Spooky ride for Halloween [10/19/2002]

By Marty Basch

Cliff Krolnick couldn't find the trail. This might prove troublesome to some. This was a twilight ride, the light waning quickly and the cold of autumn creeping in."The trail can be elusive," he said to the dozen or so riders who were relying on the man to get them home as day turned to night.But this was part of Krolnick's bag of tricks. It was nearly Halloween and the skilled Maine backwoods mountain biker knew exactly what he was doing. He reached into a his bag and pulled out a treat, a found trail. Past a cellar hole the riders rolled on the single track. They dodged shrunken heads, canopies of spider webs, ghoulish woodsmen, hanging skeletons and a misshapen raven hanging on a tree along the narrow trail. Then, they crept along a forest road by a cemetery guarded only by a head.Call it a hoot, or a howl or even a tad hokey, but that's part of the Spooky Ride through the Enchanted Forest, the headline ride of the annual Mountain Bike Spook Festival at Back Country Excursions in Parsonsfield, Maine. In a season of haunted hay rides and corn mazes, the festival is a fresh spin on Halloween. The festival is a weekend affair, complete with group rides, pumpkin carving and apple bobbing. This years ride is Oct. 25 to 27. For more information, call (207) 625-8189 or try the web site at www.bikebackcountry.com."This attracts adventurous people, very social types," says Krolnick.Krolnick is a bit of a modern day hippie with a hint of Thoreau. During the weekend, guests help out at the communal meals, bringing a dish for potluck or manning the knives for kitchen prep work on homegrown veggies. Stay in the yurt, camp in a tent or sleep in one of the guest rooms in the house Krolnick built at the end of a dead-end dirt road in the western Maine foothills."This is a good father son thing," said Brete Moran, an Orange, Connecticut dentist riding with his elementary school student son Beau. "It is much different from our daily life and is a good way for him to learn about pitching in, cleaning up."And to ride. There's no shortage of terrain in Krolnicks neighborhood. Snowmobile trails, single track, carriage roads, double track, ATV lanes and more are all on the 9,000 acres of public conservation land which goes into the New Hampshire town of Effingham. By mountain bike, riders get a chance to see the colors of autumn, cemeteries, stone walls, small lakes, white church steeples and even oranged-blazed hunters of rural Maine. By Halloween, the maples have shed their leaves, but the birches and poplars still have their burnt orange flair. The weather can be warm or cold. Ask Jill Law, a Dartmouth, Massachusetts interior decorator who one year awoke to a Spook Festival with snow."It was cold and cool,"she said of riding on snow. "Not too slippery. There was only about an inch." Riders are of all abilities. There are those hot shots who want to make a beeline for the log piles and "North Shore" style elevated wood bridge trails. There are those who feel like leaving the knobbies on a sedate dirt road. Beginners tend to pedal along stone walls. Better riders cycle through them.Group rides are offered, though as the weekend progresses there are splinter groups going off on their own. Some choose to navigate the sparsely marked trails without a guide. Even with a map, some get lost, but do find their way back."I had so much fun I missed a turn," said Leslie Stryker, co-owner of a Chatham, New Hampshire construction company. "The turn came up fast. I just stuck to the road and came back. It is a beautiful place to ride." On the rides Krolnick dispenses advice on balance, gearing and braking. He instills confidence and tries to educate the mountain biker.Take Frank Morgan, a Portland, Maine nurse. His first try down a steep pitch on a trail called Quilted Northern ended in a fall. Krolnick gave some pointers and Morgan tried again."The first time I wiped out totally," Morgan said. "On the second time we made adjustments to my bike and confidence. I made it. If I fell, no big deal. I wanted to improve and do it again."Law said the rides were different than those she did at home."This is a challenge and good way to develop your skills," she said. "The average ride at home doesn't challenge you. This does through endurance and balance."Back home, the rides don't tend to have bodyless cemetery guards who only come out in late October at twilight in spooky shadows of the Maine woods.Marty Basch can be reached at rodeman@aol.com.