# Nassahegan, Burlington, CT - 9/14/08



## Greg (Sep 14, 2008)

gmcunni, o3jeff, bvibert and I hit up Nassahegan from Stone Road this morning. We all met at the parking area around 7 am and got rolling shortly thereafter. The rain was starting just as we headed out. We started up the main access trail and I actually cleared the first climb (barely). The second one didn't go as well, but it's definitely doable. Clearing both will be a goal of mine.

Once at the Tunxis we headed East and then hit the twisties to the South. I forgot how much fun it is down in the there. We sessioned the big log crossing and shot some vid there and in a few other areas. Once back at the Tunxis we rested and then hit a few new trail to the North of it. Awesome flowy singletrack riding in there. The rain was coming down, but we were having a blast. The Stone Road area seems to drain well and while the surface was obviously wet, there wasn't that much mud to navigate.

We eventually made it back to the Tunxis and then headed West to Stone Road. We crossed and then headed towards the Devil's Kitchen. I was looking forward to riding it from the top. We seemed to get to the "cavern" area quicker than I thought we might. We all seemed to ride through probably the most technical riding Nass has to offer in the Kitchen. I think there will be much more riding than walking as time goes on. There seems like there was less leaf debris in there than the last time I road it. I walked one of the rocky drops which is totally rideable. Can't wait to try it when it's dry.

We then took the trail we usually ride down up. I rode it bottom to top, albeit slowly and I was shot at the top, but I felt good clearing the whole climb, one that is gradual and not technical, but long and grueling. Once at the top of that section, Jeff noticed a low rear tire. He tried to pump it, but we encouraged him to just change out the tube. We were soon off.

We took the turn down that powhunter accidentally rode a week or so ago and eventually came to this rather steep downhill. After that point, we started getting a bit lost, but we eventually made our way back around towards Stone Road. We road down Stone for a stretch and then headed in towards a trail with some free ride stunts. Gary and I had fun hitting some of the jumps at the bottom, although we only scored truly feeble credit card air. Still fun. Some 4 hours later we made it back to the car.

Brian uploaded his track from his snazzy new GPS *here* (map). Looking at that track closely in Topofusion, he seemed to lose satellite acquisition a few times, but the mileage overall at a bit over 8 miles seems accurate, although it felt at least 50% longer than that.

All in all, a truly sick freakin' ride! I was really loving the terrain over on the Stone Road side. I plan to concentrate on riding this area much more often to hopefully learn it as well as we know the Lamson Corner trails. Good riding with you guys!


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## Greg (Sep 14, 2008)

*Vid*

Here is the *high res version* (107 MB).

*YouTubage:*


Amazing how less steep the terrain looks, how untechnical it looks, and how slow it looks we are riding. Well, maybe we do ride that slow, but it _seems _faster... :lol:


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## o3jeff (Sep 14, 2008)

Even with all the rain this morning I had a great time out there. Got to meet another AZ member, nice to meet you Gary. We definitely need to ride the Stone are more.

Great job like usual on the video and the terrain does look a lot easier on it.


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## MR. evil (Sep 14, 2008)

looks like alot of fun!


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## gmcunni (Sep 14, 2008)

i had an excellent time today, didn't mind the weather at all and in a strange way i kind of liked it.  the 5:30 AM wake up call was certainly worth it.

Jeff, great to meet you today.


Stone Road was hard but fun. It is similar in to some of the stuff i've ridden in Trumbull but WAY bigger. 

definitely time to get my bike back to the LBS for one of the free adjustments. by the end of the ride my brakes were gone (cables stretched i think) and shifting gears was not working as it should have.

Very interesting to see Brian's GPS track as i had no idea where were going most of the time.


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## bvibert (Sep 14, 2008)

Great ride, glad I was able to make it out for the ride today.  I could have done without getting quite so wet, but it wasn't too bad.  The kitchen definitely seemed way shorter than I remember it being.  I would have liked to ride more of it, but the wet jagged rocks messed with my head a bit too much.

Greg, the video came out really good, thanks for doing that! :beer:



gmcunni said:


> Very interesting to see Brian's GPS track as i had no idea where were going most of the time.



In case you didn't notice, neither did the rest of us most of the time.


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## bvibert (Sep 14, 2008)

Looking at the map we definitely would have been better off if we went right to stay on the Blue/Red dot trail instead of going left/straight onto the blue trail right where that washed out, short, DH was.


