Getting to ride with the AK crew

After the trip to Bentonville, the Blades family headed back to continue our regular schedule of events. AKA work and school. 

The AK crew got to play for a while longer, Monday - Thursday were play days for them. On the Friday they all headed towards Oklahoma City to stay the night at our place before flying out on the Saturday. The plan was they would get a ride in along the way, before coming to stay at my place. 

The problem I was facing is that the Oklahoma trails close due to rain, wet trails and clay soil = ruts and poor riding in the future. They even have a system to keep track on what trails are open and closed. Link to trail closure page. 

It had rained on and off all week and was looking like everything would be closed. A little more research revealed that St Crispins was open. I sent the AK crew an address and Megan (she had come in to OKC on Thursday) and I met the rest of the AK crew at the trail head.

Getting ready to ride - PC Andy

I had done very little research into the trails at St Crispin's and as we started riding along the yellow trail I was a very apprehensive. The trail was in the woods but very tame. As we approached the lake at a reasonable pace we dropped into a technical rocky section. It was totally unexpected and a blast to ride. The trails continued to surprise me for the duration of the ride with technical climbs and descents linked together with fast and flow sections. 

Although the trails were a little wet from all the rain, due to the rocky nature of the area the trails were grippy and not muddy. 

After around 8 miles we hit the road where the blue trail was currently closed. We made the decision to turn around and re ride all the trails we had just ridden in the opposite direction. The fun downhills now became technical climbs and the climbs fun descents. Looking at Strava I believe most people ride the trails only one way (Yellow to Blue), which is a real pity as they ride well in both directions. Note we all had to walk a couple of sections in both directions on the trails. 

Chasing Megan again... some things never change.
- PC Megan

Another rocky step up - PC Jason

End of the Purple trail - PC Megan

It was a great set of trails to get out and ride with some of the top riders from Alaska. I was reminded how much I miss riding with these people and how I really need to find more people down here to ride off road with. 

Hopefully I will keep finding little gems of trails in the surrounding area so as when people visit, I have great options to take them riding on. 

Strava file