Got up Friday and the weather was awesome. No rain and temps in the low 80's with sunshine after the fog burnt off in the early am. Dropped into 178 right off the bat, AND IT WAS HAMMERED! That trail was beat up WAY BEYOND WHAT IT WAS WHEN WE RODE IT IN APRIL. The knarly downhill had been opened up quite a bit for more turn at the bottom, that is GOOD
The uphill later on is so busted up, the roots at the half way point are now mega exposed and deep holes in between them. The uphill is rutted out really bad so your pegs dig in. Had to push and pull a bit but we cleared it. The last uphill that goes up along the valley up and out was really beat up as well and really wet, so we turned around and dropped out to the road, then re-entered the trail system. As we were climbing up 99, one of the guys looped his bike and bent his handle bars, so we ran back down to the hotel, fixed his bars, ate some lunch and went back out. this time we rode 195/197 and that was torn up as well. Over grown to the max. You can tell no one has been in there in a long time. Took some work, but we got through that and then rode up to 97 Hill climb on the north side and turned around and rode back to Matewan. 195/197 is busted up and really rocky now, so it takes some time as a few trees had fallen and we had to route around the trees and then climb up the rock ledges.
Day 2 since we had beat our selves up pretty good on Day 1, we took it easy and head up to 149 via "greens". 149 looks like it has not been ridden in months, since we were there in April! Totally overgrown to the point you had to look right down at your front tire to see the trail for about half of the trail. Kinda sketchy but we made it all the way to the last part where you turn right and head up the hill to the out. When we climbed up the hill and made the left turn around the rock and the trail stopped! They had bull dozed right above the trail to open up an area for some water equip and when they bull dozed the area, they pushed trees and brush down onto the trail effectively closing it in. We got out a wire saw and had to cut a hole in the brush pile for an exit. Took about 30 min but we got that opened up and made it out. Then we headed up to Delbarton for Lunch and rode back down to Matewan for dinner at Wingo's.
We went across the street each morning and ate breakfast at that B&B each day, AWESOME! 6 bucks for all you can eat. That is a deal! Weather was great all weekend. We had some shine to go along with the evening bench racing, so a good time! Based on the state of the single track sections of Buff Mtn. this weekend, I would say not too may folks have been riding this year. So over grown and all busted up. Be ready to work some if you drop into 178, 197 and 195!
