The Ohio Weekend

We left early Saturday morning at 6am sharp to get down to Mohican State Park in Loudenville, OH. We pulled in around 9:45 and relaxed while powering up on bagels and bananas. Once Deadman got to the park around 11:30, we all headed out to the Mohican Wilderness Trail 10 miles away to go for a ride. The trail starts off with a 1.2 mile climb with just under 400 vertical feet of climb sprinkeled with roots and rocks. Once at the top, we re-grouped as riders caught their breaths before going into the next singletrack section.

The trail then winds through the woods with minimal climbing, and then extends down a fire road before hopping back into the timbers downhill. The trail then becomes fast and fun. From to much speed to hammering up the hills, it was an adrenaline rush for all. After riding along a ridge, you come upon a nice long downhill technical section where you have to pick your line well or hit the ground. Near the bottom, the rocks become the trail and there must be no hesitation to ride over them because of the slick moss and tire catchers. Last year I walked this section, but this year I cleaned it easily, then went back and cleared it again for fun(It is nothing after riding out west on all rock!).

Once you get thrught that section the majority of the fun stuff is over, but the trail is still fast and enjoyable. We met back up down at the bottom of the first trail before heading into the second trail. It went through a few shallow creeks and then into some climbing singletrack before ending at a non-ridable horse trail.

We packed the bikes back up and headed back to the state park. Once there, I refilled bottles and took off. I went right up the 1.25 mile climb and kept on booking through the trail to get some good intensity in. I was having a great time dancing my bike around the rock sections and climbing up the hills. That was until my sweaty bike shorts decided to slide around. So, I turned onto a return loop at mile 4 and went back to change my shorts. I came back and started form the begining again to do the climb. I decided to go around race pace, but a little shy of it to get the the 8 mile end turnaound point where the group would meet. 43 minutes later, I was there, just behind them. We came back the trail, which was considerably downhill until mile 4 where we took the return route down to the valley. I ended up getting 27 miles in for the day of some decent riding with lots of fun.

The plan for today was to get up and ride the 16 miles of the state park again before packing up the tent and heading home. Wel, at about 3am it started raining and didn't let up until 7:30 when I got up and packed up most of the stuff. We hung out helping for a while before coming home where it was also raining. No riding today which was a bummer, but I should tommorrow after my first day of school. I am hoping to be home around noon and get a 40 mile road ride in before hitting up the Monday night RR on Hines Dr.