Wet Weather Riding at Marsh Creek, PA
by Bryan on June 29th, 2007
We decided to meet again up with Jake for his regular Thursday evening ride over at Marsh Creek. This time we checked out the trails in the North West section of the park. I totally enjoyed the trails we hit last week and was definitely look forward to seeing what the rest of the area had to offer.
The night before a storm blew through the area and made for some fresh mud, wet rocks and roots. Lucky, Allen had on his mud flap girl socks from Sock Guy. She worked a little magic to keep the mud off him – at bit more than me for sure. I was jamming down a rooted section of single track when the next thing I knew, I was on the ground – completely lost the front wheel right out from underneath me on wet root. As you can see from the photo, the bike is nicely propped up against a tree upside down. No injuries – just some banged up knees and shin from the landing. Oh and mud.
As we rode on, we came across an unusually straight section of trail. Jake told us it was an old rail road that has been converted to a multi-use trail thanks to the Rails to Rails program. There were even a few of the very old ties still in the dirt.
Later, after we climbed up a slippery switch back style section, we were trying to decide how much time we had left to ride before tonight’s storm moved in. Jake described to us what happens when it rains – eroding the trails and then you drop off a rooted section – crash and almost die. We all agreed that was not the section of trail we wanted to go down.
Instead we made another loop and headed back to the truck as the large ominous grey mass of thunder and rain was building in the west.
This ride was especially technical in every aspect. I would say 80% of the trails were single track with lots roots and even more rocks. Throw in some mud, wild rose bushes with thorn ridden vines and an extra dose of humidity in the air and we pretty much had ourselves a wet, moist, dirty and sticky ride. Even with all those conditions, it was still a fun ride.
June 29th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Awesome ride reports~! Sounds like u guys are having a great time. Mud sucks - hope that weather clears up soon!!