Saxons Hill 'Flo Trail' , Essex 5-1-08

Thursday started off rainy and cold, like 30's cold but then miraculously (usually its the other way around) it warmed up, cleared up and we decided to ditch work a couple hours early for a sweeeeeet ride on the excellent Flo trails over in essex. They have done a ton of work in the last year and its just basically an hour and half of blissfull winding trail that definately made me forget for a moment the hell at work haha.

Check out Jay riding the new bridge that spans area that used to be long contantly muddy section.

Jackie cruising down.

The whole flo, new 'mo flo and majority of the trails are non technical, smooth riding for the most part, there are a few minor techincal sections. The speed and the fluidy of the turns though keeps us comming back here over and over it really is so fun.

Here is a video of me droppin down a small section that is not really bad at all but some of my group (kaffff) still too chicken to try. lol

Jay 'owe my ass still hurts' from breaking that last fall on a big rock. oh the fun trials of getting used to new clipless pedals. Not that I can talk, since my crashes and severity of them pretty much outnumber everyone I ride with combined, haha. Hey no pain no gain right? Argghhhh

Here are a few more pictures of the ride:

Ahhh there really is nothing like laying back and drinking that nice cold beer after a ride.

Sunny Hollow 4-20-08

This is a late entry to a great ride to Sunny hollow the next day. I've been really lazy and the crazy busy que and overtime at work cuts into my ability to post this stuff (lol).

Here are some pics of the ride:

First Ride of the Season

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day for the first ride of the season. My good friend Jay and I decided to head out to Sunny Hollow since we heard that the trails were completely dry and rideable, the only place that has traditionally been in early April. Most of the other trails won't be open till first week of May and it looks like a pretty nasty mud season so far.

There's Jay early on in the ride, maybe feeling it a little but not quiet ready to hate me yet haha. Let's just say, first ride after 7 months is kind of a shock to the system. heh.

Here are some more pictures of the trail. The conditions were perfect, totally dry yet nicely tacky. Still some leaves on the trail so you had to be careful on the climbs and I spun on them a few times.

The ride was great fun, we just took it easy being the first ride. At one point as we rode down a flat section we came to man in full camo uniform lying on his pack in the trail. He looked up at us and said 'Glad you guys are making a lot of noise' to which I replied 'oh im sorry' thinking I was disturbing something, and he said 'no really, that way you dont have to worry about getting shot'. Still not really grasping what he had just said we rode by then Jay says 'um did he just say something about getting shot'. Turns out the guards were playing paintball as a few minutes later we saw a bunch more in the woods with masks and heard the paintball guns firing away.

My trusty steed, 2007 Stumpjumper FSR Elite.

I absolutely love this bike.

My beautiful and amazing girlfriend Jacqueline is attending a hockey tournament in Mass this weekend so she unfortunately (and bitterly whoops ;-) wasn't able to make the ride however she'll be back early tomorrow and we plan on riding there again.

dreaming of singletrack

Just a few more weeks and the trails will be open. *sigh*. I've ridden dirt roads for the last couple weeks trying to whip my 'winterized' body back into shape at least a little. I'm sitting here in my spacious 4 by 4 cubicle toiling away (lol) staring at the beautiful sunny 65 degree weather outside the window thinking 'this has been one damn long winter'.