Anyhow, I awoke Saturday morning and realized I had to make a choice for Sunday's ride. I decided to go with the Vietnam option. It had literally been a couple of years since my last visit and I was eager to check it out again.
It was arranged that we would meet at College Rock Park at 10:00 am. So Saturday day was super busy and I never got around to cleaning my bike from the Nathan Hale ride the week before. Then I spent the evening at Armsby Abbey and the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, watching the new Warren Miller film. I got home a little late and hit the hay, saving the bike clean up for the morning.
I did manage to get up pretty early Sunday and get down and clean the mud off the bike. Nathan Hale had been SUPER muddy in spots, so it was caked on pretty thick. After a half hour or so though, I was in pretty good shape with a sparkly drive train. I got on the road with plenty of time, realizing half way there that I forgot the GPS for the car and this was my first time starting from College Rock Park. Fortunately, I'd gone online and checked out where it was and was thus able to navigate adequately from memory. I got to the lot about 9:45 and Jess and another guy were already there. That other guy's name is Ron. He's a friend/business acquaintance of Glen Zygmuntowicz. He's in the tile business. Since we already have another Ron, who you are about to find out was also at the ride, I'm going to call this guy Tile Ron. Old Ron is Piano Ron. Or maybe Truck Driver Ron. Talk to him for ten minutes and you'll see why the latter is a good nickname.
Tile Ron is down from NH for his first trip to Milford. He's riding a free ride style bike. A shiny new Santa Cruz Nomad with all the fixins. He's somewhat new into the free ride business, but is looking to hit some stuff. People who are new to the fee ride business are generally 15. Tile Ron is three times better the man (in three days). Happy Birthday Tile Ron!
So Piano Ron rolls into the lot just after 10 and we're off onto the trails. We're following the trail that Laura Zimmer marked with twist off soda bottle or water bottle caps and some arrows. Except a lot of them are missing. We're figuring it out though, with a little discussion between Piano and Jess.
I mentioned earlier that College Rock was a new starting spot for me. We used to start from the power lines, either parking at Wendy's or the soccer fields. This place is better. Much better. The power line climb is nothing short of a lung buster. This ride started off with a great descent. Not so big that you were cursing as you left, but exponentially better than sapping all your strength in the first ten minutes of the ride.
Jess flatted in the first 15 minutes or so of the ride. He was running tubeless, but the hole in the tire was large enough that the sealant wouldn't self-repair the tire. So then he was done running tubeless for the rest of the day. After getting the tire inflated, he was putting it back together when he realized he had lost the nut off the end of his wheel skewer. Big trouble little China. No joke, the four of us probably spent five or ten minutes leafing through the dead leaves in search of that nut. Jess is the one who eventually found it.
 |
| Jess, oblivious to the tragic loss of his right nut |
About six miles or so in we made it to the power lines. There were some rocks there that were worth playing with for a minute or two. Here's Tile Ron going off the drop:
Here's some guy who fancies himself a mountain biker, but I think bears more in common with the Wicked Witch of the West. Check out his four legged riding friend!
 | ||||
| "I'll get you my pretties." |
 | |
| I'm sitting on a hilltop looking at a traffic jam Laughin' at the people as they drive as fast as they can But five miles an hour won't get them very far They’ll still be sitting in their car |
So we finished our refuel and finished up the 495 side of the power lines before heading over to the NEMBA maintained area. That's where the real fun started. This place is a veritable playground for mountain bikers. Feature after feature. Some big. Some small. Anything really treacherous with a tame go around for pansy-assed cross country riders like me. I'm willing to hit anything with a roller or a 12 - 15 inch drop, but anything bigger than that and I'm all set. I'll watch that stuff all day long though. Here are some of the clips and shots of various features getting Tiled (and sometimes Blyed).
 | |
| What goes up must come down spinning wheel got to go round |
 |
| Blimey! |
 | ||
| Is Tile Ron Hitting the pipe again? Tell him to save some for the kids! |
Focus
Pretty cool, huh? And the place was just one after the other. As we finished the loop, I realized I had a low tire. By the time I pulled out the pump, I realized low was flat. Yes! Now I get to try out my new CO2. As it turns out, it's pretty flippin' awesome. Pumpin' is for chumps. If you're still doing it, you're a pump chump.
One more small area of really cool stuff. I forget what Jess called it. Maybe the jump run or something? Lots of fun though. Pretty much down hill over roller and roller after jump after jump. We ran that twice.
 | ||
| The NEMBA Placard |
After getting out of the NEMBA area we started to wend our way out. We hit a couple more cool areas - the Three Sisters and the Spider ring a bell.
All in all, I had a great time catching up with Vietnam. Still bigger hits than I need, but lots of great stuff for me as well. And a blast watching all the young kids hit the jumps. And the old kids. Really glad I went out. In the end we rode 13.75 miles of pure joy.
No comments:
Post a Comment