It was hot on Saturday. 92 or better. It was one of those days that if you
stepped into the sunlight you became drenched in a matter of seconds. We
decided a shorter ride would be a good idea. We weren't crazy about taking a
short ride and we needed a challenge. I suggested that we break out the
SS's, we hadn't done an SS ride in quite a while. We were both looking
forward to testing our new found fitness. We chose the SS friendly and
relatively short trail, Calverton (an 8 mile loop). The heat didn't seem to
be too bad. We added a couple of breaks and didn't break any land speed
records but we climbed everything put in front of us.
We got through with the ride and feeling really good and a bit confident
decided to make a SS ride out of Rocky Point, we went SS'ing again the next
day. Rocky Point is a much longer trail and the weather forecast was for
even hotter weather. What we were thinking I don't know. 95 degrees with
about 90% humidity plus a 22 mile trail equates to a very possible death
march.
Due to a few issues and few too many excuses we haven't ridden this trail in
quite a while and Jim was very happy to find it was even more buff than we
remembered it. This trails is also known as "Buffy Point" because the trail
is so fast and has a whole lotta flow to it. We got our customary late start
and the weather was abusively hot. While we loading up Jim realized that he
needed to make some adjustments on the bikes and almost fried in the shade
of a tree. Back at the trailhead we were greeted by an almost empty parking
lot and the smell of pitch pine.what a wonderous smell it was...very
refreshing on a boiling hot day...
We flowed through the buff trails. Most of the trail is flat with some
short, steep climbs so the trail builders put in a rather large number of
moguls which break up the trail well and adds some whoop and fun factor to
the ride. We were holding up well and very thankful for the frozen camelbaks
we brought (we put them in the freezer several hours before the ride).
The trail builder had added some humorous signage to the trail.Big Birch, a
little technical section with a tricky mogul and a huge birch tree, Mogul
One, Mogul Two, The Desert, Fern Valley, Waterbottle Hill, Little Dipper,
Your Tire Is On Fire!, every section of the trail has a name (I am missing a
few others).
The trail is mostly under a thick canopy, so the sun was not hitting us
directly, which helped with the heat. However, the sun did hit us directly
when we got into The Desert...this is a section of trail which at one point
several years ago, burned down to the ground. The lack of trees and the dry
sand created a desert like section with beach sand, which makes it hard to
ride if you're going too slow. The heat in that section was unbelieavable,
the direct sun and hot sand...I felt like I was seeing mirages of small
bodies of water so that I could jump into one...
We finally made it out of the trail after 3 hours. This trail can usually be
done in 1-1/2 to 2 hours on a good day, but the heat kicked our asses. When
we got to the trail head, it was still empty, we must have been the only
crazy ones to be out there. I still had some cool water in my camelbak so I
dumped it all over my head and back, it was heavenly...we sat on the truck's
gate in the shade and ate peanut butter sandwiches and drank powerade.
- CA-G (with assistance from Jim)
Can-Am Girls Kick Ass!