Some who know me will know that I’ve been road biking for quite a while. Recently I came to possess a mountain bike, rather unexpectedly. I’ve always thought I’d enjoy mountain biking, because I like being in the woods, but with a dearth of trails nearby and having a lot of time constraints, I didn’t pursue it. A couple months ago I got an Email at work saying “hey, 25 years, congratulations, go to this web site and pick you out an award gift”. I started scrolling through endless lists of watches, small appliances, jewelry, coffee makers, and was about to decide not to bother with… OOO! I can get a mountain bike! And with fewer time contraints these days, as Chang said, “when the time is right for something, nothing can prevent it”.

So I got the bike (it’s not a high-end bike by any means, Walmart and Tractor Supply sell these), but for the price it’s a good learning tool. The Most Important thing I learned right off is that mountain biking and road biking are almost, but not quite completely different. Two wheels, two pedals, gears, that’s about the overlap. Even the handle bars and shifters are different. In fact, in some ways, my extensive road biking experience is a hindrance, as riding trails is apt to set off all my road-biker-instinct alarm bells. Gravel??? Emergency stop! Mud! AKKkkk! Plus there’s skill involved in this. I’ve often hiked trails used by mountain bikers and thought “Geez, they ride this trail? Intense!”

I don’t know that anything I’ve been doing so far counts as “intense” (to anyone except me), but I’ve been getting better at this. I spent this morning on the (so-called) Long Cane Horse Trail (it’s actually multi-use), completing my most ambitious ride so far. I’d say I rode most of the trail, hopping off to walk just intermittently when it got more technical than I wanted to attempt or I couldn’t silence those road-biker alarm bells.

I started at the Parsons Mountain Lake recreation area, joining the trail at point “I” if you’re looking at the map. I decided to go clock-wise, as the last segment in that direction looked a bit tamer (I was right about that). The trail was pretty easy to follow, although a few places where it crossed a road could have used some additional marking. Looking at the map you’d think the trail just crossed the road, but in reality, there was an offset left or right.

This was a nice leg along the McGill Branch:

Along the way there were some historic sites. I’m not real sure what this one was:

but this seems Important:

There was some logging going on south of Curtail Road, this swath cut across the trail (one of those crossings that could use some additional marking):

Point “B”, a bit over half-way for my planned route, was a good place to stop for some fuel transfer:

I’m still not too keen on some of these water crossings:

There was another one on a narrow metal bridge that I ended up tip-toeing the bike across because I just wasn’t ready to charge down the hill, across that little narrow bridge (even though I know I can ride a straight line) and back up the other side.

I’ll get there.
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/9419102990