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Andrea and I headed over to Mountain View / Syllamo to spend Thankgsiving with her family at her dad’s new place up there. Our plans were to relax and ride as much of the Syllamo mountain bike trails as possible.

stopping to let the dogs run around on the way there by some random rice field along US64 west.

We got up this morning (after sleeping in a little bit) and headed out from the cabin (we stayed last night at a cabin since her dad’s house had too many there on Wednesday night). It was a quick 2 miles on the road, plus another 5.5 miles up a gravel road (Green Mountain Road) to the Bad Branch trail head.

We rode the 12 miles Bad Branch trail without too much problems. As the easiest both in terms of skill and required fitness, it was good one to do first. We clear off some newly fallen branches over the trail, but it was clear that a lot of chain saw work was done on this trail in the recent past. The trail has some nice flowy sections riding on top of pine needles/leaves over the hard pack surface. The rock in the area breaks apart and packs nicely making a great trail surface.

Our original planned trail involved creek crossings and we didn’t want to deal with those in the cold (on the menu for tomorrow). We ended up have a nice ride of 28 total miles with the first 7 and last 7 being pavement / gravel road. The climb up to the trail heads on Green Mountain road is no joke, it is about a mile or so at 6-8% grade.

Andrea with her commuter safety vest. Hunting season… can’t be too careful.

Back at the cabin, getting packed up to move up to the house for the rest of the weekend. My Titus on the way up, her Air9 on the ground to the left.