I’m back at work and the family left for a long weekend to visit family.  So for the regular weekend time I decided to get away to Cuyuna! I stayed at Red Rider Resort which just opened this season.  It is fun to check out the new places as they open around town and it was a race weekend so there wasn’t much open anyways.  Red Rider is Ride In/Out of the back side of the Yawkey Unit so pretty much on the far eastern edge of the bike trails.  It is a pretty short ride about 1/2 mile to get onto the Man Cage Trail.

I had planned on riding as soon as I got into town, but it rained a couple of times on my way in and I wasn’t sure.  I ended up waiting a little bit before heading out, giving it a few hours to dry as they recommend.  The trails were mostly good when I rode. I wanted to do the whole Yawkey Unit and I accomplished that tonight with the exception of the one Extremely Difficult section.

Yawkey is relatively far away from the Rally Center, so I think it is easy to forget about, but has some cool sections.  Bob Sled is definitely a favorite – its got a good climb but some fun flow sections on the way back down.  Taking the cut off is pretty efficient, the longer version is cool and pretty rocky and is worth riding too. Man Cage, Tugger, and Trout are good trails to warm up on and get the legs moving. Manual Road is a tough climb up, but is some good riding on top.  Some of the Advanced trails aren’t actually too bad here either.  Skip is fun, especially the loop at the top of the hill which you can re-do without having to climb too much.  I need to keep working on skill improvements, like right hand uphill turns! And relaxing on some of the descents!  Grizzly felt harder but had some tight uphill sections.  Yawkey is a fun place to ride, no doubt! After the ride, I relaxed had some dinner and enjoyed being in the woods.

Manual Mine Lake, looking at Red Rider Resort

Sunset on Manual Mine Lake, from Red Rider Resort