Riding the Trails

N and I hit the mountain bike trails for the first time, and it was pretty cool. It was hard work, no doubt, but I think N enjoyed it, and I have to confess, it was fun. There are extensive trails nearby at Ascutney and I was told they had some easier stuff for neophytes like us. It was just a question of motivating and getting over there. N has been itching to do it, and I figured the time had come. I'd love for this to become a regular thing because it's great for him to get out and exert himself. Plus, trail riding has the cool "X-Games" thing going for it.

I wanted to get a trail map over at Paradise Sports but RH, the owner, who for the record is a way cool dude, said that for beginners, the best thing was to just go to the mountain and look at the big map posted at the trailhead, which is what we did. Of course, we couldn't make sense out of what the map was telling us, so we just started riding. We couldn't find the actual trail at first, and just sort of rode around the open fields and over the terrain area. It was hot so it was not as enjoyable as it should have been, and at one point I thought we should just leave. We decided to venture a little further ahead, which meant climbing a decent sized hill, when the trail branched off into the woods, and that's when things got cool, both literally and figuratively.

As you can imagine, once we got into the woods, it was a lot cooler being out from under the sun. Plus, the trail was really neat, winding through the trees. It was an adventure, and I wished we would have found it sooner because at some point we were hot and thirsty. We headed back to the car but at least we broke the ice and now know the drill. Hit the woods right away and bring plenty of water. Cooler weather would be nice, but you can't have it all when you're having fun in the wilds of New England.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Alan Grinberg for the pic.