Ahern yah heard?!

Snagged a sweet ride last night at Ahern with the crew from Chainline Cycles in Laconia.  Couldn't help but post to comment on how awesome the trails there are getting.  Eric, the owner of Chainline, as well as some other locals have been doing the lion's share of the work to date and things are really coming together.  And now that NEMBA has been cleared by the various municipalities to get in there and 'officially' help with maintenance I have a feeling Ahern will rival FFD as a premier ride spot in Central NH.

Ahern is a compact little spot with probably about 6-7 miles of trails currently but the variety of terrain is perfect and Eric and others knew exactly how to max it out when building.  We rode some new (to me) trails last night that were very technical.  Including a line with a 8-10ft roller that looked almost completely vertical when riding up to it, if I had to guess its probably 70+ degrees (i.e. retarded).  Luckily there were some freeriders with the group last night who were not hesitating and I didn't have time to assess the situation completely which always helps my riding.  I rode it successfully and then shortly after taco'd hard on a off camber corner section going very fast.  Taco'd hard enough to tweak my stem out of alignment with the front wheel a tad and I couldn't force it back so the rest of the ride was a few degrees off kilter for me...made for interesting riding.  In retrospect I had an allen and could have fixed it but I was too busy trying to hold Eric's wheel...dude is a freight train.  Very fun to follow.  He's like a linebacker with trials riding skills who you can't drop on climbs.  Dangerous.

That was my first sustained technical riding of the year.  You know its technical when you accidentally hit the lap button on your Garmin at least twice.  Probably with your knee or face, hard tellin'.  I need to get some of my flow back but there were sections where I turned on the gas and the fitness feels great.  Gonna be a good year.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/30175488