A return to Case - No Bugs!

The weather was perfect - a nice crisp autumn day - sunny and a bit cool so I went out to explore a bit more of Case Mountain.

Access Road? - Bah Humbug! It was super rocky and narrow...

Once finally on Delores - it was sweet riding!

Yep - I took a right onto Pickle Rock

And Slash Pie was easy and fun!

I didn't attempt the roller!

... and took the alternative

here's a view of the roller from below

The ubiquitous power lines- it seems every park has 'em! I turned around here..

but did notice this trail is not on TrailForks

It was a short and interesting ride - this is how I will get to know Case Mtn - in bits and pieces - nothing epic for this old man!

Portland - Bike Ride

  I did a "road bike tour" of Portland, CT this morning. The weather was a bit chilly.

Brownstone Quarries

The Quarry looked beautiful!

Riverfront Park

I then rode into the Riverfront Park. It was built on the remnants of quarry slag and had a nice view of the Connecticut River

Map of the former narrow gauge railway

Brownstone Buildings everywhere!

The Church, the entrances to the school, the police station—all built with brownstone for the quarries.  (Actually much of New York City and Brooklyn's apartment buildings are also built using the brownstone from Portland's quarries)

Flat Roofs!

For some strange reason in my bike ride around town I saw a plethora of flat roofs! There were quite a few beautiful old houses...

... all shapes and sizes including a couple of octagonals!

Lastly, I stopped to check out the ancient "stone arch". It was pulled by oxen and used to transport the large brownstones.

Later, I ventured over to Hartford >

Charter Oak Greenway - Bolton Stretch

After riding a couple of loops at Case Mountain, I decided to ride the section of the Charter Oak Greenway I had yet to do - the last stretch between Birch Mtn Road and The Bolton Notch. I hadn't ridden this on my earlier trek back in April.

It was mostly uphill and a bit more strenuous on the mountain bike but nevertheless I did it without dismounting.

After a long uphill to this sign, there's a super long downhill stretch before getting to the bridge. Ooo yeah!

Once at Bolton Notch, I of course had to re-ride thru the tunnel and a rock cut - I never tire of rock cuts!

Due to all the heavy rain we had recently, there was even a small waterfall! :-)

After the ride back, I stopped by the Highland Market for a sandwich...

Case Mountain Loops

It was a gorgeous day and perfect weather for mountain biking. I headed up to Case and parked at the Line Street lot.

I rode a couple of loops starting out of the north end of the lot. Some of these trails I had hiked before. Although there was plenty of uphill huffing and puffing - riding (or shall I shall flying) down Black Mamba was worth it!

Although the tree down here kinda blocked things...

Once back at the lot, I rode this second loop:

There's another blockage here but I believe this has been here a while as there's an alternate trail 30 ft or so nearby.

Love the fern forest floor carpet!

At the pond, there were concrete remnants underwater...

Next I headed over to finish the Charter Oak Greenway...