# Penwood RAW - 6/10/09



## bvibert (Jun 10, 2009)

Riding Penwood for the first time today was a great way to celebrate my birthday.  I was able to go home after work and hang with the family for just a few before heading out, which was good.

I'll let someone else do the play by play, but I guess we did the standard 'loop'.  Lots of fun stuff in there, I'll definitely be back!  Rode with Greg, Mr. Evil, Slopes, and I bike alone from crankfire.  Nice to meet I bike alone and to ride with Slopes for the first time.  Thanks for showing us around IBA! 

Nice conversation and beer in the lot at the end, thanks for the birthday beer Slopes! :beer:

Around 7 miles in like 2 hours.


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## Greg (Jun 10, 2009)

First ride at Penwood for me too today. I really like the place. It's incredibly scenic. The woods are really beautiful and it seems like there is less activity in there than other places I've ridden. Just beautiful natural forest. Some really great views along the ridge too. And gnar. Lots of gnar.

IBA was a great guide. Riding that route on a single speed 29er is truly impressive and he was blowing us away most of the time. Thanks again for leading the way! Good to ride with Slopes for the first time. Hope to get some more pedaling in with you before you head north. Tim and Brian - always a pleasure. The chat in the lot capped a great ride.

The trails were a little sweaty today and slick. They must really be a fun rip when it's dry and sunny. We still moved at a good clip. MR. Evil tackling that steep ravine (one legged at times :lol was impressive. Always tough to ride a new area. You just can't be that aggressive, but I plan to hit up Penwood some more this season. A bit far for RAWs, but Sundays at Penwood are in play. The place has some long climbs (and flowy and some gnarly descents). Really good stuff. Anyway, about 6.8 miles with over 2K of climbing by my GPS:

http://crankfire.com/trails/data.php?dataid=568
http://www.crankfire.com/map/index.php?tid=14&t=568&w=16,110,111,112,113,114,115&k=&h=


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## big oz (Jun 10, 2009)

Did you guys get a chance to ride the super nasty blue trail down the middle that comes out at the cul de sac?  That has some of the wickedest rock sections i have ever seen.  By the way, that overlook trail is a.k.a. the dead biker cuz some guy fell over the side a while back and he missed the landing if you catch my drift.  If you guys ever want to go for a haul, ride the Rez and follow the Metacomet to Penwood and all the way to the chimneys near Tarrifville.......then ride back.  I should be doing one of these rides soon so feel free to tag along and puke.


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## severine (Jun 11, 2009)

> Penwood RAW - 6/10/77



Did you go back in time on this ride? 



Glad you got out and did something you enjoy on your birthday.


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## Trev (Jun 11, 2009)

Sounds like an excellent ride!

Looking forward to checking this place out as well! Will try to tag along on a Sunday run one of these weekends.


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## sLoPeS (Jun 11, 2009)

*Great Ride*

Wow, that was a good ride last night.  Right off the bat, you start on some techy, mostly climbing singletrack.  Was definitely a little wet in there but we killed it.  The first section to the pond had some fun rolling single that you could pick up speed on and then great views off to the west on the ridge.  After that it was up to the pinnacle and then down to wintonbury rd.  that was some serious downhill.  props to mr. evil who was definitely pushing it and going for it.  I had to pull the eject handle a couple times, but sometimes thats how it is.  the back section was another climb for the most part but less rocky.  when dry, there is some slick rock in there that would be really fun.  one more serious climb and then some good, steep and techy single down to the car.  dont know why but i turned it up in the dark and felt really solid there.  having only ridden here once before, it was nice to get the official loop (thank IBA!).  i still love the rez more, but ill be back to penwood when its dry.  was great getting to ride with you guys and meeting IBA.  looking forward to the next ride.

big oz - im trying to do that ride (aka the "tour de talcott").  when were u thinking of going?  needs to be in the next few weeks for me...


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## bvibert (Jun 11, 2009)

severine said:


> Did you go back in time on this ride?



 Oops, usually when I type that date it's to fill in my birthday on a form. :lol:


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## bvibert (Jun 11, 2009)

big oz said:


> Did you guys get a chance to ride the super nasty blue trail down the middle that comes out at the cul de sac?  That has some of the wickedest rock sections i have ever seen.  By the way, that overlook trail is a.k.a. the dead biker cuz some guy fell over the side a while back and he missed the landing if you catch my drift.  If you guys ever want to go for a haul, ride the Rez and follow the Metacomet to Penwood and all the way to the chimneys near Tarrifville.......then ride back.  I should be doing one of these rides soon so feel free to tag along and puke.



