Mid-State: Burchfield

[TenSpeed]

Pretty flat, pretty fast, and you can almost put the money on you getting lost at least once. I suggest parking at the Riverbend lot, and studying the map that is posted there. There are several stunts, some easy, some hard.

[reidabel]

Also, there are three parking lots, from North to South:

Burchfield main - pay lot, but sometimes the attendant is not there. On Grovenburg.
Riverbend - free - on Nichols (South from main lot on Grovenburg, go right on Nichols when Grovenburg ends)
McNamara Landing - free (continue past the Riverbend entrance on Nichols, banks left into Kingman, turn right onto Columbia when Kingman ends and it is on the right before the river)

North of Riverbend is the more technical section, mildly hilly and quite twisty, look for Randy's Maze and Annie's Playhouse signs
South of Riverbend is more wide open, much of it in fields, lots of beginner trail as well as advanced MTB marked by green arrows on little brown rectangles that you will have to look carefully for

[ted1969]

thanks guys.. I don't have a lot going on tomorrow, so I'll just take my time and enjoy it..

[jonw9]

thanks guys.. I don't have a lot going on tomorrow, so I'll just take my time and enjoy it..

Not to rain on your parade but, consider the conditions out there.
It has been raining pretty steady for the last day, and I am not sure how long it will continue.

The conditions may not be condusive to an enjoyable experience.

[geardaddy37]

thanks guys.. I don't have a lot going on tomorrow, so I'll just take my time and enjoy it..

Not to rain on your parade but, consider the conditions out there.
It has been raining pretty steady for the last day, and I am not sure how long it will continue.

The conditions may not be condusive to an enjoyable experience.

I actually backed away from offering to meet you out there for just this reason...i could barely get thorugh watching my son's district soccer game the other night, and that was before it started raining...
PM me if things clear up by saturday morning and I would consider meeting you out there and giving you the tour, but only if it's ^45*

[geardaddy37]

well didn't hear from you Ted, but I did have a chance to go for a great ride this morning (11-ish.). Big tree down in swamp thing, close to Burchfield so I will attempt to get out there with my chainsaw sometime in the next week... other than that it was a beautiful ride and the trail is dry, unless of course you're going in the morning when the frost is still on the leaves...again nobody was out there while I was there, and I got to ride dragonball backwards. (Ahh, for the good old days... ) Reid, I checked out your progress on "The Pitchfork". Looks like you'll be finished soon. Can't wait to try that!
BTW that big tree will make a great new skinny next spring...

[rvd]

Got out to Burch this afternoon for a 20 mile ride; several people there including Anne and husband who sped by me in the parking lot heading to the trails. Conditions are just great out there this weekend.

Just like Shaun earlier this week, I did "every square inch" on this ride (spagetti: http://app.strava.com/rides/2070433): full beginner trail; full advanced loop, and connector sections South or Peppermint. During the TT I discovered many new trails North or Peppermint, so I did Purple again, and several variations of blue/red around the pond just south of Swamp Thing.

Finally I also got to ride Reid's new stunt(s). Of the three options, I found the Left line with exit straight the most easy. The line right is difficult due to the on-ramp that is narrow and without a straight line leading up to it. The left line with drop towards the left was a ton of fun too. Very well built; should last for years!

North of peppermint, I noticed and rode two new sections East of the Blue Loop (just North of where Glorious Poperds spits you out on Blue) marked with large white "one way" signs. These short loops are actually less bumpy than the new field sections S of Peppermint, but suspect that these tracks are for XC skiing, and not an addition to the MTB trail system?

[Overdrive]

Got out to Burch this afternoon for a 20 mile ride; several people there including Anne and husband who sped by me in the parking lot heading to the trails. Conditions are just great out there this weekend.

Realized that was you after we'd passed by. Wouldn't say we were speeding too much out there yesterday but it was a glorious day to ride.

[jonw9]

North of peppermint, I noticed and rode two new sections East of the Blue Loop (just North of where Glorious Poperds spits you out on Blue) marked with large white "one way" signs. These short loops are actually less bumpy than the new field sections S of Peppermint, but suspect that these tracks are for XC skiing, and not an addition to the MTB trail system?

Yes, they are for XC skiing. I don't think they really want bikes on them. This is based on the early beginner trails with the big ruts in the middle. I guess they make the trail pretty hard to ski on.

[geardaddy37]

Great ride today...as my buddy and I pulled in around 9:45am it started slushing, then turned to hail... then settled into a cold steady rain. The leaves made things a little slick but really not bad, just muddy. Reid was out there trying to get the skinny finished before the winter, working in the rain. That guy is committed!

[SteveF]

Did a lap yesterday afternoon and the trail is in remarkably good shape. Very leaf covered but essentially dry. I was alarmed to run over a loop of fence wire on the new trail behind the McNamara outhouse, just before the manure spreader. I was one of the guys that hit that strand of barbed wire a couple of seasons ago and endo'd hard so it was scary to see some coming up out of the ground there again. They must've buried/bulldozed over fencing rather than pull it out when the park was formed? I pulled it away from the trail as best I could and it's not currently a hazard but I plan/hope to get out there with some wire cutters and remove it before the snow comes. Just in case.

[geardaddy37]

Thanks Steve, yeah I noticed that wire too...there's prolly miles of it buried here and there in our county parks...

[SteveF]

Got a lap in at Burchfield this afternoon--trail is nicely dry and in good shape. Lots of leaves so finding the trail is a bit challenging in some places but not bad and nothing you wouldn't expect this time of year. I moved one or two small logs off the trail but there's a big one just after the fork that points one to dragonball run on the older new section of trail (clear as mud?) that's leaning and has blocked the trail. It's easy enough to ride around though.

I see someone has partially disassembled the notched log pile that Reidable worked so hard on a while ago. Sorry to see that.

A thousand thanks to whoever fixed the sketchy log ramp on the reversed dragonballs run--rides much better now.

[reidabel]

No worries on the disassembly of the stunt - that was me. In the thread about obstacles placed on a stunt, I think I mentioned I was going to do so, but to recap, a group of us went out to test-ride it the day after I completed it, and the first test-rider crashed badly on it. We all discussed how to make it safer and so I took the exit apart later that day and blocked off the entry. I couldn't get out to work on it this weekend, but perhaps next weekend I will be able to rework the exit. I rode it successfully the day before, but I knew it was very challenging. The test-rider says the crash was a fluke and that he would make that stunt 9 times out of 10, but we all figured it would be better to change it.

[SteveF]

No worries on the disassembly of the stunt - that was me. In the thread about obstacles placed on a stunt, I think I mentioned I was going to do so, but to recap, a group of us went out to test-ride it the day after I completed it, and the first test-rider crashed badly on it. We all discussed how to make it safer and so I took the exit apart later that day and blocked off the entry. I couldn't get out to work on it this weekend, but perhaps next weekend I will be able to rework the exit. I rode it successfully the day before, but I knew it was very challenging. The test-rider says the crash was a fluke and that he would make that stunt 9 times out of 10, but we all figured it would be better to change it.

You're talking about the third line on Hellboy, right? The one that goes along the log rather than over it? I'm talking the log pile you built a while back over near Macnamara's--someone took it about 1/2 apart...or maybe that is the one you mean...?