Life on campus is something everyone should experience once.
I woke up this morning at 5AM to a "fire drill." My first
reaction was, holly [censored] there's a strobe light in my room!
Nothing is to unusual when living in student housing.
Anyway, I bought a camera a couple days ago and ended up
being too tired to wake back up for class this morning.
Prime opportunity for a ride I figured and headed out to my
local trail system. That would be Pandapas Pond/Brush
Mountain in Blacksburg, VA.
The weather is getting nice finally, we're gonna hit 65
today, but when I left it was closer to 55. We've seen a
lot of rain lately, and there were parts of my 'access'
trail that were somewhat muddy. Poverty Creek is a 6 mile
out and back, relatively flat but fun singletrack. It
connects with some of the most exciting trails in Virginia.
My route took me up Snake Root and down Jacobs Ladder aka
The Beast. Snake Root starts life as a fire road, quickly
turning to single track after less than a mile. It's only a
2 mile climb, gaining 800 feet (about 300 of which are
attained in the last
1/3 mile). Hardly an aerobic workout, but it is steep
enough to cause a few walk a bike sessions if you do not
keep the RPMs up over all the roots and obstacles. The
beauty of this trail is the path it follows along the
mountain. The singletrack carves a path sideways along
the hill, causing the need for several switchbacks to
negotiate the steep grade.
At the top, the singletrack again connects to a fire road,
this time Horse Nettle. Take a right and after a large
puddle (4x4 induced) and short downhill, Jacobs Ladder
connects from the right. You could continue on Horse Nettle
several miles to discover some truly secluded single track,
one of which is "Beauty." It is not listed on the map, but
reviews and people met on the trail suggest it is still
active, only hard to find. Sounds like a challenge for the
next ride!
Back to Jacobs Ladder, the first 1/4 mile or so is
relatively easy rolling. The trail incorporates 3 or 4
switchbacks to again drop the steepest part of the mountain.
This warm up phase makes way to the fastest singletrack run
I've ever encountered. Enough rocks are present to keep your
senses edgy, and enough sense remains in this battered brain
to not release the brakes except when flying in the air over
the many large roots. After a couple minutes of this, your
wrists are begging for mercy and then it gets interesting.
The last part of the trail is on fine Virginian clay
littered with sharp pointy rocks. Dozens of 6" - 2.5 foot
drops await you along this twisting landscape. I'm not
comfortable enough on my hardtail to take these at
incredible speed as they're close enough together to link
several if you're daring enough. Some are bunnyhopped, some
you may just pop the front wheel up and around the corners
you'll probably just ride off them. Now that you've reached
nirvana and praying this never ends, you cross a creek and
it's all over.
This was just a short ride between classes, no epic here.
This trail system is superb, anyone in the area should check
it out. Get the trail map from www.eastcoasters.com. Here
are the pictures: <filebox.vt.edumbOpen ↗