Winter Woollyland Prep

As you head out to the Woolly this weekend you may notice a few small changes.  Just like geese flying south and the leaves falling, these changes hint at the onset of winter and more importantly fat bike season.

Bjorn 2.0 has been roused from his summer hibernation and is tuned up and ready to prep the snowy trails so you can #ridegroomed.

Additionally, the trail fairies are keeping the trails good and clear of the falling leaves.  This allows the earliest possible freeze and therefore the best possible base as winter arrives.

Additionally as you roll around the trails you'll notice a few new short reroutes of the trail.  You'll find these in Wissahickon and Big Oak.  Groomed single track can be twisty and flowy too, but there is a limit to how tight Bjorn can turn so there are a few spots where the fat bike route cuts a few corners.

Additionally, Woolly is smoothing out Big Oak just a tad to make it a solid green trail and those changes will stick around next year.  This makes Big Oak a part of a nice "stacked loop" system where the further you venture from the trailhead the more technical the trails get.

We've had fantastic fall riding weather so far.  Pretty quick here everyone should turn their dance steps to favor freezing temps and then snowfall right after that.  Maybe we can even be on groomed trails for the Woolly Group Ride for Global Fat Bike Day on December 3rd!

We will see you soon for Fat Bike Group Rides.

Woolly Day 2016 Recap

The first Sunday in October the Woolly hosted the fourth annual Woolly Day.

Woolly Day originated back in 2013 as a short notice, "hey the weather looks good, lets hang out on the Woolly trails" type event.  The spirit of that first event lived on this year with good people and good trails.

The event kicked off a short dedication of the new trail head signage shortly followed by a set of group rides at 1:30.  I think we had a ladies ride, a short loop ride, a full loop ride, and a kids ride.  I personally led the kids ride and had a riot.  Short of a MNMTB Series kids comp race, I've never seen so many little rippers on the trail at one time.

After the official group rides there was grilling, potlucking, cake, fire, and fellowship at the trailhead.

There were several attempted headcounts with numbers between 50 and 75.  Given the number of people that came and went throughout the afternoon I don't think 100 people is an unreasonable estimate at all.

I'd grab that 2017 calendar now and pencil in Woolly Day for the first weekend in October.  That date isn't set in stone, but it will be close so write it down so you remember to keep your options open.

And if you missed out on Woolly Day, why not try to make the Global Fat Bike Day Woolly Group Ride on December 3rd?

Woolly on the Duluth Traverse

As awesome as it is to ride our own trails, the Woolly does like to get out and enjoy other trails in the area and abroad.

A small herd of Woolly decided to play hooky from work one day last week and check out some of the new Duluth Traverse on the south end of the city.

Oh man, they have got it going on up there!

I think these new sections have some names, but I don't know/remember them all so you'll get some descriptions of where we went and you'll have to piece it together yourself.

We started on the south end of Piedmont in a SHT trailhead and headed south through Brewer.  Pretty quickly we were on the most flowy, bermy, awesome downhill run down to Cody Street.

After that there was a mile of paved trail over to the zoo before hitting some more sweet single track.  This section takes you over to Spirit Mountain and changed drastically several times from cool aspen forests, to cedar forests, to a creek valley.

After a few quick laps of the jump lines at Spirit, we took a bit of a wrong turn heading down to Grand Ave looking for the DWP Trail.  Nope, go UP about 200 yards to the DWP Trail to continue south.

While old rail trail may sound boring, this was anything but boring.  It is NOT an official COGGS trail, but it certainly seems to get a fair bit of use.  There are a pair of super sketchy trestle bridges to cross, and a super cool tunnel to go through.  Plus the views are amazing.

Once through the tunnel, watch for when you cross Skyline Parkway.  Just after that hang a left off the trail and cross Becks Road onto Mission Creek and the Duluth Traverse.  From here you can ride through Mission and onto the final section of the Traverse down to trailhead by 23 and the St. Louis River.

With that you'll have ridden something around 17 or 18 miles of awesomeness.  Being a bit time pressed, we took roads back to the Munger Trail in Smithville and then back up the Cody St section of the Traverse Trail.  In all we did 33 miles of riding and it was a great day.

All of that and we didn't ride any of the actual trail sections and there is the whole north end of the Traverse to check out too.

Refueling for the ride home with $50 in Taco Johns and Steak Escape.  The guy was so impressed with our order for 3 people he gave us a discount!

Global Fat Bike Day - 12/3/2016 - Woolly Group Ride

Global Fat Bike Day is Saturday December 3rd 2016.  Woolly is going to celebrate with a fat bike group ride at 1 pm.

If there is snow on the ground, it will be fat bikes only.  If we aren't lucky enough to have snow yet, you are welcome to ride as narrow of a tire as you wish.

Hang around the trail head after the ride for good company and a bonfire.

Woolly Board Meeting Thursday 10/20/2016 - 7pm - SCF Library

Hey Woolly Peeps,

It is that time again, time for our monthly WBC board meeting.  What this really means is any and all people interested in the Woolly are encouraged to meet at the St. Croix Falls Library (meeting room on the south end) at 7pm this Thursday to talk all things Woolly.

If you are at all interested in the club, the trails, getting involved, or just want to hang out with cool mountain bike people, I encourage you to attend.  The meeting typically takes about an hour and then folks usually hang around for a little bit afterwards and talk trails and bikes afterwards.

Here is the agenda for the month.

I hope to see a bunch of you there.

Ben