Snowy Springtime Teaser

Perfect weather makes up for not so perfect conditions. Kelly and I rode our hardest ride yet this year: Leading Ridge road, up Camp Todd, down Chestnut ridge, up Hanky Mountain, and down Lookout Mountain trail to the car. It was only 28 miles, but almost 6,000 feet of climbing! The trails were either soft or covered in slippery slush, and the roads looked and felt like peanut butter. But who cared? We were outside, it was sixty degrees, and our slum only reminded us of the bigger, harder, better rides to come this year. Tour de Burg prep maybe? Short sleeve jerseys and shorts spoiled us - it will be hard to transition back to the cold weather. It's rides like these that up the motivation to stay active through the winter, reminding us that  spring time isn't too far off!

Almost to Little Bald intersection from the Camp Todd climb.

Camp Todd overlook!

Coming down Chestnut - slushy slippery sketchy sleigh ride.

Rhododendron tunnels on Chestnut Ridge, from snow to pine needles depending on elevation.

Soaking up rays at the Lookout Mountain overlook at the end of the day.

Super Bowl Sunday Up to Flagpole

Football flying through the air on top of Flagpole for the Super Bowl Ride

How many years has the Harrisonburg cycling community ridden up to Flagpole Knob on the day of the big game? 30 plus years? The ride has been a Harrisonburg tradition since before there was a bike club in the area, before mountain bikes were ridden regularly on the trails of Shenandoah Mountain and certainly before there were Fat Bikes designed specifically to gobble up the snowy roads and trails.

Lindsey Carpenter rolling from Meadow Knob over to Pond Knob before riding out to Oak Knob and down Mud Pond

Since 2003 I don't think I have missed a single Super Bowl Sunday ride. A classic winter event, the weather is always variable and conditions never consistent. I've ridden in super cold light fluffy snow where you couldn't stand on Flagpole for more than a few minutes without freezing. I've also ridden in rivers of running water streaming down the Forest Service roads as the snow melts and temperatures push upwards of fifty degrees. Often, the road conditions are something in between with plenty of snow but also treacherous ice as the surface is caught in a freeze thaw cycle. Riders often end up on the ground unknowingly as their wheels lose traction.

The Salsa Mukluk Fat Bike was eating up the snow especially on the Mud Pond downhill

Many of those years I have ridden from town, up the mountain and then back to town. One of those years there was far too much snow to ride up the mountain so we brought a group of 20 folks and skiied up to the top. Well we sort of skiied, we were fortunate enough to have a group of large trucks pull us from the Reddish Knob damn up to the saddle. Skiing down the Pond Knob trail was a treat.

Pushing the Fat Bike up the STEEP climb to Oak Knob with Flagpole looming in the distance

This year, we couldn't be more excited to see several members of the Rocktown Composite team (middle and high school local mountain bike team) pedal all the way to the top of Flagpole. They are well on their way towards many many Super Bowl rides to come. In a classic Harrisonburg tradition, the Super Bowl ride isn't really a group ride but it embodies all that is right and welcoming about the Harrisonburg bike community.

Thomas Jenkins brought a football all the way up the mountain!

Unplugging at Douthat and Exploring the GW!

Douthat State Park is like no other place on Earth.

Jim...stepping outside Douthat on Fore Mountain.

There is not just one thing that makes this State Park so special but a great combination of trails, cabins, beauty and NO phone/internet service.  For the past several Novembers my family and I have hooked up with our buddies from Athen's Bicycles  (land of great gravel road riding) and rented one of the several large cabins offered at the Park. This has become an annual tradition, hopefully you can find your own annual retreat at Douthat.

Mackie...Taking a break form the World Enduro Tour to ride Douthat

The trails at Douthat that most folks talk about are the ones with in the Park, these trails provide great all single track loop options for the beginner to the advance rider. You can ride these trails right from your cabin door, making for a quick night ride getaway after putting kids to bed. The fantastic day views are not noticable at night but they do open the ceiling to a star filled sky with no light pollution dimming sky filled stars.

Carter...Taking a break from the playgrounds at Douthat

 During the day try and venture outside the park and explore some the great trail opportunities in the George Washington National Forest.  The park and national forest boundies are seemlessly connected making several multi hour loop rides an option. This year our crew road the Fore Mountain trail out the Douthat, hitting the north direction one day and south direction the next. The northern Fore Mountain trail is more well know since it is commonly used during the XXC course for the Middle Mountain Mama Race. The middle portion of the Fore Mountain Trail is more remote, but with the help of MTB Project this ride will be much easier to navigate.

