not too many words.. pictures are enough. I sure do love mountain biking.
We saw this yesterday.. and today.
http://www.scenicnc.com/rime_ice.html
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2092/2091279625_ed6600f6c1.jpg
Monday, November 17, 2008
in my "backyard"
not too many words.. pictures are enough. I sure do love mountain biking.
We saw this yesterday.. and today.
http://www.scenicnc.com/rime_ice.html
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2092/2091279625_ed6600f6c1.jpg
Friday, November 14, 2008
Art Lobe and Mountains to Sea
When a friend rolls into town, it rains and things are quiet at the shop.. what is there to do? Go hiking. As odd a feeling as hiking is for me these days, as awkward an inefficient as it can be, sometimes you just can't get to the same places on a bike and you need to suck it up, put on boots and go for a walk in the woods. A few years ago, on a backpacking trip with the Arthur Morgan School, we found our way to the section of the Mountains To Sea trail that overlaps with the Art Lobe Trail. It's a bit of a drive from Asheville, so its got to be a special occasion to head up there. The foggy/misty day was perfect to go back and visit this strange land. This section of trail follows right next to the Parkway but 1000 ft above it. When the trails split, the Art Lobe continues down to Shucks Ridge, a trail I have shoved my bike up during the past two Double Dare events. Thankfully the push up Shucks Ridge does not involve going up to the MTS trail, considering how steep it is. In my slide show, I focused on the still teaming green life as winter dormancy has arrived for much of the plant life out there, the lichens were looking strong as the misty air hydrated them.. the Galax that lined the trail down to the parkway was super lush, I also tried to find some shots that would show the steep drop off we were following.. the white abyss is there but you might have to know what you are looking at to appreciate it.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Swank 65 2008
After I tried and failed at Swank a few years ago, I thought I would never attempt it again, assuming the race had Farlow Gap in it, arguably the hardest trail in Pisgah. The Swank 65, this year, was just under 40 miles with roughly 7500 feet of climbing according to my National Geographic Mapping program. A few years ago, they pulled me from the course kicking and screaming as they didn't want me riding in the dark. This year they gave folks the option to carry lights and keep riding if they were prepared. I wasn't worried about finishing in the dark though. The year I got pulled from the course I had done ORAMM in 10 hrs, and hadn't been riding at all. But this year, I was ready to compete.
During these three weeks after Double Dare, I have been battling lots of negative thoughts. I wasn't feeling as strong as I did this summer when I had the best race ever. I knew one of the reasons it was the Best Race Ever(or so far), was because of where my mind was. For as much as I have ridden in Pisgah-- I have maybe only ridden Butter Gap 3 times, Farlow once, Cove Creek once, Daniels Ridge 3-4 times.. and I had only recently done half of these trails versus, training on them specifically like I did with the Off Road Assault. I was feeling stronger this summer, but I know I still have to be a better rider now than I was then, just maybe not as fit. Either way I was pretty tired after Double Dare and I wasn't letting myself bounce back enough.
Oh well, might as well give it a go. I spent the week before, changing my tone in my mind and when I would talk about it, I tried to be positive. After soliciting, from trusted friends, as many "Beth, you are a bad as on a mountain bike" comments as I could, I was ready to ride.
While some chose to party till 4 am, others, like myself, went to bed by 11 pm. The morning before, I had one of those late-for-the-race nightmares, so I made sure to be ready as I needed to be for the race to minimize stress. My ole race partner, Ian, picked me up early, pumped DnB the whole way to Cove Creek, jazzing us up. I was surprised that I wasn't as stressed as I thought I would be. Racing this race is different than just riding it, which is all I would have ever done before ORAMM this summer. After that finish I suddenly felt a bit more competitive, which can make me pretty nervous, excited and stressed, which could make things not fun anymore if the stress part goes too far. I guess making this whole competition thing more fun than not, is what I'm going after right now. Why the hell do something like this: 40 miles of potential pain and suffering, if it’s not fun right!? So, again, fun was the goal. And when I say fun I mean, the kind of fun you have after breaking past (almost cramping almost bonking) pain and suffering and are effortlessly dancing down Daniels Ridge.
