But it's a challenge for the recently arrived mountain biker. Because if its size, because of its diversity, and because of its geography. It takes a half hour just to drive from one side to the other. I often head out to ride just a few trails and invariably come back 3 or 4 hours later having only seen another small fraction of the system. The single track is diffuse, scattered throughout the forest, and it's rocky, technical, and slow. It generally runs point-to-point between gravel roads and two-tracks - there is no stacked loop architecture to make it easy to navigate. Connecting the single track in a loop almost always requires some amount of road, making the riding somewhat schizophrenic. You're either grinding up a 1,300 foot road climb, bumping from rock to rock along a scenic ridge, screaming down a buff two track, or thrashing down and eroded fall line trail. If you're me, you're walking many of those ridge line rock gardens and fall line drops.
Luckily, there is an excellent trail map available from Purple Lizard - it's the best $12 I've spent here. There are tons of trails, but this is a multi use area. Hiking-only trails are marked, but there is little distinction on the map between two track, legacy hiking trails, legacy bike trails (pre-IMBA), and modern single track. So you have to pay attention to the isoclines and symbols on the map. The best biking trails seem to run along the ridges (offering oaks, gorgeous views, and lots of rock, ), the valleys (offering intimate hemlocks, rhododendrons, and lots of rock), or are new ones as evidenced by their many switchbacks.Many, many fall line trails drop steeply from the ridges to the valleys. They seem to have started as hiking trails, and I suppose they can be ridden by some, but they are generally eroded and unsustainable. After I learned to filter out all the fall line trails when looking at the map, promising areas to ride were clearer. Often a gate symbol on a trail reveals its nature as two-track. Squiggly trails will have some flow and benching. Still, you often have to actually ride it to know for sure.
The scenery is superb, with regular overlooks of the valleys and ridges. It's a great place for a fit mountain biking beginner to tour beautiful forest roads for hours on end. But making the transition from two track to single track is a sink or swim proposition. There is no beginner single track, and not a lot of intermediate by Michigan standards. I'm getting better at the constant rocks, but am still dumbfounded by the 100 foot jumbles of large, square rocks the trails sometime traverse. It's required an adjustment of my expectations - I'm going to have to walk some part of any ride that includes single track. With that in mind, I can enjoy the variety and challenge of the technical sections. But sometimes the rock here is a bit unrelenting and I find myself longing for some speed and flow after I've cleaned a tough section, not another rock garden.
Settling on my first impressions of these trails took over three weeks. You can know many trail centers after only a few rides - after that they are still fun to ride, but it's no longer the same adventure. Not Rothrock. There always seems to be new trails to discover, new skills to learn, something you can't ride yet. Trail styles are a personal preference, and mine tends towards the smooth and flowy - I'm more a kinsethetic rider than a challenge rider. Yet in the end, Rothrock holds a fascination for me I can't fully explain. Maybe it's the challenge, maybe the diversity, maybe the beauty. In a nutshell, Id' have to say it's a tough place to visit, but a great place to live near.
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