Weekend MTB Rides

[indysteel]

Weeeeeeee! DH and I rode 17 miles today with six friends at Versailles State Park I'm southeastern Indiana. While several in the group were familiar with the trails, and one guy was very familiar (and a great guide for us), DH and I had never ridden them. What a blast!!! They were challenging in parts, but it was mostly flowy singletrack. The hardest section is called Cliffside. As the name implies, there was a streep dropoff. That combined with an off camber trail made it pretty scary. Our "guide" suggested some us walk...so I did. The other hard section is called Creekside. It's about 3/4 mile of nothing but rocks. I was behind my friend, Kim, and I just followed her lead. Fairly constant pedal pressure. Weight off the front. And I did it just fine, along with some rocky hoglike. My climbing technique is getting much better in terms of getting on the nose of my saddle and making smart gear choices.

I really started to appreciate the adages I hear quite often to trust my bike and to trust the trail. It was just a really good learning experience, in part because our friend, Scott, often coached us through some tricky parts. He lives in Cincinnati, so I hope to meet up with him at this park again. He and his buddies--two of whom are certified instructors--often ride in Brown County, which is our usual spot.

Anyway, I had a great day on the bike. I'm all smiles!

[Catrin]

So glad you had such a great time there Indysteel! I've seen a portion of those trails but not much of them.

I returned to my usual trail today and wound up riding it 3 times out and back - which translates to about 15 miles, perhaps slightly under. The first time was with a new riding buddy and that went well. There were, however strong storms here yesterday and on that first ride out/back ride we had to deal with several downed trees. By the time I returned after lunch they had been removed

Lots of sticks and brush on the trail and a couple of times a long branch wound up in my wheel spokes but I stopped immediately, no damage done. Great ride, and the mid-80 temps were just awesome! My partner had to return to town after our first out/back but it was far too nice a day to call it quits before 12, so I pulled out my lunch cooler for lunch and headed back to the trail

[indysteel]

Sounds like a good day! I hope you're feeling more positive after today's ride!

[Catrin]

Sounds like a good day! I hope you're feeling more positive after today's ride!

It was a great day, and yes, I am feeling much more positive. Now I am in a position that I can get out more often to the trails I will be doing so I just haven't been able to get to the trails very often this summer because of this and that injury - which does make it difficult to progress.