Photos by Reserverockhopper
We drove up to North Carolina this weekend for a wedding on Valentine’s Day (romantic, huh?) but luckily the weather was great and mudhunny and I were able to get a ride in yesterday (more on that later). Some of you may have had to skip your regular trail ride on February 14 but the guys who organize the Racers and Chasers MTB series in California thought ahead and offered a red rose to all race class winners – isn’t that sweet? Sure beats trying to win your sweetheart a stuffed bear at the county fair 🙂
Anyway, on the way back home we stopped off in Greensboro for a ride with some friends at the new Wild Turkey MTB trail on Lake Brandt. Wild Turkey is the newest mountain bike trail in the area and has been open for about a year and a half or so. It’s a 4.5 mile out and back trail which is a shame because the lake is looped by singletrack trails, some of which are closed to mountain bikers. The new trails are fast and smooth – swoopy with great flow. The banked turns on the descents are some of the best I’ve ridden – kudos to the Greensboro Fat Tire Society for the trail work! Riders of all ages seemed to be enjoying the trails including at least two riders on Surly Pugsleys – I didn’t know it snowed that much in Greensboro 🙂
After Wild Turkey, Jim, Gary and I decided to throw in a loop around Owl’s Roost just for old time’s sake and it was great. Owl’s Roost is much rootier than Wild Turkey and has some pretty gnarly short climbs in spots but my new 29er seemed to just glide over the bumps and leapt up the short steeps. By the time we got back to the house we had clocked over 20 miles in just over 2 hours or so, 70% of it on singletrack – incredible for a February ride!
I’m hoping the nice weather we’re seeing here in the southeast is here to stay – maybe Punxy Phil was wrong after all…
