RR: Three hour tour

We'd ridden up Bell Camp trail once, and it was a nightmare. The ride back down was a blast - no
pedalling for the first mile - but was it worth the climb? We'd heard of another option taking
fireroad up, and decided to try that. It was just a simple loop around to the trailhead (according
to the map). The fire road gained a couple thousand feet, but at least we were on the ridge.

There were dozens of unmapped roads that went off in every direction. We rode all over hell, hit
several dead-ends, and finally ended down in a ravine looking hundreds of feet up at the road we
shouldn't have left. We got off the bikes and hiked them up through a brushy clearcut. Leaving the
trail is a bit unnerving; this is how locals around here get in the newspapers (not in a good
way). But we weren't going anywhere that we'd lose sight of the roads, so it turned out to be the
best route.

A few more miles (and two wrong turns) later, we FINALLY found the trailhead. Now we could ride some
singletrack - and we were totally exhausted! We'd done over an hour of riding and a half-hour of
carrying that had nothing to do with the final destination.

To say the trail was fantastic isn't doing it justice - fast, tight, built by mountain bikers for
mountain bikers. Well, not JUST for mountain bikers. Horses had done a bit of damage to the trail,
particularly jarring loose the outside edges of trails along ledges. My front wheel caught one of
these and off I went. But other than that, it was such a blast that my exhaustion seemed to
disappear. Six miles of (mostly) downhill - whew!

Man, I'm TIRED this morning!

--
-BB- To reply to me, drop the attitude (from my e-mail address, at least)

 

BB <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> We'd ridden up Bell Camp trail once, and it was a nightmare. The ride back down was a blast - no
> pedalling for the first mile - but was it worth the climb? We'd heard of another option taking
> fireroad up, and decided to try that. It was just a simple loop around to the trailhead (according
> to the map). The fire road gained a couple thousand feet, but at least we were on the ridge.
>
> There were dozens of unmapped roads that went off in every direction. We rode all over hell, hit
> several dead-ends, and finally ended down in a ravine looking hundreds of feet up at the road we
> shouldn't have left. We got off the bikes and hiked them up through a brushy clearcut. Leaving the
> trail is a bit unnerving; this is how locals around here get in the newspapers (not in a good
> way). But we weren't going anywhere that we'd lose sight of the roads, so it turned out to be the
> best route.
>
> A few more miles (and two wrong turns) later, we FINALLY found the trailhead. Now we could ride
> some singletrack - and we were totally exhausted! We'd done over an hour of riding and a half-hour
> of carrying that had nothing to do with the final destination.
>
> To say the trail was fantastic isn't doing it justice - fast, tight, built by mountain bikers for
> mountain bikers. Well, not JUST for mountain bikers. Horses had done a bit of damage to the trail,
> particularly jarring loose the outside edges of trails along ledges. My front wheel caught one of
> these and off I went. But other than that, it was such a blast that my exhaustion seemed to
> disappear. Six miles of (mostly) downhill - whew!
>
> Man, I'm TIRED this morning!

A little adventure? Sounds like a really cool place to ride.

Paladin