Last weekend (edit: A few weekends ago...most of the content I had already scrawled down but I wanted pictures....)

Weekend (Actually a few weekends ago, but I finally downloaded the pictures)


Wedding and riding- Last weekend (edit: A few weekends ago...most of the content I had already scrawled down but I wanted pictures....) I made my way to the scene of my childhood for a wedding: the North Shore of Boston. Small fishing towns outside of Boston that once set the stage of a great portion of my life- My parent's(biological) spent time there, my mom met my step father there, I spent many summers on the beaches and in the small towns. Nostalgia was in place as I re-traced roads and places that were once very familiar. Tumbleweeds of images became clearer as old roads became familiar again and various memories of time spent with family and friends was uncovered. It was strange to sort of go back in time.

Riding- The weekends rides were broken up into two sets of North Shore riding. The Classic Lynn Woods (which I raced at years ago in the mid 1990's) and quite possibly some of the best techy singletrack trail riding I have done in memory. Yes, really that good.
Ryan- The guide extraordinaire.
Details-And what I can share.
Lynn Woods is the classic Boston North Shore ride. The glaciers left a rocky techy trail that is best served wearing pad and 5 plus inches of travel. Since I was pedaling with MTB Tom on Sunday I assumed that the right ride would be my single speed. NOT! Not in both cases of riding...but especially the case of Lynn Woods. A great place to ride, but don't bring a knife to a gun fight. Although Lynn is well travelled I would recommend a guide- Ryan (seen below) was kind enough to show the lay of the land. A good ride overall with some great stunt riding, but I felt slightly out of my element on a SS race bike in a place that begs for long travel.



Techy stuff that is steep and rocky. Hard. Bring your A game....or better yet dont play play games and be ready for combat. There is a reason it was voted by Bike Magazine as America's best technical trail.
Below: R in action
MTB Tom in action- all around super nice human being and awesome rider. I am looking forwarding to riding with him again.

Sunday: In a series of trails near and around Essex was possible some of the finest technical trails I have ever ridden were shown to me. I can't and I wont say much more than that on the exact location (it is funny in just about every place I have lived locals become some what miserly with their best stuff- I am guilty of it as well. From the secret trails in Vancouver, to the code of secrecy in the SF Bay area, for some reason we hide away from the world what we love the most.), but I will say that they are 5 star trails in around Essex. I had ridden there once before, years back on my own, but with locals who know the place it is was far superior (I also felt somewhat reluctant to ride alot of it the first time around as I did not want to gore myself in the woods with no one around to get me out...). Techy enough to keep you on your toes, but with excellent flow so it was feasible to keep moving the whole time. Although I can not profess to clean everything I will say I felt great and was riding well considering I was on a SS, when gears and about 5 inches of travel would have been the way to go.

"A journey does not become an adventure until something goes wrong": One of the riders in the group had a gnarly crash in one of the sections involving her bar end and her leg. Summary: An inner tube tied around the leg, a long hike out ofthe woods along with some bike pushing for a bit and a few sticthes later the adventure was over.

All in all a great weekend of riding.