This past weekend, we went up to attend the Newsong Men’s Retreat. As we did last year, we planned to do some mountain biking. However, this time, Elijah got involved in the retreat planning and was appointed to lead a mountain biking activity during the free time. We found a trail that was just a few miles away from the retreat site at Thousand Pines near Lake Gregory and ended up doing two rides.
On Friday afternoon, we drove up the mountain and went for a pre-ride before going to the retreat site to check-in. Turns out it was a good thing, because we realized first hand how challenging the initial uphill was with a 1500 feet climb in the first 3 miles. We didn’t have time to do the whole loop, so just made it to the first turnoff at the top of the climb.
On Saturday afternoon, we had the official mountain biking activity, and we were pleasantly surprised to have a group of 11 guys ready to ride with gear and bikes. We were thinking that it would just be a couple of us like last year, but I guess there are plenty of guys who wanted to ride, they just needed some planning and organization. We got a bit lost driving to the trailhead, but eventually got there. We were a little worried about not having an adventure pass, particularly when we saw a ranger walking around talking with people in the parking lot. But he was really friendly and didn’t even bring it up. We’ll have to remember next time.
Once the ride got started, we began the initial climb and the pack started to spread out, eventually breaking off into 3 groups. With one group making the full loop, the second reaching the turnoff at the top of the initial climb, and the final group turning back down. Almost all of the trail was Recreational Vehicle / Fire Road, with wide lanes regularly covered in loose gravel and sand. This made it challenging, particularly when climbing to find the right lines. At the top of the ridge, there were some branch-offs that looked pretty technical, but would have to be saved for another day. The down-side return was a fast swooping fire road where we could get plenty of speed.
We were a little tight on time, but made it back to the retreat site just in time to get the last of dinner. And had a nice wrap-up sitting with a bunch of the riders on the outside deck. All in all, everybody had a good time, and now we have a good loop that we can do in the Lake Gregory / Arrowhead area.