Scorched Earth Scurry...

Putting on a little SSOFTeam ride this Saturday. It’s a double-loop, fat-tire, fixed-gear ride over the rollickin’, rollin’, asphalt-smooth dirt trails at Rosaryville in Uppah Marrahburrah, Merylin. All are welcome. Here’s the official four-one-one:

Scorched Earth Scurry
Sponsored by The Bicycle Escape and Single Speed Outlaw Factory Team
Location: Rosaryville State Park, Upper Marlboro, MD. First parking lot on the right after the gate.
Date: Saturday, December 4. Meet at 9 am, wheels down and rolling at 9:15 am
Terrain: Mild. The loop is hardpack singletrack with plenty of whoop-de-doos. Short up- and downhills. Fixed gear and singlespeed friendly.
Ride level: Moderate to advanced, depending on the players.
Description: A 20-mile fixed-gear dirt ride. Fixed gear recommended, but all mountain/cross bikes are welcome. What better way to warm up the winter engine and prepare for the onslaught of cooler weather than going coast-less in the woods of (moderately) wild, (moderately) wonderful Upper Marlboro, MD? Come on out and pedal every inch of the 10-mile dirt loop in one direction, then hit it again going the other way to double your pedaling pleasure. This route is pure bliss, a veritable roller-coaster ride guaranteed to have you grinning from ear to ear without feeling like you had to suffer for it!

Food, Firkins,1 and Fat Tires: The Second Annual Bootlegger's Bliss (Part 1)...

I'm feelin' restless
Bring another score around
Maybe something stronger
Could really hold me down
—The Who, "Dr. Jimmy", Quadrophenia

If you missed the personally famous 2nd Annual Bootlegger's Bliss, well, a little self-flagellation should be added to your to-do list (unless, of course, you like that sort of thing, in which case you should abstain). Oh, and while your at it, might as well add next year's event². Then, before you forget, head out to your local homebrew store and set yourself up with the requisite gear so you'll have something to offer at the next one. Now on to the recap...

On the chilly morning of Satyrday, November 3, seventeen of the finest homebrewing mountain bikers in the US mid-Atlantic region (and their friends) made the pilgrimage to Rosaryville State Park in Upper Marlboro, MD, to throw down and throw down. Some journeyed from as far away as Massachusetts and Pennsylvania to attend this intimate but nonetheless burgeoning little event. The gods of drunken debauchery were with us, compelling (as gods are wont to do) the unsuspecting park authorities to leave the park road gates open for our little blissful bacchanalia. We didn't complain about this oversight; driving in a little closer to the pavilion meant we wouldn't have to huck our beer and food and gear the half mile to our destination. I don't mind hauling things by bike, but yeast sediment has a different opinion.

After waiting for all the participants to arrive, the event gets underway just after 10:00 ayem with a pre-ride lap around the Pavilion 2 parking lot to warm up. After that, we roll along the park road en masse to the trail head, where we drop in one by one onto a ribbon of sweet singletrack.

Butch takes the lead while I sweep. We spread out along the roller-coaster ride that is Rosaryville, a roughly 10-mile loop of fast, buffed singletrack designed with a bent for elation over enervation. Single-speed friendly? That's putting it mildly. With only about three or four "uphills" to call its own, Rosaryville is the sort of place you make for when you just want to turn off your mind, have fun, and not feel like you paid a price for it—it can even make for a nice recovery ride, depending on how hard you choose to lay it down. "Bliss" is an apt word here.

This morning, the trail is freckled with fallen leaves, unusual for the time of year, when trails are normally inches deep in a musty blanket of leaf litter. A protracted Indian summer has left the trees in a quandary over when to begin shedding their mottled finery. Foliage is just sparse enough to allow good sight lines at the normally blind corners, making for a speedy pace where a little caution might otherwise be in order. The earth is mostly dry, but not dusty, owing to a little rainfall whose essence lingers like an aftertaste here and there in the shade. Perfect conditions.

We stop occasionally to regroup. About mid-way through, we decide to hit the trials section to let the gifted among us showboat a bit and to give Gary and some others^3,4 who hucked their cameras along a chance to shoot some pix. Among the daredevils who step up are local legend the Single Speed Outlaw, Dave B. (fixed gear!), Rickyd (fixed gear!), DmofoT (SS, front brake only!), the Disco Cowboy (fixed gear!), Butch, Ernie, and a hard-riding chick named Lynn, whose talent and ad-hoc yarbles put us slack-jawed gawkers to shame. They take turns riding the log curve; some gain access via the barely-ramped ends while others choose to side-hop their way atop. Thrills and spills ensue, and this little episode ends on a chicken joust of sorts, with DT at one end going up against Rickyd at the other. Two matches conclude with one win apiece and a ton of laughs for the rest of us.

We mount up and head off again. Soon, we come upon the single log ramp at the trailside just before the park road that bisects the trail near mile five. The same characters (minus Lynn and Ernie) take turns putting on another show here. They shift and shimmy, start and stop to stay in balance as they trundle along the narrow log to launch off the end. The results are often comical, as when Rickyd muffs a reverse attempt and ends up giving new meaning to the phrase "sporting wood"—cue the banjo, if you catch my drift. After taking some shots, Gary decides to head back along the road to the parking lot to meet us on the other end of the trail for some more action pix.

