Hans Rey weekend

This past weekend was one of those rare times where we had unusually higher temps for an early March weekend…like a carrot dangling before us as we know Spring is on it’s way. We both planned to definitely be outside and take advantage of the great weather.

On Saturday I had the fortune of heading to Middle Run state park near Newark, Delaware to ride with none other than Hans Rey, a mountain bike legend known around the world!

The event was put on by Wooden Wheels Bike Shop in Newark, DE. They had the morning rides with Hans and then a movie night in their shop. Hans spoke to the crowd in the shop and showed a slide show of his adventures about Wheels 4 Life a charity that provides free bicycles for people in need of transportation in Third World countries. I only attended the morning rides but other friends attended the evening events in the shop.
I got to meet up & ride with Brice Shirbach who runs www.fattirefests.com, is active on the east coast enduro scene and is passionate about mountain biking. It’s always cool when you get to ride with people you talk to on various mountain bike related websites and groups. As always, the trails at Middle Run and White Clay are some of the best around! I haven’t ridden there a lot but I plan to this summer. The Trail Spinners group who maintains and built the trail systems do an incredible job with the terrain. For the amount of climbing that you have to do, you are always rewarded with a super flowy downhill portion that keeps the smile on your face.

Sunday we set out to some local trails to give them some TLC. Susan has been out in these trails scouting new routes and noting parts that need work. We got out and cut out a couple of downed trees and did some general cleaning to expose the trail. We also started some work to close off a portion of trail to keep out the motos.
We wound up walking around 3 miles and I believe we should have at least 2 miles of trail available when it is all done.

It’s not all about the trail users…Susan had to get out and cut away some branches that were blocking an older pine that the turtles climb on to sun themselves. It was the right thing to do as they have limited semi-protected areas to get warmed up in this bog.