Rhinelander - Part 1

So after two weekends of WEMS racing, I figured it was time for a rest week. Only a few hours was logged on the bike, I caught up on work, and then took another week off for some family time in Rhinelander, WI. What even makes it better is that there are XC trails to check and that is the word Curtis!

We left on Sunday and stopped at the park in Ladysmith to let the kids run around. There was quite a collection of merry-go-rounds along with this nifty thing.

From The Scales: Balancing Bikes and Everything Else

The little guys logged some time on that. I took part in some riding and only lasted a few minutes before I got all dizzy. Dang age creeping and taking the fun out of parks. Anyway, the wife was geting all mad at me during the ride. She got sick of hearing about how stoked I was to get some riding in on the trails of Rhinelander. I shot an email to Jeff Frane and got the 411 from the expat. He hooked me up with the names of trails and some info. I did some googling and found that I was only a couple miles from the Washburn Lake trails. This is where the WEMS race, the RASTA Rack N Root, will be in a few weeks and I was stoked to check it and hopefully not wreck on it. Jeff called Washburn out as his favorite because of it being tight and tech. There are others around, I got the time, so I will be hitting as much as possible. The in-laws are around so it is relatively easy for me to dip out for a few hours each day.

Logging hours in the Underdown a few weeks back, the name of Rock N Root and Jeff's description, I figured the singletrack to be heavy on the rocks and roots. That is fun at times but so is a nice flowing trial so the mood was essential for me to make the best of it. I rode to the Washburn Lake trails yesterday and worked on getting into the rhythm but since I hadn't ridden much the last week, I was feeling a little week in the knees. Some trail was treating me right and others were taking too much concentration. I must have been a bit lazy. I liked the trail but not my attitude so after a couple hours I rolled back and resolved to get a better sleep and hit more trails. I would be back in a few days after further XC exploration.

Today I drove out and tried to find the Mud Lake trails...I did some drive-by's and cruised the location like a greaser in the 50's but I could not find the parking lot. I had to pull over and consult the phone. I found that parts of the trails are closed from Memorial Day to Labor Day because of a Boy Scout camp. Shooo...The back up plan was then to hit the Hanson Lake Trails. The skys were threatening when I got there and the 30% chance of rain was looking more like a 90% chance. I got to riding and hit the trail which took me to the lake. I took the trail around the lake a few times and there are a lot of trails that go off of the main trail around the lake.

From The Scales: Balancing Bikes and Everything Else

I was having some fun and found some good flow and some techy parts too. After about an hour, the sky's were turning grey, some thunder was rumbling and the light rain came for a third time. I got to a clearing and looked at where the clouds were coming. The west was dark and that was approaching. Rats! I got to the car with a real light rain and packed up. Driving back to the rented cabin, the rain started and I got to thinking about some tacky trail riding tomorrow.