NICA High School May 2021

Race - May 23, 2021

Dogs No Dogs

E-Bikes Allowed

It's a 3.2-mile race course (2.5 for MSers) with everything, around 335 feet of elevation that'll prove to be one heck of a course for all abilities.

These woods here above the west side of Norwich have a Keeper of the Woods who watches over the forest and just above the highest point of our course is THE KEEP (when you get to the Way Up Trail, it's straight ahead) - up in the shale hillside is a place we call THE KEEP - also known as Weird Rocks or Dimross - go check it out! The Keeper leaves ornate carved walking sticks around at the seven neat stone structures he's made over the years - maybe you'll be lucky and find one! Please help us KEEP these woods pristine!

The course will start out with a loop around the grassy infield where it leads out onto a short section of the Upper Ravine seasonal road, banking a right turn up into the County's trail network. Rider's hit a short doubletrack section where they quickly turn left onto the Little Quarry trail that'll lead them to a right hand turn onto the lower portion of Pizza-the-Hut singletrack. The riders will climb Pizza-the-Hut to the intersection with the upper portion of Dark Helmet, a tight flowy section of singletrack climbing to the top portion of the course.

At the top, riders will turn right to reverse the Way Up doubletrack down to a left onto the Cut-Off trail and then a quick right onto the lower section of the Spoonman singletrack – descending onto the flowy Hornets Nest singletrack, with a quick circle around the Lonely Oak / Witches Brew.

Exiting Witches, you'll take a right back onto Hornets Nest, with more singletrack downhill flow to the top of Poison Ivy. Here, the riders will bank a hard left onto a descent via more doubletrack down on the Steve's Stones loop (the MSers will turn right onto Bunker Hill skipping Steve's Stones) – a mix of double/singletrack with one heck of a climb back up to Bunker Hill.

Riders will bear left onto Bunker Hill, some technical singletrack that'll lead over to the upper section of Poison Ivy – the best flowing singletrack on the hillside – descending Ivy, back onto the lowest section of Bunker Hill where riders are led out of the woods, with a swoop through the ditch back onto the Upper Ravine seasonal road - 150 yards back to the Go-Go-Go start / finish line!