Yea, that's what the Outlaw talks his friends into, like Jay here, all smiles at Totem Pole. Joe also convinced one Big Dog to partake as well.
This group and I rode the Michaux portion with them to Mackey Run, and then we turned back to home. Joe and I have been talking about this and the route and trails for over a year, with all the trails planned out. So, I monkey wrench their gig, and stash a 7-pack of Dales Pale at the Rattlesnake Run Rd. creek crossing, Travis shows up, we squash all the cans, and then we start up Sucker Punch. This was a completely un-discussed, non-vetted singletrack climb, that really slowed us down, and lived up to it's name. Thoroughly softened up, we make our way to Mackey Run and bid the thru-bikers adieu.
My first time back on Mackey since the winter, and it was a killer. Hard to believe Travis has cleaned every section there. I'm gonna hit that a lot this winter. Wore us all out hard enough that we took mostly roads to get back in 6.5 hours.
This mossy lounge was Donna's favorite part of Mackey.
As I type this, I'm not positive the intrepid trio made it back to Fredrock yet. I know I probably sabotaged their ride with the beer stop and gut punch trail additions. Or maybe they ran into some political troubles skirting around Camp David?
As tough as their and our day was, hey, it ain't as dangerous as cyclocross.
18 comments:
Thanks for the beer stash Larry. Sucker Punch lived up to it's name. Had some more Dales at Salamander before finishing it all off. Rolled into town around 5 I think. No flats and no mechanicals in our crew.
I was hoping to knock off both Michaux to Gambrill and the Ring this year, but I'm guessing one out of two isn't bad. Let's start planning now for the Fort Valley assault in spring 2009.
Wow, we got back to Totem Pole at 3:00.
Did you go down into the Valley of ???
No Valley of Death. Part of Salamander, Sand Flats, Blue, and Buck Flats. From Hamburg we took Blue and then headed out to the Towers like we were going to Lawnmower. Telephone line cut over to Gambrill, dropped into the top of the extended Yellow loop and then took the western ridge of Yellow all the way south. It was a sweet way to finish the ride.
Wow, how did you manage to not do iceberg? Maybe all the fight had been drained by then?
Thanks for letting us tag along yesterday--it was good to see D again and meet everyone else. Great ride. Afterwards, went Carlisle and ate a pile of sushi.
sounds like an sweet route.
We had some more beers upon entering the Shed (Ten-Fidy). I really wanted to do Iceberg and Mackey on the same ride, but that wasn't on the agenda and it wasn't my agenda.
Very nice ride - I would do it again. Perhaps in the winter when we can add some white blaze into the middle section.
Yeah, I'd say there was no resistance to bypassing Iceberg. I think if we skipped Sucker Punch we could have worked it in. This was the virgin ride so we learned a few things on how we might tweak it in the future.
White blaze doesn't go into the Shed. It goes west towards Annapolis Rocks
There is blue blaze that leads to the Shed from Catoctin Mt. park right by Mr. Dubble-U's vacation place, but unfortunately it is off limits to 2 wheeled devices.
How many miles did you end up having? The assumption was 70-ish. Was that right?
Mileage should be 50 based on Darius' slightly botched GPS track.
My original estimate was 60-70 based on leaving from Larry's and doing 10 miles of road to get to the trailhead, so subtracting that the estimate would have been 50-60, pretty much in line with what we saw. Maybe next time we need to start further north ;)
I think I can find you the trails we'll need in that case....there's a house I know of near Pine Grove that has a big driveway.
Thank you all for letting me tag along...i really enjoy the long rides, but struggle with the technical stuff. The beer was a nice touch! Thanks, Larry!
Thank's for letting me tag along briefly! Sucker Punch and Mackey will only get faster! Abby and yellow Ridge would add 12 miles of true flowing singletrack and bump the ride one parking area north. I will put the snaggy mountain trail in this winter and that would make a more direct route out green ridge. (Carbaugh Res, Rocky ridge, The Big Mac) The climb would be much less of a Sucker Punch as well.
Travis--if you need help this winter, let me know. I have a few projects up my sleeve as well but pretty sure I can find time.
Adding Abbey into the mix would be a great addition.
pretty sure we can use some white blaze to eliminate paved road - it will add in some fire road later, but should cut down on the pavement.
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