For this year's trip we recruited Nick and Sam into the crew and headed down on Monday.
Crowder is purdy.
I had printed off some local riding tips off the interwebz last year but conveniently forgot to bring them along. This time around I had our little nuggets of wisdom. Apparently Corey and I rode the opposite of the recommended route much of the time last year, but I'm not convinced it matters much as either direction has plenty of hills.
This year we were determined to hit what we missed, the farthest loop, North Thompson. Last year we had a sweet topo map that we got from the trailhead, this year no dice. I could've brought the online map, but I don't think it would've done us much good.
What we should've done was this:
View Larger Map
What we did was this:
We basically missed the east sides of North Thompson and Tall Oaks Trails. We didn't have enough gumption to tackle the River Forks this time around. We also missed the Steep Creek connector on the way back. Its too bad because, with the exception of North Thomson, we missed some of the best trail at Crowder.
There's not a lot of signage at Crowder, but at least what's there is a little confusing. This junction is where we wrong on the Steep Creek and Tall Oaks return route.
Crowder has a lot of wide, double track trail, but it is littered with roots, rocks, ruts and this time of year...leaves. Occasionally a boggy wetspot will slow you down and in the multi-use sections of trail deep pock marks caused by horses hooves try to swallow you whole. It was just wet enough in the low spots and creek crossings to remind me of my beloved Voodoo's biggest weakness - mud clearance.
Action photos
Here's the photo for our (pretend) band's album cover. We're so introspective.
We found the 1800's Thompson manor house, it's very ghosty.
Even though some better navigation would have made our excursion better, it was still an exhausting good time.
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