Well, today was some ride. 34 degrees at the house, 9:00 am
We drove to DuPont Forrest to ride up there for the day. The cold was not an issue once you start climbing (and climbing, and climbing)
We started out going to the rock quarry for a quick warm up. Then on to the top of the quarry before heading up to Slick Rock for lunch. From there we took off to see many more trails (I forget all the names but we climbed a lot). We broke up into two groups: the group who crossed the ice cold stream and the group that didn't (jury is still out on which group was smarter)
Once we crossed the stream we took off for the Airport Strip, neat place to see. After charging up our water supplies we took off down the sweeping, switch-backing Airport Strip trail. Some of our group went twice this trail was SO MUCH FUN. From there we went on to the waterfalls, lakes and an abandoned (half finished) house.
After some more climbing we found our way back to the Airport Strip where we, you guessed it, had to cross back over that cold stream again. Slippery, 35 feet to cross, water rushing, cold stinging your feet.. a small price to pay for the things we saw while we were on that side of the stream. What fun. from there we took the bail out (read that as More Climbing) to get back to the parking lot.
We left at 10:45 am and got back just before 5:00 pm. Sounds tough but it was less than 3 hours ride time (IF you didn't climb back up that Airstrip trail the second time) and the faster riders got a lot more rest than the slower riders did. However, we stopped plenty of times to let everyone catch up and catch their breath before we moved on. I heard no complaints all day. (Note: Except for the fierce cold water in the stream!)
This was a very fun day. A lot of work and some cold to deal with but the view and variety is well worth the effort of making this trip.