Another Naples Weekend ;)
Saturday, rolled down to Naples with Todd Scheske. Since he’s going to be my teammate for El Reto next month, I figured I better make sure he can ride a mountain bike 
. So nothing to do but take him on some of the toughest descents around….
The mountaineer/highlander was also going on down in Bristol so it was quite a busy biking weekend in the area. We decided to meet away from all the hustle and bustle and just get right to it on Stid Hill. A nice fun singletrack climb up Still Hill and Todd hung just fine, climbed up the 4 wheeler trail an then we hit the tower drop. Drops 900 feet in less than a mile, super steep and with it so dry was hard to keep traction on the descent. I decided to give Todd a break halfway down as my tire was leaking air. Stopped to fill it up and in the process, burned the hell out of my arm on my rotor and now have a nice tattoo of my rear disc. We finished off the death wall descent (literally the last 50 meters are straight down, kinda like HELLTRACK from RAD, but steeper and filled with rocks and roots and trees)
We got off Stid and hit the pavement up to OCP via Gannet hill, where Todd rightly showed me what he does best and that’s drop fellas on the road. Up and over OCP, we skipped Cutler due to time, down the road and up and over the Backside of Bristol Mtn for another long loose climb. Then down the snowmobile descent. To be fair the snowmobile descent gets super sketchy at the end, and the whole thing was mostly washed out making for a hairy descent. Todd hung tight all weekend and next saturday I’ll throw some more stuff at him. Rather than super steep, I’ll hit him with some super tech and very fast descents. Todd, how do you do riding Singletrack with 400ft drop offs??
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday
Chad and I hit up some killer trails more on the East side of Naples and the descents were ripping. I was completely Hosed by the end for sure
A nice crusher of a long climb off the bat up Parish Hill and over to the Hanglider drop got the blood flowing nicely this morning.
The Hanglider drop was in primo condition as compared to early spring and we ripped it up heading down the descent.
The brakes were screaming for a rest by the end and you could smell the pads burning and feel the heat coming from the rotors. I made sure not to touch them today!!
We charged up Italy Hill which is a great solid tempo climb all the way to the top and then turned around and railed it to the bottom. Braaap, Braaap, nothing like a 50kph singletrack descent!!
After Italy we climbed up the road, hit some Hi-Tor tech and then blasted down the DEC descent. Another great ride wrapped up and another solid weekend of riding.
Will do some cross practice this tuesday, then probably head back to Naples for some more climbing wednesday night and then back again for the weekend to throw down some big miles at the GROC fest. Then a few weeks of cross and shortly after will be off to Guatemala. So much for the season winding down!!
September 14th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Really like the scenic pix – the long steady climb up Parrish Hill, view from up top heading from High-Tor tot he drop down into Italy Valley, rolling through the grassy fields across the road in Italy Valley before the bench climb up to Italy Hill – brings back fond memories from times past with more frequent rides in the area, you’ve got some great riding there in the Finger Lakes. Thx for sharing, and congrats on a nice finish at Shenandoah100! Cheers-
t