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Upcoming Ride Guide

Good morning All,

Rides for the week are posted on the calendar.

Enjoy, Cheers

Sunday Ride 11am

We are going to start tomorrow’s ride at 11am. Forecast is well below zero tonight so hopefully the trails firm up overnight. It should be 0-2 degrees during our ride so the trails shouldn’t soften up while we are out there. If they are not suitable to ride then we will hit the fire road. See you!

Weds Ride report & Weekend thoughts

As we expected, trails were great last night. There were 13 of us out on Fat Bikes and put in a 22km single track ride. Trails were fast and hardpacked. We got about an inch of fresh snow overnight so that should make it even better.

Friday and the weekend is going to be tricky…daily high temps from plus 4-2 between Friday and Sunday. Not too cold overnight as well, barely below zero, except Saturday night-low of -4.

As always please respect all the hard work we have put in snowshoeing and pulling a tire around 17km of trails to groom them out to what they are. Ruts (even small ones) are easy to leave when above freezing but are very difficult to get rid of when it freezes. Our advice for the weekend would be to keep an eye on the hourly temp forecasts and ride in the morning when the temps are cooler if required. We will likely wait until Sunday for our group ride as Saturday night is the coldest. It looks like it may be a beautiful weekend!

Weds Ride

Trails will be great Weds night…

6pm Dufferin

Sunday Ride/trail conditions

Trails are awesome, plus 1 on Sunday afternoon so great time for a group ride! Fat bikes please. If you haven’t been out yet Sunday will be a perfect day for it. See you!

2:30 at Dufferin

Monday Ride/Trail Condition Report

Chris and I got out last night for a scoot and had a great ride! We didn’t know what to expect but everything was in excellent shape. Mostly snow covered, some dirt trails (along the ridge and other random spots) and very little ice (one really slick spot right at the first few turns in the single track).  We rode everything but Ken’s & Steve’s and it was all fast and fun.

Looks like a great week ahead and the weekend looks perfect so should be a great time for an awesome group ride.

Enjoy!

J

This week’s activities!

Rides are posted, I was out yesterday for a run on the double track. Still snow on the single track so trails should be good for Fat Bikes…no skinnies please! Hopefully we get a touch of snow this afternoon.

J

Trail Conditions/Weekend Riding

I was out yesterday for a ride. Trails are in absolutely great shape after all the snowshoeing & grooming efforts combined with a good number of consistent fat bike riders. There is several inches of packed snow with very little ice.

Having said that it’s already above freezing this morning (8:30am) and just getting warmer (plus 2 today and plus 10 tomorrow!).

It would be detrimental to the trails to either ride or hike them this weekend. Riding and hiking the trails will just leave indentations that will freeze in the trail and they are tough to get ride off. You may be able to get in a Fat Bike ride this morning before it warms up too much. Sunday…no way.

If you are ever on the trails use the 1/2 depression County Code of Conduct ByLaw rule which states if you are leaving more than a 1/2 depression you are to refrain from using the trail. There is still lots of winter ahead!  Thanks for respecting all the hard work put in by everyone so far.

Weds ride update/info

Chris and I got out for a ride last night. We stuck to the double track as things were a bit soft. Still got a 90 min ride in. Regarding Weds ride…we should be able to hit the singletrack as temps should be at the freezing point. How will it go?? Not sure as we did get a bit of snow so likely it will be a ride-and-groom. I’d advise bringing along snowshoes if you have them just in case as we can always get a good grooming hike in as well. See you Weds night!

Trans Epic–We’re going!

Looks like there are a few takers for the May Pennsylvania stage race. Monica is joining me!  Other friends of TVG and locals Linda, Craig and Luke are going as well for the 5 day race. There have been a few others thinking about it and it’s looking like a possible good group heading down for Friday to Tuesday for some fun pleasure riding and cheering us on. Monica and I are both signing up at the Dec 1st slot and likely travelling down on the Wednesday and returning Tuesday (racing goes weds-mon).

I’ve been communicating with Ryan the race director and they are incredibly accommodating for both us racing and those spectating. He’s given us lots of options for food and camping.  If you have any questions or concerns let me know and I can forward them on to him.

Upcoming Ride Guide

Good morning All,

Rides for the week are up on the calendar.

Please be mindful of the trail conditions, and keep an eye on the website or the facebook site.

Cheers

Friday Ride and Groom

Heading out for 1pm to ride a bit with snowshoes in backpack, then switch to snowshoes and pull the groomer for a bit, then back to riding! Feel free to join in…

Wednesday Trail Report

8 of us got out for a ride last night. Trails where amazing and got in a 20km ride all single track.

