Team Virtus/Hoosier Daddies Berryman Group Ride Report

Last week Team Virtus posted in their blog that they were having a group ride on the Berryman Trail, which is about an hour and a half southwest of St. Louis.  I've never been there but after stalking their blog for the last year or so, they sounded like a fun group of guys, and I decided to make the trip.  I was a bit nervous about riding that much singletrack (the trail is a 25 mile round trip if you don't shortcut it), but I was assured that if I could handle the trails at Greensfelder Park, which is about the limits of my ability, I should be able to handle Berryman.

The original blog post said meet at 7:30 and be ready to ride at 8, so I set my alarm for 5:20 for a roll time of 5:45.  Of course, having children will complicate your life in many different ways, so after having a very easy time putting my year old son to bed the previous 3 nights (which my wife normally does, but he started fighting her), he figures out that taking him to the recliner to read books means it's bedtime and fights me whenever I put a book down.  What should have been an 8:30 bedtime for him rapidly turned into way too close to 10:00 and it was close to 10:30 before I was finally able to go to sleep.  Then sure enough, at 5:00, my wife got up to use the restroom.  Immediately, my daughter woke up and started to scream and ran down the hall into my room, so I was then awake.  I'm just glad this happened at 5:00 and not 2:00 or 3:00.  Thankfully, my son who is usually a light sleeper, didn't wake up to this commotion.  As it turns out, I was running around some anyway at the last minute getting stuff together, so the extra 20 minutes was not a bad thing, and I was on the road a bit early.

Another guy from the area, Jim, had also posted about carpooling, so I met him in Eureka at 6:00, filled up my gas tank, and we were off.  I was happy to have him along for the ride.  He's a more experienced rider than I am, and goes down to the Berryman trail a few times a year, so he gave me lots of helpful advice on the way down.  Plus, the company helped to keep me plenty awake on the trip (and more importantly, the trip back).  When we got to Cuba, where we turned off I-44 to head to the trail, my stomach was growling, so I made a quick detour through the McDonald's drive through to get a steak and egg bagel sandwich.  Besides, it's never good to start a multi-hour ride on an empty stomach.  Pulling out of the lot, we saw another car with a bike on the back, and Jim said that could only mean that they were going to Berryman as well.  Good sign.  From Cuba, we still had another half hour or so on state highways to the turn off, so I polished off my sandwich and then started looking for the turnoff to the campground.  About 7:40, we pulled in to an empty lot - almost.   There were two other vehicles in the lot, one of which looked like it had been there for a while.  The other one was not part of the group that was supposed to show up.  He was going to ride it with 6 or 7 other guys, but they all bailed on him.  A few minutes later, the car we saw at McDonald's pulled in, looking as confused as we were.  The minutes started ticking by, and since none of us actually knew any of the guys we were riding with, we were starting to wonder if we had missed something.  Fortunately, around 8:00 or 8:15, other people started showing up, and by 8:30 we had a group of 25 people ready to ride.

Full lot after all.

The weather was also starting to warm up, or at least felt that way after I changed out of my jeans and into my riding pants that seemed to block the wind a bit better.  I still had 5 layers on over my torso (base layer, S/S jersey, riding jacket, and a two layer ski coat), but the ski coat was going to be left in the car as soon as we left.  I did get some throw some hand warmers in my gloves and shoes though, just to be safe.  About 9:00, the group took off with me somewhere in the middle of the pack, right behind Matt and Lisa from GORC with their Bar Mitts (I was a little jealous of those when we left).

Jim had told me on the was up to the campground that it was a high point on the trail, and he must be right, because the first 7 or 8 miles were a breeze.  Nice singletrack and not too rocky, or at least the snow was working as an effective vibration dampener.  At one point, I had looked down and was averaging about 7.5 mph, which is pretty good for me on rolling single track.  Around mile 6, I came to the first creek crossing, and I paused to grab a couple pictures. 

Nothing too bad here.

I had been warned of several crossings, especially one at Brazil Creek at mile 15, which is a foot or so deep most of the year.  Being mid-January, I can't say I was looking forward to that.  Especially since my natural tendency is to dismount at any crossing the first time I try it.  Almost doing an endo into one at Broemmelsiek on New Years Day 2 years ago with the temps in the single digits probably has something to do with that.  I'm convinced the only thing that saved my foot from being frozen off that day was the foot warmer in my shoe (that and it was almost the end of the ride). 

Around mile 8, I came to a spring that I had been warned was a place people will get lost on the ride, because the smallest trail exiting the area is the one you take.  Fortunately, Matt was there and said the fast group had just headed out.  The tire tracks in the snow was also a nice guide.  Let me just say that if there had not been snow on the ground, there would've been a few places where I might have gone down the wrong path to who-knows-where.

