Early Morning Eeries

Got out to the Gussy for a little early morning ride before work. The drought effect is in full effect making it look like fall on the Gussy. Hopefully, the 4 or 5 inches of rain we just got will change that. Gussy is seeing a lot more knobby activity but very little horse. Everything is riding nice and smooth.

More trees down on the Gussy

I think this tree was leaning for the longest time and now it's down.

Perfect skinny material, just need to ramp the end.

This tree went down near the blowdown that is off the trail down from Blue Trail Cross Roller.

Rick told me about this one and he did a great job putting some smaller logs on both

sides to ensure riding over the log doesn't impact the flow of this part of the trail.

It rides smooth as buttah!

Here it is from the other side.

Trees are still in shock and dropping leaves.
We got at least an inch of rain Sunday night
and more rain on Monday night, too
hopefully it will help

More Stuntry

While it may look like fall, the drought conditions in this part of Connecticut send the trees into a premature leaf drop, it's really just the middle of summer and by the hefty amounts of waffle prints on the trails it appears the Gussy Trail is getting a lot of use now. There were tire marks in the leaves at the base of the roller pictured above, something I haven't seen yet, except for my own. The skinny, built by the trail gnomes, seems to be getting a lot of attention too with this new and improved ramp built. Yes, it seems the Gussy Trail is becoming a popular trail when riding at Upper Paugussett State Forest.

An Up-and-Over for how much longer?

While Rick was fixing a flat I noticed this Up-and-Over needed a little fixing although we have been riding it this way for some time now. I simply moved the flat rock that used to be right before log back to it's original position. Looking at what used to be the first of two logs, it has been ground down and I wonder how much longer till other one gets ground into wood chips.

The New Up-and-Over

Finally got back to the forest, with Rick this time, for a little early morning ride before work and we tried out the new Up-and-Over courtesy of some trail gnomes. Here is a good picture of the feature. The middle log provides a little kicker: first on your chainring or bashguard and then the rear wheel that you need to be prepared for but as long as you have good momentum it's a no brainer.  If you haven't seen it already, I posted some video on Cycle Snack of Rick and I riding this feature.

De-pooping the Line

Last week I wrote about this serious pile of road apples that some equestrienne left right in the best line to ride at the Wet Spot. It's actually the hardest line to take but the most fun. Well, after looking at it for almost two weeks I decided to take matters into my hands by using a stick to push the crap off the trail.

Pooping the Line

I think I posted this on the Snack last week but thought I would make mention of it here after riding through here again.  Here is a good example of when an equestrienne doesn't curb their horse what it does to the trail.  The best line in the wet spot starts where that mound of road apples happily sits.  

So I found a new line last night, just a little to the left.  If you go too far to the left and not over the rocks then you are hitting the P-Path/Loser Line.  You have to roll over the big rock just to the left of the poo.  Make sure your speed is up because those rocks will stall you out.  

Thanks to some poo, it just got harder to clean the wet spot.

More Trail Gnomes at Work

A little handiwork was accomplished at this log cut in the past week and unfortunately I didn't bring my camera to get a shot of it so I am going to have to give you a written description instead.  

What they did was move the cut pieces shown in the picture above and use the log itself as the up-and-over.  It's really nice and rides great but make sure you have your weight back when going over it.  It's now fun to ride in both directions and appears to be getting some use evidenced by the outer ring marks in the log.