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Written by Bob Perry
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Thursday, 03 December 2009 |
I had planned a ride for the Coke Plant on Tuesday at 6:00
for the beginners as well as the faster crew. I had most of my gear ready at
5:30 and was about to get changed when the riders started to arrive. Well…long
story short; I got sidetracked with repairs and such and never got changed into
my riding clothes until 6:10. But I was able to get changed and out to the
parking lot for 6:15 where I was greeted by 11 riders. Joining me tonight was
Curt, Sir James, Ant Penny, Mark Newton, Jazzy, Mitch, Todd, Hammerhead, Matt
Ballard, Gary Fentin and Mike Levin.
We left the shop and headed over to Gill Road via the
sidewalk. Once on Gill Road
I drifted to the back of the group while Mark and most of the others headed on
over the highway to the trails. I rode with Ant Penny and Sir James and we set
a nice easy pace for ourselves. When we got to the Stinkhole I was leading and
took a line to the left of the sunken bridge. I made it through the water but
got stuck in the muck on the other side and had to dismount. Well Penny and
Jamie were not so fortunate. They had to dismount into the stinky water…Oh
well!! After extracting themselves from the muck they re-mounted and we headed
up the trail. We rode over to the Lillian Street Trail where we caught up to
Curt and rode up the hill to the Swamp Trail where the rest of the group was
waiting. At this point I told Mark and the rest of the faster group to continue
on and not wait for us. Mark took off with 8 riders, leaving Curt, Jamie, Ant
Penny and me following them. We rode over to the swamp and crossed the brook on
foot due to the mud and rutted trail. Curt and Jamie rode on ahead and they did
the loop over to the balustrade while Penny and I rode over to the stone wall
to wait for them. When Curt and Jamie arrived we all headed over to the Ridge
Trail. The trail that we took to the Ridge Trail was pretty wet and muddy but I
was able to ride it with no problem. When I got to the end of the trail I
waited with Curt for Penny and Jamie to arrive and then we all headed up the
hill and over to Luke. I rode with Penny up the Ridge Trail while Jamie and
Curt rode away from us. Ant Penny was right behind me when I got to the bottom
of Luke and I was surprised to see Jamie just ahead of me. I rode up the hill
and caught Jamie just after the first rock garden. Jamie was on foot so I told
him to keep and eye on Penny and then I rode off to the top of the hill. Curt
was waiting at the Crossover Trail and I stopped to wait for our two riders to
arrive. Both of us had our lights off so that we could take in the view with
just the full moon illuminating the forest. As we waited Jamie and Penny to
arrive Mark Newton and his crew came steaming up the Crossover Trail. I jumped
out of the Newton
train’s way and the rode past me and Curt and stopped at the top of the Secret
Trail to wait for the rest of their riders. Just as Mitch and Gary arrived so
did Penny and Jamie. Gary and Mitch decided to join our group so Mark & Co. headed off down the Secret Trail while we all headed
over to Red Rock Road.
Penny and I rode behind the other four riders and we were just a few yards
behind Jamie when we got to Red
Rock Road. Penny was still a little winded from
the long climb up Luke so I decided to teleport over to the downhill portion of
the trail. This left Sir James on his own to stay on the trail and follow the
group ahead of him. Penny and I then got ahead of Curt and we rode down the
hill to Red Rock. Penny got passed by Curt just before the climb up to the rock
but she dug deep and was able to ride up the hill to the top. She was stoked!!!
Curt and I cheered as she crested the hill and soon we were joined by Gary and
Mitch….but no Jamie. We waited a few minutes and then rut-row…what happened to
Jamie? We couldn’t imagine how he could have gotten lost so we figured that he
must have had a mechanical. Curt and Mitch rode back up the hill to look for
him and after a couple of minutes the three of them came riding up to the rock.
You guessed it…Jamie got lost. Seems he could not see headlights ahead or
behind him so he rode around in circles waiting to get rescued. After the dear
boy was back in the fold we all headed down to the Orchard Trails (I kept Sir
James in sight at all times). We rode through the orchard and onto the
Streambed Trail. This trail was not as muddy as I expected and we all were able
to ride up the hill. We turned at Deer Run and rode that trail all the way over
to Stinger where we took a left and headed down the hill to Five Points. We
took the Red Dot Trail over to the Coke Plant where we took a right to head out
to Lillian Street.
I was riding just ahead of Jamie and Penny as we got to the Coke Plant. Just
ahead of me I spotted a rider off his bike. I caught up to Mitch who was trying
to figure out what happened to his bike. The Coke-a-Cola folks had done some
brush hogging on the trail and they left a bunch of sticks behind and one of
those tossed Mitch’s derailleur into the spokes of his rear wheel. I stopped to
help and Mitch and I were able to free up the derailleur and we all were on our
way. We rode out to Lillian Street
where Gary and Curt were waiting and then we all headed back to the shop via
the sidewalks on Bernardston Road.
We ended the ride by heading down Washburn
Ave and taking the trail through the woods back to
the shop where we met up with the riders from Mark’s group who were just arriving
as well. It was a fun ride and everyone seemed to have had a good time.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 December 2009 )
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