Grizvitational

Rob Ginieczki used to live here in State College. He has written many mountain biking guide books. His book of our own Rothrock State Forest helped my dad and I find a lot of the trails here. Every year, there is a big group ride for him, and he usually shows up. He lives out in Colorado now, and didn't make it to this year's ride. The ride started at Penn Roosevelt State Park, the same place as the Stoopid 50. We climbed to the top of Thickhead mountain, and descended the steeper side. 31 mph without pedaling on a jeep trail. Then we turned onto the John Wert Path, a trail known for it's technical rock gardens, and is a must-do for anyone visiting the area. Then up to Upper and Lower Longberger. Upper and lower are completely different trails; lower is one of the only beginner trails in the area, and upper is a 1 mile rock garden. Turned on to 3 Bridges trail and up Laurel Run road to Charcoal Flats trail. Starts off fast, then stops descending and turns into a 3 mile string of rock gardens. Steep, technical descent into Shingletown Gap, with lots of big rocks and ledges. Then a rocky climb back out to the road. We turned back into 3 Bridges and took it down to Bear Meadows road, and climbed that to Kettle trail. Kettle is a short, but steep and washed out climb up to Tussey Ridge. I've only cleared it once, and my dad is the only other person I know that has done it. Tussey Mountain trail isn't as rocky as John Wert or Charcoal flats, but it's still technical. Rode it passed the forest fire that burned the whole ridge 2 years ago and across the gasline to Tussey Extension. The extension finishes the ridge, then descends, but goes back uphill to the gasline, and descends the gasline down to Treaster Kettle road. The climb up Thickhead from that side is really hard when you're only 1 hour into the ride. We started around 11 and the sun was beginning to set while we climbed. The only race that this side of Thickhead has been in was the Singlespeed World Championships in 2005. My dad climbed it that night and all he saw were footprints. By the time I got to the top, it was almost dark. We descended the other side with just enough daylight to see the bumps on the way down.