Case Mountain - Manchester, CT

What a Super Sunday.  Met up with Uncle Norm, Ben Stone and Scott Weiting for a pre-Superbowl XLVI ride.  Pleasantly surprised to see Mitch Kaminski in the parking lot when I arrived.  As it turns out, he was just getting his fix of hanging out with mountain bikers in parking lots.  Recent surgery is keeping him out of the riding game for another month or so.  He had brought some home brewed "brown porters" for Norm, Scott and Ben.  I was sad, but understand exactly what a commodity a home brew can be.

A chilly 22 degrees as we were gearing up.  Cold toes are a big problem for me, so I decided to go with the Smartwool and neoprene booties over my shoes.  No frozen toes - dry and warm the whole way through. 

There are a bunch of places to start the Case ride.  We were starting from the factory at Spring Street.  That means a lung-busting climb to start the ride out.  Up, up, up.  Up, up, up.   Up, up, up.  Barf.

We rode the loop backwards today, for the most part.  New to me.  It was like a whole new network of trails.  And it was spectacular.

Case is ridden with swoopy singletrack snaking its way through a rock-peppered landscape.  It's all ridable, but it's not what I consider an easy ride.  Here's Scott taking extra special care of the demo Specialized 29er Ben brought him to test out.

How do you like the bike Scott?

There is a great area where you cross a stream on a nice little bridge and then just climb and climb.  That leads up through a newly logged area that has some really nice bench cut single track running through it.  Most of that singletrack was switchbacks heading up a hill.  Ben leading (I like it when all seems right in the world) shouts back that we have to take the "pro line" when he calls it out.  As it turns out, the "pro line" means we have to cut off two switchbacks in favor of blasting straight uphill.  Holy crap!  Ben, like a trapezist, does it with the greatest of ease.  Scott and I make the first section, but cut back onto the switchbacks rather than continuing straight up the second cut.  Pro lines are stupid.  The pros can keep 'em.

When we got to the top, and Norm pulled up a minute or two later, he asked if we'd texted him.  He checked his phone and that text made my day.  It was Mitch telling him to give me his beer and he'd give him another.  YES BROWN PORTER!  Thanks Mitch!!!  Drinking it as I write this and it is phenomenal!

Brown porter - so smooth, so delicious

We hit The Fern next.  A seemingly endless downhill riddled with rocks and launches.  Without a question, my favorite trail in all of Case.  Norm flatted half way down, but was back up and running in no time.

Tree has eaten the No.  Trespassing encouraged.

The bottom has a river crossing that is done by walking the balance beams that once were the I-beams supporting the long-gone bridge.

We came to a few more fun playground sections before making our way out.

Scott scopes out the roller

All told, great ride. 13.1 miles.  7.8 mph avg.

Let's go Pats.