Still coming down from the mental high that was a weekend at Kingdom Trails today. What a sweet place to ride. I only wish it was a bit closer, at 4.5 hrs away its a little too far away (for me) to go to more than once or twice a year. Next summer I'll have to be sure to get there early in the season as well as a late season visit like this year.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of visiting the Kingdom Trails I'll give you a brief rundown of what to expect. First, there are two entirely different sections of the trail system, the Chamberlain Hill side and the Burke Mountain side.
The area where we did all of our riding this weekend was the Chamberlain Hill side since it was the most convenient from town, is known for drying quickly after rain and is the more flowy/fun area. We were not disappointed. This side of the mountain features tons of flowy, sometimes tight, single track meandering up and down the ridge that makes up the Chamberlain Hill area. I'd guess that all told there is about 30-ish miles of sweet singletrack over on that side. Most of it is super buff singletrack with occasional rooty sections to keep you honest (I think I saw a handful of rocks here all weekend which is very weird for new england riding but welcome for a change) and a few doubletrack connectors. Most of the trails are suitable for all levels of riders and I suspect people of all abilities would love it here. We didn't hit all of the trails but we did get in a good chunk. The one not-to-miss trail is "Sidewinder". Its basically a wooded half-pipe for bikes where you dive from one side of a steep, narrow valley to the other. Its so steep and quick that you barely have time to think and rely more on faith than anything else. If you trust it and let things go it is a total rush and I guarantee you'll want to ride back to the top and hit it again.
We didn't ride the Burke mountain side because of the wet weather but from what I hear that is where you go if you want to get your tech on. Its advertised as the more rocky/rooty/New England style riding that we're used to around here. Since I ALWAYS ride on that type of terrain I didn't mind missing that piece but when we go again, I'm sure we'll check it out.
All in there is supposed to be about 100 miles of trail between the two sections. Seems like a bit of a stretch (sort of like how ski mountains count their trails) but even if its only 50 miles total its still well worth a visit or ten.
I forgot my camera for the weekend (drat!) but we did have a professional photographer with us snapping pics all weekend so as soon as those are available I'll be sure to post some.
4 comments:
sounds like a blast!
Rick,
Great to meet and ride with you this past weekend. your right 100 miles is a stretch. We did hit some of the better trails there with sidewinder being one of the best. We did not get to hit Toddy's which is another fun fast big berm down. the other side of the road is similar with more short ups and downs.
Maybe next year we can get you guys over to Waterbury. We have plenty of rocks and roots there for you.
thanks dave for leading the way all day. hopefully my clackity-clackity hub didn't drive you too crazy. I'd love to try the riding in Waterbury as well. My first riding experience was in the Northfield area.
Rick the clackity-clackity didn't bother me at all...let me know where you were at all times....I just had to laugh at times when I was peddling and could still hear you hub...I was like damn that bike rolls smooth.
Post a Comment