The rest of us venture across the paved road and back into the woods for a short climb. The second half of the trail at Rosaryville always seems faster to me, and with the increase in speed comes a trebling of fun. We spread out a bit here, and I abandon the sweep and soon find myself behind ShivaSteve, who is skinny-tiring it on a fixed Il Pompino cross bike and making good time. It's Steve's first ride here, and he's carving the twists and turns as if they're already tattooed on his cerebral cortex. I stick to his tail for a while. At some point, he cedes the lead to me, and I angle around him and lay it down. I catch up to Lynn, who is, oddly, riding toward me. Seems she's lost the trail proper at a four-way intersection and needs a little guidance. I set her straight, then wait for the others to make sure no one makes a similar error.

Back on the bike, I catch several riders before the last climb, a short, somewhat steep up-n-over that gives way to a curvy downhill to the parking lot, where the sky once again expands just beyond the tree cover. The chilly morning has quitely surrendered to a most favonian afternoon, bringing with it a pronounced thirst for some tasty beer. I circle the lot to wait for others to emerge, after which we all begin the slog back along the park road to the pavilion, where the feast and gifts from the yeast await.

End, Part 1

1. Okay, truth be told, no firkins were on hand, but really, nine gallons of beer from any one brewer might have been excessive, even with this typically hard-drinking crowd. It's in the title only because I'm a fiend for alliteration—a shortcoming, I know, but let me wallow in my wanton weaknesses.

2. Speaking of which, rumor has it that DmofoT may host a springtime Bliss up in Massachusetts.

3. Photo credits, in order of appearance: B. Ramsey (1st); D. Ross (2nd through 5th); G. Ryan (6th, 7th, and final)

4. Links to more pix of the finks and the drinks and the hijinx are here and here and here and there. Additional perspectives may be found here and over at this little-known gem of a site.

Get Yer Dirt On: Rosaryville Rollin'...

A few pix from Sunday's ride at Rosaryville State Park, Upper Marlboro, MD. Photo credits: B. Ramsey.

Flow-saryville...

Wow! Got in a nice 10 mile dirt ride with my girl last Saturday at Rosaryville State Park in Upper Marlboro, EmDee. First time either of us had ever been there, and I wanted to check it out before hooking up with Bootch-wah on Sunday morning for a group ride there with some newbie MTBers. It was my girl's fourth time out on her new SS (and her fourth time offroad on clipless pedals); she decided earlier that she'd had enough road riding lately and that it was time to return to the fun stuff. I gave her no argument.

We got to the park late in the afternoon and ran into Dave M., the MORE trail liaison for that area, and his son in the parking lot. They were getting ready to ride and gave us some beta on the trail, assuring us that the clockwise direction offered the most enjoyment. So we took it, falling in behind the two of them and exchanging leads on and off for the duration of the ride, thanks in part to a mishap one of them suffered involving a derailleur cage and a seemingly unmovable object (I didn't miss the opportunity to light-heartedly point out the obvious advantage that single speeds offer), and to the occasional urge to take in the scenery from a standstill.

Simply put, this place is pure flow. Think anti-Elizabeth Furnace. The route is a twisty (though not particularly tight à la those at Lodi Farm), meandering loop of singletrack that is so uncharacteristically smooth and featureless that a night ride there might leave one with the absurd impression that the whole sinuous ribbon was overlaid with asphalt. No rocks, no roots, no water-carved crevasses, one or two shallow water crossings, a few fallen logs, and short uphills. Lots and lots of whoopedies, plenty of speed, and—owing to the dearth of rainfall lately—velcro-like traction on the climbs and in the corners. And all under an almost continuous cover of shade from the dense foliage of interlaced branches overhead. What the course lacks in technical challenges it more than makes up for in exhilaration and simple enjoyment. Its genius lies in the fact that it doesn't try to be anything more than a grin-inducing carnival ride that lets you relax and just mindlessly carve the terrain like a renegade roller coaster. It's not a steady-diet kind of trail, because I think it would be easy to get burned out on it. But as a diversion from some of the more brutal locales (e.g., the Watershed), it certainly warrants an occasional place in the lineup.

Once again, my girl excelled on the bike, especially given the swoopy speed and blind corners that characterize this trail, and the fact that this place was new to her. She was never far behind me, ripping the twisty downhills and hammering up the climbs. A return trip is already in the works.

I got a little forced deja vu the next day when I returned to the trail with Butch, Charlie, and Justin, who borrowed Butch's Karate Monkey for his first SS ride. The latter two guys where somewhat new to dirt riding, but after ripping through the 10 mile loop, the poison was in the wound, to steal a line from Nabokov. After the ride, we hung out in the parking lot just long enough to offset the effects of the sticky humidity by throwing down some cold post-ride brews (thanks, Butch).

POSTSCRIPT: Props are due to Rich Edwards of IMBA, who I understand had a huge hand in the creation of the trail at Rosaryville. If you haven't joined IMBA yet, click here for instant, hassle-free expiation...your bike will thank you for it.

POST-POSTSCRIPT: Most online descriptions of the loop at Rosaryville list the length as between seven and a half and eight miles; however, recent trail work now puts the total closer to 10 miles.