Sunday, November 16, 2008

epic riding in west hartford

Ohio Robb is up from North Carolina for some business traveling. Figured he's in Hartford we might as well take him around and get a taste for the CT trails. Found a bike for him to ride from a friend of mine (Wound up being all out of whack for his fit and the butt of all our jokes for the day.). After a very rainy Saturday things cleared up a bit and we spent today (Sunday) riding with Sean from Bethel Cycle and his buddies in West Hartford and Simsbury.

I, myself, also learned of a few new trails within riding distance from my doorstep. I'm stoked. These trails are awesome and as we did today, I can get a full day's worth of riding in without even having to get into my car and drive somewhere. This is what its all about!

Total time out on the bike (including stops for a multitude of flat tires and a StarBucks stop on the way home) was 6.5 to 7hours.

Two bananas, two waterbottles of Clif drink, 16.9oz (not 20oz) of CocaCola (thanks Sean), one Clif Bar, one espresso brownie, medium dark coffee

Temps were what? In the 40degF range? Wind was howling up on those ridges. Glad we weren't on the road today.

Overcast and cloudy most of the day with probably 15mins of sunshine.

Tempo and pace was medium with a few spirited climbs with the whole gang.

Low lying areas were wet (as expected) so we rode slow but the higher areas were dry but chock full of those nice slippery oak leaves.

I estimate we were just inside of 50miles (6hrs @ 8mph). Estimate being I don't carry any fancy devices to document that. I just put my phone and wallet in my pocket and ride. So, I know what the time is but not how far I have ridden. Keep it simple and fade off into the ride and wilderness and enjoy turning those pedals over.

My lower back felt fine and my knee was doing well. No complaints. Perfect day of riding with a good group of people. It was just enough to make things sore but not sore to the point where I'm dead. A solid 8hours of sleep tonight should make me fresh to go in the morning.



'Where is everyone? You mean I'm late for services? Oh, that's right. We are at services... atop two wheels.'


'Robb wishes there was a fire going. It was cold up on that ridgeline.'




Looking west deep into Simsbury off the ridgeline we rode.


Flat #1 for Robb. Right about now he was REALLY wishing he had his 29er and tubeless tires.


The 'James Property'. A nice little informative sign but it did not really give me any clue as to where we were. GOOD to know we were on township land trust acreage.


Yoga and the gym this Tues & Thurs. Night MTB ride Wednesday. Probably back out for an epic spin on this trails this coming Sunday.

1 Comments:

Blogger CB2 said...

Your ride was probably more like 35+/- miles or so.
From my house through the res on the East side through Pennwood to Tarrifville, and back on the West side is about 32.

11/19/2008 9:52 AM  

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