What's The Best Way to Get An Epic Ride at BCSP?

Lots of things are conspiring to bring an absolute ton of mountain bikers to Brown County in the next week or so. The weather and trail conditions are nearly perfect. The DINO race is upcoming, and the 3-day holiday weekend is on deck. There are groups coming from Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and various other places. Over the last few days I've answered more than a few emails that have asked me what the best route is for an "epic" or long ride at BCSP. For kicks, here's how I answered the last guy who asked...

"All of the trails in one day is a big, big ride. I did it a couple of weeks ago and it took about 5.5 hours with a few leisurely stops here and there. You really can't miss no matter what direction you ride, but here's my new favorite route:

Park at Lower Shelter in the shade (leave the other suckers out in the sun on the "main" parking lot). Ride up the new Pine Loop (entrance is in the tall grass in the southwest corner of the "main" parking lot) for a fantastic, gentle warm-up climb. Take it to the North Tower Connector and then take that up to the North Tower Loop.

Go counter-clockwise on North Tower. This is a smoking downhill run!
When you get to the intersection where North Tower Loop meets itself, continue going around North Tower Loop counter-clockwise. This will bring you back around and then you'll get to do the great downhill run for the second time in 45 minutes. Fun!
When you get to the bottom head on over to the Aynes Loop and run that loop clockwise. You'll have a big 'ol climb of about a mile or so. At the top of the Aynes climb you'll stop and rest at the top where it crosses an old, grassy fire road.
When you continue on you will immediately come to a nice technical, sketchy, fast downhill run. The trail meanders (mostly down) to the "frog pond" intersection where Aynes Loop meets the infamous Hesitation Point Trail. Take HP Trail out to Hesitation Point (you'll know when you get there after the 2 mile climb to the top). After gawking at the great view, cross the road and take the technical Walnut Trail all the way to Hoosier's Nest Cabin (good place to rest and refill water). Continue on (trail changes to the super-flowy Limekiln Trail) out to the Rally Campground Parking lot. Turn around and retrace your steps all the way back to the "frog pond" intersection at the end of HP Trail (are you still smiling after the 2 mile downhill?). Take the Aynes Loop clockwise (left) downhill and back over to North Tower Loop. Go clockwise (straight) on North Tower up to North Tower Connector and back down to your car on a dirt-surf down.

This route only skips the Schooner Trace Trail. It's impressive, but it's not quite done, and it takes ~1 hour to go 3.5 miles. It's super, super technical. You can add it on the way back once you pass Hoosier's Nest Cabin and take it out to Upper Schooner Road, but be forewarned you will hike-a-bike some portions. You could also fall a long, long way down ravines.

Also, if you want to add more mileage towards the end of the ride just go the "long way" counter-clockwise back around Aynes or North Tower. If you do this you are officially my hero."

New Video - Dirt Surfing on HP and North Tower Trails

Brown County Mountain Biking Is on Facebook

We're pleased to announce that we've moved further into the social media realm here at Brown County Mountain Biking. We've set up a new Facebook page that's going to make it much, much easier for users of Brown County area trails to connect with one another. It will be a great place to share information, stories, pictures, videos, and just about anything that will fit under that big tent we call the interwebs. Please click on over and join the discussion. Become a fan, tell us about your latest ride or your upcoming ride. One of the best things about riding in the Brown County area is the vibrant riding community and the great people that build, maintain, and use the trails. The trails attract all kinds of folks from all different places and walks of life. Hopefully this forum will further enrich the social side of the Brown County mountain bike scene. We'll see you on the trails and on the web!

The Great Mileage Project

We're busy creating an accurate, downloadable and printable map for the mountain bike trails at Brown County. Up until now, our mileage and distance estimates of the trails have been based on GPS readings, which aren't that accurate for determining the actual distance that your tires are rolling on the ground. The GPS doesn't account for the myriad of dips, twists, turns, and obstacles that a good old fashioned bike computer does. We needed accurate distances for the map. We used two bike computers that were each calibrated by measuring the wheel rollout in millimeters. We didn't use just a pre-programmed setting for a generic tire size. We then averaged our distances to get the most accurate reading (the computers usually measured the exact same but were sometimes different by one or two hundreths of a mile).

We set out yesterday to tackle the task of measuring every inch of mountain bike trail that is currently on the ground at Brown County. I'm going to list those mileages here in case anyone is interested in knowing. This is probably the last time that you'll see these on the web in this kind of detail, so copy and save them now if you want it. I thought that it might be useful for people that ride there frequently and want to record their mileages without goofing with a fussy bike computer. It might also be useful for event promoters that are planning a course.

Well, without further ado, here we go:

Pine Loop: 1.20

North Tower Connector Trail: 1.19

North Tower Loop Short Way Counter Clockwise to Intersection with Aynes Connector: .76

North Tower Loop Clockwise to North Tower Entrance: .59

North Tower Clockwise to Intersection with Aynes Connector: 2.88

Aynes/North Tower Connector Trail: .15

Aynes Counter Clockwise to HP Intersection: .54

Aynes Clockwise to Top of Aynes Climb: 1.22

Top of Aynes Climb to HP Intersection: 1.63

HP Intersection with Aynes to Hobbs Hollow "Clubhouse": .85

Clubhouse to Top of HP: 1.99

HP to Upper Schooner Road on Walnut: .77

Upper Schooner Road to Schooner East Entrance Intersection on Walnut: 1.18

Schooner East Entrance Intersection to Hoosier's Nest on Walnut: .24

Hoosier's Nest to Rally Camp Parking Lot on Limekiln: 2.52

Schooner East Entrance Intersection to Upper Schooner Road on Schooner: 3.07

Upper Schooner Road to Where the Trails Ends near HP (unfinished) on Schooner: .77

That's a total of 21.55 miles of amazing trail.

It took us a little over 5 hours to ride everything with some fairly leisurely stops for refueling and fussing with bike computers and video equipment.