# Nassahegan Mini Tour - 9/28/08



## Greg (Sep 28, 2008)

Due to the wet conditions and recent rain, we abbreviated our planned route a bit to skip the Session Woods trails and Devil's Kitchen. The rest of the route is riding just fine.

Met up with Brian right at 7 am at Scoville. We got rolling by 7:15 and headed up past the cemetery. We then started the climb along Cornwall. We were both sucking major wind. Very humid this morning and it was zapping my energy. We hung a right at the big rock and headed towards Stone Road. Brian slipped on the big ledge up there and reopened his elbow wound. After some medical attention, we were off.

Made it to Stone Road and continued up the Tunxis. Hung a left towards the the little freeride route. Got almost to the Stone lot and then headed south again. I was psyched to clear the first climb. The second one got me. Once at the Tunxis again, we stayed straight to ride the newly raked area at the top of Wildcat Mountain. By this point I was feeling great. Hit most of the Stone Road twisties, all but the far southeast corner. Then headed for the rest of the twisties north of the Tunxis.

It was at this point Brian discovered he busted two spokes. He got them out of the way and felt he could ride on. We finished up the new section and hopped on the Tunxis just east of the rock garden. I flew through there clearing all of the hard stuff. I was getting tired and stepped out at the end of it though. I was happy I made it that far. Took the Tunxis back to Stone Road.

Crossed Stone and started the climb back up. We stayed more northwest on our way back to the big loop riding some blue trail, some of the forest access road. Once back on the Lamson loop we pressed on. I cleared the incline to the ledge at the high point and took the sketchy loose downhill with a lot more speed today so I was happy about my riding through there. Once at the merge by Cornwall, we noticed a large group of riders. I thought they were going to let the two of us pass, but the leader decided to take off. No matter, we had some exploratory to do. :lol:

After crossing Cornwall, we took a right on a hidden trail looking for a newly cleared trail system called "Dick Tickler's Notch" by the Crankfire guys. Well...we found it. And yep, we walked it more than we rode it. Brian said it best, "this trail is not ready for me and I'm not ready for it!" :lol: Lots of tight technical riding with huge rollers and drops; many of them with some tricky access and tight landing areas. We walked them all. This trail needs some major traffic. It ain't going to be me though as this stuff is well beyond me. Cool to see though. The final natural stunt is a massive, probably 15+ foot roller which ends as a 4-ish foot drop, you then need to ride up another small roller. Crazy ass terrain and it makes the Devil's kitchen look pretty tame. Brian and I were glad when we hooked back in to the standard loop.

Once at 69, I contemplated hitting the road back since I wanted to get home for 11:30 or so. At this point it was 11 am and I told Brian I'll do the stretch parallel to 69, but we have to book. We cranked indeed and got through there in a bit over 20 minutes. Well, 12.61 miles and a bit over 4 hours later, we were back at Scoville. It felt more like 20 miles, not that I really know what 20 miles feels like. Let's just say this was a pretty intense ride, mostly all singletrack trail riding and my longest ride so far. I was tired at the end of it, but feel pretty good this afternoon. I don't know how those Crankfire guys do 30+ miles through Nassahegan.

Fun riding with you Brian! Here is the *trail record* and *map*.


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## bvibert (Sep 28, 2008)

Great ride.  I could have done without so much wetness, and the broken spokes though.  I'm pretty beat this afternoon.  Time to go back on veg on the couch with the family....


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## awf170 (Sep 28, 2008)

Greg said:


> After crossing Cornwall, we took a right on a hidden trail looking for a newly cleared trail system called "Dick Tickler's Notch" by the Crankfire guys. Well...we found it. And yep, we walked it more than we rode it. Brian said it best, "this trail is not ready for me and I'm not ready for it!" :lol: Lots of tight technical riding with huge rollers and drops; many of them with some tricky access and tight landing areas. We walked them all. This trail needs some major traffic. It ain't going to be me though as this stuff is well beyond me. Cool to see though. The final natural stunt is a massive, probably 15+ foot roller which ends as a 4-ish foot drop, you then need to ride up another small roller. Crazy ass terrain and it makes the Devil's kitchen look pretty tame. Brian and I were glad when we hooked back in to the standard loop.



