Down Cellah Classic (MGS Ride #3)

Welcome! Join us for the third event of the 2022 Maine Gravel Series, The Down Cellah Classic!

This, the third year of the DCC will bring the same rough, yet refined, riding experience seasoned MGS participants have come to love, with a bunch of new terrain to cover, new sights to see, and new surprises to make even the most experienced MGS rider go 'Huh. We go.. this way?'. Yup. That way. Always that way.

A couple changes this year: The DCC has previously closed our season in October, but we've moved it to June to make way for some new October action (stay tuned for that!), so this will be a similar course to last year, but likely a whole different experience! A few new roads, a couple dropped from last year, but warmer, maybe drier.. we'll see! More importantly, the start/finish has been moved to lovely Lake St. George State Park for some sweet post-ride swimming and for it's proximity to John's Ice Cream, just a short ride down the road. June staples, both. 

Be prepared for 40ish miles covering all types of terrain, from pavement (not much) to smooth dirt roads (slightly more) to ATV trails (a few) and old woods roads (a few more) all jumbled together in a course that heads north into the Montville/Palermo wildlands and down through Liberty and Appleton, before winding back up to the park. This will be rougher terrain than the last two MGS rides, with stream crossings, rocky washouts, an old airstrip, and a wind farm all making appearances. Variety is the spice of life, and this one's spicy.

Start and finish will be at Lake St. George State Park on rt 3 in Liberty. The reg fee is actually $30ish, $25 paid via Bikereg, and a $5/per person (for Maine residents, $7 for non-res.) day-use fee paid to the ranger at the entrance to the park. Also, for those interested, camping is available for Saturday night into Sunday. The fee is $20 something and more info can be found here. You can pay for one night of camping (Sat to Sun), then clean up yer site, pack the car, and move it to the day-use parking lot while you ride and not have to pay for two nights. There will be more than a few camping on Saturday night, fer sure! MGS campout!

This event will be self-supported. A GPX file and a paper map will be provided to all participants. There will be NO course markings. If you don't have a GPS device, make friends with someone who does, or follow the paper map. Imagine if someone told you about a really sweet route and drew you a surprisingly detailed map. It'll be like that. 

Participants, look out for a final event email with the route nav files on or around June 22nd.

Any add'l questions or info needed? Feel free to reach out!

See ya out there!