-Trip Report- Arrow Slide on Mount Hancock, NH: Maps 101 (February 2012)

Sometimes it's tough to define what constitutes a successful backcountry trip.  The easiest and most obvious measure is when you reach your objective and return home to talk about it.  However, when everything doesn't go as planned, things aren't so clear.  In order to push your limits you have to try and fail every now and then.  Does that make those incomplete ventures failures, or part of some greater success?  As long as you return home wiser and more prepared for the next time haven't you gained some measure of success?

Do I sound like someone who failed to achieve his goals this weekend?

Google Latitude is not an Avy Beacon

Nothing says I love you at your favorite seasonal gift giving holiday than the gift of an avalanche beacon. My wife purchased one for me last year. Given the annual snowfall we had already seen by January 1st 2011, my new BCA Tracker 2 Beacon was a very thoughtful and appropriate gift, and one we both wanted me to have. She wanted to know I might not die of my own stupid designs, and I wanted at least a slight chance of living through all the future bad lines I might pick on wind-loaded northeast facing slopes above 35°.

Around these parts, 2012 is not shaping up to be a big year for the avy beacon business. Not a single storm where you couldn't measure precip with the stick that god gave you.. ahem... a ruler. Even with these pitiful snowfall amounts and non-existant upper elevation snowfields, I'm now a convert to the avy beacon of hope. So do me a favor.  If you're too unloveable to get one from someone else, run out and buy one for yourself. You never know when some other ski dummy (like me) might need your help.

-Trip Report – Umpire Mountain, VT: Victory Tour (January 2012)

Justin and Tele with Burke in the background.

Vermont can be a case study in how different interest groups get along for their mutual benefit.  Just as mountain bikers and stonemasons are fast friends in Barre, backcountry skiers have a friend in the local logger.

-Trip Report- Doublehead Mountain: Thin Crusts Are For Pizzas (January 2012)

There are some days when you know the trip down is going to be more work than the climb up; days where your knees ache just looking at the snow pack;  days where you feel like you're skiing in a straightjacket.

Those are the days of the thin crust.  And I'm not talking pizza.

Flor'Easter: Day 10- Balm Boyette:

Running Ridgeline.

I started into my dive and the familiar tug in the pit of my stomach made me briefly consider clenching the brakes. However, the sandy, wet concrete honeycomb holding the trail together wouldn’t tolerate even the slightest braking. It threatened a fishtailing disaster to those who dared to defy its pull.  As my speed exploded and I neared the bottom, I felt the bike drifting to one side of the track.  I was headed off of the safety of the honeycomb toward the sandy rock strewn edges and certain ski-season-ending catastrophe.

Flor'Easter: Day 9- Alafia Trails - Transformations

Don't take that corner too quickly.

I know, I skipped a day.  Sue me.

My Florida adventure moved to the Gulf coast where I met up with an old friend, Dave, who showed me around his home course: Alafia Trails in Lithia, Florida.  It was a day of celebrating transformations and new beginnings.

Flor'Easter: Day 6- Mala Compra

Nearly two hundred years ago Seminole warriors burned what used to be a cotton plantation to the ground.  Today, the forest that covers part of that land houses some of the best mountain biking trails in Florida.

Flor'Easter: Day 5- Graham Swamp Trail(s)

FOMBA with palm trees.

Today promised to be one of those epic days.  Clear skies and highs in the sixties were forecast after yesterday's rain.  With all day to explore Graham Swamp and the Palm Coast area trails, anticipation levels were high.

I'm happy to say that the day did not disappoint.  It was epic.

-Trip Report- Lowell-Dracut-Tyngsboro State Forest: The Silver Line (November 2011)

After the leaves have fallen, the Silver Line magically appears.  Pressed from the foliage, the tannins retreat into the soil bringing relief to mountain bikers fumbling along leaf covered trails.

For a few fleeting weeks, it lends a helping hand until the snow claims the forest floor.

Thank you, Silver Line.  Thank you, Mr. November.

You can read my full review of the trails here.

More photos after the jump.

-Trip Report- Pine Hill Park: Now There's A Reason to go to Rutland (November 2011)

Rutland has long been the Rodney Dangerfield of Vermont towns: it doesn't get any respect. From it's derisive nicknames (i.e. "The Rut", "Rut-vegas") to…well, the title of the article, it takes a lot of flak from the outside world and especially from Vermonters.

