Mitcham Hills MTB Trails
The first post Reba rebuild ride was at Mitcham Hills near Lynton. This was the first time I’ve ridden at Mitcham, and as a result, the fork took some larger than expected hits. Having sufficiently exercised/abused the fork, I think it is safe to say that the rebuild was a success. The Reba has regained full travel and the poplock is once again functional.
Anyway, back to the trails. From what I’ve been reading, MTB access to Mitcham is a relatively recent and many of the MTB trails are still under construction. My first-ride impressions are that there are a wide range of trail types from easy fire roads to fork-killing downhill runs. I rode several (most?) of the open trails.
The green/easy fire roads are used to connect many of the more difficult trails. There are also some sections of green/easy singletrack that is mostly smooth and fast. The blue/modeate XC trails are fairly fast with a mix of loose rocks to smooth dirt singletrack. The black/advanced trails have some nice drops, steep climbs and technical downhill sections. There are also some double-black trails, but I haven’t made it to those. If the black trails are any indication, the double black trails are probably not very rideable on the hardtail Eriksen, but I try anyway.
Overall, Mitcham has some fun and challenging MTB trails and I’ll definitely be back many more times. I’m going to ride the Erkisen there the next few times, but soon I’d like to get the cyclocross bike on the trails and see how if works — I haven’t even had the knobbies on the Gunnar since leaving Maryland. The last post showing the Gunnar with knobbies was all the way back in November ’08. Anyway, based on my first ride, Mitcham seems to be more cyclocross-bike-compatible than Eagle. I think there are some green and blue trails that will be fun on the Gunnar, but I’ll bring a couple spare tubes.
Tags: Mitcham Hills
