I'm new to this forum, hello everyone. I figured I'd give a
Course/Race Report! Might get lengthly...
WOW, was that fuN!!!!!! It ran Backwards from the 7Springs trail ride a while back, but mostly the same trail. VERY VERY slick in some spots - rocks especially!
They also incorporated some really WIDE OPEN areas that looked kinda like power line roads. I was tapped in 5th gear a lot of times through there. granted i had one more gear to go, but who really wants to go 70 mph over loose baseball sized rocks and not get paid for it? Those sections were partially covered with wet grass too.
My favorite sections were definitely the tighter stuff (tight trees and around big huge boulders) and the more open rocky uphills. There were a few good tecnical rock hills that caught a lot of people off guard, but I love those, they're so much fun...bouncing side to side and up in the air. That's some fun for ya right there
well, I was in C Open and only did 4 laps. The race started in a field with right-handed turn one marked by a 10 foot tall pile of crap! No kidding I'm talkin a ton of cow or horse doo doo. I hope noone got pinched off into that! (no pun intended). Lap one was still wet from the dew that settled overnight. Laps 2 and 3 the course got dried up a bit. and Lap 4 it started to sprinkle rain and made it a little slick again.
There was a MAJOR bottleneck at the first real hillclimb on lap one due to the slick and often loose rocks and leaves. I couldn't believe noone behind the fallen riders were trying another line, so i had to initiate that. Call me impatient, but it worked. I had gotten a horrible start, next to last out of 13 i think. In that one move up the hill and around the bottleneck, i think i passed somewhere around 10 riders! It wasn't pretty, but I was stoked
There were a couple muddy sections, but not all too bad. They were generally down in the bottoms through creek beds. ruts formed, but also, as riders blocked the passage, new lines formed as well. It never got so bad that more than two people got hung up at one time. Also there were a few log crossings, which could have been tricky since they were wet too.
Some of the shady areas hid very slick flat rock. one of these flat slippery slabs had a raised edge of about 4 inches at a diagonal to the trail and covering most of the trail wide. That was a little scary to cross seeing as it was wet every lap, but it was managable as long as you kept your speed up, the front end light and didn't spin the rear on it.
I hurt my previously injured ankle (ATFL - ligament tear) again twice but couldn't bear giving up, so i pressed on. It was well worth it because the ankle loosened back up and the race came to me -- I felt more and more fluid on the course as the laps ticked on. Even hours after the race, my ankle didn't feel any worse than it did that morning.
This course was absolutely amazing! I hope everyone else felt the same! 7 Springs is having another trail ride coming up soon, so if you missed the race and would like to ride this type of terrain, that would be a good chance. From what i heard, they'll have a kids course for the trail ride also so don't assume if you have family that you wouldn't be able to bring them too.
Have fun you all.