Went for a ride today at Warwick County Park in northern Chester County. Never rode here before, but we were here once before for a short hike. I knew there weren't many miles of trail here, but I was curious to see what the place looked like from a mtb saddle perspective. Also, the place is north of where I live and thus a little colder, and the hillside mostly faces north... gotta hope for frozen trails ya know. Mud ain't cool.
So with an air temp hovering around freezing, I hopped on the yellow trail (actually the Horseshoe Trail). Two miles later, I came to a bit of an obstacle... namely French Creek. No bridge, couple feet of water... nope. So I turned around and started snapping pix. Yes, whaddaya know, I brought a decent camera this time.
There's some purty spots along the trail. You can see the trail is mostly pretty easy. No, it's all pretty easy, especially the Horseshoe Trail portion... not much in the way of elevation change. Would be a good family ride spot, fer sher.
This was about the worst of the few soft spots I saw. Yeah, there's still some ice in them thar hills, but not much. Most of the trail was still crunchy, but low spots next to the creek were soft here and there. By the way, this spot was much easier at speed than crawling. I'm learning...
One of a couple bridges on the Horseshoe. No challenge here, but that's OK too... the rest of the family will appreciate a bridge that's actually more than 18" wide.
Another purty section of trail winding thru some tall trees. Unlike sections of trails I've hiked in other parts of the kuntry, there's no shortage of trail markers here. You could just about reach from one marker to the next.
This kind of crap bugs me. And since this is a blog, I'll tell ya why. Now, do you think some landowner is trying to tell trail users that they aren't welcome on his land? Mr. Landowner, do you think an occasional sign would suffice? Two orange stakes and three yellow "No Trespassing" signs tells me more about the landowner than the land. Probably either an ex-city-slicker or some crotchety miserable old fart. Or some combination thereof.
Off the yellow trail and up onto the white trail. There's over 200' of elevation gain from bottom to top in this park, so despite the lack of miles, you can surely get some interval workouts in by climbing the hills. The toughest grind was the new red trail segment from yellow to white. It's not shown on the online map. The climb is tough enough, but there's mulch on the trail which does a great job imitating a sponge soaked in Aunt Jemima... it just feels like it's suckin' you in and not lettin' go. One stint uphill on that trail was enough for me.
So Warwick was a decent place to check out. Next time I'll bring the family and a picnic. Honestly, with French Creek State Park so close, it would be hard to rationalize riding here and not riding FC. But now I can say "bin dair, dun dat".
Went for a ride today at Warwick County Park in northern Chester County. Never rode here before, but we were here once before for a short hike. I knew there weren't many miles of trail here, but I was curious to see what the place looked like from a mtb saddle perspective. Also, the place is north of where I live and thus a little colder, and the hillside mostly faces north... gotta hope for frozen trails ya know. Mud ain't cool.
So with an air temp hovering around freezing, I hopped on the yellow trail (actually the Horseshoe Trail). Two miles later, I came to a bit of an obstacle... namely French Creek. No bridge, couple feet of water... nope. So I turned around and started snapping pix. Yes, whaddaya know, I brought a decent camera this time.
There's some purty spots along the trail. You can see the trail is mostly pretty easy. No, it's all pretty easy, especially the Horseshoe Trail portion... not much in the way of elevation change. Would be a good family ride spot, fer sher.
This was about the worst of the few soft spots I saw. Yeah, there's still some ice in them thar hills, but not much. Most of the trail was still crunchy, but low spots next to the creek were soft here and there. By the way, this spot was much easier at speed than crawling. I'm learning...
One of a couple bridges on the Horseshoe. No challenge here, but that's OK too... the rest of the family will appreciate a bridge that's actually more than 18" wide.
Another purty section of trail winding thru some tall trees. Unlike sections of trails I've hiked in other parts of the kuntry, there's no shortage of trail markers here. You could just about reach from one marker to the next.
This kind of crap bugs me. And since this is a blog, I'll tell ya why. Now, do you think some landowner is trying to tell trail users that they aren't welcome on his land? Mr. Landowner, do you think an occasional sign would suffice? Two orange stakes and three yellow "No Trespassing" signs tells me more about the landowner than the land. Probably either an ex-city-slicker or some crotchety miserable old fart. Or some combination thereof.
Off the yellow trail and up onto the white trail. There's over 200' of elevation gain from bottom to top in this park, so despite the lack of miles, you can surely get some interval workouts in by climbing the hills. The toughest grind was the new red trail segment from yellow to white. It's not shown on the online map. The climb is tough enough, but there's mulch on the trail which does a great job imitating a sponge soaked in Aunt Jemima... it just feels like it's suckin' you in and not lettin' go. One stint uphill on that trail was enough for me.
So Warwick was a decent place to check out. Next time I'll bring the family and a picnic. Honestly, with French Creek State Park so close, it would be hard to rationalize riding here and not riding FC. But now I can say "bin dair, dun dat".
Mike
ReplyDeleteGreat blog!
I liked riding at Warwick. It is good to change things up with some different scenery. There are many places to ride in Northern Chester County.
It seems like we chewing the same dust.
Mike