battle creek

Alright were to start. Lets start with my lack luster day at work. Work was going alright, dragging on a bit and I wasn't really looking forward to my workout after work. Like normal I was steeling a second or two every now and then to check out mtb sights and at 3pm like a sign from God the MORC site had an update and Battle Creek was listed as tacky and open!! Holla! So at that time my day just got a hundred time better and my mind just checked out! haha. I rushed home picked up my bike, Kelly and Jerry drove to Kelly's parents dropped them off and head the couple blocks over to the trail head.
Ok bike talk. I got there put the bike together and tried to read their trail map, should have been in Greek. It was just a bunch of lines with a legend that said what the different colors were, no "your here" dot or land marks. I had no idea what to expect since I had never rode here. So I was like f it and started riding. I figured it couldn't be that bad, I could figure it out. Nope I ended up doubling back like 3 times before I finally got someplace farther then 100 meters from the parking lot. I still couldn't figure this place out. There was single track and then it would open up to a ski trail and then if you didn't have your eyes peeled you would miss the jut off.
After about 20mins of meandering around and starting to think this trail was all hype and no fun. Then I ran into this guy going the other way. First I apologized for going the wrong way and he told me not to be sorry since there isn't a direction of travel, which can be cool if no one else is there because it gives you the fredom to explore different lines but it can cause havoc if you have a lot of people on the trail but not today! I saw 4 rides not counting myself. Second I asked him where these cool technical trails that I had heard about were?He pointed me in the right direction. A bit confusing directions. He said something along the lines of straight, veer right, turn right on the pavement left after the chain fence veer right and then go left or something but I found it. He lead me to what I think they refer to as the luge and when I saw it my eyes got huge!
This is probably the closest thing I've seen to a down hill run/bike park in the cities. It was an awesome minute to minute and a half run, maybe a bit more, fast flowy, berm filled down hill run with jumps! It was awesome. I took it pretty easy the first time down just to get a feel for it. It did have some steep berms and they were a bit slick in parts and there were leaves but after a little raking and some warm days that place is going to be stellar! The second time I let it rip a little bit more. I still need to work a bit on trusting my bike through the turns the farther I got down the run the more I was feeling the bike and trusting the tire. I could have spent hours just riding that section and pushing my bike back up to the top but I wanted to try to get as much riding in as I could before it rained.
I chatted it up for a little bit with a couple guys doing exactly what I wanted to do just riding that dh section. They told me where to find the trail and off I was. There was quite a bit of climbing but that's cool with me if there is as sweet of pay off as this place has to offer. There is a fair amount of roots and rocks. Not quite as much as Turkey Mountain but it's still sweet. There was this one root section I just couldn't clean. I tried it 3 times but no dice. It was right after a right left S down hill turn and was like a 3 tier step down root with a strong right right after it. It's tough because it is fairly steep and you are carrying a fair amount of speed. Had to bail all three times but by the end of the summer it will be my bitch!
I made it back to my car just after it started to rain but before it started to come down hard. Over all it was 1.5hr ride and it was awesome. I can't wait to spend some quality time there. I don't think I even scratched the surface of this trail. The trails simple just spider web all over that place. I didn't know what to expect there and I was a bit disappointed right away but then it lived up to the hype. I had a bit of high expectation with rumors of hills named the luge, ski jump and sled hill and the luge was bad ass!
All I have to say is some of these other trails like Lebanon, Wirth and Murphy have some big shoes to fill to impress me and if Battle Creek doesn't get a double black I'm excited to see what Lebanon double black has to offer!
I have a little treat for you all, here is a video teaser of the new Cuyuna Trail in Crosby, MN. This trail would be considered bad as anywhere in the US but it looks epic in MN standards and I can't wait to get up there and shred this place up! Click HERE After you check this out and don't want to load your bike up and head up there right now you might need to check your pulse or sell your bike! haha
Hopefully this rain doesn't amount to too much and we can get out and ride this weekend because I just got bit by the bug hard again!
Keep it real!