I'm not really sure, but I don't recall coming out to a cul de sac.

How many miles is the ride from the rez to Tarrifville an back?  Sounds like a tough ride.


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## Greg (Jun 11, 2009)

bvibert said:


> Oops, usually when I type that date it's to fill in my birthday on a form. :lol:



That's pretty funny.


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## sLoPeS (Jun 11, 2009)

bvibert said:


> I'm not really sure, but I don't recall coming out to a cul de sac.



Wintonbury road.....like after the gnar downhill, the furthest we were out there.


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## bvibert (Jun 11, 2009)

sLoPeS said:


> Wintonbury road.....like after the gnar downhill, the furthest we were out there.



That was a cul de sac?  So, did we hit the gnar he was talking about or not?


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## sLoPeS (Jun 11, 2009)

bvibert said:


> That was a cul de sac?  So, did we hit the gnar he was talking about or not?



haha, yea we hit pretty much everything in there.


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## I_Bike_Alone (Jun 11, 2009)

big oz said:


> Did you guys get a chance to ride the super nasty blue trail down the middle that comes out at the cul de sac?  That has some of the wickedest rock sections i have ever seen.   If you guys ever want to go for a haul, ride the Rez and follow the Metacomet to Penwood and all the way to the chimneys near Tarrifville.......then ride back.  I should be doing one of these rides soon so feel free to tag along and puke.



I'm glad you guys all enjoyed the ride, like I say I don't know much but its just like tree skiing; it's all passed on from other people.

Still dissapointed about a block that was put up recently. Oz you remember the steeps leading to the cul de sac(wintonbury) and the two tight left handers down the fall line? Well someone blocked the first one and that kind of made me angry.

About that rez to t-ville ride, count me in.

oh and can one of you guys change my name I think i joined AZ forums before the rag and cf hence the ski oriented name. Thanks !


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## bvibert (Jun 11, 2009)

skituxnoob said:


> I'm glad you guys all enjoyed the ride, like I say I don't know much but its just like tree skiing; it's all passed on from other people.
> 
> Still dissapointed about a block that was put up recently. Oz you remember the steeps leading to the cul de sac(wintonbury) and the two tight left handers down the fall line? Well someone blocked the first one and that kind of made me angry.
> 
> ...



That's you IBA?  I didn't even know you were on this forum.  Greg is the only one that can change user names, I'm sure he'll hook you up..


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## I_Bike_Alone (Jun 11, 2009)

yea its me alright, IBA is fine or the whole name whichever. thanks for the gps stats I always wondered what that loop ive done  dozen times this year was worth.


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## severine (Jun 11, 2009)

skituxnoob said:


> yea its me alright, IBA is fine or the whole name whichever. thanks for the gps stats I always wondered what that loop ive done  dozen times this year was worth.



i bike alone would seem awkward now.


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## bvibert (Jun 11, 2009)

severine said:


> i bike alone would seem awkward now.



Even though he was riding with us yesterday he was still mostly biking alone, since he dusted us on every section.  Luckily he was nice enough to wait for us to catch up often.


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## severine (Jun 11, 2009)

I see. The true meaning of the username.


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## big oz (Jun 11, 2009)

If you went trough a bunch of steep sextions of traprock and rolled down a super steep chute to off camber section, then you did.  I know a lot of the nasty stuff got re-routed a few years back.  BTW, that ride from the Rez to Tarrifville and back is close to 35 miles.


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## MR. evil (Jun 11, 2009)

big oz said:


> If you went trough a bunch of steep sextions of traprock and rolled down a super steep chute to off camber section, then you did.  I know a lot of the nasty stuff got re-routed a few years back.  .



Thats sounds like some of the stuff one idiot was riding. The smart people walked that stuff.


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## I_Bike_Alone (Jun 11, 2009)

big oz said:


> BTW, that ride from the Rez to Tarrifville and back is close to 35 miles.



so 35mi/5.5hr  not a mathematician but is that like 7mph average?



> Thats sounds like some of the stuff one idiot was riding. The smart people walked that stuff.



done it a dozen times, if it was dry you would have considered it.


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## big oz (Jun 12, 2009)

You can do it in under 4 1/2 hours.....there are a few tar and fire road sections between 44 and Penwood that you can knock out at a good clip.


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