CAW - Mush Ride

Had the urge to get out and hit something different today especially after missing out on two Fats rides and having to settle for 1 ride a week lately. After a little finagling with our schedules Tom and I were able to work out an after lunch pass and plan a Carolina Adventure World ride. While we were heading to the meet point Dennis called and was able to pull off something similar and we were able to turn this into a good group ride now, alright! Something about the group ride just gets ya stoked and we were ready to hit the trails.

Well, we really did start with high ambitions anyway, talking how we wanted to get in three loops, hit all trails and such. Off we went. Hmmm, I didnt remember this much climbing last time and 30 minutes later we made it llke 2 or so miles(lol), whew, then we crested the heli pad climb and was starting to get doubts. Think Dennis made a comment along the lines of "so are we gonna ride some trails today or just climb"(lol). The trails were wet, mushy and it sure wasnt like riding on anything that you could call hardpack.
After we crested the heli pad section we got to roll good for a section or two but then hit the leaves where it really didnt seem like they did any cleaning since the last time we were there. There may have been less trees in the path but the overall condition may have led you to think it was mainly just clean up and strewn about from other riders clearing the way here or there. We probably ended up moving about 8 small trees ourselves during our first loop.
About half way or so was beginning to feel the work we were having to put in and thru most of the inner areas it was really soggy and felt like you were riding on mush robbing any momentum you would otherwise be carrying. We gave all trails a go the first loop but when we hit D we managed to loose the trail once again due to the trail litter. By the time we were rapping up our first loop we needed to hit the parking lot for some fuel. Boy what a difference the terain can make, we were out thee over an hour and just covered around 12.x miles.
After a short energy bar snack and a bottle refil for me we hit it again. When we crested the heli pad the second go round there was no mistaken this wasnt gonna be a 3 loop ride today. While we definately were making better time the second loop the burn was setting in. Funny how you get used to your normal routines where you would knock out a 12 mile HSF outer loop rather quick and but here we were pokin around and working for those miles. Ended up skipping 'D' round two since it was so littered but gotta be honest and say I'm glad we did also to save the legs. Was pretty much spent by the end. I really do like this place, just cant wait till it gets packed in and cleaned up.

Stats:
Time: 2:19
Distance: 17.94
Avg: 7.7
Max: 18.5