Dumbbell
As I mentioned in my last race report, my one weakness (in racing only, I have no personal or professional weakness'.
ok, maybe grammar and punctuation) is climbing. As a result, I've been hitting up the
Camden Snow Bowl on a regular basis. The beast includes 20 minutes of climbing right from the gun so should be good training for any easy coast race I've got coming up this summer. I hit the bowl once last week and then planned on another trek there on Sunday, father's day. The weekend was beautiful with sun and temps in the high 70's low 80's so you knew that when my time came to ride it had to go to shit.
Sho nuf.
It rained like hell the whole way there and a call to Marcy confirmed that they had lost power after a nasty thunder storm rolled through. I briefly turned around to head home (getting a call to your wife cut off in the middle of a nasty storm and then being unable to get her back on the phone tends to make one worry) but ended up making the drive fully expecting to be denied a ride but the optimistic little boy in me maintained hope. Thankfully, the showers were not wide spread and while I arrived at the bowl in light rain, by the time I was suited up the rain had stopped and sun threatened to come out.
almost sunny at the summit
As usual, the trails were a blast but it was a bit frustrating to find out that one of the trails that has been around for years is gone since it clipped a neighbor's property so now there is no way to loop the snow bowl area with the
rollins road area and instead I was forced to do the dreaded out and back (check out he dumb part of the dumbbell photo at top). Thankfully, the trails in the
rollins area are really fun and worth the 20+ minute ride out. Fear not though,
McNemba, the
CMLT and the Snow Bowl are working diligently to pull everything back together.
Last summer,
IMBA's trail crew paid the place a visit and their influence is obvious in some of the new trail building with excellent flow, contour surfing and beautiful bench cuts.
One full loop with all of the trails (at least all of the trails that I knew how to link together) and one race loop had me tired and content. My climbing legs are coming back. Question is, will they be ready for
Pats Peak?
4 comments:
Hey Rick- Trevor here. The access by permisssion signs are not directed at mountain bikers, and are related to a spat between the landowner and the Coastal Mth Land Trust. I have 1st information that mtn bikers are still welcome on the rollins road connector. I expect the signs will be gone shortly, but in the meantime, continue as in the past.
-Trevor
cool, thanks Trevor. good to know but we still lost the boardwalk which is a bummer but at least with using the dirt road and the lower rocky trail (below the new trail) I can make it into a look again. thanks for the info.
Climbing eh?!
Interesting but thats my one strength in MTB races coming from road......I 'hope' for the climbing.....as I know they'll eat me up on the techincal sections....sigh.
Climb 20 mins in....make sure you get a lactic shot in your legs before you start.....do some efforts/sprints. ;-)
And keep climbing those climbs....;-)
I used to be a climbing deamon too because I lived in an area with lots of hills right near by. not now sadly.
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