I have heard such great things about Brown County, Indiana trails for several years but just was not inclined to make the 6 hour drive down. Well.... all I can say is OH MY GOSH -- WOW!!!!!! it is my understanding that the trails were professionally built thanks to a quarter million dollar grant, and the builders definitely knew what they were doing. There is one section that honestly I did not have to pedal for probably 3/4, maybe a whole mile! Fast, flowy, amazing. Did you hear -- AMAAAAAZING! THEN, let's talk about the rocks. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to ride rocks! That's why I love Landahl and Blue Mound so much. There was a intermediate trail called Walnut that was SO MUCH FUN! Rocks strewn here and there for little treats of goodness along what was already an awesome trail. The builders also threw in a tootsie roll treat inside the sucker every now and then with rock ledges to test skinny skills. And, the rock armoring was what legends are made of! Just beautiful!

THEN, Schooner. This is the behemoth of trails that is the end-all beat-all of mother trails. Double black diamond and for good reason. The qualifier was so amazingly wicked that not everyone was able to accomplish it. Yup, I'm not ashamed to tell you that in the interest of keeping my teeth and sparing bone breakage, I walked it. BUT! I HAD to see what people were talking about. I was able to ride about 60% of the obstacles and those were gnarly. The boys probably got through 80/85% of the obstacles. No one cleared everything. And, the tread was so narrow that you had to really pay attention, and the penalty for failure was extremely high. Did I mention the loose limestone and the slippery mossy rocks on the NARROW tread? Yup. I walked away with an assortment of bruises and scrapes and a dislodged hip from one too many splats on the rocks. But, I am still smiling!

When I think of Indiana, I think of the Midwest scenery... boring. Brown County seems like it was plucked out of the middle of Wisconsin. Hills, tons of trees and beauty that was unending. The group campgrounds were very nice (FORC, are you hearing this???). Let's get back to the trails... OMG! This is a MUST-DO destination for anyone who likes to mtn bike! Granted, you have to suck it up and drive 6 hours to get there but I promise you, THE DRIVE IS WORTH IT!

That's all I got. Do it!

Here's a shot from the Schooner entrance:
SchoonerEntrance..jpg

Stauby, Ray, Paul, Bex, Tony, Tim, Krud