# MTB: Granville Gorge 6/20/2010



## MR. evil (Jun 21, 2010)

Rode yesterday morning with my buddy Murph (aka crazy trails guys). Originally we were going to do a play ride at Millers Pond or Case but decided to keep it closer to home and settled on riding at Granville Gorge in Granville / Southwick MA. We headed to the trail head which was only about a 5 minute drive from Murph’s place, and got ready to hit the trails. The night before Murph sent me a txt message advising me to bring a geared bike as there would be a good amount of climbing. If only I had known what I was getting into. We hit some single track right from the parking spot, it was a very pretty pine forest with nice tight & twisty , switch back style single track that was all up hill. We finally popped out of the pine forest single track a mile or so into the ride and took some gnarly double track for quite a ways. ……again all up hill. About 2.0 miles into the ride of constant climbing the heavy air go to me and I needed to stop for a couple minutes and catch my breath. Murph assured me we only had another .5 miles to the summit (the first summit) and off we went. When we arrived it was so hazy that you couldn’t see anything, Murph told me that on a clear day you can see Umass to the North, Springfield to the east and Hartford to the south. I guess I will have to go back to get the views. From there things got really technical with a boat load more climbing made harder by the nature of the trails. For those that ride Nass, the trail layout and feel was a lot like Dick Ticklers Notch only with a lot more climbing. Tons of really cool rocky lines up and down, drops & rollers all part of the trail with very few B lines around these features. I was so exhausted from the big climb up that I ended up hiking quite a few up the techy climbs on this ridge. I also had my first real crash of the season. My front tire washed out on a short tech DH sending me flying into the woods. A few scrapes on my left side but nothing major.

 This trail finished on the next summit over looking the Gorge far below. From here we took one of the longest and gnarliest DH’s I have done in a while. Mostly double track strewn with loose soccer ball size rocks that almost caused me to wipe a couple of times. By the end of the DH my forearms and wrist were killing me from all the time I spent on the brakes. The DH ended up right on the north side of the Gorge and we had a truly beautiful mile or so of trail right along the Gorge. It had to be 20 degrees cooler along the Gorge than up on the ridge, the air was also much drier and I could breath again. The remainder of the ride was about a mile or so of double track and access roads through the Westfield Water Shed area back to the truck. While loading the bikes into my truck a fox popped out of the woods about 50 feet away holding its freshly caught breakfast in its mouth. I snapped a few quick pictures that I will try and post up later.

Ride stats
7.8 miles in 2 hours 45 minutes
2740 feet of vertical elevation gain

GPS track
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=672189


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## o3jeff (Jun 21, 2010)

Were you rolling with the _accessories_ on the bike?


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## MR. evil (Jun 21, 2010)

o3jeff said:


> Were you rolling with the _accessories_ on the bike?



actually the basket was still on for this ride. Took it off after the ride, I think the basket was cuasing to much wind resistance giving me all my troubles on the climbs.


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## Trev (Jun 22, 2010)

Nice trail tracking app! mucho liko... made me like the trail route even more.

Nice run, see you there sometime!



MR. evil said:


> GPS track
> http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=672189


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## MR. evil (Jun 23, 2010)

Trev said:


> Nice trail tracking app! mucho liko... made me like the trail route even more.
> 
> Nice run, see you there sometime!



Anytime you want to ride this one let me know........I'll give you Murph's contact info and you two can have at it  

I would be down for this one again, just not on a nasty hot and humid day again.


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## Marc (Jun 23, 2010)

MR. evil said:


> Anytime you want to ride this one let me know........I'll give you Murph's contact info and you two can have at it
> 
> I would be down for this one again, just not on a nasty hot and humid day again.



Sounds like a fun place, but hot and humid plus climbing is pretty crappy.  I like doing flatter rides in that weather so you have more cooling from going a bit faster speed.


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## MR. evil (Jun 23, 2010)

Marc said:


> Sounds like a fun place, but hot and humid plus climbing is pretty crappy.  I like doing flatter rides in that weather so you have more cooling from going a bit faster speed.



Anytime you want to head out to Western MA and sample some of the trails just let me know.

Looks like I will be heading out to ride with Austin at Lynn Woods this summer with some buds, you intrested?


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## Marc (Jun 23, 2010)

No, I told Austin I don't want to break myself.  Or my bike.


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