With a 4-day Memorial Day weekend, I decided to beat the crowds and head up to Kettle Moraine for some trail running and MTBing. The southern unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest is one of my favorite places for trail running and MTBing. It’s got enough ups and downs to make it physically demanding and the scenery is great. My plan was to do a 5 mile run, then about a 2-3 hour MTB ride.
The weather was gorgeous with partly cloudy skies and temps around 70 degrees F. A perfect spring day. I got up to the trails just before lunch time and figured I could get an easy run in, then eat, and bike later. The trail was great and I hadn’t run there in a few years. My 5 mile run turned into nearly 7 miles and I went harder than I planned. Oh, well, I was having fun. Time to go get some lunch at the La Grange General Store.
Run at the Kettle Moraine Nordic Trails
I was pretty cooked after my run. Even though I hydrated well beforehand, I think I underestimated the sun and warm weather. I was excited to get MTBing though and headed out on the Blue trail. I was feeling pretty good eager to see the new Connector trails, since I hadn’t ridden them in a few years. The trails were in awesome shape, but I was beginning to get pretty tire and dehydrated by the time I got up to Emma Carlin. I had fun riding some of the new trail reroutes. Check out one of the photos below of the scenic overlook where the connector trails hook up.
I thought my ride home would be easy. Ha! The trails were a little more technical heading south and my fatigue made them more of a challenge. I ended up catching my bike on q tree and went over the handlebars. Thankfully, I landed in the brush. I got a little scraped up, but my handlebars were completely backwards. Great, and I still had about 5 miles to go. This situation is why you always carry a multi-tool with you while MTBing. A few adjustments and I was off. I opted to ride the roads back to the parking lot, rather than tackling the trails some more.
Overall, another fun day at Kettle, even if I got well done.