# Miller's Pond 06/27/2010



## MR. evil (Jun 28, 2010)

I have been trying to get to Miller’s Pond for about 2 years now, and this past Sunday I finally managed to get there with my buddy Jamie. I have heard all the stories about how technical and gnarly this place is, and how the skinnies never end. The stories don’t do the place justice. In my opinion this place ranks right up there with Lynn Woods as the hardest spot I have ever ridden.  We got started around 8:30 and finished up around 12:00 followed by a quick dip in the pond……great way to end a ride. We riode the red trail to the red/white in a clockwise direction around the pond. I would estimate that we only rode about 3  miles to about ½ way around the pond before we rode the white trail double track back to the lot. We pretty much stopped at every drop,  skinny, roller, drop /skinny/roller combo & otherwise fun sections to session…………and they are everywhere! The lines just to get to some of the trail features are pain in the ass. As Jamie told me, most of the trail features at Miller’s are self policing. If the line to get to the drop, skinny or roller is too tough for you, the feature itself is probably too tough for you.

As soon as we hit the read trail we were greeted with 3 skinnies and a small 30” drop about 50 feet into the trail. We spent about 10 minutes here so I could get the first drop of the day out of my system and spend some time on what I was told were some of the easier skinnes. Shortly after we came upon a really steep and gnarly roller drop in followed by a 3 foot +/- drop. Jamie hit this one first and made it look so easy. When my turn came it took me a minute of two to get up the nerve just to drop in, the roller was kind of sketchy…..and I love rollers. Anyway, sacked up and hit the roller / drop combo and it got the adrenaline going pretty good. We took some video at this spot, and as you will see by the opening sequence to the video Jamie is not very good with a video camera. He filmed me while holding the camera sideways, and completely missed me hitting the drop. The rest of the footage he shot of me was not much better……. I have a lot of footage of his fingers and apparently he didn’t know that pressing the record button twice stops the camera . This is why there is very little of me in the vid, and a lot of him. That and the fact that he did a lot more cooler stuff than I did. 

The rest of the ride was pretty much the same, we rode and played alot. Unfortunately the batteries in my camera died about an hour into the ride, we rode for another  2.5 more hours and lots more cool trail features.  The most nerve racking stunt  of the day was cleaning a 20 foot long elevated skinny above a rocky stream about 3 to 4 feet below. It was one of the widest skinnies of the day at  about 10 inches wide, but the penalty for failure was huge. I must have stared at that thing for 5 minutes before going at it……..Cleaned it first try.

 We only did about ½ the loop around the pond and we must have hit 8 or 9 drops (two of which I didn’t hit), 20 plus skinnies, and 10 or more rollers with very technical lines. I’m dying to knows whats on the other half of the loop …….Can you say return trip . In addition to all the trail features, the trails themselves are no picnic. VERY technical, rocky trails made even harder by all the energy used sessioning the fun stuff. During the last 1/2mile of single track I was so exhausted I was having trouble doing the easiest of trail features. At that point we decided to bail and head back to the parking lot and then take a quick dip in the pond.  




Randi gets the credit for editing the video………….I had nothing to do with it.


http://www.vimeo.com/12898103


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## powhunter (Jun 28, 2010)

Good Stuff there!!


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## MR. evil (Jun 28, 2010)

*some pics taken on my phone*

This picture doesn’t do this stunt justice. The line just to get into the skinny was uber tough, took Murph 3 of 4 tries just to get the entry line and he is an awesome ride. The Skinny is also very steep and aims you right at the large tree. I hit the roller line instead this was one skinny WAY out of my leage







Cool sequence of Murph hitting a nasty drop. The drop was only about 3 plus feet, but the landing area was very narrow and UPHILL. Murph hit this once twice and even on the FS said it hurt both times….it didn’t sound too good either


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## Trev (Jun 28, 2010)

Dude,

  That first drop pic...  right.. I am sitting here thinking.. " that son of a bitch, dropped the rock and landed on that god damn skinny log.. and probably made it look easy. "

  I am glad the pic didn't draw the entire picture correctly 

  Looks fun, great vid.. etc..   I am in next time.. as long as I am ok schedule wise.


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## MR. evil (Jun 28, 2010)

Trev said:


> Dude,
> 
> That first drop pic...  right.. I am sitting here thinking.. " that son of a bitch, dropped the rock and landed on that god damn skinny log.. and probably made it look easy. "
> 
> ...



When he saw that drop to skinny landing potential he was a little bummed he didn't have his play bike. 

Next time we will schedule Miller's around your schedule.... I just hope you can use a video camera better than Jamie


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## o3jeff (Jun 28, 2010)

How was the swimming there?


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## MR. evil (Jun 28, 2010)

o3jeff said:


> How was the swimming there?



Why do you ask?

Planning on tagging along so you can lounge on the beach catching some rays while Trev and I ride Miller’s next time.


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## o3jeff (Jun 28, 2010)

MR. evil said:


> Why do you ask?
> 
> Planning on tagging along so you can lounge on the beach catching some rays while Trev and I ride Miller’s next time.



If there is good scenery I might.


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## MR. evil (Jun 28, 2010)

o3jeff said:


> If there is good scenery I might.



You will love it....tons of dudes cooling off after a long mtb ride


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## awf170 (Jun 28, 2010)

That place is only a 1:30 drive from Lowell, and looks wicked awesome.  When are you going again?  I'm free pretty much every weekend.

Log skinnies are basically the only thing that Lynn Woods is missing, so this place looks awesome in every way to me.


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## MR. evil (Jun 28, 2010)

awf170 said:


> That place is only a 1:30 drive from Lowell, and looks wicked awesome.  When are you going again?  I'm free pretty much every weekend.
> 
> Log skinnies are basically the only thing that Lynn Woods is missing, so this place looks awesome in every way to me.



Jamie and I were talkig about inviting you for the next trip to Miller's.....you will love it!

Going to try and set something up within the next month, maybe sooner than later.



BTW - the video doesn't do the place juctice.


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## Trev (Jun 28, 2010)

Used to swim there a lot back in high school.. lol.. rope swings.. all that jazz.. 

Looking forward to riding there.


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