We got some great mountain biking in over the weekend. Saturday we rode the FOMBA trails for about two and a half hours. This took some leg work and I was pooped by the end of the day. Sunday we rode easy on the ATV trails in Parsonsfield to give Scout some exercise and some practice running with the bikes. He was a little excitable and unpredictable for the first few minutes, but he settled down and did great.
There are nice single track mountain bike trails in the Parsonsfield area very close to where we live. But things are a little complicated there. The land, the Leavitt Plantation , is conservation land, open to public recreational use. Before this became public, a local man started building mountain bike trails (with land owners permission) and running a business offering guided mountain bike rides. When the land became open for public use, things got a little weird. The man still doesn't want anyone using his trails unless they pay him for guided rides. I understand this, he has been making a living with this business for several years and doesn't want to start giving it away for free! But at the same time, if I'm out running and exploring on land open for public use and I happen to stumble upon some nice single track, I'm not able to resist. I think mountain biking on the trails would give me more pause, but foot travel seems okay. Still, I feel sneaky running there. Jeepers, I don't want to get involved in some political battle over trail rights!
Anyway, today I dressed up in my crazy blazy orange and ran for two and a half hours of double and single track trails. It's not easy to keep a low profile when you are glowing orange, but I hoped I wouldn't run into the trail builder. At first I wasn't feeling completely comfortable with the woods full of hunters and the possessive trail builder on the loose, but pretty soon I got lost in my own thoughts and started enjoying myself. I never saw or heard a soul. There are so many tote roads, single track trails, and ATV trails out there that I ran out of time before I ran out of trail. I hope to go back tomorrow to explore further.
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