Raking and Riding

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Last night the Park Ave Wednesday night crew made it down to Prattsburgh to pre-ride the Rambler course, I think we had about 18 people riding around P-burgh. Mark led out the 30 miler and I took the 15 milers out for a great ride on by far the best day we’ve had in a while. It was almost 70 and the sun was shining, no tights or layers here.

26″ Mountain bikes were the choice of the day however, Gordo showed everyone how to get it done on his cross bike. There were only a few 29ers on the ride but the beer side talk was mostly of how a hard-tail 29er with lockout would be the ideal race machine. The roads have dried and firmed up nicely since a week ago. Everyone came back very clean chattering about the fast descents that offered up a few surprise bumps and potholes. There were only a few wet spots and patches of ice left on the course and considering we will be having great weather for a while the course should be in excellent condition by the 27th.

Swarty and I were able to pre-ride a portion of the 8 mile course and all of the 15 mile course. The 8 miler has a beautiful, gentle, winding climb up a dirt lane surrounded by forest that takes you to an amazing view and a few interesting farms.

We actually saw a 4 horned ram (or goat?). It had two horns curving up and another two curving down, I wish that I had snapped a photo but I was being chased by chickens while the dogs were fenced in. Very weird. The 15 miler has three climbs, with the last being the toughest but offers a great descent back into town. The roads were all in great condition and there was almost no traffic. A great course.

Mark was able to grab some great photos from his GoPro helmet camera, the photos offer up some insight into the road conditions and reveal that Gordo, on a cross bike, was pushing the pace at the front the entire time.

Looks like they’re all hungry and have a case of food envy.

Earlier in the day, Mark and I did our duty and raked for about 6 hours. First our lawn, since it hadn’t been raked since the fall. Who wants to spend a beautiful fall day to rake the lawn when it might be your last chance to go for a mountain bike ride for a while? Well, we payed for it yesterday. Hopefully, they won’t blow back into our yard before they are picked up.

After the yard was done we headed out to Glenwood to rake a few of the trails in hopes that it would help them dry out. We ended up re-routing a few of the trails we had added last fall during a drought, what we thought was dry ground ended up being sink holes of mud. It was a great day to get some trail maintenance done, we have some great sunny days in the forecast so hopefully they’ll be rip-able soon.