New mountain biking video up

Withlacoochee Forest MTB Ride

Today I went to check out another local trail I have been meaning to check out for a while. The Croom section of the Withlacoochee Forest is in Brooksville, which is a quick hour's drive away for me. The spot is accessed off Croom-Rital road, which is on the other side of I-75 from the popular Croom ATV riding area. A 6 mile drive up a partly paved/partly dirt road ends at a ranger station and a nice parking area.

The trailhead at this location spurs off into various directions and allows for many riding possibilities. You could ride a 30 mile loops if you wanted to. Today, I just chose to do one of the popular "yellow" trail loops. I didn't want to get too crazy, since it was HOT as hell outside.
A strange thing for Florida, there were actually some uphill and downhill sections here! They weren't too lengthy, but they were fun nevertheless. There was some sugar sand also, which made for some slow going at times, but it definitely added to the cardio workout. According to the GPS, I pulled off about 8.5 miles, but as you can see from the below track, there were some areas where the sat reception disappeared, leaving gaps in my track. I figure I did about 10 miles easy this day.

All in all, I give this trail section a thumbs up; I'll be going back again. I plan on hitting the blue and red sections next time. Gotta get in some more training before 9/11 for the Georgia/ NC trip!

MTB Trip-North GA and N. Carolina...

OK, time to take another small road trip. I have a couple spots that I have been eying in N. Georgia (Bull Mountain) and one in North Carolina (Tsali loops). Considering I am BROKE and have not a pot to piss in, I am camping the whole time- no hotels for this guy. I am planning on driving to Dahlonega, GA. for day one, then riding the next day at the Bull Mountain Trail. Then, a quick 2 hour drive to the Blue Ridge Mountains near Fontana Lake and kicking it there for the night. Riding all day at the Tsali Rec area and checking out the scenic loops there (above pic). So far, I have pretty much all the gear I need; I just need some gas money and some food, and I am GOLDEN.

POST ILLNESS RIDE..LOL

After a good night's sleep, and feeling about 80 percent, I decided to take a small ride out at Wilderness Park in Tampa. Did about 10 miles; but it was at a pretty good clip! Now heading back home to rest up before watching UFC 101 tonight!

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SICK AS A DOG!

Well, this week has pretty much been a waste, since I have been sick for more than 60 percent of it! I didn't make it to the gym once, and missed my bike ride today after work. I am feeling a bit better now, so hopefully I'll be good to go by the morning to do a casual ride at Wilderness Park.

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Aha! Found my old tracks...

I have been toying with my handheld Garmin ETrex, and thought a while back that I lost all my mountain bike trip trail data, when lo and behold I found some of the maps still on the handheld!! So here are some of them, just the best rides out of the bunch.
The above map is from Mary's Loop in Fruita, Colorado.
The below image is from Amasa Back in Moab, the brutal all-day ride I did and got lost on (d'oh!). You can see the "Y" at the top portion where I veered off to the right on Pothole Arch trail, going quite a bit out of my way before backtracking and taking the proper trail to the left that led to Amasa Back proper. This was done with the Mapsource software that came with the GPS that allows me to pull the route up on Google Earth. Pretty sweet!
I took a weekend ride at a trail near me, just to see what it was like. Below is the map of the area as seen from GE. It's off SR52 and Hays Rd. in Hudson, FL. I heard that there was a MTB friendly trail out there, but it was anything but. It's primarily equestrian trail, and the dirt is loose and unpacked- it's quite a brutal sugar-sand ride for MTB'ers...not reccomended at all. Did about 10 miles, but it felt like 20. No singletrack and nothing worthwile for scenery- Morris Bridge/ Flatwoods is way better. I won't be going back there.