WORLD NAKED BIKE RIDE - Spokes Magazine

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COLUMNS Going Big in Your Own Back Yard Every now and then you get that yearning for a really big ride, something that tests your fitness, your skills, and your will, something that is, in a word, epic. The epic ride has a different meaning for everybody. For a new rider it might be riding every trail in a park in a single ride or tackling some real backcountry riding instead of riding at the local park. For the seasoned rider it’s more likely that an epic ride will be an all day affair with mileage nearing the triple digits. Whatever you’re looking for, what an epic ride doesn’t need to be, is far from home. In fact, there are a lot of epic ride possibilities right around the major population centers of the Mid-Atlantic. Living in the suburbs means you probably don’t have large expanses of backcountry riding out your back door. Quite often, though, you do have a number of parks with great trail networks within close reach, so you can use those parks to make an epic ride where none seemed possible before. By combining smaller parks and back roads, you can often make a ride that’s as challenging as any backcountry epic right in the middle of the suburbs. With the exception of the Southern Traverse, the rides that follow are just to get you started, ideas that you can take to make your own rides. All epic rides require careful preparation. Whether you’re in the backcountry or in the suburbs plan on the carrying plenty of food and water, extra tubes and spares, a basic first aid kit, and of course, make sure you have backup plans for when things go wrong. Some of the rides I’m going to mention here don’t have specific routes to follow or easy convenient maps to download. Make sure you’ve got a good map of the area -- I’ve tried to mention them here where they’re available -- and make sure you plan your route, and know where there are bailout points and where extra food and water is available. Even in suburban parks, cell phone coverage can often be spotty, so don’t rely on them. The Hoyles Mill Connector With the completion of the Hoyles Mill Connector trail running between the Schaeffer Farms trail system and Black Hills Regional Park in Montgomery County, Md., an accessible epic was born. With one trailhead opposite the Schaeffer Farms parking lot, and the other just outside Black Hills Regional Park, the connector trail through Hoyles Mill Conservation Park has joined these two parks with a mix of singletrack and gravel roads (and a little asphalt) to create an multi-park ride in northern Montgomery County. As epic rides go this one is fairly easy to do. After a spin around the Schaeffer Farms trails, head up the gravel road from the parking to towards Schaeffer Road and pick up the connector trail immediately on the other side of the road. Follow the singletrack until it drops you off onto the paved trail that surrounds the SoccerPlex and make a left. Follow the soccerplex trail for a short distance until you see the singletrack start again on the left. After a couple more miles of singletrack you’ll make a left when the trail ends at Hoyles Mill road and follow that to a right on White Ground road. After a few hundred yards on White Ground road you’ll see the official trailhead for the Hoyles Mill trail on the right and rejoin the trail as it weaves around the edges of fields ending at the intersection of Clopper Road (MD 107) and Clarksburg Road (MD 121). Cross Clopper road carefully and follow Clarksburg Road across the bridge. Look for the trail to start on the right soon after the end of the bridge. This 22 July 2009 SINGLETRACK by JOE FOLEY jfoley441@gmail.com section of trail features some great swooping turns around the banks of Little Seneca Lake. You’ll briefly rejoin the road, but keep a lookout as the trail soon starts up again on the right and leads you through to Black Hill Road into Black Hill Regional Park. Make a loop in Black Hill and the reverse these directions back to Schaeffer Farms. For more information on the Hoyles Mill Connector, see the MORE website at http://tinyurl.com/hoylesmill The Big MoCo Loop When the Hoyles Mill Connector ride just isn’t long enough, why not add in some of the other great parks in northern Montgomery County. With Little Bennett, Seneca Creek State Park, and the Seneca Greenway trail the possibilities are almost endless. This ride can vary from 35 to 60 miles depending no how many of the parks you ride and the routes taken between them. There’s no set loop here, so start with a map and your imagination, pick which parks you want to ride, and look for safe, low-traffic backroads to connect them. A typical ride will start and end with a loop of the trails at Schaeffer Farms, take the Hoyles Mill connector to Black Hills, then use the roads to get to Little Bennett, and then on to the Seneca Greenway trail heading towards the Clopper Lake area of Seneca Creek State Park. Since the Greenway is closed to bikes on the western side of MD 355, you have to switch to roads to get into the Clopper Lake area and the from the backside of Clopper Lake back to Schaeffer Farms. In the future you’ll be able to cut more of the road riding out of this loop. According to Dave Magill, Schaeffer Farms trail liaison for MORE, “by late next year or the year after the Big MoCo Loop ride should have even less road and more trail mileage than it does now. Seneca Creek park management, working with MORE, TROT and MCRRC, is proposing a 5 mile connector trail between Schaeffer Farms and the trails at Clopper Lake. MORE will lead the construction and expects approval in time to begin building the new trail this fall. And TROT will take the lead on a proposed new spur trail that would connect Schaeffer Farm almost all the way