As stated above I have finally managed to ride the Redbird Crest trail system in its entirety in one day. It's only a 70 mile loop but, it's 70 miles in Eastern KY! Not to mention it's a 3.5 hour drive one way to get there. So 7 hours of driving and 11 hours to ride the trail = A LONG ASS DAY!! I have been trying to get this loop done for over 5 years now and every time I go something happens and I just don't get it done. I have ran out of gas, got lost, broke a chain, ran out of daylight, and in Jan. of this year I just flat out could not get up one of the hills and had to turn back.
I took a weeks vacation and decided I was going to set aside a day for Redbird and I was going no matter what. I didn't care if I had to go by myself. As it turns out a random guy that races the same series as me that I have never met seen my post on Facebook and stepped up to go with me. So at 6:00 a.m. Yesterday I met my brand new riding buddy and we loaded his bike on my trailer and took off. 3.5 hours and a couple of life stories later we made it to the trail head. The trail is divided into 21 sections. Sections 21-16 are some of the hardest single track trails you will ever find. Sections 14 and 15 are county roads. 12 and 13 are more amazing single track. Sections 1-11 are limited to 50" atv but I can't imagine riding an atv on most of it. So basically you have 8 miles of road. 30 miles of single track and and 32 miles of 2 track. So back to the story we geared up in record time and decided we would do the trail backwards to get the hard stuff out of the way first. We hit the woods thinking we would set the world on fire. Four hours later we had finished sections 21-16 which equal about 15 miles!! So next we hit the road section and then moved on to the next section of trail which would put us at the halfway point where there is a small little gas station where we stopped for fuel and a bologna sandwich. While we were there the owner of the store said "you boys is gonna get wet!" We shrugged it off and headed back to the trail. About 2 miles in his prediction became a reality as the sky opened up and dumped what we would call a "toad strangler" on us. It was raining so hard you could barely see 10 ft in front of you. We rode about 5 miles like this when I finally saw a small cave next to the trail so we took shelter and gathered our thoughts. About 20 minutes later the rain slowed to a steady downpour and we headed back out and continued to ride in the rain for next 2.5 hours. Luckily the trail held up beautifully! The rain didn't even affect traction. The trail is real sandy and mostly sandstone rock so traction was perfect. So finally after 11 hours of dragging my bike under tress and helping my new riding partner get his pumpkin up the hills that the ol gasser laughed at and 3" of rain I completed the trail! I suggest if you are anywhere east of the Mississippi River in the U.S. You plan a trip and ride this epic trail. I truly is a challenge and a ton of fun.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/dbnf/...a/?recid=77608
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