Guitarswheelies and I went up to Stowe Vt to visit my buddy Mike and ride. We rode the usual Town Loop and some extreme hiking before heading over to the Kingdom Trails (KTA) and camping/riding. The KTA was excellent. There is endless fast smooth singletrack and some advanced trails like "Tody's Tour" and "Sidewinder". The place was absolutely beautiful. It even smelled like pine trees the whole time. The downhill trails were closed due to mud. Mike knows the trailbuilders and wanted to respect them.
On the last day, Dave left and Mike and I headed back to Stowe to do a final ride outside of Stowe at Putnam State Forest. We climbed around 800 to 1000 feet (guess) to ride "Joe's" then "First Born" and "Campfire". Joe's and First Born were crazy , riding over big rocks, steep descents, really technical steep sections. I endoed in a steep rock chute but came away OK. After that I walked another steep chute. Campfire was fun smoother riding along the edge of small cliff. We ended up at nearly the bottom.
Finally, we climbed all the way up past the initial point we climbed earlier and up to the very top. My guess would be 1500 to 1800 feet of climbing to hit the top of Burning Spear then Rastaman.
Wow. What an advanced ride. I felt like a novice. Those are the most extreme trails I have ever been on. Steep stuff thats doable, but just at my limit, some beyond. Once you commit don't back out or your going down hard. I went over a few bridges that were a foot or two wide but up high. One bridged a chasm that I didn't look down, it was too deep. I just made sure my front tire stayed in the middle of the bridge. Another bridge was so high and had such a hard approach that I walked it. Finally we hit the bottom to climb a few hundred more feet to get to the final scream back to the car.
My heart is still pounding from those trails, I just wish they were at Sals!
