Blodgett Hill is bigger, but Horse Hill is the harder to climb, I’ve found.

I have managed to bicycle up Blodgett Hill on all of the official trails (though I don’t routinely make it over the bit of ledge on Ledges Trail, and I haven’t yet tried to climb the steepest section of the old snowmobile trail, one of the many ‘discontinued’ but still serviceable trails in the Horse Hill area).

I’m a bit compulsive about my hill climbing. If a rock, root or patch of slick leaves stops me, I usually go back to the bottom and try again. If a hill looks rideable but I can’t huff it up, I like to keep going back until I can make it. In addition to strength and stamina, it’s usually just a matter of finding the right line up a slope. Sometimes, of course, the terrain is just too tough for my modest abilities.

I’ve been over Horse Hill many times now, and I’ve summited it from both directions on the eponymous Horse Hill Trail, but the northern slope has sometimes proven too tough for my tired legs, and the East Slope Trail has bested me so far… I actually and fell over backwards while trying to climb it on Sunday, during what could prove to be the last ride this year if the snow sticks. It’s steep, but I think I can, I think I can. I’ll be back at it in the summer.