(sorry for the cell phone camera pix...)
Wanted to try a new place, so I drive 45 minutes to southern Chester County to Nottingham County Park. I'd never seen this park before and I gotta say I was impressed - real nice place.
For some reason - forest fire or just strange soil - the woods looked more like woods I've seen out west - lotsa scrawny pines, not too much hardwood like we're used to seeing here in southeast PA. Sort of cool - made me feel like I was riding somewhere far from home!
Not knowing what to expect, I brought my cushy full-suspension bike for the ride today. Man, after riding the rigid for awhile, riding this is like cruising in a '72 Caddy - real smooth.
The official trails are all doubletrack, and you couldn't find a technical element here if you're life depended on it. That could make for a boring place, but there's plenty of elevation change and fast downhills to spice things up.
Tough place? Nah, not that tough! Found this unlucky critter at one end of the Buck Trail.
My take on mountain biking in this park - it's a good x-country ride. You can keep your speed up both uphill and downhill. Then, if the doubletrack gets old, hop on a fire break trail for some fun. The one shown in the pic above was a blast.
There's a few stream crossings in the park and this one above was the most fun of the bunch. What you see is a small "crick" on the right merging into another small crick on the left.
Here's an unusual (for Nottingham) section of woods - deciduous with a bright green fern carpet. Way more inviting than the dense thorny bushes which occupied almost all of the areas where pines were found. Those thorn bushes looked purty from a distance, but an up close look revealed one stout tire puncturing 1/4" needle after another. After another. And another. Millions of pickers. There's no way you wanna fall into those bushes... not sure you'd make it out in one piece!
Well, that's enough for now. Next time I'll bring the rigid and maybe the rest of the family.
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