PORC

Headed out to Moraine on Saturday (1/16) to see if it was possible to ride. No tracks - except for some snowshoe tracks and a bunch of deer. I only rode on the littler loops near the Mt. Union Rd. parking lot, and they were still pretty snow covered. Went back on Sunday with my brother to try again. Once again we limited ourselves to the littler loops near the Mt. Union Rd. parking lot - they handle the water amazingly well, better than the trails on the big loop. The snow was melted a bunch more and we had a nice technical ride on the rocks. There was only one 50' section of trail that was soft enough to get off and walk. And the powerline was soft and muddy enough to avoid riding on the hills, but not too bad on the flat part on top of the ridge.

It's astounding how well those parts of the trail handle water. We're there in the rain, with 8" of snow melting in the last day, and there was less than 1% of the trail that was soft enough to rut. My brother did manage to take a fun-to-watch floop off of one of the bridges though. He rode off just fine, if soaking wet a few minutes later. Wish I would have had THAT on video.

Good to ride again. Damn good.

Steve Z

Just a quick update from Moraine. On Saturday March 6 there was between 4" and 10" of snow across the trail area, with no tracks whatsoever. And the parking lot hasn't been plowed.

Steve Z

Yep moraine is pretty much unrideable was out yesterday (sunday) and attempted it and flailed, (what my riding probably looked like) but still had some fun.

Yep about a foot of snow on alexander ridge. Dont even try to drive back there as the road is not passable. I will probably try to check out the trails as soon as the snow comes off so i can give people an idea of what things are like. My guess is that the main parts of the trail will be rideable even though through the winter thaw cycle. I will give an update on what it looks like.

So I took a half day off work today (Thursday, March 11) because I'm suffering from some sort of stomach flu and periodically feel extremely miserable. But after some medicine and rest at home I thought I'd enjoy the sun with a nice drive over to Moraine to check on the snow conditions. And you CAN'T go to Moraine without taking a bike (just in case).

The parking lot is now passable. The powerline trail is mostly wet, some of it with standing water. I only had the time and energy for a short ride on the rocky loop closest to the Mt. Union Rd. parking lot. There was snow cover on only about 5% of the trail. Maybe another 20% was WET, too wet to ride. The rest was okay, with plenty of nice dry sections.

So if you're good about it you could probably get in a ride. Just don't be a dirtbag and ride through the standing water - it WILL leave ruts if there is dirt (not rocks) beneath it. The snow will likely be 99% gone by the weekend, but with rain forecast it's not like the trail is going to dry out. But if you're jonesin' to ride and won't have a fit if you have to walk past some wet spots it can be done.

And keep in mind that this was just on the small rocky loop by the parking lot. The big loop and the new stuff may well be wetter than this ultra-tough and rocky section.

I took my new Helmet Hero to try it out - but the batteries were nearly dead. So I took a few clips on my old el-cheapo and knocked together a super quick little vid to show conditions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpXu1F-UW10

Damn it's good to ride again. Been on mandatory overtime for nearly two months and I NEEDED to get out on the trails.

Steve Z

wow, it looks WAY better than i thought it was going to look! I'm going to have to get out there soon...

Posted a little video of my first attempt with my new GoPro Helmet Hero out at Moraine. I had to bump down the quality to get it to post on Youtube, and it seems a bit shaky - but it's a start. Footage from Sunday afternoon, March 15.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAJoRPOSss8

Steve Z

Sunday, March 21, 2010: Moraine conditions just about perfect. A few muddy spots scattered around, and the old road down between the lake and the swamp is under 8" of water, but mostly good, rocky fun.

Steve Z

I was out sunday for a small pedal/puke fest.. surprised how nice the trails were...

I was out sunday the 21st too. The trail was great, I did a little comparison of 2 cameras vio pov & vholdr contour here is a short vid of it.


Embedded Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-PuiROThFY

Nice video!
Quick question. Is all of Moraine that rocky or is there some tight quick single track too? Until I get back into shape, I don't see the rocks and I getting along very well.
Jamie

There is some quick tight singletrack but... I doubt you'll notice it with all those rocks :^)

ride faster

Nice video, Nomad - and an excellent cam comparison as well.

I was out that way Friday and Sunday and put together a little vid myself. I think I'm starting to get a better handle on this video making thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWx-blYVAC4

Also snooped out what I'd guess is the new trail. Nicely done (of course) and it's going to make the place a LOT more enjoyable for a lot of people by letting you avoid the Alexander Road singletrack as an uphill.

Steve Z

Yeah i guess it could open up some new ways to ride at moraine. I guess one could keep climbing up the new switchback climb a few times to change up the ride.

That's what I was thinking. Riding up the singletrack by Alexander Road practically kills my old and out of shape self (but not as out of shape as I used to be!). But the switchback trail is a relatively easy route to climb to the top of the ridge - compared to the up & down of Alexander Road's 480 ft climb it's around a 260 ft climb.

I'm forseeing a figure 8 route with a downhill to the marina and a downhill at Alexander Road with climbs up the switchback trail between. Seriously looking forward to stepping it up out there this summer. Is the top of the newest downhill from last year connected to the ridge-top loop somehow - or is that planned? EDIT: Never mind - figured it out.

Also working on updating the map - got some new software and should hopefully actually be able to do some work on it soon.

Steve Z

The trails at Moraine were in pretty darn good shape today (Friday). Almost all of the muddy spots are drying up, and the tread is beginning to get ridden in enough that you can see it a bit

Nice weather, too. Beautiful day for riding. Only saw two people all afternoon.

Steve Z

I was there saturday afternoon.. just great riding all around! It whooped me good!

So I got a GoPro Helmet Hero over the winter and have been trying to figure out what it takes to make a watchable mtb video. If you've checked in on this thread in the last couple of months you may have seen some of the short Moraine clips that I'd posted up (and thanks everyone for not posting any "you suck" comments - though looking at my first couple of attempts I'd have to say - they suck).

Instead of making a bunch of little, one day clips I decided to try to make a more comprehensive video of Moraine - a basic guide to the trails. I've been trying to be patient and collect up footage, and then figure out how to put it all together. Turns out that video guide would be LONG to show enough to be useful, so I had to break it up into 3 parts. Part 1 covers the trails closest to the Mt. Union parking area, part 2 covers the big loop, and part 3 is the new downhill and ridge-top loop. Here's the link to part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVJrtB4BfTg

Any suggestions or comments would be welcome.

I do have a bunch more footage... but the other 2 parts may take a little while to finish.

Steve Z

Well Done! I can't wait to see the rest!.

The only critical comment I would make is to change the text color. It is tough to read in some parts of the video.