We get to Cove Creek and I have one question: What’s the course? We had no idea what exactly the course was going to be. There were a few pluses and minuses to the course changes. I seriously thought there was a slight chance Farlow might not be a part of it, I don’t know why. I was wrong, and was just hoping that I didn't get too hurt walking/riding down the ridiculous trail that it is. The Kiesee creek
Course Map. Rough estimate. I had to make up parts of trails/roads from map cross referencing. Some trails aren't on this map that are on your Ranger District map. Course: Cove Creek340>225>Daniels Ridge Connector?>East Side of DR105>475>
(Profile above, was generated from this map)
We started with a LeMans Start, where everyone leaves their bikes and runs down technical single track in mountain bike shoes and back around to the pile of 150 bikes. This is a pretty hilarious act- "runner down" I hear behind me as we enter the single track, I picture some poor dude getting trampled as I grab on to other riders/runners to prevent falling myself. During the run, I pass only one guy and no one passes me. Once we got to the single track there was not too much passing, leading me to believe that this (the run) was probably a really important place to get out in front, which I didn't really do.
I had no idea who I was racing out there, besides Shanna and Cissy, I didn't know any of the women racing, and had no idea what would happen. I passed Shanna and Cissy right at the start, Ian passed me right at the start and I passed a few more on my way up Cove Creek. Overall there was not too much passing, and any passing that happened was easy and amicable. Cove Creek was no Kistuma and there was plenty of room. As I am pretty new to mountain bike racing, this part still kinda stresses me out, but all in all it was pretty good. My only concern is getting too comfortable behind someone I should pass, when passing means revving up more than I might want to.
Cove Creek was really a nice single-ish track climb. Not only was it all rideable (minus a few creek crosings for me), you can think about how fun it will be to go down it at the end of the ride. I wanted to get too comfortable during the first climb, but it hurt. I got a headache that would wane and surface again later in the race. And although I knew I just needed to keep pushing myself hard through the top of the first climb, it was not fun, not easy and I just wasn't feeling it. I definitely didn't feel like I was racing. Like I said, 6 to 10 times yesterday, it can take me hours to warm up to feeling really good on the bike, and this was definitely the case for me yesterday.
Before the top of the first climb, I actually stopped riding to regroup for a second. Just in time for the then 5th place woman to pass me. I had no idea where we were in the line up at this time, all I knew was that I was being passed, and I didn't care too much, maybe a little bit though. She asked me if I was ok, "Yeah I'm GREAT!" I say, in all seriousness.
Soon we get to the top of the Daniels Ridge connector trail off 225. At the Daniels ridge junction, there is no sign to be seen left or right, and the group of riders in front of me start to freak out a bit. I had just been here a few months ago, and had read the course map, so I knew what was going on and directed folks to head left. Sounds like a few folks went right, which would have been a serious bummer as the turn was at the top of a steep decent. I was happy to know what I was doing. Finally some downhill to recharge me.
