I'm very proud of the power loops that have evolved on SugarloafNorth, the little traveled bigger, higher sister to the scenically over-visited Sugarloaf South. My Wednesdays have all been filled with tournament baseball this Summer so I haven't attended a single shop ride. I thought I'd give back by offering to lead a ride on my favorite fitness loop right in my backyard.
I decided to warm up by riding from my house to the hillside road entrance-which is about 3 miles of pavement. Trust me, I didn't do this out of any goody-two-shoe desire to reduce my carbon footprint (which I like to think of as a big, tree-stomping, small animal and sensitive-habitat crushing, combat boot) but because this ride begins with a long, uninterrupted climb with no other chance to warm up!
When I arrived at the dirt parking area I found, Matt Ballard, Luke Williams, Dr. Don Chuli and his Friend Andrew suited up and ready to ride right at 5:45. We waited another 5 minutes and headed right into the woods. I lead the gang of five on a fairly brisk pace up to the switch-back single track that climbs pretty much all the way up to the lookouts (after joining the main trail near the top of the mountain). We took a very brief stop at the main look out to regroup-there were a few haggard faces, but everyone was ready to roll, so we immediately began to wild, some what rocky, often pretty steep and twisty descend of the old rim/ridge trail that wraps around the south west side of the mountain all the way back down to the stream bed intersection. A few of the riders had a few miscues on the tight (and surprisingly loose and DUSTY turns). Dr. Chuli blew out his tubeless stans tire and after some fiddling, popped a tube in and got going again. It was probably about a 10 minute break.
Next, we decided (ok, I decided) to re-climb the switchback again and descend the other really cool single track that branches off of it to the right near the top. We were met, along the way by Tyler Sampson-who has grown about two feet since I last saw him, and in truth I first mistook him for one of Harold Green's Kids (I think I even called him Jeff...or Allison). IN either case, Tyler helped me set a strong pace back up to the other single track descent. This is a ripping and slightly more-challenging that average descent. I stopped brioefly to do a little tree removal along the way, but otherwise, we all ripped down this in good order (with only a few miss steps at the steep stream crossing..ah, the joys of local knowledge!
Finally, with some hemming and hawing, I agreed to lead the gang up the old stream bed and then the older, loose, rooty fire road the climbs the north side of the mountain. This climb is a slog every bit as gritty as stairmaster or any other prolonged, grunt-filled ascent.
I dropped to a fairly comfortable, spin-oriented gear and did my best to grind out this hill. Once on top we decided to ride down the switch back trails and out to cars and call it a night. Once again everyone did well negotiating the high-speed tight turns of this sustained descent. WE picked up even more speed on the last blast to the cars.
Back at the cars, we all talked and reveled in a tough but fun ride. The GPS said we climbed 1361 feet of vertical-not bad for an hour twenty rip. What I love about Sugarloaf North, and Others agreed, is that it is quite different from the rest of our rides. On Sugarloaf, you are either going up or down-there are long 600 foot sustained climbs followed by long 600 foot descents-you not constantly going up and down along the same trail. And, even though the climbs are long, they are in someways easier in that you can pick a good gear, get in a rhythm, and back them out. And then youcan bump up the gear and really enjoy a long downhill (or three!).
All in all-a perfect August ride--oh, and no bugs!
Liam
Add as favourites (0) | Views: 1074Comments (2) |
 |
12-08-2010 11:07
|
 |
|
|
Good ride!
That was my first ride at Sugarloaf North, really liked the trails although I would need a trail map to go back there solo. I had no idea where we were even though I could recognize when we ended up repeating a trail or doing it in reverse.
|
|||
 |
 |
 |
 |
12-08-2010 11:50
|
 |
|
|
Thanks! S Loaf North Self-Guiding..
Thanks, Matt.
Navigating these trails isn't too hard (with only one turn taking you somewhere you won't want to be...). If you think about the first trail we hit right from the parking lot...that trail becomes the stream bed/loose fire road climb we rode for the final climb. If you don't turn off of the trail at the single track, it heads right up to the west facing lookouts-If you keep on it it becomes the first ripping downhill we rode. When you get to the stream beds, follow the obvious trail and even if you make no turns it will take you back to where you started . All the other trails are inside of this loop (and there are only two trails with some old streambeds mixed in). Like I said, if you mean to get to the top, and you find yourself climbing for a little bit, you're headed the right way, if you mean to go down, and the trail you're on starts descending, you're headed the right way. The place isn't more than 500 acres (if that)-and bounded by cliffs to the west, hillside to the north, homes to the East and S. Loaf south the the south-you can get turned around and mildly disoriented...but never lost. |
|||
 |
 |
 |
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.
Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6
AkoComment © Copyright 2004 by Arthur Konze - www.mamboportal.com
All right reserved