When most folks look for vacation options they want to make sure connection to Al Gore's web is an option, well not at Douthat. Think of unplugging as a positve thing for you and your family.

Birthdays are for Bike Riding on the Entire Massanutten Ridge

The Full Pull of the Massanutten Ridge... always worth waking up at 4:30 in the morning. Also a ride that I have had the pleasure to complete many times since 2007. I don't remember exactly how many times but it must be somewhere around 6 or 7. A few years ago I started trying to schedule this ride around my September 24th birthday and make it "Kyle's Birthday ride." The original ringleader of the ride is undoubtedly Mike Carpenter and he took me along for my first Full Pull of the Massanutten Ridge and since that first time I have had the pleasure to ride the full ridge many other times with Mike. Always setting a steady and solid pace, always riding more rocks up and down than anyone else on the trip, Mike Carpenter truly is a professor at the Massanutten Technical Institute (just not the one located in Harrisonburg).

Since that first ride I have been able to take others on the Full Pull and show them all the fun that there is to be had on the ridges of the Massanutten Mountains. Nate Shearer has made the trip a couple of times and wrote up a very nice recap in 2011 on what it means to ride from your door and what sort of rides are available "out the door" from where you lay your head every night. Nate put up a very nice post with some great pictures of the ride back in 2011 that can be found on his blog (Soil Sample- Out the Door September 29, 2011)

The Full Pull Ridge ride is phenomenal and a testament to the exceptional riding that surrounds Harrisonburg, Virginia. At only 65 miles, the ride has over 10,000 feet of climbing on some of the rockiest trails around. If you want to see the details and the map you can checkout the ride on Strava. Full Pull of the Massanutten Ridge from Harrisonburg to Buzzard Rocks on Strava. The ride has it all, but mostly rocks and steep climbs. There are countless beautiful views of the Shenandoah Valley, Page Valley, Fort Valley, the North and South Fork of the Shenandoah River, Winchester, and the Shenandaoh National Park. Hard to believe that the ride is only 65 miles. What a great way to celebrate my 30th Birthday! Make sure to check out the pictures and captions below-Kyle

Map and Elevation profile thanks to Garmin and Strava

Rolling from Harrisonburg at 5:30am

Yes. There is some walking to be done on the ride. Sunrise!

We found friends out there!

Bird Knob overlook. Taking it all in just before lunch

Short Horse Mountain in the background. One of the last pieces of pavement for the day

The Ibis Ripley was a PARTY up on that ridge. In 6 some ridge rides this was the first time that I rode a full suspension bike for the Full Pull

At the very end of the ridge on Buzzard rocks with plenty of daylight to go and the sun setting over the west ridge of Fort Valley in the background

The cliffs of Buzzard rocks and the very northern most section of ridge. Looking at down at the opening of Fort Valley

Overlook above Veach gap. Looking at the South Fork of the Shenandoah River and the Shenandoah National Park in the background

Bird Knob

Harrisonburg: The Bike Capital of Virginia

Another great piece from Adventure Seen. This time its all about bicycles and Tourism. Harrisonburg is known as a destination for beautiful road riding and phenomenal mountain biking. We are also the Bike Capital of Virginia. This year the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition along with the Harrisonburg-Rockingham MPO is holding the third Annual Harrisonburg & Rockingham Bike-Walk Summit on October 10. The theme of the summit is "The benefits of bicycling and walking tourism." Just listen to Ben King (VA native and 2014 Tour de France finisher on Team Garmin Sharp) talk about how much he loves to ride around Harrisonburg.

Salsa Demo Day and the New Salsa Split Pivot Bicycles

Salsa Cycles Demo Day at Massanutten

Salsa made some really really BIG and awesome changes to their full suspension bikes for 2014. With a completely redesigned suspension system termed "split-pivot" borrowing from the ever-popular DW-Link found on the Turner and Ibis Bicycles, the new Spearfish and Horsethief ride like completely different bikes than then prior models. With some of the shortest chainstays of any 29er on the market, these two bikes rode nimble and quick. Be sure to checkout all the details on the Split Pivot System by watching this captivating video below.