Reimer's - Take 1

Mike and I headed out to Reimer's Ranch earlier (EARLIER) today to pre-ride the beginner's course for the Singletrack Stampede which happens a week from tomorrow. The course is 10.2 miles long and offers a wide variety of many things mountain biking. The beginning 2 miles are rather difficult and fairly technical. These first few miles feature things like nice drop offs, difficult rock formations, and steep climbs through rock. The remaining 8 miles are considerably less technical and contain rolling twisty single track with a lot of hair pin turns as well as some sand just to make things interesting! Below is an elevation plot of the beginner course.


When we first arrived neither of us knew what to expect. I had heard horror stories about Reimer's and some friends of mine insisted that I was crazy for riding out there with a hardtail...so I was expecting something like Goodwater Trail in Georgetown. Thankfully this was not the case!
We ended up doing 2 10.2 mile laps with a short break in between the two. The first lap was fairly slow because we weren't used to the terrain and Mike needed to get his mountain legs back :-) The second lap was about 15 minutes faster and we cleared the majority of the technical parts.
It was interesting to see the differences in our strengths and weaknesses after we had been riding for a while. Where Mike is a great climber I'm stronger at the technical aspects. If we entered a long climb he would quickly pull away...leaving me to gasp his dust until it leveled or became more technical where I would catch back up until the next hill...

On the way back we picked up some bbq at a place just down the road. It was a hole in the wall...or more accurately a window in a mobile home. I believe it was called MN&J's but I'm not completely sure. The food was pretty darn good and very inexpensive! I have a feeling we'll be stopping by there again!

J