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7-15-08
More training or not training would be more accurate. Wilmington NY has got a lot to offer in regards to riding. Sunday, in between the storm clouds Zach and I saddled up and headed up the road towards Whiteface Mountain. It was foggy and the roads were wet, yet it wasn’t quite raining. It threatened to soak us the entire morning but we managed to get a 2 hour easy ride in to stretch the legs and stayed mostly dry minus the sweat it took to make the climbs. Ride started out a bit harder than we wanted up a 10% 2.7 mile hill into a head wind, so needless to say in our T&L state, we weren’t making any speed records. We did encounter some XC ski training camp and after we saw the sign stating it was in progress, we began to ponder what one does for a XC ski camp in July? Only to come around the corner and see folks on roller skis heading down the road towards us. Interesting stuff. We made our turn at Lake Saranac and headed back, finishing with a sweet 2.7 mile descent with a tailwind that netted me a coasting max speed of 51mph! WE arrived back in time for the storms to start and not stop until about midnight on Sunday. Monday, we thought we were destined for another road ride based on the shear amount of rain that fell on Sunday. However, to our surprise the soil here is quite sandy and the dry conditions that they have had soaked that rain right up, so we decided to cal local shop in Placid and see what trails were on offer. The LBS suggested we try the “Flume Trail”. Luckily for us this was a 5 minute ride from our campground on a bike lane. After looking at the map which revealed a somewhat confusing network of trails we set out climbing up a pine needle covered stretch of single track, this eventually turned into one of the best rides I have ever had. It kept meandering up the face of White Face Mountain, and the designers of this trail should get a award for building this trail. It was tight; bench cut trail over rocks roots, between tight trees, words can’t describe this trail. I had to put my foot down 10 times in 45 minutes. Zach and I started out having a dab contest to see who would have to do the dinner dishes, and then we both had so many dabs we couldn’t keep count. After about 4 miles of this good ness, when you just couldn’t concentrate anymore, it widened out into a nice rocky double track climb that had my quads aching and the sweat in my eyes. Upon getting to the top of the ski resort, we wanted to find a different way down without back tracking, so we jumped on the trail called the “North east shore trail”. Zach and I both said how this seemed a lot like North shore trail…….. Well upon sliding our way down some qualifier trail it progressively got more sketchier until we eventually were on man made drops skinnys and death boulders. We had to dismount and hike down a few spots. (Even hiking it was dangerous). The guys that ride this stuff have my respect because this was just crazy! We eventually were rewarded with some sweet rocky descending that transitioned back into a tight single track that reminded me of Winona Lake or Yankee springs. Back to the parking lot. In the evening we went back for a 2nd shorter ride and managed to ride the same trail with only 4 dabs for me for the entire ride and a much better feel about the technicality of the trail. The genius of the trail is the way the guys built the rocks to form the trail, and seeing the lines in these rock gardens was critical. Once we started to understand the madness, it was just flow. Well until tomorrow, hopefully more riding and no training.
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