Pachaug 11/14

[Petorius]

I am planning to ride Pachaug on Saturday with a friend of mine. He is skilled in the woods, I am not. Anyone not doing the banquet ride, feel free to join us.

[South of Heaven]

Damn, I miss Pachaug! Me and xxaarraa used to hit these trails hard in 2013. You really feel the love over there. Lol. Locals don't care about bikes ripping around. This weather is perfect for Pachaug too....we've been in near drought conditions all year. Dry as a bone. The little bit of rain that we do get is gonna get sucked up a vacuum. When we were running around there 2 years ago there was always big wet sections......PITA

[Petorius]

The first time we went out there, we had no idea there was a sanctioned "enduro route" and ended up on hiking trails pretty much the whole time (which was mostly awesome, by the way). On Saturday we went planning to follow the enduro route. We got about 20 mins in wondering why it was so hard to follow before realizing that we were doing it in reverse so all the markings were behind us. Decided to keep going instead of back-tracking, and were fortunate to not get killed by anyone ripping in the correct direction. Next time will be the charm!

[South of Heaven]

That's pretty much what we did too! We just rode around the big, wide trails the first couple of times and thought we were professional off roaders. Lol. Then we realized "Oh, we can go into the woods". and "Hey, there's color coded markers here too".... FUNNY SHIT! I remember there being a REALLY ROCKY uphill section which was way over my pay grade. Lol. I dumped the bike like 2 or 3 times trying to get up that but finally made it. One of our friends brought his KLR 650 and he didn't even attempt it. It was crazy

[Petorius]

I remember there being a REALLY ROCKY uphill section which was way over my pay grade. Lol. I dumped the bike like 2 or 3 times trying to get up that but finally made it. One of our friends brought his KLR 650 and he didn't even attempt it. It was crazy

I need to find that, we only finished probably 1/3 of the loop due to extra time spent navigating and mechanical issues. The one thing I felt like it was missing was steep, long, treacherous hills. We did try to go back out with headlamps after sunset, and the first thing we hit was a nasty rock hill that was moderately difficult in the morning but really tough in the dark.

[South of Heaven]

I need to find that, we only finished probably 1/3 of the loop due to extra time spent navigating and mechanical issues. The one thing I felt like it was missing was steep, long, treacherous hills. We did try to go back out with headlamps after sunset, and the first thing we hit was a nasty rock hill that was moderately difficult in the morning but really tough in the dark.

Yeah, the early sunsets can be a bitch this time of year. We were riding there in the Fall too. I remember one day we had to leave in the late afternoon to get fuel and lunch. Then we wanted to keep riding when we got back....BAD MOVE. We finished half of a route then we were basically navigating in the dark. (our bikes had headlights though).
Long story short; the next time we went to Pachaug we bought RotoPax for fuel and went to the Subway in the morning and bought lunch to the trails. lmao

[R7]

I need to find that, we only finished probably 1/3 of the loop due to extra time spent navigating and mechanical issues. The one thing I felt like it was missing was steep, long, treacherous hills. We did try to go back out with headlamps after sunset, and the first thing we hit was a nasty rock hill that was moderately difficult in the morning but really tough in the dark.

There's only a couple nasty up hill rock sections I recall from riding Pachaug a few years ago. The old power line trail was one, then what we called the step-up trail. Both sections are very close to each other. Easiest way to get to the Powerline trail is from the Camp Misery camping area...if you come in the main rd (which I think the loop brings you in there anyways), take a left at the field. Go up that dirt road for about 1/4 mile and the trail entrance will be on your right. Starts out kinda easy, ends up on a fire road for a short bit, then you get into the powerline trail...it used to be easy to follow.
After the powerline trail, you'll cross a couple dirtroads and ride a couple easy trail sections, then if you're still on the designated trail, you'll take a left at some point and start up the step-up/baby head trail.

There's a kick ass map of the entire 62 mile loop hanging up in the park ranger station, it was probably 6' wide and 4' high and showed everything

[South of Heaven]

Park Ranger station?? I don't even remember that! That's bad. Lol