Pequonnock River Valley State Park - July 5, 2010
Although I've been out almost every weekend biking or doing trail maintenance, most of my adventures end up being posted on the TTC site and are more trail maintenance oriented. Photographs and story/logs of my low-key XC riding fell by the wayside.
After a marathon TM session on Saturday in the brutal heat and getting stung by a bunch of bees (not to mention my encounter with three skunks!), I took today to take an easy enjoyable ride back at Trumbull.
Off to A Good Start
I didn't get started on the trail until 10:30 AM. I came in thru the north end at Whitney Ave and bombed down the North Bridge connecter, across the bridge and up the hill to the White Trail without even a foot dab!
Ran into a fellow biker named Phil fixing his bike on the White Trail. After offering to help (he didn't need it), we starting chatting about the Park. It turns out he grew up here and although now lives in Boston, he comes back quite often to visit his folks and rides the valley a lot.
What's interesting is he remembered when they first cut the upper trails. It was instigated by hunters who wanted to hike in away from the more-used lower White Trail. The State came in with chain saws and (according to Phil) cut the Red Trail in one day! The hunter's were happy: they now had a trail up on the ridge away from the hikers who frequented the White as well as the just-forming Blue Trail by the river.
By the Rusty River
After chatting, I hopped on the Yellow Trail and headed over to the Rusty River Crossing. Here I ran into a couple of other biker's (Jeff and Steve) who recognized me from my TM session on Sat (they were here) and thanked me for my work. I told them about the TTC and they promised to sign up and show up! FYI >>Jeff was a preacher but mentioned he doesn't preach until 1:30 on Sunday so no conflict! HAH
I rode up the hill and tried the trail offshoot just built. It was OK but needs more riders to break it in. Expanding the trail in this area (longer sweeping curves, etc.) is the way to go. We have thoughts for new routes here... just need to submit them to DEP.
Bombing Thru the Central Maze
Headed over to the Hemlock/Slab trail and cleaned it all (for the first time). Keeping a good pace (fairly fast) really helped.
Rode on to the S curve on the Yellow Trail Hill and bombed down it and even did the kicker. It strange how you can spend an hour on building a section of trail that only takes 30 seconds to ride!
The rest of the ride down this hill was a gas! It has that fast sweeping downhill vibe you get at Kingdom Trails or the ride out on the Blue West at Wilton Woods.
Roots, At the Cliff Bottom and the Moon Rocks...
Hit the Rooty Trail and climbed a bit of the Yellow but turned downhill right after the rocky stream crossing at that nasty rocky curve. The TTC will be rerouting a short section here soon.
Right before the old earthen dam, I decided to detour back into the old trail by the cliff with the huge uprooted tree and found it was in use and rideable. Didn't ride "hugging" the underside of the cliff but shot across the straighter path and turned to enter the Moon Rocks.
Had a bit of a rough time at the start of the Moon Rocks but halfway thru I was moving good and went over that weird rocky lip without even a dab.
Blue Trail by the River
Rather than climb the White, I took the Blue by the river and was reminded at every other turn that this is a technical trail! These trails though are what makes Trumbull so special - no stunts, no wooden structures... just awesome scenery and roots and rocks galore au natural!!
I did discover another tree down on this trail but it doesn't block the trail (it tightly parallels the trail) and the flow remains great thru out.
Near the end I took a spill on a rock and bashed my knee.(see photo - 3rd in series). Gotta hit this trail more often to anticipate all the terrain challenges ahead of time! HAH. (It was bloody and hurt a bit but the best cure was to keep riding)
Log Crossing
Right below the stunt park, I discovered there is a fallen tree that spans the river and works as a crossing. It looks like the brave and daring bikers could even ride it. So it's possible to enter the Valley from Tait Road by using this crossing. Downriver about 50 feet it looks like there's a ford there as well. I added this to the TTC interactive map. Very cool stuff- I've been up on the ridge too long - I'm missing the changes down here!
Serengeti (No Mudhole and Tall, Tall Grasses...)
Well I headed back up to the White Trail and was pleasantly surprised to find the notorious mudhole on the main trail was dry!
Next I bombed straight thru the main swath of the Serengeti and, rather then veer to the right and go up to the Sandy Shore trail which I usually do, I took the main White Trail straight thru the center of the tall fields. It was dry but like riding thru a jungle. Plants were 6-7 ft high and creeping in on both sides.
Once again the variety of riding experiences at Trumbull is so vast (tall fields of wild fecund grasses, roots, rocks, pine forests, tight twisty trails winding thru Hemlock and Laurel trees, cliffs, huge granite outcroppings, you name it -- It's all here!)
I rode down to the old Center Bridge crossing and think there is a trail you can use that comes down from the Rail Trail and shoots across the river at a diagonal. Another river crossing to note...
Along the River
The rest of the trip back was pretty straight forward. Took the White to Turtle Rock then I hopped on the Blue and hugged the river all the way to the North Bridge. Conditions were dry and the riding was fun. Did note at the swamp descent, the TTC should probably armor the usually-muddy straight away your bike naturally cascades to, rather than the rocky part a little to the south which is armored now.
