White Clay - Virgin Voyage

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Finally got to White Clay State Park and Middle Run last Sunday. Andrew had been telling me about this place for months, and he and Eric were kind enough to show me around. Since I've got more than a decade on these guys, and since they are stronger riders, I left the decent digital camera in the car - I needed to save every friggin' gram I could. So once again the pix are crappy cell phone images. Heck, the only decent picture we took - one of Eric cresting a big log pile - couldn't be saved because the camera was still full of crap pix from Marsh Creek. So not only are they crappy pix, they do no justice to White Clay. Next time... As it was, Eric and Drew were riding light - smart! I had a MULE on my back filled with about 2L of water, GPS, food, etc. Not to mention a seat pouch filled with some emergency goodies: tube, tools, first aid kit. Both Drew and Eric were riding rigids - Drew on a Moots YBB (26er) and Eric on a Niner SIR9 (obviously a 29er) set up for SSing. Way cool bikes. And of course I was on my Kenworth. I really, really want a rigid 29er with short chain stays. It would have to be geared thanks to my POS left knee. We hit the trails shortly before 10 AM. Temp was maybe 20 with little if any breeze - perfect, really. Trails were nice and frozen. Andrew was right - there isn't much technical about White Clay and sister park Middle Run. Alot of it is tight flowing twisty stuff, an admitted handful for my cautious self on a big long bike. But don't get me wrong, there are plenty of cool challenging spots - like riding thru an icy pipe (duck!), log piles, rock piles, and short steep dips. One very cool area was sorta like a half pipe where you swoosh back and forth the dirt walls as you descend. I think it might be the segment they call "The Corkscrew"? I was doing OK until some leaves led me astray and I missed a turn... but nbd, just clipped back in and kept on going. The "Logzilla" log pile section was also fun. I was too chicken to ride the biggest piles but Andrew and Eric polished 'em off. Actually the piles are pretty wide so as long as you stay straight you could jump out of the pedals at the top if you're tighty-whiteys bunch up. Another cool area was the skills area. Of course I told myself beforehand there was no friggin' way I was heading in there but Drew said "Oh yeah you are" so I did. You can watch YouTube vids about the White Clay skills area all day 'til the cows come home, but suffice it to say I did some of the stuff, not all of it. Just the easier stuff. Of course Drew nailed everything. And so did Eric after what I think was a brief pause to gather himself and reflect on his life before entering the elevated bridge and teeter-totter section. I bypassed the elevated segment, but it was cool to ride under the "el" while they were on it. Yeah, more photo opps totally blown, I know... but Ken Cox has a nice slide show of it here: http://www.kencox.net/?page_id=12&file=skills_trail_2007/ We rode 'til well after 1 PM. I sorta lost track of time. I was doing fine for probably the first 15 or so miles, but after that my "winter legs" were sagging. We did somewhere north of 20 miles and I had to granny ring a few hills just to keep from burning up. Eric kicked butt on his SS Niner and Drew was always right there. Me... well I had my GPS if I needed it! But in the end it all worked out - no cramping, no hallucinations, still breathing. All good. And after the ride we fixed everything that ailed us with some Guinness, some real B&Ts, and some lunch in Kennett Square. Man did that hit the spot! So, without further adieu, here's the only crappy pix I got:

Here's me showing Andrew how to work the camera on my Blackberry. With gloves, of course, those dam little buttons are impossible and thus this pic was taken. Uhm, like oh it just took a picture.

Random shot of the least interesting sections of trail. I was too busy navigating and catching up to "the kids" on the fun sections to take pix in those sections, despite Drew encouraging me to do so. My bad. Anyway, you can see the trail is fairly tight even where it's not twisty.

After a breather, Drew's tire decided to shed most if its air courtesy of a defiant thorn. So, what do friends do but take pictures of them changing tubes?

Many thanks to Andrew and Eric for taking this fossil out for a ride!