Lost River Riding

Over the July 4th weekend, we went tubing on the 3rd and then spent 2 days at the Lost River State Park in WV. The Park is really nice with cabins, a pool, a rec room with Ping Pong. The park also has trails for hiking, riding and horses.
Road

Lost River 7-4-09

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The ride started off a little chilly, but one I started climbing I was doing just fine. This ride has some pretty roads from Patrick Hallow a back country road to Old Route 50 which had a great surface and banking with almost no traffic. I didn't know that there would be such steep stuff on old route 50, and was kinda funny when I did a wrong turn and ended up doing part of the route over again. This ride was a hard one, had allot of climbing and some bombing descents. I was able to test the Moots on some downhill action. The main course of the ride was the Lost River Road climb. Going from 940ft to 2800 ft. I had heard of this climb from a blog on the GamJams news role. The NCVC rider talked about people having to walk, I was like what? So I wanted to see it for myself. This is a closeup of the hardest part of the climb.It was one of the hardest climbs I have done right up there with Reddish Knob near Harrisonburg. I was riding a 36-26 and I was still going like 50rpms in some places, so I could see someone with a 39-23 or 25 dieing on it. Once I got to the Top it was some nice mountain top riding then a fun descent back to the park, only issue was that it felt like a mountain top finish with me having to climb the last bit back to the cabin.

Mountain(trails I rode in pink)
The next day I got up and went Mt. biking from the cabin on park trails. I wasn't sure how long I would ride since we were leaving that day, and there weren't too many trails to ride in the park. I get out of the cabin and go to the end of the street and bamn! I am in my 22-34 with the steepness of the climbing(I ride a 29er) I got up and on the east ridge trail which was the (mt. biking friendly trail) well some parts were big enough for a ATV to ride, but when it started going downhill you needed to be on a dual suspension, disc brake bike or have some skills. My brakes started squelling and at the bottom I put my glove on the rotor and it burned the leather! I then went up the fireroad to Big Mountain. This climb was harder then the previos day's climb but I was on a Mt. bike and had the low gears to get up it. After about 45minutes I made it to the top. There is a ridgeline trail that add some good mileage to the ride. I did an out and back on that with out ever getting to Millers Rock, it was starting to rain and I thought it would be good to get back. I took the Big Ridge Trail back down the mountain, and it was a horse trail, but did not say bikers couldn't use it. I wasn't worried about horses cause of the rain and crappy morning weather. Horses can really churn up a trail, this tail was sandy, and every rock unless it was a boulder was not in the ground firmly. I had some big rock kick up and hit me and my bike. The scary moment was when I came to a ravine, and the raing had made the rocks and roots slick. I slipped on a rock and then slipped on a root where I crashed and had my thigh pinched between the root and my bike. Was scary for a second, but luckly I have some big legs so a bruise not a broken bone. I then went back to the cabin via the howards lick trail and the lollipop trail. By the time I got back it was fully rainning, making me happy I got a ride in when the trails were dry. I did about 2 hours and only rode 12miles so that kinda tells how steep this place is. Would be really cool to have a Mt bike race here and have everyone campout and cabin at the race site.