Somewhere around mile 10.

Sure enough, at mile 12 after a creek crossing, I was following a path when all of a sudden I looked down and realized that I was the only track on the ground.  The snow had melted a bit here, but not enough to where a half dozen bike wheels would've been in the one little melted spot.  Uh-oh.  I turned around and sure enough, there was a hard right going up a hill that I (and a few other people by the looks of it) had missed.  It was around this point in the trail that the glorious single track had ended, and more than a few areas were trampled by a good amount of horse traffic coupled with some erosion.
After getting back on the right trail, there was a pretty long climb that felt like I was riding up a stream bed.  But then I crested that hill and was treated to this:

Looking back up the trail.

That was a fun ride coming down, and at this point I was starting to wonder where this Brazil Creek was.  I didn't have a map with me, and my memory was saying it was at mile 14.  I think I was showing close to 15 at this point, plus I had been needing a restroom since about mile 7 and was really hoping the campground at Brazil Creek would have something I could use.  Finally, I came over another hill and saw what looked like a small river in the valley - think the Meramec at Castlewood.  As I was getting close to the river, there was a fork in the trail, and I followed the tire tracks.  It turns out that the trail has been rerouted, so crossing the big creek is no longer necessary.  However, it also meant no official rest stop.

As I crossed the road that bisects the trail, Matt, Lisa, and a guy that I had ridden up on, passed, then had him pass me when I stopped to take the last picture, were there taking a breather.  They asked how I was doing and I told them pretty good, but I did need to stop for a snack.  I had been neglecting to eat anything to this point (the Mickey D's was a good start, but it was getting to be about 11 or 12 by now), so I grabbed a Clif Bar out of my backpack and started eating it.  At this point I was surprised at how well I seemed to have picked my starting place in line.  I had one guy pass me early on, who I then passed as he was filling up a low tire, but I did not see anyone else until this other guy at around mile 13.  We had a bit of back and forth for a few miles as I was a bit faster, but I was also pausing more often, until at about mile 18 or 19 with me in front, I saw him coming up on me around one turn, but then didn't see him after that.  I was with a group of 25, but I felt like I was alone on the trail most of the time.

More trail shots from the second half

I must say though, around mile 19 or 20, I was hurting.  The weather was getting warmer, the snow was melting (compare the last two shots from the early morning ones), and my tires were getting packed with slush and leaves.  It was not fun for a couple miles and I was walking too much for my liking.  Fortunately, I crested a hill and then was able to enjoy a little downhill to get some energy back.  It was not the last time I walked (I was hoofing it on just about every climb now), but the climbs and downhills seemed to get shorter and miles 22 - 24 were more pleasant.  Of course, as soon as my odometer hit 24 miles, I was praying for that final road crossing every time I came up a hill or saw a few pine trees.  I had been warned that the trail is longer than 24 miles even though that's what everyone says it is, but I was still hoping.  Then when the odometer hit 25.0, I was really getting anxious.  Finally, about that point, I crested one last hill, saw a road that was more than gravel double track, and I breathed one big sigh of relief.  25.4 miles in 4 hours and 26 minutes for a 5.7 mph average.  It really dropped off considering I was well over 7 early on, but the last half had a considerable amount of climbing and my brakes were not working real well at the end, so I was using what little power I had left on any downhill, not knowing if I'd be able to stop if need be.

The campground at last!

I rolled into the campground where Team Hoosier Daddies had set up a grill and were barbequing burgers and bratwurst.  They also had a keg of Blue Moon on hand (these guys need to rename themselves Team Mind Readers, because they sure knew what I would love to have at the end of a 4 hour ride).  Actually, I knew there would be brats there because Jim had brought a pack for the two of us, but the Blue Moon made my afternoon.  After I satiated my appetite with my first brat, I went back to the car to change back into my jeans and t-shirt that I had brought with me.  After that was taken care of, one of these appeared on the grill: 

That is one big bratwurst!

Apparently, the Hoosier Daddies are also master chefs, because this homemade bratwurst was pretty darn good! I think I heard it was actually made from deer rather than pork, but I don't really care what dead animal was in there, like I said, it was good.  Super Kate had also brought some chocolate chip cookies, and someone had the genius idea to throw them on the grill, which in about 2 minutes made them taste like they were straight out of the oven.

For the rest of the afternoon, we stood around the pavilion and campfire until the food and beverages disappeared, then as the sun was starting to set, Jim and I decided to start making our way back to St. Louis.  It was an awesome day.