I rode stinging nettle today- first a flat 2 miles on al foster trail, a wide crushed limestone trail. When I got to stinging nettle I went straight to the small chainring, even though it's got a lot of flat places.
I was glad, right away I hit deep sand. I was able to make it most of the way across the sand but not all the way, had to walk the bike out of the sand. There were about two of these real deep sand areas. There are some dips- these I can ride because I get speed down and fly right up the other side. There were a couple of taller hills- steep but dirt and roots, not the loose rocks.
I promptly forgot all the good advice here and did the usual- most of the way up, then lose all momentum and have to walk over the top. I needed to just go right back down them and try again, but as usual I was short on time and didn't know how much more trail was left, so I kept going.
Stinging nettle is perfect for me, enough challenges but not so many that I'm walking very much- only a few short hikes (like 10 feet out of the sand, or a couple of feet over the crest of the hill). Unfortunately, it doesn't dry out very fast and it was sprinkling when I was riding, and heavier rain as I was riding out on al foster. I want to go back and ride some of the connector trails- I still didn't make the whole trail, since I ended up taking "old stinging nettle loop connector" and must have missed the rest of the trail.
I had so much fun, and got enough confidence back to ride over a log without getting my rear wheel stuck.
vickie