Thatcher Park Ride

Hoping for better mountain biking results than I had on Monday, I headed out to Thatcher park for a group ride. I failed to meet the group, but spent 2 hours exploring the trails south of the Paint Mine parking lot. It's a decent climb to Beaver Dam Road, but it's short. From what I can estimate on Google Earth, it's about 250' of climbing in 1 mile. Terrain varies between ATV trail and jeep road. There are no logs to hop, but there are some reasonably technical rocky spots and a lot of good, steep, short, climbs with roots & rocks.
While riding I discovered where the group I came for had parked, so I kept swinging by there and eventually ran into them as they were coming back to their cars. Jason from EMS was the ride leader, and he said he was canceling Sunday's ride because he's out of town. I was going anyway, so I told him not to cancel and that I would lead it.
So, anyone want to ride? 5:00 PM on Sunday. Park on Beaver Dam road. From Albany take route 85 to Thatcher Park Road (route 157). The second left is Beaver Dam. 2.3 miles from the intersection you will see a fence on the left, and a small parking area on the right. Park on the right.
We will hash around on the trails near Beaver Dam to get warmed up, then head down to the Paint Mine trails. We will probably drop down to Hop Field, climb back up, and then go to Paint Mine. From there we'll head west until we run into Beaver Dam. We'll ride along the road a bit until we hit Long Trail. I reckon it's a 6-8 mile loop that we'll try to do twice. There are at least 4 bailout points if your legs get tired. Hope to see you there.