khuon

I actually have many trails close to me but this one is the closest. It was known as Section 36 by the county but people just refer to it as the Beav as it's part of The Beaver Lake Trail System. It has since been renamed Soaring Eagle Regional Park and there are plans to develop parts of it into a recreational park with baseball fields and such... bleh!

I ride these trails often because the trailhead is literally outside my driveway. The trails run through the woods in back of my house. Today I decided it was high time I took some pictures. The folliage isn't as thick right now as it would normally be because it's just starting to warm up. On a scale of 0 to 5 where 0 is just pavement, I would have to rate these trails maybe a 2.5 in technical difficulty. However there are some good climbs in there and there are some pretty technical sections. Most of it is just twisty singletrack (slightly wide) with lots of roots and some rocks.

More pictures can be found in my image gallery but here are a few samples.

Trailhead I normally enter from... there are several but this is close to my house.


Just a quick reminder.


A set of logs to make things interesting.


These maps are a new addition. They weren't there previously and even though I ride these trails often enough, I used to still get lost in them... quite embarassing. I'm currently at 20. I'm riding a short loop today that will take me through 26 then to 7 and up to 8 then back down through 23 to loop back to 21. My entry and exit point is 19. there's about 20-some-odd miles of trails (maybe a little more) in the system.


Here's one of the climbs... it doesn't look too steep but it does provide a bit of a workout.


Here's a rider that passed me while I was busy taking pictures. I caught him dabbing on a fallen log. These trails are actually pretty popular... especially on a Friday afternoon and during the weekends. For the record, I actually had to do a slight dab too although the log didn't surprise me as much as it surprised the other rider so I had an easier go of it. I just had my pedal in the wrong position and scraped it a little.


There are many sections of the trail where the maintainers spent time to construct quality crossings for streams.


Here's another climb... right after the crossing. This one is pretty easy as long as you carry momentum crossing over the stream since you were previously coming down the side of the gulley anyways.


Some more rooted parts of the trail.


This center-cut log sneaks up on you. I busted my helmet the first time I encountered this guy. I was a little fast and a little wide and clipped it sending me headfirst into a tree.


Here you can see someone's attempt to create a bypass to the side of that log.


Well, hope you enjoyed the nickel-tour. The development of the land where these trails sit concerns me. But then again, I really can't speak too loudly considering my house sits on the same land and effectively shrunk the trails too. The county does have restrictions on how much can be developed however. Most of these trails exist in protected greenbelts and as you can see there's a pretty effective and active trail maintenance movement by the local riders.

Snuffleupagus

Looks like fun

phantomcow2

heh, king county. THats the place i wanted to move to when i graduate since i was as tall as my bike. Looks similar to my local trails. ITs owned by UNH and used for research but open to bikers/hikers. Its nothing technical, just up and down

Dannihilator

Looks like fun.

Dannihilator

Would that happen to be kingmans farm?

phantomcow2

why yes it would. Have you been therE?

Dannihilator

Been there a few times. It's also going to be the firs trail system I give an expansive test to the rocky.

phantomcow2

Henniker? Is that the Henniker i know in NH? Haha that brings back memories. Do you know Grafton/Croyton at all? I went to this place called Camp COniston, apparently thats right near Henniker NH.

khuon

Yeah... these are just plain "pointless" fun trails that offer a little of something for everyone. They're good for practice and for when I've got that "itch" that needs to be scratched. I can pop out of my house, enjoy an hour or so bouncing around back there and return without too much of a big deal. There are a few other trails close to me that are a little more technical such as the ones on Tiger Mountain and Tolt-MacDonald State Park.

Dannihilator

Only Henniker on the Face of the earth. Know Grafton/Croyton some.

phantomcow2

THe rocky is your new XC frame isnt it? That should be fun, i like kingman farm a lot. Its nothing technical, infact its pretty easy but its relaxing, the people are friendly, its long and I like it.

Dannihilator

Yep the rocky is the new xc frame.

MadMan2k

Nice looking area.

The trails out here are different, we don't have as massive trees, so there's really no fallen trees to block the trail, or many wood elements. Just dirt, sandstone and sagebrush mostly...

Raiyn

Of course you did! You're a responsible trail user who wants to keep his local trails open despite the littering losers that frequent them.

khuon

Actually I did because like I said, this trailhead is right near my doorstep. The litter in question turned out to actually be someone's mail that got blown down the street. It was junkmail that probably got blown out of recycling bins left out during garbage collection day. It had an address on it so I simply dropped it back in their mailbox.

Raiyn

Kind of a "Return to Sender" situation eh?

khuon

Heh. I should have written that on the letter before stuffing it back in their mailbox. We get a lot of wind up here (we're up on a plateau) and I always make sure to stick the recycling bin with the heavy glass bottles on top of the bin with the paper to keep them from blowing out. Some people just don't think. I'm continually picking up other people's trash and stuff because I'm the last house at the end of the street and everything collects up against the fence from the force of the wind.

Raiyn

Been there. Done that. Nothing like picking up other people's crap out of your yard. Unfortunately my house is on a corner lot so I'm constantly picking up nasty crap out of my yard. Beer bottles aren't bad it's the used rubbers I have an issue with. People just fling the nastiest stuff out of their cars.
Of course what they don't realize is that leaving DNA evidence from a possible indiscretion isn't the brightest of moves.

Sorry back to the trail: looks like a lot of fun!

phantomcow2

my house seems to have a lot of crap blown into the yard as well, every fall we get 20 bags of japanese maple leaves, which is odd since the only guy with a japanese maple is 4 houses down. I have a little curcuit i run on around my house and sometimes crap gets in there, i slipped on a greasy bag of chips once.

sarsparilla

That looks like a nice trail system you have there. Maybe I'll try to venture up there this year. Me and my friend stay with his grandparents up near that area each year. You're lucky to have that in your backyard.