Morning Mountain Biking at Bretton Woods

I knew it was going to be a triple H day (hazy, hot and humid). Not being a fan of hot and humid I had no desire to hike in this weather. So I loaded up the mountain bike and was on my way to Bretton Woods early this morning. The sky looked rather threatening at times but it never did rain. The mountain summits were shrouded in clouds.

 First ride up

 First run down

 Muddy start

Riding over a slope of lupine

While skiing here in the winter a good parking spot is usually hard to find. This was certainly not the case today and I was able to park in front of the lodge. I went inside, purchased a morning lift ticket (9:00 - 12:00) and was soon riding the chairlift up.

 Cloud covered Presidentials

 A hazy Mount Washington summit

Clouds clearing

It's interesting to see what ski trails look like without snow. They are not the nice, clean groomed trails that are there in the winter. There's plenty of obstacles such as rocks, ditches, hidden holes, tall grass just to name a few. The mountain bike trails use some of the ski slopes as well as single tracks through the woods. It can be a very wild ride down!

 Taking a break

 Root wrapped around the front axle

The root unwrapped

The first trail I took down was rather tame and named Family Fun. It was a good warm-up run. The next trail I was looking for was called Shenanigans. Somehow I missed it and ended up on a diamond (expert) trail named Swamp Donkey. This introduced me to some serious single track with plenty of roots and boulders to negotiate adding to the fun!

Slopeside Lupine

Blue Flag Iris

On my next run I found Shenanigans and decided to try two more diamond trails named Black Fly and Bird Catcher. These had me off my bike and almost over the handle bars a couple of times.

 Mount Washington Hotel

Flume Cascade Crawford Notch

All trails today were wet with plenty of mud. Most of the morning was overcast and this helped to keep the temperature down but as the clouds cleared and the sun came out the heat started building quickly. My last run was on the ski trail Avalon. This is an intermediate trail and was a good way to end the day.

Crawford Notch on the way home

Having Fun in the Great Outdoors!