LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 46 here, everyone kind of knows each other." And they all follow each other on Instagram. Gradually, an online community grew around the event, with BETA and inspiration drawing people to the ride. Finishers included Lake Placid Olympian Andrew Weibrecht, Saranac Lake ultrarunner Sarah Keyes —out-of-state triathletes with an open calendar aer the Ironman was canceled—and skiers, climbers, trail runners, and mountain bikers looking for a new way to explore trails close to home. Enter McGiver. On that July morning, the Lake Placid–based photographer switched on Strava Beacon, which shares an athlete's real-time location via the exercise-tracking app. en she set off with a simple goal: Make it to the finish line. e Over Easy starts with dog walker–friendly trails at Heaven Hill and Henry's Woods. A quick spin across town leads to flowy, machine-built trails at the Craigwood Golf Course and the Logger's Loops, a seven-mile tangle of technical, rock-strewn trails. e paved section along Route 86 offers a reprieve before the stout climb up the Wilmington Flume trails. And when knobby tires touch asphalt on the Whiteface Mountain toll road, that's the warning sign: Cooper Kill ahead. is snowmobile trail traverses the Wilmington Wild Forest, topping out at a lean-to overlooking a beaver pond. But the route features rocky streambeds, so forest floor, and shoe-sucking Adirondack mud. "It's an easy place to break bikes and bones," says McGiver. Keegan and Shane knew riders would have to get off and hike with their bikes. So why include it? "Just to be an asshole, really," says Keegan. "Even if you are an amazing mountain biker, this is going to bring you back down to everyone else's level." Survive the equalizer, and another road stretch brings you to Wilmington's Hardy Road at mile 46. Riders climb stacked loops and bomb-rollicking descents—good fun aer work, not so diverting halfway through the Over Easy. "You're trying to get to Elizabethtown and you're stuck at Hardy Road riding in circles," says Shane. ings straighten as bikers follow a rollercoaster of dirt and pavement roads for 25 miles through the pass between Hurricane and Jay mountains to land in Lewis. From there, the route sends riders into Elizabethtown's Blueberry Hill Trails, chasing the view atop Joel's Trail. "It's really beautiful—if you get to see it in the daylight," says Keegan. en it's over to Otis, where the final descent sends riders into the bowl that holds both the old ski hill's rope tow and the main stage of the newer music festival. It's also where McGiver showed up last August to deliver a pizza to Joseph Wilson, who rode for 19 hours through hurricane Isaias to complete the Over Easy before he returned to college. Wilson devoured his finish-line prize. "en he immediately fell asleep, sitting up, soaking wet, caked in mud," says McGiver. "We covered him with a coat until his ride arrived."

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