The hill is wide enough (obviously) at 19 feet for a good dual-lane hybrid. And here's the best part: THE SURFACE IS EQUAL TO THE PARK AND RIDE IN GAITHERSBURG! It's close to flawless. There are what appear to a couple of cracks in the asphalt, but these are almost cosmetic. I rolled over them as slow and as fast as I could and couldn't even tell they were there. They are no obstable to skating. Marion, Gary and I used two leaf blowers and had the entire hill spotless in about a half hour. Of course, it was gusty yesterday and leave blew back onto the course, but I think summer racing would see the hills stay pretty clean. More importantly than leaves, though, is we cleaned up all the sticks and marble on the course. There was no hitch yesterday at all with any road debris.
The run-out hill at the other end is not as long or steep as the main hill, but obviously you can runn a couple of different course. what looks like from this angle as continuous downhill is deceiving. In truth, that first cone in the straight set up is "almost" on the flat. There is a transition that drops down the to SBD finish line.
Literally right next to the hill is a BIG shelter with grills, probably enough tables to seat 50-75 people, bathrooms and water:
We set a hybrid course and then reflected later into a dual course. As you can see, though, this hill is good for just about everything EXCEPT dual GS racing. A single-lane GS could be set on this slope that would challenge anybody.
Although it looks like we set a course just on the flat, this is deceiving. From where we started on the hill down to the finish line was down hill all the way. Some local kids showed up to watch. Where they are sitting on their bicycles the hill is about as steep as Shady Lane in New York. Farther up the hill from where I took this picture is about stupid: it's steep, fast and has really good length:
Now, here's the answers to questions everyone was asking:
NO BUST FACTOR. If there is no mountain bike race SCHEDULED and no Soap Box Derby Event scheduled, the hill is open. I gather the management would encourage us to take advantage of the facility and see it used more than three or four times a year.
SHADE!!! See all those dark shadows stretching across the road? That's called "shade." Probably some of the guys used to skating the P&R are unfamiliar with it. 90% of the hill is shaded with really only direct sunlight in mid afternoon with the sun directly over head. After 1:00 the shade goes across the hill pretty rapidly and keeps the broiling factor to a minimum. Plus, the same forest providing the shade also is an excellent wind break. Gusts in the Winston Salem area yesterday were in the 25-mph range. We never saw a cone move all day.
LOCATION. This spot is three miles off I-40 in the middle of North Carolina. Virginia, South Carolina Georgia, West Viginia and most other parts of the Southeast are 4-8 hours away. Plus, as you can imagine, at the interstate is all the usual suspects for food and lodging.
Finally, I'm going to jump the gun a little and say this. I told Marion, Jake and Gary yesterday I wanted to session here May 14th (one week after the Gathering.) This depends of course on the Mountain Bike schedule. But if Marion determines this week that May 15th is cool, we're going to ride and feed everyone who comes. We'll fire up that grill and do all the good stuff for everybody. All we'll need is a headcount so as to know how much food to haul in to the park. WE HOPE that Dave G and Lenny can make it. If not both, then with luck one or the other. Dave has a TIMER and we'll need it to race. 66 has already told me there is a conflct with him coming on 5/14 and I don't know if BP could make it. Having a timer would be cool.
Anyway, that's Hobby Park. To sum up, it's PERFECT for slalom skateboarding. I hope we can have more than four guys there in three weeks![/b]
