The power lines.Well, its time to retire the cross country components and get ol Bicyclese ready for free-riding season. Swapping components back and forth from XC to FR is getting to hard to do, I will have to invest in a xc specific bike.
Dadman at the powerlines.The plan was to get up to the Woodlot, finally up in the mountains and out of the lowlands. This will be my first ride in the mountains this year. Saturday, the plan is to meet up at the Woodlot parking lot with my dad and Doug for 10:30am. Unfortunately, mechanical problems kept me from riding until 1:00 pm. I decided to swap out my xc clipless pedals for my platform pedals. I discovered that one of my platform pedals had seized, after a quick disassembly and repacking with new grease the pedals were on. Next the 2.1" tires needed to be swapped out for my 2.5's. My front axle was really sticking to my 20mm hub, so I cleaned it up and lubed it, and then noticed that neither of my tire tubes were holding air. After a quick trip out to get a patch kit I patched to tubes and carfully put the tires back on and pumped them up. Just as I am about to put my front wheel on my front brake pads fall out. They had worn through all the pad material and part of the backing plates. I found a used pair of pads kicking around and shoved them in. Now to switch out the long seat post for my shorter telescoping post, after what seemed like forever looking for it I had replaced the post. Done! I flip bike over onto its wheels and realized I have no pressure in my front brake. Arrg! I ended up having to take my bike in to get a replacement bleeder valve because we couldnt bleed the air out. After hours of frustration we were at the trail and ready to go.
Doug at the powerlines.The three of us chugged our way up the forest access road. The road and the trails were dry, thanks to more than a week without rain, the weather was perfect, no clouds and just cold enough to keep from sweating too much. The power lines however were another story. There was still a good four feet of snow that we had to walk on until we got to the trailhead. We gear up out in the snow and then we enter the forest ready to tackle Crazy Carpenter. The first section was still snowy until the first log ride, then it was nice and dry from then on down. We negotiated our way down Carpenter to Upper toadstool. We cruised our way down Toadstool over the bridges above the creeks. We pop out onto one of the access roads and we decide to ride Heckle and Jeckle, an extremely flowy trail. After bombing Heckle we ride up to Shotgun and race our way back to the parking lot.
My dad riding Toadstool.
Doug riding Toadstool.
Sunday I follow up an amazing Woodlot ride with another, this time with two other riding buddies: Cory and Jordan. I decide to take them on the same ride that I went on the previous day. It had rained a little bit over night but it wasnt enough to penetrate the trees so the trail conditions were still perfect. After making our way down Crazy Carpenter and Toadstool we decided to switch things up a bit and ride Hoots instead of Heckle and Jeckle. We cruised our way down Hoots and then made our way back up to Shotgun to round out the ride.
Myself at the powerlines.
Jordan at the powerlines.
Cory at the powerlines.
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