RR: Ellicottville

"Corvus Corvax" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

OK. So I'm impressed. The trailage down around Ellicottville is really good:

wnymba.orgholiday topo.gifOpen ↗

I load the Fisher on the car and head down to Ellicottville, about an hour drive south of Buffalo.
Stop in at Mud, Sweat and Gears and buy a trial map from the nice slackers there, chat briefly.
I'm solo, since my mother-in-law is in town. I love my wife. Mom's in town, we've only got one
car, and she tells me to take the car and go riding. I head up to Holiday Valley and park at the
bottom of the ski lifts, suit up and head up the fireroad climb that makes up the first mile or so
of the "race loop". Then into the singletrack, cutting crossways through ski slopes as I climb. It
reminds me of biking at Snowmass, except that it's ten thousand feet lower and the climbs are all
half as long and half as steep. I'm trying to get on the Porcupine Trail, but I miss the turn and
end up on Big Merlin instead. No matter. The WNYMBA map is very precise and very accurate. I
manage to keep my bearings in the maze of trails no problem. Three or four miles in, I am
beginning to warm up.

I cannot believe how strong my legs feel. Knocking off fifteen or twenty miles on the fix every
day is doing the trick bigtime. I feel great. I don't think I realized how much stress and worry
and anxiety I had built up. I feel it all melt away as I ride, and I begin to smile, from way deep
down in my soul. I feel the groove as I shimmy down the singletrack on the hardtail. It's East
Coast all the way, baby. Off-camber roots, rock gardens, mud. And mud. I think I'm figuring out
why they named the bike shop "Mud, Sweat and Gears". I think there are spots back here that never
really dry out. Around Dead Dog Loop and up the Rain Trail, and then I drop down again and this
time find the intersection for Porcupine and run a rocking singletrack downhill...

I ride on for a while. Finger Lakes Trail, the race loop. I work it all out, give myself a good
dose of sweat and pain. It feels great. It's good to be alive.

CC

Excellent. There used to be a good brew pub down the street from M,S and G. A little farther south
is Allegeny State Park with a nice XC ski trail system you can ride in the summer. It's all road bed
grade but the vegetation has grown over until just a buff singletrack is left.

Mike

"Michael Dart" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

There used to be a good brew pub down the street from M,S and G.

Still is. Slaked my thirst with some good hefeweizen after the ride.

CC

"Corvus Corvax" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

OK. So I'm impressed. The trailage down around Ellicottville is really good:

wnymba.orgholiday topo.gifOpen ↗

I load the Fisher on the car and head down to Ellicottville, about an hour drive south of Buffalo.
Stop in at Mud, Sweat and Gears and buy a trial map from the nice slackers there, chat briefly.
I'm solo, since my mother-in-law is in town. I love my wife. Mom's in town, we've only got one
car, and she tells me to take the car and go riding.

She sounds like a keeper. My wife does the same kind if thing. She MAKES me ride sometimes. She is
an angel sent from heaven (or where ever they keep the angels these days).

<snip nice RR>

Quoted message said:

I ride on for a while. Finger Lakes Trail, the race loop. I work it all out, give myself a good
dose of sweat and pain. It feels great. It's good to be alive.

CC

Sounds good (for lower altitude, small-ish riding). Thanks for sharing.

Matt

"Michael Dart" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"Corvus Corvax" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

OK. So I'm impressed. The trailage down around Ellicottville is really good:

wnymba.orgholiday topo.gifOpen ↗

I load the Fisher on the car and head down to Ellicottville, about an hour drive south of
Buffalo. Stop in at Mud, Sweat and Gears and buy a trial map from the nice slackers there, chat
briefly. I'm solo, since my mother-in-law is in town. I love my wife. Mom's in town, we've only
got one car, and she tells me to take the car and go riding. I head up to Holiday Valley and
park at the bottom of the ski lifts, suit up and head up the fireroad climb that makes up the
first mile or so of the "race loop". Then into the singletrack, cutting crossways through ski
slopes as I climb. It reminds me of biking at Snowmass, except that it's ten thousand feet lower
and the climbs are all half as long and half as steep. I'm trying to get on the Porcupine Trail,
but I miss the turn and end up on Big Merlin instead. No matter. The WNYMBA map is very precise
and very accurate. I manage to keep my bearings in the maze of trails no problem. Three or four
miles in, I am beginning to warm up.

I cannot believe how strong my legs feel. Knocking off fifteen or twenty miles on the fix every
day is doing the trick bigtime. I feel great. I don't think I realized how much stress and worry
and anxiety I had built up. I feel it all melt away as I ride, and I begin to smile, from way
deep down in my soul. I feel the groove as I shimmy down the singletrack on the hardtail. It's
East Coast all the way, baby. Off-camber roots, rock gardens, mud. And mud. I think I'm figuring
out why they named the bike shop "Mud, Sweat and Gears". I think there are spots back here that
never really dry out. Around Dead Dog Loop and up the Rain Trail, and then I drop down again and
this time find the intersection for Porcupine and run a rocking singletrack downhill...

I ride on for a while. Finger Lakes Trail, the race loop. I work it all out, give myself a good
dose of sweat and pain. It feels great. It's good to be alive.

CC

Excellent. There used to be a good brew pub down the street from M,S and G. A little farther south
is Allegeny State Park with a nice XC ski trail system you can ride in the summer. It's all road
bed grade but the vegetation has grown over until just a buff singletrack is left.

Mike

The brew pub is called, oddly enough, Elicottville Brewing.

The map that the WNYMBA puts out is nice, but Dumb and Dumber that work at Mud Sweat and Gears are
pretty useless. Talk about customer service issues with a shop, someone needs to tell the guy with
dread locks that when a customer comes into the shop, he should get off his skateboard and come in
and see what's going on.

The is more good riding south of Holliday Valley. If you head south on Route 219 past Holliday
Valley, you will come to a stop sign. You can turn right and continue on 219, or you can turn left
and you will be on Route 86. About 6 miles from that intersection, you will see Golden Hill Road on
the right, a poorly maintained dirt road that goes up into the Golden Hill state forest. You go up
the road, and you will see a makeshift parking lot on the right. This is located at a four way
intersection. If you take the road that intersects Golden Hill Road to the east, you will see single
track starting on both sides of the road.

Also, if you travel south of Holliday Valley, just before you get to the intersection that I spoke
of above, you will see a road called Mutton Hollow Road, and that to is a dirt road that goes up
into the mountains. This area has trails that intersect with the Holliday Valley trails.