Back Therapy

Decided to ride the Echo Valley Loop: Start at the entrance to the forest at the end of Echo Valley Road, ride up the Brody Road to the Gussy Trail head, down the Gussy to Sanford Road. The loop is 3.7 miles.

Road the Fixation and it rocked. I still can't get over how well this bikes rides and with no suspension. I went back to the 29x2.1 WTB Moto Raptor tire upfront.

Took a few shots along the Gussy. Below is the third stream crossing which needs some more work on the ramps leading into and out of the actual crossing. I think I might try tiling the treadway with small, flat rocks to act as tiles instead of bigger, flatter rocks that might be wobbly. I want to keep this crossing concentrated for both horses and bikes and not have to have a secondary crossing like what might have to happen at Via Roma due to a recent trail braiding incident, already.

The Gussy Trail is really starting to come along. There are a few places that still need some tweaks but it has a nice flow to it. The trail still needs one more visit with Tom's back pack blower in a few places and now that the trail is pretty much defined, we need a group of people to walk the entire length and cutback any and all low hanging branches and brush that is still choking the path is most places.

I am still amazed at the fantastic job that was done for the crossing that I am calling Hadrian's Wall. By the looks of the recent horse traffic the stream armoring is perfect.

The horse back rider opted to take the shorter way around the tree than taking the path that Tom and Cindy cleared out. I am not sure that is a good idea because the ground there is pretty soft and it will be easily churned up. Might need to consider some sort of barrier to force the horse back riders onto the cleared path and keep them out of the mud.

Still, pick any line and go for broke. You can't go wrong.

After this and Via Roma, further down the trail, I cleaned the Wet Spot with no trouble at all. The key is stay left or in the middle initially. If you hit the beginning of the rock garden on the right side, you'll probably get stuck.

Rolled the roller at the Blue Trail intersection. Rolling it on the 69er and the 29er is really weird. By the end of the ride, all my muscles, including my back were very, very happy!