Snow ride

Roads were still pretty icy along the shoulders this morning, so ditched the road ride plans and loaded up my singlespeed 29er and went over to Ipswitch to check out the trails.  I havent had so much fun riding these trails in a long time. The trails were still really crunchy and in some spots the snow was untouched. I did about 2 hours and about 9 miles total, and grinned ear to ear the entire time.

James River Trail System

Two buddies and I (More Beers Than Gears crew) finally got to ride the James River Park System in Richmond a couple of weeks ago. This is a combination of trails (Forest Hill Park, Buttermilk, North Bank & Belle Island) in downtown Richmond along the James river. Probably the best maintained and challenging mtb trails I have ever ridden. We parked just outside of Forest Hill and used that as our entrance and exit point. Forest Hill was a good warm up and really flowed. There were a couple of pretty heavy climbs that really got the heart pumping, especially for three guys on 29er single speeds. We crossed the river on Westover Hills Blvd and rode the trail by Pumphouse Park before heading to Northbank. Northbank is the trail used for the Xtera Challenge every year and it kicked my butt. Lots of technical climbs and descents on tight singletrack. After we finished Northbank, we crossed the river on the pedestrian bridge off of Tredegar St and headed over to Belle Island. The trails and river were packed with people. We did the lap around the island and then headed out onto the rocks to mess around. With so many people laying out on the rocks, it didn't take long before we decided to head across the bridge back to the south side and to Buttermilk. Buttermilk was about 5 miles of hand cut awesomeness. Lots of technical rock gardens and creek crossings, some small climbs and quick downhills. One piece of advice about Buttermilk is that momentum is definitely your friend. There were several times were I hesitated going through a rock garden and paid the price by having to unclip and hike through it... I know, such a freakin nancy. We finished up with Buttermilk and headed back through Forest Hill to our car. Total mileage for the day was 11.7 miles, ride time was right at 2 hours, max speed was 26.7mph with an average speed of 5.4 mph. Elevation and distance chart below.

Getting Some Rides In

  Got in two decent rides in the last couple of days. Saturday I took the steamroller out for a 22 mile ride, the longest ride on the bike yet. Great ride and a pretty decent time, although a pretty fierce headwind on the way back did slow me down some. MotionX GPS output can be found here. I think I have the bike set up pretty much the way I want it with the exception of the freewheel, a white industries 17 tooth will soon replace the current shimano one.
Yesterday afternoon I got up with the 29er singlespeed posse, now officially named "More Beers - Less Gears," for some time in and around Seashore State Park. We parked outside of the park and took the main trail through about halfway until we reached a previously unknown and unmapped offshoot. What a great little trail, plenty of log crossings, tight twisty singletrack and up and downs. The end of the trail put us out on 81st street, after a hike a bike up the largest sand dune I've ever seen in VB. We took the access road back to the Park entrance on 64th, down through the park to the boat ramp and then doubled back on the main trail until we got back to car. Ride took us about 2 hours and a total of about 15 miles. MotionX GPS output here.