meanjoe
02-26-2008, 02:57 PM
I set out yesterday with the crosscheck in the truck and a map of LBL in hand. The trail would have been way too wet to ride but i knew there were plenty of gravel, dirt, atv, paved and access roads all up and down the trace. On Steve Wilsons recommendation i picked one and parked the truck.
I headed out on a half *** route without really a plan. It took about 3 minutes to find a road that wasn't on the map. It was pretty rough looking and had plenty of mud holes with fresh truck tire marks. It led to other roads that weren't on the map. This was great. I ended up on some fire road sections that looked very familiar then I noticed i was on the n/s trail (where n/s uses fire roads to connect it). The trail turned off and i stayed on the fire road finding several grave yards, dead ends and more n/s trail.
There were sooooo many roads, most not on the map, that i was somewhat lost. Not really cuz i knew i just had to head east to get to the Trace. The hills weren't huge but they were steep and plenty. The creek crossings were also plentiful.
I had to get to work so i found a road that was mapped and followed it to the Trace and back to the truck. All in all this was a pretty good experience. Not quite as good as carving single track but i will certainly do in a pinch. It has all of the makings of a good gravel grinder IMHO.
Plenty of gravel-check
Steep hills-check
Sweet Views-check
Wet feet-check
more creek crossing than i can count-check
Potential for pain-check
This place also offered something cool that never really occured to me before: The ability to connect fire roads using sections of buff single track. It was too wet yesterday to try but i'll check it out sometime.
The only thing missing was the kick *** crew and more time to explore.
Adam
I headed out on a half *** route without really a plan. It took about 3 minutes to find a road that wasn't on the map. It was pretty rough looking and had plenty of mud holes with fresh truck tire marks. It led to other roads that weren't on the map. This was great. I ended up on some fire road sections that looked very familiar then I noticed i was on the n/s trail (where n/s uses fire roads to connect it). The trail turned off and i stayed on the fire road finding several grave yards, dead ends and more n/s trail.
There were sooooo many roads, most not on the map, that i was somewhat lost. Not really cuz i knew i just had to head east to get to the Trace. The hills weren't huge but they were steep and plenty. The creek crossings were also plentiful.
I had to get to work so i found a road that was mapped and followed it to the Trace and back to the truck. All in all this was a pretty good experience. Not quite as good as carving single track but i will certainly do in a pinch. It has all of the makings of a good gravel grinder IMHO.
Plenty of gravel-check
Steep hills-check
Sweet Views-check
Wet feet-check
more creek crossing than i can count-check
Potential for pain-check
This place also offered something cool that never really occured to me before: The ability to connect fire roads using sections of buff single track. It was too wet yesterday to try but i'll check it out sometime.
The only thing missing was the kick *** crew and more time to explore.
Adam