New to me Mountain Bike Trail....Ballardini Ranch Trails!

Trail head Map....The future trail connection to Thomas Creek isn't quite finished
but goes a lot farther than the map shows!

At some point during an early morning hot tub and coffee session, it was decided that mountain biking would be happening to celebrate the newly cooler temperatures!  As my girlfriend is now working for Washoe County as a trail/rec planner, we decided we should definitely ride in an area that is up for some additional project work.  Turns out it was easy to find and really close for us.  Just a quick trip heading south on Lake Side Dr. and then turn West on Lone Tree Lane and you'll run into the nice little trail head.

There's two principle loops that would total out at about 2.2 miles of riding....but the real treat once your legs are warmed up, is to head out on the connector trail.  You'll get about 850 feet of climbing over 6.5 miles (total) with this option.  It's classic Reno high desert single track (aka rocky in places) with great views from the top of the climb and a bomber of a run on the way back down. 

So if you're looking to ride something super local and not Peavine Mountain for the umpteenth time....head over and give the trails at Ballardini Ranch a spin.  It's another resource that gives a quick local ride for the morning and with a little support and love could add some new trail to your standard Dry Pond loop!

Weekend Mountain Biking - Emigrant Trail.

Ok, so there was nothing new here yesterday.  I was out sick and writing about biking didn't sound like fun.

On Saturday, the Preacher and I headed out to do the Emigrant Gap trail.  We wanted a bit of a longer ride (22 miles vs. 18 miles) so we started from the picnic area parking lot and headed for Stampede Reservoir.  As you can see we did officially make it to the reservoir. 

En route to this turn around point only minimal gears were used.  You see that pretty red bike that the Preacher recently acquired only has 1 gear.  To be a good sport I chose not to shift (ok, I shifted between 2 gears...19 and 21 tooth respectively....the Preacher has a 20 tooth cog).  This endeavor proved to be an ass kicking experience for me.  I don't know what was up, but the energy just wasn't there and the Preacher was out front and apparently riding on the almighty's coat tails! 

This was about as close as I could keep him!

Amazingly, on such a beautiful day for riding, traffic was almost non-existent!   The scenery wasn't too bad either.

We always keep a few "carrots" to motivate us to finish the ride strong.  In this case they were in the form of Sierra Nevada Torpedoes!  For the record, after a granola bar and a GU at the turn around I preformed a lot better on the return trip.  The Preacher still had the stronger legs though.

Interestingly, this new bike is his first 29er.  His downhill skills definitely improved compared to his full suspension 26er.....so whether it's the geometry, wheel size, or suspension, this bike is definitely his friend!  So anyway, that was my weekend exploit.  Hope yours was just as much fun!

Keystone Canyon housing project has been pulled!

Whooo....hooooo!!!  The plan to build on top of Keystone Canyon has been pulled by the developer.  Don't know too much about why yet (other than the huge outpouring of public concern), but I'll try to dig into it.

What I suspect is that these Zombie projects (to quote Jeff Mitchel) come back around as the economy continues to recover and they try to go forward with a host of permits that were issued 10+ years ago (literally 1998 in this case).  The real problem is that many of the permits and studies required expire after a certain time period.  When faced with the fact that the public wasn't stoked about the project and going to make noise....the developer probably worried the city might review the permits/studies and request that they come up to date with them.  And......things have changed a bit since a decade ago and so it might require they put more effort and $$$ in to the project to get it set up again.

Either way, we get at least a reprieve on this one folks!

Help us get a new mountain bike trail!

Just saw this over at Poedunks.  If we vote for it enough Bell helmets will give us $$$ to build a sweet new mountain bike trail.  Take the time to go vote for it!!!  If you click the link below it should take you to the facebook page for the vote.  We're in the flow category.