After sampling the local trails at Pine Hill Park, I may owe the good folks from Rutland an apology.

-Trip Report- Ascutney: One Week Later (November 2011)

I have the urge to sculpt this out of mashed potatoes.

I swore I wasn't going to write any more mountain biking articles this year.

If you hadn't noticed, we've already switched the graphics over to our winter offering.  Like a department store, the Halloween decorations are already in the box and the garland and lights are up in the windows.  Ski season is clearly on our minds.  This weekend screwed all of that up.

Trip Report- Millstone Hill Trails: True Grit (October 2011)

One of the many bedrock spines.

At the geographic heart of the Green Mountains, the trails at Millstone Hill near Barre are the embodiment of Vermont's stern and ingenious spirit and among its premiere mountain biking destinations.

While you probably won't need your climbing harness or pitons, you'll need to bring a heaping helping of true grit.

Christmas in October II

Zen shot of Brad pulling out his only real turn.

For all of you hunters/skiiers out there waiting anxiously at the top of tree stands this weekend for a chance to put a cap in Bambi's A@@, well you really did miss out on the big payoff. The meal ticket. Christmas in October 2.

This is the second year in a row that Nor'EasterBC has been making October schuss. We were on the slopes at KMart on Oct 16th last year for an epic high mountain Nor'Easter, and had a chance to do it all again this morning on Ascutney, every lazy BC skier's favorite private playground.

Kingdom Trails: One More Ride

With the end of the mountain biking season around the corner, I ventured back up to Kingdom Trails last weekend for one more run on my favorite trails with Gered, his sister Kara, Justin and a couple new friends: Chris and Brian.  Four hours and twenty plus miles later, we had made the most of our late Fall foray.

Chris brought along his helmet-cam, took some footage, and put together this video of our runs down Tap & Die and Sidewinder: some of my favorite runs of the year.

The Kingdom is closing for the season on Monday (October 31st), so it's time to get up and go if you've been putting off a visit.

Lowell-Dracut-Tyngsboro State Forest (September 2011)

If you're anything like me, you've been marvelously uninformed about Lowell.  Where I pictured an industrial wasteland lies one of Massachusetts' best mountain bike trail systems.  If you haven't made the trip, it may be time to check out Lowell-Dracut-Tyngsboro State Forest.

Change in the Air: A Video

The end of mountain biking season is nigh.  We recently spent a day soaking up every last bit of  Fall in the air.  Watch the video and come along with us for the ride.

The Waltham Rail Trail

The Waltham Rail "Trail" as seen from the Goodyear Blimp

Sometimes there's a pot of gold and a plucky leprechaun at the end of the rainbow.  And sometimes there's just a smelly hobo lying in an explosion of empty liquor bottles......kinda like the time I went to find the Waltham Rail Trail.

Harold Parker State Forest: Merrimack Valley Meets North Shore

A Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of Mountain Biking

The trails of the North Shore of Massachusetts have a discernible character:  rocky, technical, bold, and with lines that have a high penalty for failure.  There is no better embodiment of this style than the trails of Lynn Woods.

To the west you'll find the trails of the Merrimack Valley: Great Brook Farm, Russell Mill and Lowell/Dracut. There you'll find majestic singletrack, which incorporates the occasional boulder, rock garden, or root, on a rolling journey through loamy soils.

In between these two very different worlds sits Harold Parker.

Bear Brook State Park: Return of the Flow (Epic Day Part II)

"Now where did I drop that damn camera?"

Have you been missing the flow?  Too many days at Lynn Woods or Harold Parker got you thinking that mountain biking is all about rock gardens and sketchy lines?  I think I have just the place for you.

FOMBA: Trail Judo (Epic Day Part I)

Pine Forest or house of mirrors?

In the age-old martial art of Judo, you constantly push, pull, and maneuver your opponent, keeping them off balance until you wear them down into submission.  Where they expect to zig, you make them zag.  Where they want to zone out and relax, you make them snap-to and work hard.    

If mountain biking trails are the haunts of ancient warrior-teachers, then I know where the zen master of Judo lives. Lucky for us, it's in southern New Hampshire.