I’m going to try and get out Friday to complete some grooming on the lolly and ridge trails so if anyone wants to join me let me know. Not sure what time but for grooming I’m hoping to catch it when it just gets above zero. I’m going to ride out, switch to snowshoes and pull the groomer then ride back.

Looking ahead to the weekend…plus temps day and night, plus 7 on Sunday. This is the time to maybe not ride the groomed trails, especially on a skinny bike. If you do attempt to get out please refrain from riding if you are leaving any ruts at all. They will just freeze that way and mess things up. Same code of conduct applies on winter trails. From the Dufferin County By-Law…”Check the trail conditions. If you are leaving tracks over ½” (1.25 cm) deep don’t use the trail.”

If you can ride and not leave ruts please enjoy! This is a good time to conduct grooming so feel free to snowshoe and pull the groomer. As an alternative for riding, the non-groomed trails will likely be good to go.

Have a great time!

J

Trans-Sylvania Epic cont. May 23rd-27th 2019

So I’m seriously considering going down for the 5 day stage race. It’s a race that I’ve long aspired to do and it was cancelled last year so I hoping this year I’ll go. My thoughts are that I may wait until Dec 1st to register and then pay a deposit of $400 and pay the rest in the spring. This is just in case something happens and I can’t make it.

So I’m going to chat it up a bit more here. I’ll be honest…going to these events is not just about the ride to me. It’s more about sharing the experiences with friends and enjoying other things in the area (like brew pubs! there are a bunch) while riding some new epic trails. It’s always been that way for me, BC bike Race, N.L. by Fat Bike, Epic 8’s (even the one I did solo I still rode with awesome friends)…they have all been about the amazing people I shared this with and the fantastic memories that last way after the event is over. I wouldn’t trade those times for anything.

For the sake of interest:

-Trans-Epic Dec 1st $799 (US$). 5 days of racing-average 50km day. Camping and dinner and TEpic race jersey included. Nice part, capped at 200 people. To compare…Crank the Shield, 3 day $739 (plus tax)—BC bike race, 7 day $2500 (+tx), Muskoka Ironman, 1 day $250(+tx).

-Each day starts and ends at basecamp-no shuffling around.

-There is also a 3 day event as well as a 3 & 5 day “non-race”. Same course just no hurry or timing.

-Trails in Penn State are normally really fun riding.

-Brew pubs–at least 5 in the area plus a Mexican restaurant (Mmm-Margarita’s!)

-Don’t want to race but feel like a mini biking road trip! No problem-6-7 hour drive (cool van trip, just saying!) & camping available at basecamp for “support crew”. There are lots of trails to ride right in the area that will not interfere with the race and the town of State College is close by. Looks like an awesome town with Penn. State University there. We have always found College towns to be the most fun and interesting.

So what I’m doing here is trying to see who may be interested in coming down for the race or just to ride for 3-4 days as a holiday. Not a full commitment, just to see if there is interest. I’ll be honest, I just really like hanging out with my friends and family at these things and would find it lonely on my own so I’m trying to be convincing so I have some company!

Please contact me and let me know if there is any semi-serious interest in attending this in the Spring.  Event details at : https://www.bikereg.com/tsepic

Thanks and hope to hear from you soon,  Johnny

Trail Report

Time to start this again. The snow looks like it is going to be staying in Dufferin Forest awhile so it’s fat bike season! (at least for now). A group of us (15 or so) got out on the weekend and started “grooming”. This is basically snowshoeing while pulling the “groomer” (a trailer tire) behind you. We got 8km’s out of the normal 14km that we try and keep open all winter.

We rode last night and the conditions where awesome! Lots of traction and you can still ride all the trails with a Fat Bike. The difference was very noticeable from the groomed trails to the ones that where just ridden on. They were wider with no tire trough and less icy so our efforts were definitely worth it. The groomed trails you could ride like single track, lots of fun speed and corners to rail through.

Wednesday night should be great and hopefully next day above zero we can get the rest groomed. Still 2/3rds of the lolly, part of the ridge connector and ridge to go. There is a groomer left at the red arrow tree so anyone could ride to it packing their snowshoes, switch to shoes, groom a bit and return to the bike for a ride out.

We had lots of folks helping out last year and it was the best Fat Bike year I’ve experienced out there. So nice to be able to continue riding real single track trails all winter while still having the more “open trails” (snowmobile groomed trails) as an option. So thanks to everyone who pulled the groomer!