Wow! Leave it up to the CAMBA team of trail builders to improve upon an already fun section of trails in NE Ohio. A big segment of the West Branch State Park (Ravenna, Ohio) mountain bike trails run along side the adjacent lake, as each year some of the trail keeps disappearing into the lake, thus requiring trail reworks and such.
I've been able to ride the trail both Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. Saturday the trail was so dry and fast, and I noticed immediately all the changes the trail incurred over the winter. I still can't ride the rockier southern portion of the trails very well, but still working on it. In reading a recent post on the blog of the "Akron Cyclist" I have shared many of Andrew's thoughts of this West Branch trail. It's a trail that I tend to have several mishaps with, and really try to stay away from it when following a recent rain.
Now, for yesterdays visit to WB. I got up Sunday morning and headed off for another lap at West Branch, and other than a few clouds didn't appear to be any threatening weather. As I got about 1/2 mile from the trail parking lot I began to notice standing puddles of water along the roads. As I pulled into the state park the puddles and roads where even more saturated. I thought heck, what is going on? There where a few cars parked in the lot, so I jumped on the bike and headed onto the trail. As it turns out, a thunderstorm opened up on this isolated area and dumped a large amount of rain. The trails weren't all that muddy, but the roots were extremely slick just waiting to take me down hard. I decided to soften up the suspension and tire pressure and take it slow. I ended up by-passing the rockier section this day, and opted to ride the northern lake side trails back to the car. Personally, I think it was a wise decision.
If you haven't been to West Branch recently, check it out.
Bob
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