Bluff Point, Groton, CT

So I bailed on a previously scheduled Big River or Burlingame ride last minute to latch onto a Sunday morning ride with Uncle Norm and the gang at Bluff Point State Park in Groton, CT.  I'd never ridden it before and recalled what a great time my first time at Burlingame was last week.  Thinking maybe my first time riding somewhere has a positive correlation coefficient with the fun factor, I thought, "What the hell, I'll do it."

The ride was scheduled for 8:00 am and I pulled in at 7:57.  There were a number of riders gearing up in the parking lot, but our group, as it turned out, was small today.  Just Norm, Norm and I.

I had read and heard a little bit about the park in the past couple of days and the recurrent themes seemed to be small and fast.

Bluff Point - Arriba, Arriba!!

I wanted to get a good ride in, so was prepared to go back and do some repeats once the group ride was over.

The great news was that it was pretty warm in Groton already at 8:00 am.  Temps were already hovering in the mid-40s with the forecast calling for 54.  This was my first ride without my booties on in a couple of months.

While temps were warm, the ground was still wet and the air was still thick with moisture.   Would it be slippery?  Time would tell.

We headed into singletrack almost right out of the lot.  I was a little concerned as Norm Sr was booking with Norm Jr, replete with brandy-new drive train and rubber, hot on his tail.  I managed to keep up and after a few turns we started climbing.  Not big, but it was a climb.

I was paying attention so that when the ride was over, I could try to do it again if needed.  Within a quarter mile I stopped trying to pay attention.  Theseus couldn't have found his way out of this labyrinth with a Tom Tom, never mind a ball of string.  Turn after turn after turn after turn, ad infinitum.

We came down a gnarly descent to a fire road with a couple of small drops onto exposed rock and with a 90 degree right in the middle of it.  This was the slip test.  And my tires passed, with flying colors.  I was successfully able to slow down without sliding out coming down exposed wet rock to make the right hand turn.  This definitely added a new level of comfort to my ride.

We crossed the fire road and the fast, flowy singletrack continued.  We came down by the water and started following a pretty nice trail.  We stopped to grab a video at a cool little bridge.

Something that quickly became apparent was the sea of anti-bike vegetation.  It was generally cut back pretty well, but did encroach on the trail here and there.

Me so thorny. Me love you long time.

After a few pretty tricky rock gardens we climbed up and came to the quintessential Bluff Point photo opportunity.

Don't Step Back

We did a bunch more single track that continued to be more maze like than I could have imagined, but super fun. The singletrack was in great shape.  Not overly eroded.  Clear of leaves (mostly).  And it did a good job using some of the natural features of the landscape.  Thanks to everyone who works on these trails.  Your dedication is most appreciated!


After getting a lot of what Bluff Point had to offer, we followed down the tracks for a while until we came to an obviously haunted bridge that we crossed to get into Haley Farm State Park.

Pair-a-Norm-al Experience

Haley Farm was okay for a few extra miles, but pretty mundane.  I was hoping for a little more out of it.  There was one pretty nice extended, slight decline that was a hoot, but that was definitely the highlight.

After we came back over to Bluff Point, we hit another few segments of single track, including a really nice, long downhill, before coming back out to the parking lot.

At the end of our ride together, we had logged 12.15 miles on the Garmin, but that's usually about 10% shy, so I'd guess closer to 13.25 - 13.5 miles.

I decided that despite the solid miles we'd already put in, I'd head back out and try to log a few more miles.  I took off down the fire road paralleling the shoreline.  Flat, fast and uneventful.  I was looking for a left in up the hill, but before I came to one that looked promising I came to some ocean across the trail.  I would have turned around and went back another way, but some stupid guy was there with his toddler and for some reason, I felt compelled to keep going.  I made it through by stutter pedaling without getting my feet wet, but my brakes were never the same.  Banshees should be so screechy.

I found a fairly eroded double track and took that up to a fire road that lead to the old homestead of Gov John Winthrop Jr.

Apparently the Governor used to live in this hole.  I assume he was a hobbit.

 I saw a couple of guys pass by me as I was examining the Winthrop foundation and jumped on my Fisher and grabbed a wheel. I figured they must know where they were going, right?  I never really found out.  The guy in the back was a decent enough rider, but his buddy was slower than molasses.  I squeezed by and ventured out on my own.

Does the look on my face properly convey the "where the hell am I" sentiment?

I definitely got mixed up.  Not a little mixed up.  More than that.  Things looked familiar.  And completely foreign.  Eventually I found the track that followed along the water again.  I grabbed a couple of shots of some of the more technical sections.

It's like Where's Waldo.  Except Waldo's a trail.

Apparently there are no lumber yards in Groton.

I wasn't able to find the overlook again, but I did make it down to a trail that dead-ended at a nice, secluded beach.

Solitude.

Seashells got something to say.  Listen to the seashells.

I climbed out of the beach area and finished up with some of that super-sweet, flowy singletrack.  When I made it back to the lot I had another 8.93 miles on the Garmin for total of 21.08; probably more like 23 miles.  Here's the track:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/261765367

And to top off my four course riding feast, I was served up some dessert in the form of this guy:

Hard to see, but he's wearing some sort of crazy-assed snuggy.

All in all, a great day of riding.  I'd definitely hit Bluff Point again.  Fun and fast.  Maybe a little small, but jam packed with all sorts of great singletrack.  If you haven't done it, you should.  It's notoriously good when the rest of New England is snow-coated.  Go.