Indiana Mountain Biking.....Fast and Fun

The verdict is in....They know how to make mountain bike trails in Indiana!  If you live anywhere near Indiana, you need to try these trails out.  As Ohio residents, we don't get a lot of "flowy" trails.  We have some technical trails, and some hilly trails, but nothing like we experienced this weekend!

Our ride started out with  Versailles State Park, which was one of the best tracks I have ever ridden.  This trail provided 15+ miles of fast and "flowy" trails as well.  The only challenge with this trail system, was that it was extremely dry and dusty.  The corners were extremely loose due to the dryness; however it didn't slow us down too much!  We rode this trail in close to 100 degrees temperature and the humidity was nasty!  With that being said, this place was awesome and 15 miles didn't seem to bother us to bad, although we did push one rider to his limits.

From there we drove another hour west to our next stop and campsite!  Not knowing what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised to see we were sleeping here..Pizza, poker, and beer and oh, 6 hours of pounding rain took us through the night!

Believe it or not, there are actually some decent hills in Indiana; it is not as flat as I had previously thought.  We found this out on Saturday with our next ride at Brown State Park..  These trails are set up so well and flows so fast, that you never really feel like you are climbing.  At Brown County State Park you can easily ride 20 miles with very little pain of climbing, but lots of sweet jumps and fast flowy single track!  However, beware of "Schooner Trail" or Death Valley as I call it.  This bad boy is 4.5 miles of hell!  A double black diamond trail that includes boulders, off camber ridge riding with 50+ foot drops, ridiculous log crossings, boulders,  bridges, briars, sick climbs, sharp switchbacks, more boulders, eroding trails, and oh yeah, even more boulders!  I couldn't even get pictures of this trail because I was to busy cursing, sweating, walking, carrying my bike on back, dodging rocks, watching out for rattle snakes, cursing, and praying that someone would put me out of my misery!


 As tough as Schooner Trail was though, the rest of the the trail was the best I have ever ridden.  The rain Friday night made the trail tacky but still fast and we were able to fly.  We did however, take our fair share of breaks, it was 90+ degrees outside and humid as I have ever felt. 

 
 Even after the climbs, he was still smiling!

Another one with a smile after a climb!

Not sure about this guy.  No smile, just all business!

A tree falls down in the woods, what do they do with it..they just made a bridge out of it! 

 This was an awesome two day ride.  Although every single one of us is in some major pain (cramping, chaffing, bruises, scrapes, and slight dehydration, we all would do it again in a heartbeat.  (except for death valley).  I cannot overstate how sweet these trails are to ride.  If you get the chance,take it, you will not regret it!

One Friggin Crazy day- Warrior Dash Ohio

The big day has finally arrived. I am now within 12 hours of my start time for my heat tomorrow morning for this race. I have been training for months since I saw this advertised last winter and decided it was a good thing to. In case you were wondering, my training workout consists of some very aggressive routines.

• -Drink beer. Over and over again. 
• -Occasional bike ride, followed by more beer 
• -I ran 2 miles once, followed by a couple beers 
• -I ran the steps one night, you guessed it, more beer 
• -Chased my son through mud puddles,most likely I was drinking beer 
•  -I fell down my steps once, probably because of too much beer
I have to tell you, I could be the best conditioned beer drinker there tomorrow!