RPGs

Yesterday morning started out cold but warmed up quickly in the sun. Last week there was an inch of snow on the ground when I headed out and 30 minutes into that ride it started lightly snowing and I was cursing myself for not wearing my glasses. They really aren't RGPs (if you were ever in the Army you will know what I am talking about), in fact they are quite stylish, so much so, maybe I ought to be worried that some mountain biker chick. or a bear for that matter, might chase me down and take advantage of me. OK, probably not. At any rate, my eyes didn't tear up riding in the cold like they did last weekend so they were good for something.

At the rate that I am heading it looks like I will finish up the year with a few more local rides. That is a benefit of living within a half mile of a 880 acre State Forest. The only problem is while I enjoy riding the Gussy Trail I need to add some more excitement (and miles) to my bread and butter ride. Riding up the logging road is starting to get old. There are some side trails that I might start exploring.

Meanwhile, I headed off into logged out are looking for that ATV trail again. I starting following one set of tracks that ended up leading me off in a direction that I came to realize was the wrong way and had to double back to find it. The tracks intersected with a skidder path that I didn't last time.

Where the tracks head east I started following an old skidder path due north and came upon the Jersey Tree Stand again. If you click on the picture above you can just make it out at the base of the largest tree to left of the center where a little sapling is leaning to the left. This vantage point is the direction I continued looking for what I hoped would be another skidder path that I would hope led to the area where I would like to continue the white trail. Unfortunately, the path was blocked with too much logging slag and I had to pick my way around it.

On the map above, the green track is from yesterday's ride and the red from last week. Where the two tracks intersect is where the Jersey Tree Stand is located. Basically from this point I ended up bushwacking over to the old clearing where I believe the original farm/logging road crosses and eventually loops around to connect to what I call the Mulikan Trail. The 1953 topo shows the logging road ended at this clearing. I know for a fact that the road keeps going because I found further traces of it a few years ago.

After all that fun I rode up the fire road to the Gussy Trail and headed down and was met with quite a few surprises from all the recent rains. Clearly some additional work will be required to address some of the issues that I found on trail.