I think autumn is my favorite time of year for mountain biking. It’s not real cold yet and the extreme heat is gone. If it does get a little chilly, a long sleeve jersey will do the trick. I also find that the trails are pretty much empty. No hikers, no horses and usually no other mountain bikers. When the leaves are turning, you also get great views of the season. Right now, we are at peak season for the leaves turning. The autumn colors certainly adds to the ride. This is also the time of year, for me, that the training rides are over for a while. All of my rides right now are just rides. No sprints…no timed 1200 foot climbs…just rides. The forest full of red and orange leaves, a calm lake with Canadian Geese taking a break and long, quiet pieces of singltrack to ride with Led Zeppelin on my iPod.

On this ride, I took the time to scout out some new trails. Every time I ride at Cherry Plain State Park, I seem to find a trail that I haven’t seen before. And this day was no different. A long dirt road that leads to a singletrack trail dropping down to a steam and running parallel to it and a mile long stretch of flowing singletrack that that connects two other trails that I’ve been riding for a while.

Every time I ride there, I get lost in time. It is so quiet and there is just so much to trail, a four hour ride is easy to do without realizing it.