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## gmcunni (Sep 14, 2008)

bvibert said:


> Greg, the video came out really good, thanks for doing that! :beer:



+1

but i could have sworn i got more air than that on those jumps at the end  :roll:


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## GrilledSteezeSandwich (Sep 14, 2008)

Nice video..wow that is a rocky trail..for some reason I was imagining it being smoother and alot more coasting..


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## GrilledSteezeSandwich (Sep 14, 2008)

gmcunni said:


> +1
> 
> but i could have sworn i got more air than that on those jumps at the end  :roll:



You got like 3 feet of air..:-D


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## gmcunni (Sep 15, 2008)

ok, i can admit it. i'm sore today, but in a good way.

going to try and run up to LBS tonight to get my free brake and gear cable adjustments made.  Also need to see if they can look at my seat.  i took the duct tape off last night to figure out what was wrong and either i'm too fat for the seat and bent something or it is defective.   the bar that the seat post mounts too doesn't line up with the clamps that attach it to the seat.


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## Greg (Sep 15, 2008)

gmcunni said:


> ok, i can admit it. i'm sore today, but in a good way.



I was so tired all day yesterday and I passed out at 9 pm. I'm still scratching my head how that ride was only 8 miles. Felt *a lot* longer. I guess the wet surface is just more mentally and physically draining to ride.



gmcunni said:


> going to try and run up to LBS tonight to get my free brake and gear cable adjustments made.  Also need to see if they can look at my seat.  i took the duct tape off last night to figure out what was wrong and either i'm too fat for the seat and bent something or it is defective.   the bar that the seat post mounts too doesn't line up with the clamps that attach it to the seat.



Should be a good test to see how the LBS treats you. A seat shouldn't fall apart like that after only a half dozen rides. Hopefully they just straight up replace it for you.


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## Grassi21 (Sep 15, 2008)

Greg said:


> Should be a good test to see how the LBS treats you. A seat shouldn't fall apart like that after only a half dozen rides. Hopefully they just straight up replace it for you.



roy will do the right thing.  i have a lot of confidence in the lbs.


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## o3jeff (Sep 15, 2008)

I was pretty useless yesterday until I took a nap. I think the seemed longer due to the rain and a lot the trails were new to us instead of the same trails that we are used to riding.


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## gmcunni (Sep 15, 2008)

Grassi21 said:


> roy will do the right thing.  i have a lot of confidence in the lbs.



i agree. roy seems like a stand up guy.  they're open until 6 tonight, i'm going to try and get there to drop off the bike so i can get out again this coming weekend.


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## Greg (Sep 15, 2008)

o3jeff said:


> I think the seemed longer due to the rain and a lot the trails were new to us instead of the same trails that we are used to riding.



That and we stopped a lot to figure out where to go, as well as taking vid and whatnot. that's easily a 3 hour ride at a consistent pace. It turned out to be a pretty rad route with no real backtracking.


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## MR. evil (Sep 15, 2008)

Greg said:


> That and we stopped a lot to figure out where to go, as well as taking vid and whatnot. that's easily a 3 hour ride at a consistent pace. It turned out to be a pretty rad route with no real backtracking.




Sounds like this new route is a keeper. You guys will have to show it to me some time. 

I hear what you are saying about the wet ride really wearing on you. Our ride Sat. was only about 9 mile for felt twice as long. The entire ride was a battle for traction and trying to upright. I think I fell 5 or 6 times and almost fell another 5 or 6 times easy. I was pretty useless the rest of the day


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## Greg (Sep 15, 2008)

MR. evil said:


> Sounds like this new route is a keeper. You guys will have to show it to me some time.



You would absolutely love it. The Stone Road area is as good as Lamson Corner and we haven't even seen it all yet. I'm actually going to take a break from Scoville and ride out of Stone for a while.


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## bvibert (Sep 15, 2008)

I was a little sore today, but not too bad.  I'm gonna be dead tonight though, we spent the whole day walking around the Big-E...


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## severine (Sep 16, 2008)

Cool vid!  Looks like a radical ride!  Hopefully I will be ready to hit that up next season when you guys know where you're going.


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## o3jeff (Sep 16, 2008)

Brian, was your footage included in that vid? I thought you were taking stills too?


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## bvibert (Sep 16, 2008)

o3jeff said:


> Brian, was your footage included in that vid? I thought you were taking stills too?



No, Greg said he had enough without my footage.  I tried to take some stills, but they didn't come out too well in the rain.  I have a few short video clips that I may put together and throw on YouTube, but they're not anything special...


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