Mountain Biking
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Mountain Biking at Pittsfield State Forest
Riding a mountain bike, in the snow, without fat tires up a mountain is not easy. That’s what I did on Sunday…for fun. Well, the second half was fun. I went with Jordan and our friends to Pittsfield State Forest, just over the border. I knew we would be riding up hill but I didn’t expect there to be so many switchbacks! The trail went up for what seemed like forever..but it was just over two miles. Nothing like riding up a large hill (mountain?) to make you feel completely out of shape. We got to the top and took the same trail back down. It was a lot more…
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Winter Mountain Biking with No Snow
Luther Forest was one of the first places I ever went mountain biking with Jordan. (Technically, the first place I went mountain biking was at Winterbike in Vermont! But there was a lot of snow on the ground for that, so it’s a lot different.) Yesterday, we decided to go to Luther Forest to get in some riding before the snow hits and I can’t ride anymore. It was a bit chilly, but after riding for a bit we got warm. It still feels weird without snow, but it was kind of nice to not have to worry about it. We only went out for about an hour. Still good…
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Mountain Biking at Thacher Park
Thacher Park is one of my favorite local spots for outdoor activities. I hike, snowshoe, ride my road bike to the lookout and run many a trail race there. But last weekend was the first time I went mountain biking there. We start at the Carrick Road parking lot at the Northern end of the park. We rode all the way to main entrance to the park and back, which totaled about 10 miles. 10 miles seems like nothing on a bike, but I’ll assure you that mountain biking 10 miles is a lot harder than road biking 10 miles. I had to get off a few times to walk…
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Mountain Biking at the Mohonk Preserve
Last week Jordan and I had a rare day off–so we decided to go down to New Paltz to mountain bike at the Mohonk Preserve. The park borders Minnewaksa, where I ran the half marathon last weekend. Mountain biking is only permitted on the carriage trails, and paying the $17 biking fee for a day pass gets you access to the trails at Mohonk as well as Minnewaska! We got there too late in the day to check out all the trails, but we did ride on the main carriage trail along the ledge. It was gorgeous! Also, we saw many people rock climbing ! Pretty cool, but not something…
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Mountain Biking at Garnet Hill
Because of the Monday holiday, Jordan and I actually had the same day off for once! We took the opportunity to go mountain biking in the Adirondacks with some friends at Garnet Hill. Three years ago I stayed at the Lodge and did some hiking on the trails and it was nice to finally be back! According to their site, two of the trails we rode were “advanced”–but I beg to differ. I didn’t have to get off my bike that much! The first time I rode a mountain bike back in June on actual trails, we went on really difficult ones and I was hardly ever on the bike.…