Fort Pierce Trail Report

9-11-2010

Jimmy and I went to Fort Pierce bike trail today. It was a 4.5 mile singletrack trail. I was pretty excited about this trail because I had heard good things about it from some people I had met at Pinehurst earlier this week. 

The trail had a lot more elevation changes than other parks I've visited in South Florida. It was fun, fast, sandy, and muddy. This meant I was covered with mud and sand when I got done with my first lap.  I loved the hills here. Even the sand dune like hill. This hill was literally all sand. Coming down took a bit of finesse. It was quite a challenge to get to the top of some of these hills. There were several small drops at this park and I had a blast getting some speed through them. I did skip the tree drop in as I wasn't quite comfortable yet going over it.

The trail had plenty of markings, but it did not flow the way I had thought it would. Some of the markings were contradictory. This led me to go over the same spots in several times in the first lap. I did notice my chain was very slack or it seemed very slack to me . I decided to adjust it before I rode a second lap. First lap took approximately 45 min. I didn't ride fast on the first lap as I was trying to find my way around and back to the trailhead.

When I arrived back at the truck, I found Jimmy on the tailgate looking a little tired. We talked a bit and I took off to do another lap. About 200 feet in, I realized that I had not in fact done anything about my chain. So I turned around and began the process of tightening my chain. After Jim at Jim's Bicycles torqued the rear axle down, it was quite difficult to get the rear axle loosened with such a short wrench that i had in my pack. Jimmy got out his socket set and it provided me a long enough arm to make it much easier to get the axle loose.

The second lap was quicker and slower for me. I kept moving though the trail, but I ended up getting slower towards the end. I finished in about 40 minutes. 

I was filthy by the end of the second lap and smelled awful. The mud was the culprit of it all. Oh well. It was a great ride and I may have done another lap, but I needed a break. I didn't want Jimmy waiting another 40-45 min out there for me, so we loaded up and headed back to West Palm. 

All in all, it was an enjoyable day riding and I'd recommend this trail to people though I wish it had less mud or I wish I had known how much mud there would actually be, so I could have a change of clothes with me. I ended the day's riding with 9 miles and 185 overall since I got it.