Pennsylvania Dutch

"In all thing in nature, there is something of the marvelous." Aristotle

And yes it was marvelous......

Last week, my friend Holly Carson and I headed off to a little town called Wrightsville, PA to spend a week mt biking. Wrightsville is outside of York and is in a beautiful part of PA. The local mountain biking group (York Area Mt Bike Assoc.) was helpful in directing us to riding areas. The local ride coordinator, Jeremy Haag, was able to hook me up to a Monday evening group ride on the first day there.....but I get ahead of myself....

We stopped in CT before heading to PA and rode with some old friends(and John and Carl) I met on a trip to Utah. They took us to a place called Middlesex in Middletown (confusing...) to ride the first day. It was slick and tricky riding that day. Holly managed to hang herself from the China Wall....the bike lodged between two rocks being the only thing that prevented her from falling all the way off the wall! Dave Wells managed to save her....and the bike....and the derailleur....and the trip was not cut short....unless of course you take into account the fall the next day at Trout Brook that resulted in what we thought was a broken hand. But alas, just a sprain....and the riding continued!

We rented a cabin for the week in Wrightsville. AND.....the best and most helpful bike shop was located a mere 5 miles down the road! We were in the shop so often that they gave me the locals discount on a pair of gloves. I wish I could import those guys up to NH!

Monday we rode at The Lakes, just South of York. We didn't hit a lot of the singletrack, but what we found was awesome! On Monday night I rode with the locals at Rocky Ridge....some nice techy singletrack and some climbing (out of the gut....referred to by locals). Holly and I rode there again on Tuesday, but I was unable to retrace the ride from the night before.....and we definately had a long (wrong way) climb back out.

On Wednesday we drove 2 1/2 hours to Raystown Lake. IMBA has built 30+miles of sweet singletrack. Someone described it as 30 miles of a pump track, and I'd have to agree! This place is a must ride for everyone. Don't worry about suspension....you don't need it! Speaking of places to ride.....check out White Clay Creek Park in Delaware (where we went of Friday). This place is a multi-day epic ride. We have still only ridden about 1/2 of it and we've been there twice!

On the way home on Saturday, Holly dropped me off at Huntington (in CT) to ride with John and our CT buddies. Again, slick, but fun! Broken derailleur and endo in the first mile of trail....but it was better after that. I think the rocks were a little scary after all those days of riding rootless, rockless trails in PA and DE!

Sunday dawned cloudy after a night of rain, but that didn't stop John and I from driving to NY to attend the Blue Mt Fat Tire Festival. The sun come out in the late morning. We again rode with the folks from CT. We were able to get two rides in before we called it a day. Blue Mt is a great place to ride.....and I'd encourage all to attend the festival!

And now it's back to the local trails.....

The Countdown That Almost Stopped!

"Never hope more than you work." Rita Mae Brown

This past Sunday, the second race in the EFTA race series, the Bear Brook Blast-Off, took place.....but it almost didn't happen. At 4:30 on Friday afternoon, after all the arrowing (in the rain), was completed, Kelly, the race director, got a call from the State Trails Bureau saying that they were pulling her special use permit because of the wet trail conditions. This created a temporary crisis to say the least, but it was resolved without incident. BUT....I commend the Trails Bureau for taking action! Bear Brook State Park is becoming more popular and is in danger of being loved to death. I literally ran into Jen Codispotti from the trails bureau in the park this morning while I was finishing up the arrow removal. I explained my concerns over the situation and in the future we will have 2 distinct courses....one if it's wet and one if it's dry. This is a tenuous situation for mountain bikers.....if we can't respect the trails....they are going to kick us off of the state land....

And that would be unfortunate. The Blast-Off had over 300 riders and benefited a good cause....Medical Missions for Children. It seemed that everyone enjoyed the course (I was having my doubts about the length during my second lap) and the rain held off until John and I went back out to remove some arrows. And riders were respectful of the trails. We only had to remove about a dozen Gu wrappers from the trail and I'll continue to believe they just fell out of the back of the rider's jersey. (The same cannot be said for the blown tube I found on the Little Bear Trail! At least that rider left it near an arrow to help me find it!)

The GT tent was full, as Peter DeSantis, Harold Green, and I were sharing the same tent. We had lots of visitors, helped by the fact that we had some extra chairs, Peter brought some watermelon, and the results were delayed because of protests.

As for my personal performance.....I definitely cashed in on my "home course advantage" card! Not wanting to go out too quickly at the start, I found myself caged in on the first piece of singletrack, but managed to pull myself into what I thought was the front of the pack. So wasn't I surprised when I caught a glimpse of a woman in front of me. She was MUCH stronger than me on the open trails, but I was able to reel her in on the singletrack. We were joking afterwards that I wasn't unable to sneak up on her because my bike had this awful annoying squeak the entire race! She'd pull ahead on the flats only to be summonsed again by the squeak.....something akin to a horror movie scene! I was pleased with my time (2:20) and my finish (first over-all....even beat the elite women!) But then again.....it was my course.....

Only one expert rider was able to break the 2 hour mark....and just barely....1:59. I guess the course was a little more challenging than last year? But then I didn't race the course last year.

I'm already starting to think about the course for next year. Those that know me realize that for me variety is the spice of life.....so look for changes in next year's course.

Holly and I are off to CT and PA for a week of mountain biking next week. I've been in e-mail contact with Jeremy from SAMBA and he's offered to send us to the sweet singletrack in PA and even possibly lead us on a few rides. I'm meeting up with some old friends from a bike trip in UT to ride this weekend in CT. Hope the weather holds and we can sample the best PA has to offer!