Looked good on paper

Sometimes rides look better on paper, but let me start from the begining; I took my neighbor out for his first mountain biking experience. Now he say's he's ridden trails, like on his BMX bike as a kid and he really digs the rail trails but I said hey that's fun but you've never really gone 'Mountain Biking'. Mountain biking involves rocks, roots, mud, fast single track and grueling climbs. That's Mountain Biking; I love it!

So we spent a couple days getting my old GT back into a ridalbe state.

Now the only trails I knew close by was Frick, and Frick single track is just not a very kind introduction. So North Park came to mind and with a little research I thought I found a 'nice' ride. See my North Ridge Trail post below.

I could tell from the topo map there was going to be a climb involved and I invisioned a nice gradual climb following the contours out of the valley. I didn't want to pick anything too extreme. Like me he's out of shape and I wanted him to like mountain biking; not think of it as some kind of torture ritual disguised as fun and exercise.

So how grueling is that North Ridge trail climb? It's nearly half a mile and barely let's up. Let's just say he really gave it his best but my boy lost his lunch before he made it to the top. Now maybe those hot dogs we ate spent a little extra time in the the but I really think it was the climb. (See my road alternative to the North Ridge climb.

The image is a link to part of North Park on topo zone. If you're not familiar with topo zone click on the link and check it out. It's a great place to get topo maps.