New England surprise
After riding in Boston, Rita and I got up the next day and drove toward Connecticut. I was surprised at how forested and hilly this region of New England was. It was a pleasant, rolling drive and the weather was sunny and 70s. We stopped at a cafe in Rhode Island for breakfast, eating a classic meal of toast, eggs, and hashbrowns. Our target for the day was a place called Powder Ridge in Middlefied, for Connecticut downhill mountain biking.
In the winter, Powder Ridge is a lift serviced ski hill, and in the summer it opens up for downhill mountain biking. When I first learned about it (through the powers of the internet), I was surprised that such a place existed in Connecticut. For some reason I always thought of Connecticut as a flat, mostly urban area with maybe some small sections of New England countryside. I’m not sure where I came up with that idea, but it wasn’t quite correct.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are no tall, snowy peaks in Connecticut, but they do have their fair share of hills. Powder Ridge rests on Besek Mountain, which extends 840 ft into the sky. Not bad considering it is less than 20 miles from the ocean. In any case, there’s plenty of vertical for Connecticut downhill mountain biking.
Getting in gear
In my research I did find a few other places that rented bikes, such as Niantic Bay Bicycles by the coast. However, most of these places were closed during the timeframe I had available to visit Connecticut. So if Powder Ridge for some reason didn’t have bikes available, I’d miss out on a rare opportunity to bike in Connecticut.
We arrived at Powder Ridge around noon and went in to check on the bike rental situation. They had plenty of equipment for rent, and it was a great day for riding. I selected a bike as well as a full face helmet. This was only my second time doing downhill riding, the first being at Whistler five years earlier. I was a bit worried, wondering if I’d be able to tackle the challenge of the hill.
Rita stayed at the lodge to study, and I headed off toward the chair lift. Instead of jumping right on though, I first walked my bike up a short, steep, dirt road that connected to some of the trails. Here I took a warmup ride on Skulk, a blue trail. I survived and decided to get on the lift and tackle the full hill.
Lil’ Bruiser
At the top there were beautiful views of the surrounding Connecticut countryside. I gaped and took some photos, before remembering that I was there to bike. The first trail I took was a green called Lil’ Bruiser. It was twisty, muddy, and fun. I overhead a comment from another biker to avoid the trail given all the mud and water, but I thought it was a blast.
Lil’ Bruiser was decorated to fit in with the Halloween spirit. In two forest groves, staff erected scary looking homes with Halloween creatures stalking outside. Some of the figures I saw were villagers with deer heads and sorcerers with antlers. In addition, there were audio recordings that looped continuously throughout the day. One segment I remember was a young boy whispering “bubble, bubble, toil, and trouble.”
According to its map, Powder Ridge has two additional green trails that traversed the length of the mountain, Shredwood and Wild Turkey. Unfortunately, Shredwood was closed and Wild Turkey was nowhere to be found. Since I was a bit nervous to ride a blue trail all the way down the mountain (I wouldn’t consider a black diamond at a bike park), I stuck with Lil’ Bruiser most of the day.
There were moments of unsteadiness and slip n’ slide, but I never went head over tea kettle. On one occasion, I took a detour near the bottom of the trail on to Half Pipe, a blue trail. The name gives it all away; it was half of a concrete pipe. I didn’t have the speed to get to the top of the pipe, but I gave my best attempt to ride up the curves. There is one point where the half pipe crosses under a concrete bridge, and they put up padding to soften any head collisions.
Flow Dawg
Near the end of my outing, I decided to step it up a notch and do a blue trail, top to bottom. I took another ride on the chair lift, and then biked over to the south end of the park. There is a steep and rocky section that requires hike a bike, and beyond that lie two blue trails and two black diamond trails. I selected a trail called Flow Dawg, as I am a huge fan of flowy trails.
Immediately I knew I was a step above the green. The trail began with a steep downhill section over rocks. After that it was true to its word, flowy and fast. I was riding right on the edge of my comfort level, part thrilled and part nervous. My biggest accomplishment of that ride was that I never stopped, and I never put my foot down. I flew the whole way down, and when I finished a mixture of happiness and relief washed over me.
I doubt I’ll ever ascend to the level of black diamond, given that I don’t go out enough and get practice anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done some black diamond trails in the past. For most I was constantly on and off the bike. I’ve never really cruised easily down a true black diamond before. In any case, I was happy to have at least conquered Flow Dawg. After going down Lil’ Bruiser one last time, I called it a day. To be honest, my day of Connecticut downhill mountain biking was more fun than my time at Whistler. The trails in Whistler are heavily washboarded.
On the boardwalk
While returning my bike, the store attendant made the comment “must be muddy out there”. Indeed, I was caked in mud, head to toe. The bike got washed off with the hose, but I remained covered, and had to put on a change of clothes before getting into the car.
Rita and I then toured over to the Connecticut coast and the town of Niantic. We took a stroll from Hole in the Wall Beach, along the Niantic Boardwalk, to Niantic Beach. A lift bridge rose up for 20-30 minutes, blocking traffic for what I guessed must be a large ship passing through. Turns out it was just the evening call to let the sailboats back in. Imagine getting stuck by that every day on the way home from work.
We walked down on the beach, splashing a little in the water and skipping stones. Then we headed back into town for a meal of pizza at Vincitori, and dessert afterwards at Gumdrops & Lollipops. Rita had a towering cone of ice cream, while I had fudge and root beer. It’s a bit of a passion of mine to taste local, craft made root beers from around the country. This one was called Hosmer Mountain, https://hosmersoda.com/, and it was the first root beer I’ve tried with brown sugar. I was skeptical, but the flavors blended really well.
