This is my trusty steed. Believe it or not, I got it for free. It's a great bike. It just needs a little updating. I've already been into the bike store getting prices.
This is what the trail sees when I'm tearing it up!
I had Columbus day off last week. I took advantage and hit the dirt. Here is a battle wound from the ride.
This is one of my regular spots to ride. You park at the trail head, then you take various dirt and gravel roads for about 2 miles. You come to this second parking area at this little lagoon. You can't see it in this shot, but off to the right are two paths you can take. One is an intermediate trail, and another one is a pretty advanced trail. Over Columbus day I rode the Intermediate trails. This particular day I felt pretty confident to step it up and take the advanced trail. I didn't feel too confident 5 minutes into the ride.
Take note of the top of this cliff. You see something poking up above the trees? I'll come back to that later.
The advanced trail runs up the cliff and around the lagoon. This is a shot about half way up, looking down. Yes, that was taken on the trail. Not a whole lot of room for error on one side.
It's a very pretty ride up to the top.
Remember those rocks too. It will put the ride in perspective. This was shot half way up across the lagoon.
I love these trails.
When you get to the top, the trail opens up to a clearing. This is a shot looking back at where I came from.
This is the view at the top of the cliff. You can see I95 off in the distance.
Those people have no idea they are being featured on some strangers blog right now!
Man I love the zoom on this camera!
The view of I95 is off to your left as you come to the clearing. This is the view to your right. I should have got a picture of me next to it to give you an idea of how big it is. But take my word for it... It's a big sign. Remember that thing poking up above the trees at the bottom of the trail?
This is a shot from the top of the cliff looking down at the lagoon.
This is a shot back at the second parking area where I started.
Remember those rocks? This is the same shot about a hundred feet up.
I guess people scuba dive a lot in the lagoon. I assumed it was like a class.
Continuing down the trail, you go back in the woods on some even more technical singletracks. Part of the trail runs right by I95. That picture was taken on the trail as well. I didn't have to hike to get this close to the highway.
For a second I thought I made it all the way to North Carolina... I don't know why they put a Virginia Welcome center up here in Fredericksburg.
I think that was the only log on the trail that was cut.
Every man needs a break sometime...
...And water.
This part of the trail is really cool. The dirt path turns into a drainage trough...
...And at the end of the trough is this tunnel that runs UNDER I95! That is pretty sweet! I didn't ride through it, however. I was by myself and, quite honestly, I was a little freaked out by going in there. In Fredericksburg, you never know who is living in there.
I had my first head-over-heels wipe out. It was pretty awesome actually. I wish someone was there with a video camera. This is the first view I saw after I landed.
...And this is the second.
I wish it would have been this tree stump I tried to hop over and got my back tire caught on. It would have made a lot more impressive wipe out story...
...But it wasn't. It was this wimpy little branch.
This is what I looked like when I landed.
The trail eventually looped around almost back to where I started. If you notice, you can see the back of the billboard where I was early in the pictures.
Here's a closer shot... just to show off the zoom again. Did I mention it has an awesome zoom?
-And that was my Saturday morning.
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