Hiking <===> Biking

Do you think bikers should be able to ride on the Appalachian trail?? i do. This coming weekend i am doing my grad project. My project is to raise money for the a local charity the Way station. we will be hiking 20+ miles in PA on the AT. When we got to PA to check out are start and end points there were sings plastered all over the area saying hunting is permitted in this area!!! I looked at my dad and the expression on his face was something like this..... O SHIT WERE GOING TO GET SHOT..... I must say i was kinda thinking the same thing, but i was thinking more along the lines of hunting and hiking in the same area??

In Maryland and as i found out later along are trip in PA that you can not bike on the AT. But in all states you can at least be 150 yards off the trail and in many states you can hunt right off the trail. i asked my self why cant you bike?? do we cause damage?? Yea sure we do we wear into the trail, but so do hunters and hikers. What i safer? Hunting or biking?? I believe it is safer to have Hikers and bikers instead of hikers and hunters. If you can walk down a trail with a loaded rifle or Shot gun, why cant you ride a bike??

Like i said sure we do wear on the trails, and will admit that, but look around the Frederick Water shed for 10 minutes and i guarantee you will see at least one hunting stand nailed to a tree. Hunters run around open in the woods making there own trail beating up the trees with the stands and leaving trash all over the place. Yes bikers do occasionally make are own trail but we don't hammer stands into the trees nor do we leave trash all over the place, at least not the guys I have rid-in with, I also believe it is safe to say nor do the bikers that are serious about riding.I just believe that Bikers should be able to use the AT like hikes and hunters do. I don't see the big deal. Do you????

Doin it solo

Today was my second trip up to Gambrill. there are a bunch of trails other then the yellow so i thought id try them out. The Bicycle Escape did a ride as well today but they did there's at the Watershed and it was a combo of day and a night ride. I haven't been out to the Shed myself yet so i thought id let them have a blast and meet up with them some other time.

well as for me today i did a trail combo of Yellow, Black, Green and the red trail a few times. No clue how many miles i did but all i know is i well not be doing the black or green/black connector trail again anytime soon. That wiped my but. tons of fun but really a killer hill kinda ride. To much up hill log stacks for me yet. ill be there some time but not quite yet.

for my first solo ride i loved it, more fun with a group but solo is more of Serene kinda ride. Ill be going up there after school a lot (I hope, if mom will let me) to ride the yellow. but as for now no more green or Black for the time being.

Free Ride Course

so my aunt just bought 5 acres of wooded land, she is going to let me come down there and build some jumps a course and just do what ever it is that i want to do as long as its in the far back and she cant see it. well when talking to my boss Tom at The bicycle Escape, we were talking about my Jamis Dakar XLT 1.0. he believes i should put clip less pedals on it, i agree with him. But the issue is i do have another bike to use, my Haro F4 witch is a dirt jumping bike, but i want the full suspension. but anyways.... this new course of mine will hopefully be done in the spring after Christmas i will be heading down there to mark out where I'm going to build up all these dirt jumps where i will put in wood jumps and tactical stuff. Cant wait!!!!

Gambrill

So on Sunday I went on my first ride to Gambrill. The ride was amazing, we did the yellow loop witch is 8 miles long. We took 1 hour and 40 min to do the ride. For my self I must say that was I pretty impressive. I did 12 miles at Green ridge and it took 4 hours, then with in the next 2 weeks I was able to do 8 in only 1 hour 40 min. I think that is a pretty impressive time jump.

But enough about me and more about the ride, Unlike Green ridge the ride was more technical witch I loved. The weather was great for the ride. I was a little cold but it’s all good. The group was Mike, Jason, Mehdi, Kev and me. Mike and Kev pulled off and did more mileage Jason, Mehdi and my self just finished up the yellow loop and went home. Next time ill try more mileage but it was my first time out so I took my time and really enjoyed it.

The ride overall was great I didn’t have any problems at all, I was loving it the hole way and cant wait to get back out there. The bicycle escape has a night ride now so ill ride it a few more times in the day then go out with them

MTB Race Team

I am looking to get a MTB Race team together. So far I know who I can Train with but still no team. I would love to get a team together and do some endurance races. If anyone is local in Frederick or some where close enough that could make training rides please send me an e-mail (rcm032189@aol.com) or post a comment. Or see my Post on The Bike Site labeled MTB Race team. Hope to hear from you guys and look to see you all out on the trail or on the roads.