Well today I headed up to the Woodlot at about 10am today. When I got there I was only the second person up on the hill, I think it was because there was rain forecasted today and people were feeling out the weather. So the ride up was without any problems at all because I had done a whole pile of maintenance on my bike. I bought a new cluster to go with the new chain I bought the week before. It is nice to have 100% confidence in your drivetrain. So I rode up the skidder road to the point just past Schwinn Way. The upper road that veers off to the right. I decided that I would find out where the heck this path went. So I passed the trailhead to Tsuga and I passed the bottom of The Gate and just continued straight. This road get a little overgrown but is still rideable. When you get to the end, you can see why nobody ever goes down this path. It comes out onto the clear-cut for the powerlines about 100 meters below the entrance to The Gate, but you come out onto the scrub underbrush beneath the powerlines. It looks like it is easy stuff to drag your bike through, but I beg to differ, it is tough going with a big Freeride sled. I eventually made my way to the powerline road and up to Gold. It was starting to rain now, so I wasn't really happy to be starting my ride on logs, but I an getting much better at maintaining a line on a log. I finally rode the first major stunt at the top or Gold, not the drop to the left, but rather the ladder to the right. The rest of Gold was pretty good and I had fun. So at the bottom of Gold, there is Schwinn Way. I decided to see what goes to the right. So up I went, you can ride parts but other parts you have to drag your bike over fallen crap an stuff. So I left my bike on the trail and just walked along this abandoned skidder road. I think there may be building going on somewhere up there, but I am not totally sure. Anyway, if you stay on the road which is a slight up hill, you come to a fork in the road where it flattens out. I first went to the left. I continued on this flat road until I came to what will someday be a super sweet log ride that crosses the road 8 feet in the air. Well I turned around there and went back to the fork in the road. I looked down the trail to see my bike still there, so I took the right fork in the road. It continued for a short time and I could start to see light through the trees and finally came out at the powerlines. I could not tell how far along the powerlines I was compared to Gold's trailhead, but I will go back up and mark this as I think I will clear it out some day so it is rideable again. Well I turned around and went back to my bike. I went down to Toadstool and made it to the first log ride and met up with a guy that I had seen before riding up here. He was fixing a ladder up to the log ride so I stopped to talk to him for a while. I have been riding up here for a while but never done any maintenance or building, so I got his contact info and I plan on hooking up with him some time to do some trail work. So I continued my ride down to Giant Killer then over to Heckyl and Jeckyl. I decided today I was going to start to do some higher drops. I completed a few decent drops which boosted my ego and confidence. The it was up to Shotgun and down to the truck. Overall a good day of bushwhacking and great riding. I hope that soon I can get up there to do work on the trail and say that I have contributed to the Woodlot, rather than just using it. Later that day I hit the Advil Outdoor Show and caught a few of the bike races and dirt jumping. Not a bad bike day I must say.
