I have done very little MTB riding this year. I think my new carbon road bike deserves the lions share of the blame for that. But today I joined some of my young friends for a ride on one of my favorite trails, Dauset Nature Trails near Flovilla, Georgia. There was a steady rain as we loaded the bikes and gear for the one hour drive to the trails. We took a chance that the weather reports were right in saying there had been little or no rain at our destination and were rewarded by near perfect trail conditions. The dirt was moist and tacky, but never wet and sloppy. The thick blanket of fallen leaves was the only problem as it made the trail hard to see at times and sometimes made the turns a bit slippery.
These are well designed trails with many twists and turns and enough roots, rocks and trees to keep things interesting and make you want a full suspension bike, but nothing extremely rough or technical. Same for elevation as there are many climbs and descents, but the trails flow well with plenty of flat and downhill breaks mixed in with even the longest climbing sections. There are a couple of fast downhill sections which can be a lot of fun for the confident and scary for the timid.
The toughest climbing section, Huff 'n' Puff rolls along smoothly, but with more elevation gain and with several nearly vertical 4 foot drops and climbs breaking up the more gradual changes. Some of these features are very intimidating the first time you ride them, but with proper weight distribution combined with braking on the drops and quick pedaling in the right gear on the climbs, they quickly become doable and fun.
Including several stops to rest and to let slower riders catch up, the 15.5 mile ride took us a little over 2 hours. MTB riding on trails like this is a much more intense workout than road riding. I managed to keep myself from overdoing it for the most part, stopping often to catch my breath and left my heart slow down, but did start getting tired and slowed considerably in the last couple of miles. We then made the pilgrimage to nearby Fresh Air BBQ for some good smoked pork and stew.
A very fun day with some good guys. I need to do this more often.
