give a little

Marcy sent me a link to a good (but short) article about the trails at Bradbury Mountain State Park and how the mountain bike community has really turned things around there. For those of you who don't know, the park was pretty much a forgotten wasteland with very few visitors before mountain bikes were allowed. Since bikes have been accepted they've not only seen the usage go up but volunteering and donations have skyrocketed as well. The same can be said at the Camden Snow Bowl, without mountain bikers using, maintaining and building the trails there would be nothing there for the public to use in the non-winter months. Keep it up mountain bikers!

Bradbury story HERE.

Speaking of mountain bikers giving back, myself and five others did just that yesterday at the Camden Snow Bowl. I changed my riding plans when I found out there would be a trail work session there yesterday afternoon. Instead of doing a couple of laps and then heading to the group road ride, I instead did my laps, changed and then did trail work for 1.5 hours. In the end I was only able to work on one very small section of trail but its one that will make a huge improvement once its completed and will finally make a beginner loop possible in a place that is notoriously beginner un-friendly.

As far as the pre-ride went all I can say is "what a difference a week can make." Last weekend, when I was there, I was able to ride 100% of the trail with little difficulty because everything was dry. Yesterday was a totally different story. I found myself struggling in almost every section of trail, especially the climb, because of the rain we've received over the last several days. The trail really wasn't muddy but those rocks and roots were super slick and tough to negotiate. If the weather stays this way for the weekend it'll make for an interesting and longer race. I heard from Wheels this morning (who rode there yesterday afternoon as well) and he said that he kept falling on the UPHILL section of the trail! We'll see what happens this weekend.