Didn't stop for a second at the first rest stop and began to climb up to Gloucester Gap. It's not a bad climb, and it’s a good time to refuel while riding. Here I met the guy I would ride with for most of the day; he eventually finished two behind me I believe. Generally speaking it was a solo ride out there. I saw few people. Passing through Gloucester Gap, I got some cheers from Trish Stevenson, former Swank winner and overall amazing bad ass. Her cheers helped and I was soon over the top of hill on my way to Butter Gap. I still didn't feel like I was racing. The climb to Butter was fine, but as I skidded into the sharp left turn on to Butter, I went to put a foot out and it was not moving, laying it all down on my left knee. This crash I didn't remember until hours after the race, when my knee started to finally speak up, not to mention the frame induced bruise x 3 on my inner left leg. My one and only real fall. Thank god I only got bruised up. I thought the pain in my knee was a tendinitis thing, but no... just a dumb fall at the most inopportune place. Butter, as fun as it is, is pretty technical. To take it fast, you gotta stay on top of it, and falling at the top of this decent wasn't good for my confidence. I took my time and knew the
On my way to back to Gloucester Gap, the 2nd rest stop on the course. I see Jut at the top of the hill, standing there in normal clothing. No other Rad Racing rider with me today, but it was nice to see some Pisgah team support at the rest stop. The woman who had passed me early on was there and took off right when I pulled in, Jut tells me shes number 4 and 3 is a few min up from there. I exchanged water bottles, downed the one gel I would eat all day, saw Thad and Mike (yazoo rigid single speeders) pull up, and proceeded to head on to the "fun part" -- the climb up Pilot Mnt. Road and Farlow Gap (actually the hardest part of the race). Climbing
Who better to ride/walk down Farlow with, but a couple of guys on rigid single speeds. Mike is in a probationary period at work and would be fired if he got hurt, or something like that, so they were taking it easy on Farlow. I was trying not to die myself but managed to ride more of it than them. I even got the rare opportunity to show off a bit on this decent as Thad witnessed some of my riding, which there was actually very little of. I felt like I could have ridden a bit more of it than I did. It is very hard to get over the fact that you're almost guaranteed to get hurt on this decent. I stayed up while riding and walking and came off the bike when I wanted to instead of when the trail wanted me to. But when I started pushing my bike up the hills on Farlow- it started to get old. "Where the Hell Is Daniel's Ridge?" was all I was thinking, and actually saying to the dude I rode with.. and John Stang, who caught up to me around this time. I was very ready for Daniel's Ridge, and when I got to the stairs, I was very very happy. Time to big ring it. I love knowing what I know about this trail and using it to my advantage. Time to gain some ground.
On to Rest Stop 3. Quick stop, 1/3rd a banana, water bottle top off, although I knew I would probably not drink half of it, and I was off. Now it was time to finish strong. The Davidson River Trail (one of my favorites in pisgah going this direction.. really) juiced me up and I gave every last thing I had to the climb up 475b. It was all downhill after that and there was no reason not to keep moving away from anyone behind me. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to catch anyone at this time, but ya never know. It was nice just knowing that no one was going to pass me.
A guy in a Carmichael Training kit, who I shot past on Daniels Ridge, rode by me on this last climb and gave me some great climbing tips, just like a good coach. It was quite nice... random, but nice. It kind of felt like little angel coach had been sent down to keep me on top of things during this last climb, or a very strategically placed ad. Before I knew it, I was heading down Cove Creek. 4 hours 59 min and 52 seconds after the start. I was done. I had actually predicted 5 hrs-ish and there it was. Just under 5 hours. 4th place. I felt pretty run over after the Swank, my lungs were shot and my knee was starting to blow up a bit. It was really nice hanging out with good friends and good beer after the race. Great Race overall, I could have been more hydrated and gone out harder, but I felt like I tried hard enough during the race to feel good about what I did. Thanks to Jut and Pisgah Brewing Company for hookin’ me up with my first beer at the end of the race. And thanks to Todd for organizing this race for the 10th year in a row. Maybe I'll be out there again next year. I won't be afraid of it again. Maybe I'll train more for it and kick some serious ass.
until next time..
now what? Snake Creek?
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Bikes In Asheville
After a three days of guiding three lawyer's from Philly and St. Louis around the trails of pisgah forest, I headed home for more rest since rest, and "active recovery" are really the only things on the agenda this week before the Swank, another big ole mountain bike race I am going to do. At some point before the afternoon of rest got too underway, I had the great idea to go and roll around downtown with my new camera and take as many pictures of bikes in a hour to two hour period of time. It wasn't long before I had 70 or so pics of bikes and amazing fall color among other random moments. It was fun chasing down people on bikes, asking people if I could take a picture of them with their bike. Crappy bikes, cool bikes, not enough people on bikes really, but overall a great afternoon activity I will do again. A blogable afternoon if there ever was one.
Here is my slide show:
Here is my slide show:
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Pisgah Production's - Double Dare 2008
Double Dare 2008.
Damn I love the Double Dare, Pisgah Productions two day mountain bike endurance challenge.
Starting at White Pines Campground, we were instructed on Saturday at 12 noon to ride to a location under Time Trail conditions, with bonus time given to time trail winners. At this point we choose the route that we would take to as many check points (up to 10+1bouns) as we wanted, returning to camp 12 hours later. Day 2 we began at 6 am with the same challenge, time trail, 10+ c.p.’s.
