More technical riding on the MN River Bottoms’ river side trail

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Last Sunday I rode the sandy riverside trail on the MN River Bottoms between I-35 and Cedar and was delighted to see that someone had added a big log slice to the section of the trail near the other log slices that I blogged about back in early January. It’s not too tough going over the slice heading north (left photo above) but when heading north (right photo), there’s a slight dip in the trail just prior to the log. So instead of just powering over the log to clean it, I had to do a small manual, keeping my speed up. The chain ring scars on top of the log aren’t from me, as I’ve removed my large chain ring and protected the middle ring with a bash guard.

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Heading north from the log slices, I spotted an old cottonwood stump on the left side of the trail where it appeared that riders had not ridden over it in many months because of deteriorating bark slabs that were used as ramps.  I cleaned out the old stuff and repositioned a couple of the slabs on one side of the stump to lesson the drop off. It’s fun and very cleanable heading south (nice gentle dirt ramp, right photo) but pretty challenging to get over it heading north.

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Further north on the trail, I positioned a railroad tie parallel to the big plank that’s perched on the log. It’s tricky because both the small tree and the big vine on one side of the railroad tie are in the way of your handlebars. It’s pretty doable for me heading south but I wasn’t able to come close to cleaning it heading north. The momentum I needed to get up onto the log would force my handlebars into the tree. If I tried to go slower, I wouldn’t get over the log. 

2 Comments

  1. charlie said:

    Keep it up Griff! You’re giving me important beta for stuff to do when I’m there picking up my daughter from St. O. Thanks!

    February 11, 2012
  2. Griff Wigley said:

    Hey Charlie, thanks for the encouragement.

    Looking at your mrbalky Twitter profile photo, it appears as if you also like to ride over obstacles on your mtn bike. St. Olaf College has more than a few decorative rocks that make for good obstacles tho I’m not 100% sure they approve of it. 😉 I’ll let you know if I get disciplined.

    February 11, 2012

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