This week’s long ride had a little bit of all sorts of stuff. Two good dirt road climbs. Tight, twisty, technical singletrack. Fun downhills. Texting while riding (not recommended). and a brief bout of stormy weather.

Not quite committed to one particular ride, I left the house on the singlespeed on Sunday afternoon headed towards Stowe. Thinking about Sterling Valley - but as I got on the road I realized that it would take me an hour to get to Maple Run and an hour to get back, leaving me with little time to really get into it out there. So I changed my plans and decided to combo up some rides on the South side of Stowe. 

I’d never actually ridden The Wall. Everyone was riding there the summer I was pregnant, and then they stopped for the most part.  As I understood it, to ride it takes about 45 minutes and the trail isn’t marked that well. So I headed up the dirt road climb, hoping that all would be revealed to me. And so it was. 

The trail was fun. Very much a classic Stowe singletrack and very flowy. At one point the trail crosses a ledge that is the top of a waterfall. Cell reception was very good out there, and while I was trying to ride this trail I’d never been on before, I was also texting with Mike to get some company for the next leg of my ride. Despite all the interruptions, and not having any idea where I was going to come out, The Wall was fun and i intend to go back.

Mike and Rosie rolled up by car and they suited up for Bear Claw, which was new to them. I’d been down it a couple of times but not in the past few years. While they were getting ready a friend passed us and stopped to chat. He cautioned us that the bottom of the trail had been logged and people weren’t taking care of it and tried to talk us out of going. But, seems to me, that most people really don’t know what’s going on with some of the more obscure trails around here. And I wasn’t going to take 3rd hand info at this point. Mike and Rosie were game so off we went for the second long dirt road climb.

As we climbed there was a huge boom of thunder. Uh oh. At this point I was far from home. All we could see was the top of a big, dark cloud and so we decided to go forth and hope it went around us. I managed to remember how to get to the trail. Everything was wet. The trail was riding great, if not a little slick. It was all new for those guys and they were loving the opportunity to ride new singletrack. It was like a nature ride, Rosie kept pointing out kritters and nests and amphibians. 

At one point we had to make a trail choice, I couldn’t really remember and so we went left. The trail was narrow and pretty faint but it was definitely a mountain bike trail that at one time somebody really loved. I had no idea where we were, this wasn’t part of Bear Claw that I knew. I did know that we couldn’t get too lost and spirits were high so we went onward. Finally, dropping out of the forest into somebody’s driveway. Where were we?

Maggies Way! We had found the mythical connection between Bear Claw and Maggie’s Way, a road quite near my house. I’d always heard it could be done, but never knew how. I was just 3 miles from my house. Mike and Rosie headed back to their car via the road and I went the other direction. In the end, about three hours on the trail. There was quite a bit of hike-a-bike as we figured out where the trail went, but it was a fun and adventurous sort of bike ride and i was perfectly okay with that.