The weather over the holiday was FREAKIN EPIC!!! 65 degrees at the end of November...SWEEEEEET!!! Anyway, Saturday was supposed to be an epic MTB ride at Smithville...that didn't happen, mostly due to being a lot tired!!! We ended up doing an epic at Landahl park. Which back in the day was the home of some of the GNARLIEST, MOST ROCK AND ROOT INFESTED single track around!!! Oh yeah...and for good measure, it was either up, down, off camber, or all of the above!!!
On to the ride...I was told earlier this year that the epic trails known as 10 and 11 were open again...with that in the back of my mind, we take off. We drop into the single track and wind our way to the bottom, we make our way across the scout camp and decide to ride the boulevard around to what we thought we be a trail to take us to the creek which accesses the trails...No joy there...someone or some company has purchased some of the land on which we USED to ride...FUCKERS!!!
We sit there for a minute, ponder what to do, and end up going back the way we came...After a scenic route to where we wanted to be, we come to a fork in the trail, decide to drop in and head down. This section of trail is new, it was rocks, roots and off camber...IT WAS SWEET!!!
Fast forward a mile...we get to the creek, and as far as I can tell the place we used to cross says CLOSED!!! We ride on about 100 yards and spy what looks to be another point to cross, that looks "used". So we drop in and cross to see if the infamous trails 10 and 11 are open. We start climbing and finally arrive at an intersection that has new trail markers pointing to trail 10 forward, and trail 11 to the right...hmmm...this is a good sign!! Oh yeah...they are designated black diamonds...the good stuff!!!
Off we go on trail 10. We ride along and I start to remember what it was like. Slowly it starts to get more and more technical, to the point where I have to put the Truth in granny and leave it for extended periods!! We keep on keepin on and I'm having a blast!!
The trails that I have been riding over the years since they closed 10 and 11, are fun, but are nowhere near as technical and challenging as these 2 trails. There's no trail that I have ridden lately that forces you to be in granny for that long...It was GREAT!!!
In the end, this portion of Landahl is a loop. Not a bad thing, it means who ever yanked up the land got some of that primo gnarly stuff that I used to call home!!
I think I managed to clean about 60% of the technical stuff on these trails, would have been more, but the fallen leaves offer no love when it come to needing traction!!! I did make it up some stuff I thought I wouldn't...that called for nice and loud WOOOHOOO!!!
We make it around the loop, head back down to the creek, and proceed to cross again. This is where I did something I haven't done in years!! I fumbled my attempt at crossing this creek and had to put my foot in the water...I just laughed!!!
We grind our way back to the trail head, take a short break, and go back for a 2 mile high speed pass. This particular trail was clean of any leaves and the dirt was hero dirt...which means fast and all of the traction you could ever want...hero dirt!!! I pretty much killed it for 2 miles and managed to go 22 mph somewhere along the way. It was sweeeet and I was flying!!!
It was a good day to ride, and it got even better finding out that the epic gnarly trails 10 and 11 are open again!!
RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE!!!
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Yo Eric! Found your link from the Bike Shacker page. We used to race on the late-90's Blvd mtb team. Great to see your enthusiasm for riding hasn't let up one bit! Very entertaining.
ReplyDeleteFYI on the Landahl trail fence - that's due to a new shooting range (clays) going up off Truman Rd. The fixed-target range off Argo will remain as well. More info can be found over on the Earthriders site under the Landahl section. Great to hear 10 & 11 are still up - I'm playing hookie & headed out there tomorrow afternoon & will check them out for olde time's sake. Get me some more Turkey trail.
Cheers - Kevin