Saturday, Kevin and I mountain biked at Bradbury State Park in Pownal, Maine. This is only about 45 miles from our home. I rode there once before and thought it was OK, but nothing spectacular. Kevin has ridden there alone since then and said it was better than we remembered it being. He was right, Saturday it seemed much better! The trails had been wet and muddy on our first trip there. It was the kind of mud that just bogs you down, fine for running through but a drag (literally) to ride through. So I didn't get a good feel for the flow of the trails on my first outing there. On Saturday conditions were much better.
We rode all the East side trails together, except for the "O" trail (I'll get to that in a minute). There wasn't anything too challenging for me, except for the high bridge, which I chose to take the detour around. The rest of it was fun and fast with little technical patches here and there to keep me on my toes. After riding for a while I asked Kevin if I should ride the "O" trail. It is an "expert" trail and I'm no expert. Normally, if I ask Kevin if he thinks I can ride something he will say "sure, you can do it," whether I really can or not. So when his reply was, "hmmmmmm..." I decided that after we were done with all the other trails we would go back to the truck so I could stow my bike and change into running shoes for the "O" Trail..
It was great running the "O" trail behind Kevin as he biked it. Watching Kevin is a good way for me to learn mountain bike skills. There was a lot of trail I could have ridden, but there was also some stuff I would have had to get off my bike for. It's a nice trail to run on, but I might try to ride it next time. I'll just be prepared to get off and walk the bike in some spots.
Sunday we rode from Pudding Pond in North Conway. We biked out on trails we have ridden before and then went looking for an elusive trail a woman had hinted to us about a few months ago. I think it's a mountain biker thing, they never tell you exactly where a trail is or where it goes to. They just hint about it. We found a nice single track trail that had to be it. It climbed and climbed and climbed. At one point, Kevin said it couldn't climb any higher because there was only sky around us. Then it climbed some more any way.
I believe we were heading over toward the back of Cranmore, but there are a lot of woods in there. We had already been out for hours so when we hit a service road we decided to head back toward the quarry over the service roads. Kevin has a good sense of direction and he kept choosing the correct turns and eventually brought us right back to the place where we had started down that trail. From there we rode some really nice single track back to the truck. It wasn't until we stopped riding that we realized how hot and wiped out we were. I had to sit for a minute before I got up the strength to change my shoes. It turned out that it was actually 93 degrees out!
Tomorrow I will do my long run from Pudding Pond and find out where that trail goes. My curiosity is killing me.
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