A brief history of Cape Cod mt biking, and some stravapron

Couple good rides this weekend.  I created my first Strava segment, the "clockwise with extras" loop in Willow St.  For those that know the trails, it goes Art's trail, automile, bushwood, back9, the wall, burning man...cross over the fire road and go back down to the split rock to go left and it does Art's trail in reverse.  So the loop never hits South 6 trail (except for the first 50 yards entering the trail area).  It goes over another segment that someone created previously, but my segment goes in the opposite direction, something Strava doesn't seem to properly acknowledge, plus I added in some extras.

By the way, the "Art" in "Art's trail" is Art Hastings, who along with Doug Jordan, are a couple of the godfathers of Cape Cod mt biking.  Art and Doug started mt biking WAY back when.  According to Art, the two of them found a topographical map of Cape Cod, pinpointed the highest elevation, and said 'let's start there!'  If memory serves, "there" was the top of a ridge in TOT/Sandwich.  There's a makeshift stick teepee and old picnic table there now in case you've ever been there.  Roger Wharton added in some very difficult climbs (his "heartbreakers") some time later and the Sandwich side of TOT is now probably the most challenging mt biking on Cape Cod.  Art and Doug proceeded to build and coop from mxers many of the Barnstable-side TOT trails, as well as Willow St, Weir Rd, probably Nickerson, and some other trails Cape Codders and visitors enjoy to this day.

I met Art at the gym one day in the early 2000's.  We got to talking and he agreed to take me mt biking some day.  Day came and we went into the Weir Rd trails, most of which he built, and he pointed at a pile of rocks and said 'there's the trail' and I said 'behind those rocks?' and he said 'no, it IS those rocks.'  I didn't believe him. He rode over the pile of rocks. I was hooked.

Had a nice group ride on Sunday in Trail of Tears with some of us from team Sea Sports, along with Jason Holm from team Nemba, and Scott and Matt who ride up around Groton.  Didn't get to everything as we started running low on time.  I might try to sneak over there this week at some point to get one long/hard ride in before the long/hard Landmine Classic this Sunday.  The Cat 1 single speed class is stacking up with fast guys, so it should be a real test.

Thanks for reading.