We hiked CS today and it was mucky as hell. Apparently there were some pretty intense loacalized thundershowers in that area yesterday - explains the wetness.
Post up trail conditions here.
Kentville Pumphouse Loop/Seven Bridges
Short ride tonight. Rode through pumphouse trails and down to road. Followed road past sand pit, turned left and rode Bird Sanctuary loop and ATV trails out to highway.
Three trees down at bottom of hill from pumphouse loop near the road. One tree down on bird sanctuary loop, but that one’s easy to get around. Lots of twigs and branches down, especially on bird sanctuary loop. A walk through to clear them would be good, but didn’t have time tonight. Really dry conditions. I know that might be hard to believe for those living in HRM, but the Valley has been missing out on the rain and drizzle that the city’s been getting.
If you’re craving a trail ride, get out tonight or Thursday morning before the rain hits.
Since everything is wet I took a quick rip through Oakfield park. There is a short section of singletrack which was mint. It goes basically from the top where the picnic tables are along the edge of the hill and connects to the path that goes to the beach /picnic area. All of the trees have been cleaned up but one.
A couple of loops throught the single track to the beach and back up along the double track was better than not getting out at all.
I know that little run! There is also some singletrack at the bottom that goes along the edge of the lake. Old school techy stuff, but great on a light hardtail!
I was back out on the Pumphouse loops in Kentville last night. Looks like someone is doing some buildng in there. The new trail is to the left side (up the hill), when one’s back is to the pumphouse. Previously the loop on that side of the trail was good for about 5 minutes of riding. The length of trail seems to be about triple that, and I think there’s still more room to build. A line has been raked, but it’s still pretty soft and rough, with low tree branches here and there. I also ran into what appeared to be a couple of dead ends, so they might not be finished marking out the trail.
RH and I had an awesome two hour ride on the pumphouse singletrack and seven bridges trails yesterday. The ground was dry but there were alot of branches and even some trees down along the singletrack and elsewhere. We did a little cleaning up, as much as we could handle, and tried to clear a path around or under a downed tree. The flies were 'a plenty but that didn’t seem to both us. It was much warmer in the valley then Halifax by about 5 degrees or more. We did catch some nice breezes occasionally. The pumphouse singletrack is special to me as it is the first singletrack that I felt I was making progress on. Last year we did it at the end of the ride when I was warmed up and relaxed. This year we started and ended our ride with doing the loop. Good times!
Does anybody know what the story is with the Nine Mile River trail system? Was in there tonight to check it out and it is a mess once you get past the first loop. There has always been muddy spots but last fall it seemed to get really bad, and looks like it hasnt been touched since. I know it is still under construction. Does anybody know if work will resume anytime soon? It is a great trail when it is dry. I am afraid if it is not finished soon the damage will be out of control. Seems to be a lot of people riding further past the first loop even with the horrible conditions and the bad sections are huge now.
Rode Cape Split yesterday. It is a mudfest! We’ve had almost a week of dry weather in Halifax, so I thought it would be reasonably dry. I probably shouldn’t have ridden it, since I don’t like riding wet trail. Never had my drivetrain so dirty.