News

The Blind Leading the Blind

Lair of the Bear

by Scott T.

Rumored to be technically easy and fun, Chris from Generic Cycles and I set out for quick ride in the March sun this morning.



More Ride and Bike Pictures

Lair of the Bear Google Earth File

Download Google Earth

Neither Chris nor myself had been to Lair of the Bear for a normal daylight ride before. I had been there several years ago for an icy night ride wherein I flipped over the handlebars and broke my brake lever and my Fox Fork. So, I was pretty curious what this trail was all about. And there was extra motivation to not eat it. (I still did)

We headed out from the parking lot toward the only Multi use trail available. We rode along until we had a choice to make. Oops. We went right (cause it looked more interesting). We. Were. Wrong. Very very wrong. We ended up (as you can see if you download the Google Earth file) hiking with our bikes, straight up the hill through the thick evergreens to the official trail again.

The trail had some ice on it on the way out that was pretty sketchy. All of the climbs were pretty easily doable in the middle chain ring. The tires were not terribly responsive after any mud or ice (until it cleaned itself on my shorts and shirt). Otherwise, the trail was damn near perfect conditions.

The technical parts of the trail were not super hard, but they looked difficult. Several of them had the extra addition of a good old fashioned cliff on the side of the loose baby-head-sized boulders. That was fun, though. We cleared pretty much everything we could see. The things we didn’t clear usually got a laugh from both of us, because we should have made it through.

As we got to the top parking lot, we decided to turn around and fly through the part we had just climbed. It was truly worth it. With the tight trails, sticky dirt and low lying pine trees, we felt like we were in flight. Many of the turns had carved out berms that allowed for most of our speed to carry right through. Our time up the mountain was three times what it took to make it back down.

By the time we made it back to the bottom, the ice had turned to muddy slush, so we got soaked in nasty. That is, until we got back to the creek crossing, where both Chris and I took the deepest part, so as to wash off.

All in all, the day went very well. We invited you, whether you realized it or not, on Twitter. So next time, you should come.

Chris: Generic Cycles 29er. Light, fast and compliant
Scott: Titus Racer-X. Carbon, squishy and fun






Leave a Comment