My first challenge of Double Dare was getting my stuff together, around 10 pm after leading another flat land bike tour all week, on the outer banks of NC. Finding my map and compass was enough of a struggle as I am still unpacking from my move to Pisgah Works Central and the most badass Bike House in the world. With gear in order, and about 6 to 7 hrs of rest, Jut, Bruce, Ivory and Ian Baldwin and I descended upon Pisgah around 10 am ready to get ready. With the most amazing fall color and weather anyone could ask for, everyone was rockin and ready to roll at 12 noon.
Time Trail to Gauging Station near Pink Beds.
Based on my 6 am experience last year, and poor planning taking the gravel climb to Yellow Gap versus 276, it was my suggestion to climb 276 to 1206, which was generally the popular vote from my view. We set a nice easy climbing pace, and we were on our way to two long days in the woods. It was my worry that Ian would want to go out a lot harder and not pace himself enough. But our start was perfect, we began to realize how lucky we were for having the opportunity be in these amazingly beautiful woods for a ridiculously long time on our bikes. Yippppeee! Yelps and other sounds reflecting our happy states became common place at this time.
We pass SSrs Jut and Bruce as Jut sheds a wig and seat heights are adjusted. The untouchable Brad Kee and Matt Fusco catch us on 1206 and we ride on their tails to where we would hear the fate of our day.
The challenge of Passport 1: Mandatory Bradley Fields, Top of Cantrell, Bent Creek Gap, Cantrell Creek Lodge, Hendersonville Reservoir, Middle Fork, Saddle Gap, Turkey Spring Gap, Yellow Gap, Bonus CP: Hike to Top of Mt. Pisgah.
I marked them on the map and wanted to think for a bit. Ian was not so much in to waiting around so I plug the CPS in my brain and we make our first decision to go to Pink Beds first, less than 2 miles of flat twisty single track. The one rule we had been given was that we couldn’t leave the gauging station area via the road we came in on, 475 off 1206. Others in the area had them clarify the rule and it then seemed clear that once we left for pink beds, this road would then be ok to leave on, it was just outta there the first time you couldn’t ride it. This, turns out, was not really true, this road should been off limits the whole time, which would have changed a lot about our day, but considering our overall non-competitive performance, it probably didn’t really matter at all.
I wanted to have a preliminary route planned out but Ian was more into going point to point, reassessing our next move at each point. We kinda had to do a bit of both each days, without an initial overall plan, things could be dramatically different. Looking at the map on day one, 6 CPs seemed VERY doable to me, up to 7 and we would surely be pushing ourselves into that place where you wonder if you are going to be able to bounce back. It was Ian’s first adventure race, and it was third time Ian and I had ridden together and we had just a few important goals.
#1 Fun First
2nd -- Completion of Event
Saftey… Third.
All goals were met.
Day 1.
Climbing to Yellow Gap 1206. Again, it was F*N BEAUTIFUL! Honking (with my Honka’hoota) at hikers blocking the road, blazing down the road. Yellow Gap to Bradley Creek. Again...seriously, I can’t stress how often Ian and I were screaming to each other about taking in the insane beauty of the forest. Really. This decent is fast, clean, flowy, young tulip poplar groves littered a section with bright yellow leaves taking me to fall Aspen grove out west in my mind.
Mandatory Bradley Creek.
We arrive at the mandatory cp first. Special Test. Weapon: BB gun. Target: picture of the man behind the race-- Eric Weaver.
Or Shotgun 3 PBRs between the two racers. Ian wanted to shoot. Go for it dude. I knew I would NOT hit the targets. He tried and he failed. We shared a beer and watched the next two riders to arrive shot gun beers, very entertaining I tell ya! Refilled. Rewatered. Ready to ride.
My plan: Bradley Creek to the base of Cantrell (cp4), climb Cantrell to Squirrel Gap (cp5), Squirrel> South Mills > Buckhorn Gap > Clawhammer > Bennent to Saddle Gap (cp6) > back to Camp.
