Tires for Tallahassee
I have been in Florida (Tallahassee) for 6 or 7 years now and am back to riding more off the road on my mountain bike after a hiatus. Tallahassee is hilly for Florida, but obviously we don't have mountains. We also have very little mud. We mostly have packed sand. My daily riding has been a mix of pavement, a little grass, a lot of packed sand, and very little mud. There are lots of root in the singletrack portions, but very few rocks. One bike has a pair of Stan's Ravens that need to be replaced soon the other has a pair of Kenda Slant Sixes that have some life left in them. Both seem to work well enough here.
The worn out Ravens are 29x2.1. Whatever i replace them with should serve well here. It would be nice if they weren't terrible if i travel somewhere with mud and rocks, but that isn't a requirement. I am willing to swap tires for travel if what I wind up with is really unsatisfactory for a trip to somewhere. I probably have some suitable mud tires around for both bikes. For sure I do for the 26" one (even a spare wheel setwith tires mounted). For the 29er I have the original wheelset with the original tires, but I don't recall what they are. I don't think they were too bad.
So, any suggestions for something that suits the terrain here? I am considering the Small Block 8, but am open to suggestions.