to the C&O canal, giving a new off-road way to get to the Big MoCo Loop.” The Fairfax Cross County Trail Weaving its way 33 miles through Fairfax County, the Cross County Trail, or CCT as it’s more commonly known, allows adventurous riders to link together popular parks like Riverbend at its northern end, down through Colt’s Neck, Lake Fairfax, Wakefield, Accotink, and soon the new Laurel Hill Park at the Former Lorton Prison site in the south. Weaving its way through the stream valleys that have escaped development, an attempt at the full CCT isn’t for the faint of heart. While some of the southern portions of the route are paved or cinder trail, the northern half through the Difficult Run watershed feature less than a half mile of paved trail in 15 miles. Since the route is a composite of many trails and is not fully signed, make sure to have good maps and directions before setting out on this ride. Information on trail, maps, and cue sheets are available from Fairfax Trails and Streams at http://tinyurl.com/fairfaxcct The Patapsco Thru Trail Linking the Avalon and McKeldin areas of Patapsco Valley State Park, northwest of Baltimore, the Patapsco thru trail is a work in progress and a challenging ride. The thru trail, shorthand for just about any route winding its way through the 32 miles of park in the Patapsco River valley between the Avalon and McKeldin areas, started as a glimmer in the eye of riders like former Baltimore, and now Frederick, resident Joe Whitehair. As Whitehair and Pat Miller said in the MORE newsletter last year: “...start in Avalon, head north/west to McKeldin, make your way back repeating as little as possible while trying to ride as much singletrack as you can find.” There’s now a concerted effort on the part of the park management and MORE to create a blazed singletrack route along the full length of the trail, and now it’s possible to do 80-90% of the ride on singletrack. If you’re going to give this ride a try then make sure you’ve got a copy of the Patapsco Valley State Park (Complete Guide) Trail Map that’s available from the Maryland DNR website at http://tinyurl. com/dnrmaps and take a look at this description of the Route put together by Whitehair at http://tinyurl. com/thrutrail The Southern Traverse For those who don’t mind a little travel, the Southern Traverse, a ride on that takes riders up to and along the ridge of Shenandoah Mountain just south of Harrisonburg, Va., is a certified IMBA epic ride and is certain to not disappoint. While the Appalachian ridges of the George Washington National Forest certainly don’t lack for epic ride opportunities the Southern Traverse is a true gem. Featuring 10 to 15 miles, depending on your route, of classic East Coast ridge riding, this ride is one not to be missed. The epic route starts with a fire road climb from the trailhead that takes you 1500’ up to the top of Shenandoah Mountain. From there you ride south along the ridge, rolling up and down for 10 miles of uninterrupted singletrack before a long downhill drops you on a dirt road back at the base of the ridge. From there you can ride the road through the valley back to your car. If you want to avoid the road ride, you can pre-position a shuttle vehicle at the end of the downhill. There’s a bailout near the end of the ridge, at Jerkemtight Road, and only one intersection to worry about, also at Jerkemtight. For those looking for even more riding, you can extend the ride by climbing Georgia Camp Hollow SINGLETRACK continued on p.25
�� ©2008 TREK BICYCLE CORPORATION VISIT THE STORES BELOW TO CHECK OUT THE THE FISHER ROSCOE FR_2008_Roscoe_Ad_spokes.indd 1 12/1/08 5:12:53 PM VIRGINIA ARLINGTON REVOLUTION CYCLES 2731 Wilson Boulevard (703) 312-0007 BURKE THE BIKE LANE 9544 Old Keene Mill Road (703) 440-8701 LEESBURG BICYCLE OUTFITTERS 19 Catoctin Circle, NE (703) 777-6126 RESTON THE BIKE LANE Reston Town Center (703) 689-2671 STAFFORD REVOLUTION CYCLES 100 Susa Drive, #103-15 (540) 657-6900 MARYLAND ARNOLD BIKE DOCTOR 953 Ritchie Highway (410) 544-3532 BALTIMORE MT. WASHINGTON BIKE SHOP 5813 Falls Road (410) 323-2788 COLUMBIA RACE PACE 6925 Oakland Mills Road (410) 290-6880 DAMASCUS ALL AMERICAN BICYCLES Weis Market Center (301) 253-5800 ELLICOTT CITY RACE PACE 8450 Baltimore National Pike (410) 461-7878 FREDERICK BIKE DOCTOR 5732 Buckeystown Pike (301) 620-8868 WHEELBASE 229 N. Market Street (301) 663-9288 FOREST HILL THE BICYCLE CONNECTION EXPRESS 2203 Commerce Road (410) 420-2500 HAGERSTOWN HUB CITY SPORTS 35 N. Prospect Street (301) 797-9877 LUTHERVILLE LUTHERVILLE BIKE SHOP 1544 York Road (410) 583-8734 OWINGS MILLS RACE PACE 9930 Reisterstown Road (410) 581-9700 ROCKVILLE REVOLUTION CYCLES 1066 Rockville Pike (301) 984-7655 WALDORF BIKE DOCTOR 3200 Leonardtown Road (301) 932-9980 WESTMINSTER RACE PACE 459 Baltimore Boulevard (410) 876-3001 DELAWARE REHOBOTH BETHANY CYCLE OF REHOBOTH 19269 Coastal Highway, Suite 1 (302) 226-1801 WASHINGTON, D.C. GEORGETOWN REVOLUTION CYCLES 3411 M Street, N.W. (202) 965-3601
Page 1 and 2: Serving Cyclists in the Mid-Atlanti
Page 3 and 4: SITTING NEXT TO MY NEIGHBOR LESLIE
Page 5 and 6: Experience the ride of your life! N
Page 7 and 8: BRENDA RUBY Feature Writer & Spokes
Page 9 and 10: THE THE THE THE THE THE THE THE THE
Page 11 and 12: A-1 Cycling TWO LOCATIONS OPEN 7 DA
Page 13 and 14: courageous souls had made. Of cours
Page 15 and 16: More resources for riding the Under
Page 17 and 18: AVAILABLE AT THESE DEALERS: DELAWAR
Page 19 and 20: Out-of-towners dominated the pro re
Page 24 and 25: COLUMNS Growth: A Pleasant Dilemma
Page 26 and 27: DEPARTMENTS World Naked Bike Day Th
Page 28 and 29: CALENDAR OF EVENTS Griffi n Cycle 2
Page 30 and 31: COLUMNS ...a look at women’s cycl

WORLD NAKED BIKE RIDE - Spokes Magazine

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