I knew we didn’t want to do S mills 13 creek crossings, and if we left Bradley via Laurel Creek, we would have to do some serious pushing and climbing to Squirrel, do an out and back on Cantrell, back to Squirrel and on over to S Mills to Buckhorn, only to avoid the cold wetness. But we were going to have to get our feet wet, because that is just what happens. I was ready for it, for my DD partner, not so much. Our options: climbing or wet feet. That is really the toss up question for all rides in the Turkey Pen area. I figured we would do both. Get feet wet, but not too wet and climb but not too much. Cantrell was a great climb. A lot of it was quite ridable and I was ready for a little hike-a-bike to mix up the day. We got to Squirrel and felt great. We had a great freekin’ ride screaming down Squirrel. I had only ridden this part of Squirrel once before, during PMBAR earlier this year and I had loved it, esp since it’s the much more doable fast part of the trail. We skipped the part at the top that stomped/injured me last week when Bruce and I rode Squirrel to Cantrell. The sun was on us through all of squirrel gap and I stayed up right the entire time… pretty much.
The climb up to Buckhorn Gap from South Mills River is one of my favorite climbs in Pisgah. It always seems to end up closer to the end of a long day, after South Mills and Black Mountain/Turkey Pen, or Squirrel Gap. You gain elevation but you move. Lights came on once we closed in on Buckhorn Gap. I had seriously considered going over to Club Gap and ride Buckwheat to Bennett but at this point. It was a lot of technical single track, in the dark, and tired. The easier route: take claw hammer down, climb back up the road to Bennnett to Saddle Gap and on down. We decide against Club gap and I lead out down claw hammer, ripping it, trying not to get my eyes poked out with no lenses on, crying tears of wind and joy. Ian flats and after determining that the Stans wasn’t going to set in on his tubeless, he tried a tube. At this point I was just happy to be sitting back taking it all in. The stars were out and the temperature was not too cold. Some clouds had moved in enough to maintain a bit of the warmth from the day. And we had been moving and really limited our stop time. Yet it was this stop time, I was got to enjoy at the moment. Ian then figures out that he was carrying with him two flat tires. oh. hum. And of course I had two 29r tires. Good thing we had a patch kit. We continued to hammer down Clawhammer and once we passed the stables and started to approach cp 6-Sadldle Gap, Ian got another, seemingly expected, flat. The fuckin’ patch didn’t hold. With White Pines, less than a few miles away, I took off to grab him a tube. I passed the party via the road and snuck in the back way to get to my gear, as I didn’t want to waste anytime explaining to people what was happening. All downhill to White Pines I wondered.. could we still do Bennnet?… Hell yeah we could. Not too long into climbing back to him, did I understand the idea of just not worrying about it. Getting back to camp by 9ish. Chillin’ Drinkin’ Eatin’ hummmmm… I found Ian much closer to me down the road than I expected him, and we changed the tire. Time to head in.
Huge thanks to Michelle who made chili that many people enjoyed immensely. Wow! Thanks so much! Organic Pisgah Beer and Chili. Damn. By 12 pm, all but Team Dicky and partner had rolled in. Matt and Brad were killed it as expected.
From around 1 or 2? to 5:20ish, I rested.. off and on. The chilly weather and 6 am start time that I knew I couldn’t push, had me changing fast, shoving fig newtons down the ole food hole and drinking Brad and Matt’s secret special doped up coffee. Oh hell yeah, warm coffee on a morning like that, mmmmm.
I knew the TT was going to hurt. And I guess I was ready. TT to “Farlow” but not really.. only the top of the road to Farlow. Ok. Been there, done that, knew we were going to have to do this at some point. Go! Compared to others it seemed like I did pretty well generating enough body heat, only my toes were quite questionably heading towards frostbitten. Before heading up 477 to Gloucester Gap, at the unfortunately locked up fish hatchery (2300ish ft, 5 miles in), we took a break with Tomato and the Smoke Bikes crew, and suddenly my feet warmed up.