Drool...  Yeah I'm dragged your asses out to this trail again if I make out here one of these Sundays.


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## rueler (Sep 28, 2008)

I'm glad that you found Tickler's...Yeah, it looks ridiculously technical in dry or wet conditions!! Definitely not very rideable on a day like today. Trail fairies will be putting bypass options around the really big stuff... if you noticed the terrain in there...yeah, they might be bypasses, but they certainly won't be pussy paths IMO.


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## Greg (Sep 28, 2008)

awf170 said:


> Drool...  Yeah I'm dragged your asses out to this trail again if I make out here one of these Sundays.



I figured you would say this. I'd be willing to show you the spot, but I'll state for the record now that I take no responsibility for you killing yourself. Based on the pics I've seen of the stuff you ride at Lynn Woods, it all looks pretty wide open. Just imagine that stuff linked by tight twisty singletrack which really hasn't been ridden all that much.

It's an interesting area for sure. Beautiful forest in there in fact. I just couldn't get any flow. Each time I got going, I had to step out to scope the next insane roller or drop. If Devil's Kitchen didn't put Nassahegan on the map for technical terrain, Tickler's certainly will!



rueler said:


> I'm glad that you found Tickler's...Yeah, it looks ridiculously technical in dry or wet conditions!! Definitely not very rideable on a day like today. Trail fairies will be putting bypass options around the really big stuff... if you noticed the terrain in there...yeah, they might be bypasses, but they certainly won't be pussy paths IMO.



I was thinking about that today. I thought, man there are no lady tees around this shit yet. Then I looked around......no real space for them! Should be a fun spot as it gets more traveled...


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## o3jeff (Sep 28, 2008)

I wish I could of made it with you guys to check the tickler out. When I woke up around 6:30 I felt really good, but didn't want to push it.

So when is the un-abbreviated ride going to happen?


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## Greg (Sep 28, 2008)

o3jeff said:


> I wish I could of made it with you guys to check the tickler out. When I woke up around 6:30 I felt really good, but didn't want to push it.
> 
> So when is the un-abbreviated ride going to happen?



Not easy weather this morning. The humidity was draining for the first hour. It really would have sucked with a head cold. I'm shot now. Can't wait to hit the pillow later on. Great ride. The next few weeks might be tricky for me to do an epic ride, but I still would like to add the Session Woods loop onto what we did today some Sunday in October.

The tires worked out much better. Way better traction than those shit Bontragers. A bit more resistance, but totally worth it. I took a good look at that 3-4 footer in the newly raked area of Stone Road (the northern section). A truly sweet approach. The landing is a little sketch with a couple rocks, but not bad. I hope to work up the nerve to try it, but I have to see someone else hit it first to gauge exactly where the landing will be.


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## awf170 (Sep 28, 2008)

Greg said:


> I figured you would say this. I'd be willing to show you the spot, but I'll state for the record now that I take no responsibility for you killing yourself. Based on the pics I've seen of the stuff you ride at Lynn Woods, it all looks pretty wide open. Just imagine that stuff linked by tight twisty singletrack which really hasn't been ridden all that much.




Sounds fun...

Seriously though, I know my limit and definitely won't do anything I'm not completely comfortable with.  I'm actually not nearly as much of an idiot on a bike as I am on skis.  On skis I know I can wreck pretty hard and not get hurt, on a bike, not so much.


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## bvibert (Sep 28, 2008)

o3jeff said:


> I wish I could of made it with you guys to check the tickler out. When I woke up around 6:30 I felt really good, but didn't want to push it.
> 
> So when is the un-abbreviated ride going to happen?



You didn't miss much, riding wise, in the tickler, IMHO.  Lots of walking and very little riding for me.  I may have been able to ride a slight bit more of it if I wasn't so damn tired from the previous parts of the ride.  Honestly, no offense to the guys building it, I had more fun re-truing my rear wheel after breaking two spokes than I did walking the DTN.  It's very rough and even if it was more worn in there's still a ton of crazy natural features and such that I don't imagine I'll have the balls or skills to hit anytime too soon.


