[PennyRich]

The Eastern Virginia Mountainbike Association (www.evma.org) will begin construction of Loop E at Freedom Park on March 12 & 13. If you want to help out bring work gloves and a rake and meet at the Operations Center on Jolly Pond Road at 9 am. Spread the word to your mtb'ing friends. With good turn-out we could get this finished in one weekend. :thumbsup:

 

[PennyRich]

bump

 

[wi1trackrider]

Props to EVMA and the trails at Freedom Park. I rode there for the first time last week. Pretty much what I expected from reading the reviews. The trails offer something for beginners to experts. Even the easier trails can be made more difficult by maintaining a higher speed. The rolling hills are nothing technical, but maintaining a steady spinning cadence will give you a good workout. Since everything is one-way, you don't have to worry about holding back on blind corners. Trail A had the best flow. Trail C was fun, with the TTFs and all. All the TTFs are set up for you to either hit them, or ride around. Trail D was OK, and will probably get better once it gets ridden in more. Is the plan to go back and bench more sections of D? Seemed like a lot of it was just rake and ride. Adding an E loop will be nice. Even more mileage! I'll have to come back and hit Freedom Park again sometime.

 

[PennyRich]

Loop E is done. Come and ride it to pack it down.

 

[PennyRich]

Signage isn't up yet for E loop but the entrance is directly across from the END of D loop, not the beginning. Yesterday there were a bunch of people riding backwards.

 

[STSBADL]

Signs and mile markers are now up first ride this past Saturday. Fun trail needs to be packed down so go out and ride it. Trail A and B might as well be closed so you might as well ride E and break it in.

 

[CrashCanipe]

I'm from New Jersey and was visiting family the past week and was able to ride Freedom Park several times between the rain. I love the trails and definitely got a workout. I think there is 17 miles roughly total now. While there are no sustained climbs, my garmin still said over 2,000 feet of climbing for the full park. Terrific job by those who build and maintain the trails. I really think trail E is going to be a blast once it is broken in. D was nice but I had trouble getting good flow like I do on A, B and E. Could be that I was climbing on my singlespeed and there is definitely more climbing on D. I love the way D transitions between pine trees and back to regular hardwood forest.

However, I still love C. I want to see someone do the new jump to the right of the double jump. It looks scary. On Tuesday I checked out the new drop off that was built and it looks great. I didn't give it a try (need to work up a little more nerve) but it looks like it should be smooth.

Again, thanks to all those who do the work on these trails. It is always a highlight for me when I visit to be able to ride there. My 7 year old son got his first ride at Freedom on Tuesday and was begging to go back on Wednesday (closed for rain).