Burlingame State Management Area, Charlestown, RI

Hmm.  A blog post?  I think I remember how.  Bear with me if the words fail to flow from my penny pencil with such feverish fluidity as that to which you have come to expect.

So what happens when nearly every mountain bike ride in a 50 mile vicinity is coated in several inches of snowshoer's delight?  Burlingame!

 

Charlestown, RI, today played host to a throng of trail hungry cyclists.  After making the hour plus commute with Ron the Piano Tuner Erickson, we met up with 17 other riders at 10:00 am this morning to ride Burlingame for the first time.  We were a big group, but we were but a drop in the proverbial bucket of riders converging on Burlingame today.  I'd guess there were 40 or so cars in the lot when we arrived and many people, like myself, appear to have carpooled.

If I remember our group properly, it was Freddie Bassett, Alby King, Mike Cove, Jim N (from the Bums), Ron Erickson, Dave Violette, Pete Dunn, Paul Simoes, Chris Beriau, Laura Zimmer, Pat Royer, Russ Stearns, Matt Danis, Stacey Jimenez, Liz Bove, Tony Chabot, Ben Burdick, John Young and me.  Whew!

We woke up to a fresh dusting of snow here in Thompson and as Ron and I approached Charlestown, it started to look like it was a little whiter there, but not awful.  The roads had been covered and when we arrived, I was a little surprised to see what Ron's Subaru had done with my Fisher.

The slush accumulation came off as I bounced around the lot waiting for our group to be ready.  Our group was an interesting mix of DAS riders, Bums and Wednesday Night Riders.

Before we got into the trails, we were down one man. Paul Simoes had taken off to ride on his own.  Probably for the best.  We didn't want him holding us up anyway.

I was a little leery when we left the lot by the same route we had entered in our car and started riding the road.  It was probably 1/2 mile or so on the road when we got to the first trailhead.  And then the fun began.  The first piece of trail was a great section of singletrack, sometimes fast and flowy, sometimes technical and tricky.

Ride Leader Freddie Bassett, of Casters Bike Shop, offers encouragement to Matt Danis

When you head down south, don't forget your short pants.

Bad ass Liz Bove, working hard not to fall.  And not to get shot.

By the third or fourth mile, the group subdivided into a couple of different level rides.  And we made a couple of folks do their own ride (sorry Ron and Chris B).  I was very impressed with the number of people we had in our group who were riding at such a consistent pace.

The trail offered a couple of really nice areas that made use of the ledge rock.  It was a little trickier coated with snow, but still very rideable.  There were also a couple pieces of trail that made a nice descent over innumerable small drops.  Okay, maybe they were numerable.  But it was a big number.  Like 15.

Where's the Speedo, John?

The highlight of the ride had to be, without a doubt, the bridges.  Scores of them.  Mostly short, but some were a little longer.  Some with gradual ramps.  Some with sharp ramps.  Some with shingled ramps.  Some with super slick plain wood ramps.  Some straight. Some zigging and zagging.

Must be going to grandmother's house.

 Back to the bridges.  Some running through the woods, some running through a covered bridge for trail-weary hikers and bikers.  What?  Yes, I said that.

This place is beyond awesome!

Ridiculously, right after this photo was taken, I realized that my CamelBak strap was seemingly inextricably entwined with my front wheel.  I called it mechanical then, but in retrospect realize it for what it really was - idiocy.  It took Tony Chabot and I five minutes to get the strap removed from the wheel.  By that time I'd lost my riding group and had to ride like hell to catch up.   Up and over more slippery bridges and log piles two and a half feet high.

Came across Liz Bove, Matt Danis and Ben Burdick stopped at one bridge in a sea of bridges.  Matt had gone head over teakettle on the bridge and his handlebars were apparently pointing the wrong direction.  Can't believe they stopped for such a little thing.

Once I caught up to the pack and Liz, Matt and Ben came up behind, we headed up this great trail that ran along a snow covered ridge.  Fun, technical, precarious.  What's not to love?

That lead us through a little more single track and double track and before we knew it we were out.  My Garmin measured 14.42 miles in the end. Adding the usual 10% that it doesn't pick up, I'd call it around 16 miles.

Here's the Garmin track.

All in all, a great ride.  I'd love to catch the race (The Battle of Burlingame) here, but it's Kentucky Derby weekend and mint juleps call.  I'd definitely ride here again and may try to do the time trial they have here if they do it again.

Thanks to all who made this trail system the great riding area that it is!

Mike Cove often likes to pretend he's a tyrannosaurus rex trying to get a bike off his car.