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## GrilledSteezeSandwich (Sep 29, 2008)

Wow that's a serious ride..you climbed over 4k of vert..almost as much as hiking Mount Washington..steezy


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## rueler (Sep 29, 2008)

bvibert said:


> You didn't miss much, riding wise, in the tickler, IMHO.  Lots of walking and very little riding for me.  I may have been able to ride a slight bit more of it if I wasn't so damn tired from the previous parts of the ride.  Honestly, no offense to the guys building it, I had more fun re-truing my rear wheel after breaking two spokes than I did walking the DTN.  It's very rough and even if it was more worn in there's still a ton of crazy natural features and such that I don't imagine I'll have the balls or skills to hit anytime too soon.



Dick Ticklers Notch is definitely a trail for the best of the best. The guy that built it is the only one who has ridden it...ever. It's been a three year project for him. He and a small handful of others probably have the skills to ride that whole thing clean. I'll ride as much of it as I can...but, it needs some work if it's going to be ridden by a wider range of abilities.


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## bvibert (Sep 29, 2008)

rueler said:


> Dick Ticklers Notch is definitely a trail for the best of the best. The guy that built it is the only one who has ridden it...ever. It's been a three year project for him. He and a small handful of others probably have the skills to ride that whole thing clean. I'll ride as much of it as I can...but, it needs some work if it's going to be ridden by a wider range of abilities.



There's a few 'stunts' in there that I'd love to see someone hit.  Not that I don't think someone could ride them, I'd just enjoy seeing someone do it.  The gigantic rock wall/roller thing, in particular, is pretty sick.


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## rueler (Sep 29, 2008)

bvibert said:


> There's a few 'stunts' in there that I'd love to see someone hit.  Not that I don't think someone could ride them, I'd just enjoy seeing someone do it.  The gigantic rock wall/roller thing, in particular, is pretty sick.



yeah...that thing is crazy...The steep roller down to the drop and then there's the crown jewel...that wall at the bottom of a downhill that has a notch that you jump through...nuts.


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## bvibert (Sep 29, 2008)

rueler said:


> yeah...that thing is crazy...The steep roller down to the drop and then there's the crown jewel...that wall at the bottom of a downhill that has a notch that you jump through...nuts.



Yup, the wall notch was another I'd like to see done.  IIRC that's pretty much right at the end of the trail, pretty sick way to end.


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## awf170 (Sep 29, 2008)

Wow, this trail sounds quite sick.  I'm actually starting to think I wouldn't be able to ride most of this thing.  Still I would really like to take a look at it and see how it compares to Lynn Woods.

How steep are these rollers?  Do you have to bushwhack around them because they are too steep to hike down?


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## bvibert (Sep 29, 2008)

awf170 said:


> Wow, this trail sounds quite sick.  I'm actually starting to think I wouldn't be able to ride most of this thing.  Still I would really like to take a look at it and see how it compares to Lynn Woods.
> 
> How steep are these rollers?  Do you have to bushwhack around them because they are too steep to hike down?



The only way I got down one of them was because there was a couple of small roots to use as foot holds on the less steep section off to the side of the biggest part.  That and a little bit of sliding on my feet..


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## MR. evil (Sep 29, 2008)

I really need to see this trail. Not that I will be able to ride much of it, I just want to see it :smile:


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## rueler (Sep 29, 2008)

I looked at it again tonight. There's a few foot drop approaching the long, steep roller. The roller itself is about (i'm sort of guessing here) 75 feet long or so...and is quickly followed by a 3 footer to a quick left handed turn. In dry conditions I think that it's very rideable, but the speed you'd carry through there to the drop might make the left turn afterwards very challenging. There is another option to rider's left of that steep roller where you can drop a 3 footer onto a steep landing and make one easy turn through the mountain laurel back onto the main route.


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## Greg (Sep 29, 2008)

rueler said:


> There is another option to rider's left of that steep roller where you can drop a 3 footer onto a steep landing and make one easy turn through the mountain laurel back onto the main route.



One bad ass sounding lady's tee... :lol:


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