Maple Hollow Explore

Today at lunch I explored Maple Hollow after noticing stupidbike's route last Saturday. (Here's a map of the out-n-back stub that piqued my curiosity.)

I first checked out a trail I had seen from the road (on my road bike) that went up Maple Hollow. It looked like it was cut in not too long ago, but hadn't been maintained or seen much traffic. Soon it joined an old utility road and went up the bottom which got steep. The trail steeply traversed a minor ridge and I stopped part way up, satisfied that the trail wasn't going to get any better. I went down and took a little shortcut over to, what appears to be, the real Maple Hollow trail (even though it starts in Oak Hollow).

I'd done part of this trail before, up past the water tank and over the ridge out to the flight park. But this time I turned up the ridge to ride this fairly new trail (my guess is it was cut last year). This first part was nice - the grade was fairly consistent and just right for me in 3rd gear. It side -hilled the east side of the ridge until it hit the bottom then started traversing up the side slope of the opposite ridge. The grade was a bit steeper, but still moderate. This section was a bit rougher with a steeper side hill. The trail rounds the ridge and continues climbing on the other side, but only for about 150 yards where the trail ends. The Draper trail builders will probably be working on it this year. The terrain ahead looks challenging - I'll be interested to see how they route the trail.

The ride down was fun. A bit sketchy in places, but mostly smooth rolling. I took pictures on the way down.

End of the line.


Looking back down the trail from the end.


View from the ridge.


View across to the beginning of the Maple Hollow trail.
If you look close you can see a line of people hiking up the trail in yellow shirts, dark pants and white helmets. They were hiking fast. I assumed they were the trail crew coming up to build more trail, but they went down the other trail. My guess is they were forest fire fighters out on a training exercise.


Not bad looking single-track.


Is Spring really here?


BONUS: Chinlone is a game played in Myanmar by kicking a rattan ball (it's like hacky sack). The focus is on fancy shots and I was amazed at the foot skill. Check out these videos.