Mountain biking and STXC

I've been riding my mountain bike lately with a couple of guys I've ridden with in the past. The first ride was in what is know as the Mill Creek Acquisition. It is 25,000 acres that was purchased by the Save the Redwoods League from the Miller Rellim Timber Company and given to the State Parks system. The State has no budget to manage it so it is only open to the public on weekends. It's a huge piece of property that was actively logged so it contains a confusing system of old gravel roads. This is a picture from the high point on our 16 mile ride that day. You can see Lake Earl in the background.

The next weekend we rode the Little Bald Hills trail. It starts out on the South Fork of the Smith River and ends up in the Redwoods on Howland Hill Road. We shuttled to the trail head and started up the hill. The first mile is a steep trail with switch backs up to the top of the ridge. We walked that portion. It is too steep to ride unless you are an animal. The trail climbs gently for the next 4 or 5 miles to the high point shown in this picture. It is mostly old jeep road at this point.




Once the trail starts downhill it becomes a sweet single track that enters the forest. A long section of the trail is new with gravel surface about three feet wide.
















The trail ends in the Redwoods. It is spectacular.


















Sunday evening I raced STXC in Grants Pass again. It was pretty uneventful. It was hot but I survived. I was the only racer in the single speed class. There was another guy riding his single speed but he raced in the regular Sport class. He beat me but not by very much. Next week is the last race in the series. The following week will be my first cross race of the season. I'm racing a four race series in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Then it's the Southern Oregon Outlaw Cyclocross series. It's a really fun series with great raffle prizes including a Desalvo frame raffled at the last race. You can see the bike that was built from the raffle frame on the Plus One Lap blog. There's a link to the right.