Mohican Trippple 6.

2021 brought on the 6th edition of the Mohican Trippple. The overall premise of the ride is 25 miles mountain biking, 25 miles gravel grinding, 50 miles road cycling, and 10,000 feet of descending in a one-of-a-kind cycling experience. Just to be clear, the Mohican Trippple isn't a cycling event, it's a GD arms race based on the bikes showing up at the start line each year.

The 2021 Route:

The 2021 Elevation Profile:

The 2021 Route Curator:

And Scott better not forget it either. 😉

The Start Line:

16 riders (plus one in bed and another still driving down) gathered at the start line at 7a to embark on the 2021 Mohican Trippple.

The Single Track:

This year, for extra punishment, Doug Metzger decided to ride Opossum and Fox trails to enter the Mohican loop. This made the single track leg close to 26 miles. Again this year, the trails were in fantastic shape. In 26 miles of mountain biking, there were only 3 downed trees (and one downed Chris Holmes, and one downed Josh Smith, and three downed Dan Willis's, etc).

The Gravel Route:

The gravel route had the most elevation per mile of any edition of the Mohican Trippple. This was accomplished with 5 notable climbs.

Valley Stream has steep portions, a nasty switch back, and two false finishes.

Big Hill road is bullsh*t. Bottom to top. The whole thing f'n sucks. F- every inch of that f'n hill. (3D profile taken from different ride)

Jeep climb (actual name: township highway 15) allows riders to actually stay on their bikes, which is a slight change of pace from the previous two.

Beams road climb has the lowest grades of the notable climbs, but it's long and has the loosest surface.

And the last notable climb is castle climb, which is three climbs in 5 miles that sums up to more than 800 feet of elevation as riders cruise by the Landoll's Mohican Castle.

I'm not done complaining about Big Hill road. According to Strava, this is my eighth time up that MF'r. The previous seven, I've always been on a mountain bike with a big cog. This time, I was on a road bike that fits gravel tires. 34 chainring + 32 cog + 35c's + 40 PSI = a GD disaster for me. I climbed around the first 25% of the hill hugging the right side of the road. Rod passed on the left putting down power and off the seat. I figured I should jump on his line so a pointed to the middle of the road, crossed, cut off Bryan Rose, hit loose rocks, spit the bike sideways and rode into the weeds. The GD disaster was just beginning. Then I pushed the bike to where I could finally get on, jumped on the pedal to power the bike forward, and have an immediate leg spasm. You know, the kind where you immediately unclip, put your foot on the ground and lean over in leg pain thinking, "WTF am I doing with my life", then you accidently move and the pain doubles up. Yeah, one of those. I had to lay the bike on the ground between my legs as I couldn't move. After a minute or so, I could move my leg again. Then I proceeded to drop 75 capital F bombs, drank an entire 20 ounce bottle of infinit go far, and pushed my bike to the top of the hill. That sucked. I spent 9 minutes and 34 seconds climbing a 300 plus foot hill. And to top off this GD disaster, the best pic someone got sucks.

The Road Route:

In the previous two years, the road route snaked its way north through the paved hills to Mifflin then south on 603 through the Mohican State Park. With construction, this year's route was similar, but featured about 20 miles of new pavement. Here's an excellent pic of Jim and Suzanne rolling through the paved hills.

The Trippple had quite the finish this year. Riders entered Loudonville, only 3 miles from camp, then pointed their bikes due west and took on an onslaught of hills; Tanney climb (AKA extra credit) plus roller after roller after roller until climbing Park road.

Ride Totals:

Same as last year, all kinds of people recorded different stats, but I'm writing this blog, so only my stats count.

• 26 miles MTB (Opossum + Fox trails)
• 29 miles gravel
• 52 miles road
• Distance: 107 miles
• Elevation: 11,316 feet
• Mohican Trippple 6 Strava

2021 Mohican Trippple Finishers:

2021 brought out a record number of Mohican Trippple finishers, 11 in total. Six finishers were first time Mohican Trippple riders! Third year in a row the total finisher count has increased!

• Nate Burks - 2nd time rider, 1st time finisher!
• Chris Holmes - 5th time rider, 4th time finisher!
• Nathan Eastlake - 1st time rider, 1st time finisher!
• Scott Lang - 3rd time rider, 3rd time finisher!
• Doug Metzger - Original bad idea ride expert, 6th time rider, 4th time finisher! (additional accolade below)
• Jacob Morrison - 1st time rider, 1st time finisher!
• Nick Mossing - 1st time rider, 1st time finisher!
• Rodney Palmer - 4th time rider, 3rd time finisher!
• Suzanne Peats - 2nd time rider, 2nd time finisher! (2nd female to finish the Trippple twice!)
• Mike Peiffer - 1st time rider, 1st time finisher!
• Bryan Rose - 1st time rider, 1st time finisher!

First time finishers:

The Suzanne Peats:

Third time finishers:

Fourth time finishers:

Doug killed the awards this year and first time participant Nathan Eastlake had a few hats made up:

Completing the Trippple on a single bike:

There have been two previous attempts for riders to complete the Trippple on a single bike. A rider in 2017 completed 90 miles of the Trippple then quit in a thunderstorm. A rider in 2020 completed parts of each section, rode around 70 miles, but failed to complete the Trippple on a single bike. This year, Doug Metzger stepped up to the plate and rode the entire Mohican Trippple on a Specialized Stump Jumper. All 107 miles on one bike. To be specific, Doug rode 53 miles of hilly pavement on a mountain bike. When switching to anything else was an option, he blatantly ignored that voice telling him to do so. Two important accolades have been achieved:

• Doug is the first rider to complete the entire Trippple on a single bike
• Doug solidified his lead on the Mohican Trippple DFL category, with 2 DFL finishes (2017 & 2021)

Now that this outstanding achievement has been completed, no one needs to bother completing the Trippple on a single bike ever again. If someone wants to do it anyways, have at it...

Friends Helping Friends Overcoming Adversity:

Jacob Morrison had three flats on the gravel portion using his gravel bike. He was ready to call it a day, but Jeff Logsdon took Jacob his mountain bike so he could finish the gravel portion of the ride and ultimately finish the Trippple. Pic below of Jacob with the Trippple sag crew on the road portion. 😂

Historical List of the Trippple Finishers:

Future of the Trippple:

Create less smiles.

Like this guy. 😂

Doug says he's retiring from dumb ideas. That still leaves stupid and outrageous on the table.

Plans for the 2022 event will begin taking shape near the end of this year for date planning and campground reservations. Typically, a private facebook event page is used for organizing the event. If you have participated in the past or shown interest, you have likely seen these FB events and will see another. If you would like included for next year's event list, let us know and we'll include you on the invite list.