Thanks to some amazing people - like the folks that got the
Raystown Lake trails approved and built.
Liz called up a one day epic roadtrip and ride up to
Raystown Lake.
With a 7:00 rendezvous'd at DFH in Gaithersburg, we loaded up into Liz's minivan. All of us were a little worried that the night's previous rain had not run off the trails up there but after much discussion and review of the various weather websites, it was a go (albeit a not quite full green light go). After 3 hours of up and down some mountains, a couple missed stop signs, and a few driveway turnarounds, and a scenic drive through the Seven Points area of the lake, we found our trailhead. It was sunny and the few riders finishing up their ride didn't look muddy at all.
With maps for each of us and a recommendation of trail sequence from the knowledgeable Dan Hudson of IMBA, we began the ride.
And it didn't take but 100 feet of trail for me to see, hear and feel that my drivetrain was giving me problems. I wasn't even riding the SS, I was on the FS. I had replaced the chain and front middle chainring recently but not really ridden it to realize that I should have also replaced the rear cassette. Paul was quite polite to not say "I told you so..." Instead both he and Liz whipped out cameras to document yet another trail adventure with me working on the drivetrain. Embarrassed, frustrated, and quickly losing the high hopes I had for a fun ride, I stopped and fiddled with it many times till I finally gave in and focused on the gears that wouldn't skip, click or ping.
I was slow on the rolling sections since I couldn't get in the middle range of the rear cogs, but it didn't matter, the trail flowed. One grade reversal after another, get aggressive, pump the backside and I was flying. It wasn't one or two grade reversals, it was five, six, fly along, then five, six more. Wow! This was fun! And there were 30 miles of this. I even coasted up some hills. I've never done that on a mountain bike. Liz who doesn't push it on descents was gone. She went through the sections and just accelerated. I never saw Paul on them because he was usually gone as soon as they started. And that is what is was like, every 5 minutes we'd hit a fast section.
Except for when we decided to do Hydro (CCW direction) a second time. There was a nice jump on it. Paul went to set up the camera. Liz and I came through and caught the air. Liz takes the camera and Paul goes for it. I could immediately see that he had way too much speed. Ooooh this is not good. Too fast, I say to myself. He hits the jump, left foot comes out of the cleat, front tire off the tread and washes out. Whoomp! His left hip absorbs the impact and he slides 10 feet down the trail letting out a loud "Ahhhh sssshhhhiiiii.... !" Luckily, he was okay which was good because its real hard to help an injured person when you are laughing so hard.
Every now and then we'd see the lake below, actually straight below. The trail was wide but on the downside it was steep. We ate lunch on the top of Ridge trail, enjoying the view of the lake. I know I was wishing it wasn't so cold cause that water would be real nice after the ride. We were 2/3 through with the trails by this time. While the break was good, it made the rest of the ride tough. Food digesting in the belly, a bit of relief from the bike, fatigue was setting in on us. The hills were getting a litte steeper it seemed. We were starting to string out. Liz was gone, way off ahead. I was in the middle trying to keep up with her on an almost 1:1 gearing, Paul was struggling in the back, trying to keep me in view. It seemed at this point that all we had were ascents. They were never steep, and they had grade reversals allowing a brief respite, however, it seemed they just went up and up.
We completed 98% of the northern trails in about 4 hours. Paul was spent at this point. Liz was juiced to do the southern trails, and I was feeling good enough to join her. Paul offered to take the van to the trailhead start of the southern trails while Liz and I rode the trail that connected the two sections.
Things started to change. It got rockier, with some nice somewhat technical rock gardens. I think it got steeper but then again after 4 hours of riding the hills are steeper and the descents are always shorter. We actually had a fast ride through down this trail because it actually did go down.
The southern trail network began quite nicely - a long straight descent with grade reversals. I was flying, forgetting that I was tired, forgetting that what goes down so fast must go up so slowly. We were down at the bottom of a hollow. We looked at each other and were like this is going to suck. Up and up out of the hollow, we climbed and climbed. It wasn't super lactic acid incinerating climb, just steady climbing putting an oh so stimulating warming sensation in the thighs. Yes. I was tired. I was reaching my limits. This southern trails were alot different than the northern trails - lots of broken shale and some smaller shorter rock gardens. At the top of the mountain, I stopped to refuel and commented to Liz that I was feeling great. And I was. I just having a great ride on the bike even though I was getting tired. My body was just dumping out pleasureable endorphins. After that comment, I quickly started slowing down. Not having a middle range of gears didn't help. Liz had disappeared. It wasn't a worry because we were on a loop so I wouldn't get lost but, I could have fallen off the trail and made a beeline for the lake, but I wasn't that cooked.
We were at that point of the long ride where you can't figure out where you are. You keep riding around a corner saying, the next corner will be the junction. Nope and nope. Where is the junction? This is where you wish the map was drawn to scale like it would even help you. The fatigue was really kicking in now.
Finally, the junction for the descent into Dark Hollow and then the climb out. It actually wasn't that bad of a climb the reversals gave a bit of a break. And then you could hear cars... oddly it was a pleasant sound. Then you could see the cars, and the parking lot! We were finished. 5 hours and 30 minutes later.
Will most likely head up there again, maybe a Raystown & Rothrock epic?
Pics
here and
over here.
