Sweet Sweet Single Track

Hardly ever do you hear Illinois and think quality single track. Well for the second year in a row the Midwest Mountain Bike festival was held right here in Peoria, Ill. The Peoria Area Mountain bike Association brought the fest to Farmdale Reservoir, an Army Corp of Engineers' site with a hefty network of single track that winds, dips, and climbs for miles. I put my crew together and took off Friday for a weekend of camping and biking. We rolled up to Farmdale about 6:00pm. Just enough time to register, set up the tent, sit back and unwind with a Fat Tire before everyone began to assemble for a night ride. Nobody in our group had ever been out after sunset much less in the dark of the night. It was a wild ride. Mountain bikers tend to talk about needing new parts and lighter, better frames, that night it was "Man I need a better light". In the city, bike lights are for cars to see not for bikes to navigate behind. The goal was to get in front of someone with an expensive spotlight so you could see where you were going. At the end of the ride there was an ice cold keg from Leinenkugels waiting for us. The next day was cold and rainy which got us free coffee from one of the vendors. The ride on Saturday introduced us to a mountain unicyclist who was only 14, and a few more south suburbanites from Chicago. Even with all the rain we've been havin' the trails were in tiptop shape. I hope to attend every year.

Two bikes, a Specalized Hardrock and a Gary Fisher 29'er, along with tents all my camping gear, a cooler, and water for the primitive campsite all in the old school Explorer.

The camping was right at the trailhead couldn't have asked for a better spot

Tandem Mountain Bikes. I don't know how you would take a switchback but still pretty cool.