We began to climb and climb and climb (to 3300ish ft, 10 miles in) to the trail head to Farlow. At this point I thought about what I might be writing at this time. I was so moved by the beauty of the color in the forest and the light as the sun was rising and how it almost felt like it would not be as beautiful any other way. Something about the manner in which I was out there made everything that much more beautiful. I was having a great time. At Gloucester we ran in to a large crowd, didn’t stick around long, and kept climbing, and climbing and climbing to Farlow where we were instructed that we were not getting our passports yet. We had to go one way to Ivestor Gap (20 miles in at 5700ft). This suddenly became oddly familiar. Last year Clay Faine and I did this exact ride at the start of day one Double Dare. I was psyched! Good times ahead, finally a bit of hike-a-bike. For as painful as this could be, I knew it could be done and that I would be fine and when else would I do something like this? If we were lucky we would get to ride down to Laurel Creek again as well. These days, it’s hard to feel ok about driving up there. Ya might as well go by bike.
The push up to Ivestor was again, not so bad, and once there we learned that we were all in luck. This was the mandatory checkpoint, and all we had to do to “finish” the race was go home. But we were so far out, why go home just yet?
CPS to get: Black Mountain/Turkey Pen intersection, Butter Gap, Coontree Gap, Courthouse Falls, Daniel Ridge, Farlow Gap, Flat Laurel Creek, Presley Cap, Summey Cove, bonus- hike to Johns Rock.
I first looked for what we might be able to accomplish. Basically the same route from last year: Ivestor cp1>Flat Laurel Creek cp2> 215 to base of Summey cp3> climb road to Courthouse cp4> Kissie Creek to Farlow cp5> Drop to Daniels Ridge cp6 and back in. This was a high hopes kind of route, I really wanted to ride Farlow only because I never do and we might as well get some Swank training while we are out and about. Had I really done the math I would have figured that I didn’t have enough food to do all of this anyway. Putting my bag together in the middle of the night, in the cold and after a ride like that, I was not thinking clearly and just grabbed a handful of gu’s when I needed about 2 handfuls of gu’s. Ian didn’t have enough either and we began our ride to Flat Laural Creek falls with the plan of deciding as we go. I knew of a few bail outs and multiple options for extra cps here and there if we had it in us.
Descending 215 is so much fun! It’s a hill that you can’t really pedal that much on and there are few reasons to brake on it as well. Keeping leaf-looking traffic at bay we covered the ground fast and zipped in to Summey Cove, quick photo shoot and the easy way around to Courthouse Falls. Props to anyone who decided to go up Summey for the love of single track (Jut + Bruce)… I have pushed my bike up and down much of this trail once before with Clay on a DD training ride a year ago and again, figured it just wasn’t really the time. We make our way up the gravel road. Time to regroup. Ian was not confident in his food quantities and after showing him our options (5003 vs 5031), climbing over to Gloucester from here was really not too bad. I had done it a few times before, I knew it was just a short climb and once we got to the top of this little hill it was really all downhill from there. This was where we could have benefited from having completed a few more hard rides together. Our goals were to have fun and complete the race. This was going to happen at this point for sure, taking 5003. I knew we could grab courthouse and Farlow but it wasn’t going to be easy. It would have pushed us into those places you go in an event like this. But we played it safe and had a great time the entire time. We were riding fast all day considering the length of time we could have stayed out, and this might have impacted how far we ended up going. It’s good to know what you and your partner can really handle out there. I could have pushed Ian farther and we could have had less fun, who knows. I do know that afterward my body was sore top to bottom. Once we got back my vision blurred up and moving around became limited. We were the first to pull on Sunday, some time shortly after 3pm. Dry clothes, food, beer, napping, recovery drink, quality time with my good friend Ivory, and cheering in the rest of the riders made for a stellar afternoon. Dinner with Knoxvillians and the Pisgah Brew Crew hit the spot and another night around the camp fire sharing stories of the trail, was the perfect way to transition out of the experience of the weekend.
Thanks Eric! Thanks Pisgah Brewing Company! Thanks Michelle! Thanks to Shanna for being with me in spirit reminding me to smile and enjoy myself way more than most people would and special thanks to my partner, Ian who kept us moving and had a great time riding bikes for 18+ hrs, climbing 15,000 ft, riding over 100 miles.
Damn I love the Double Dare, Pisgah Productions two day mountain bike endurance challenge.
Starting at White Pines Campground, we were instructed on Saturday at 12 noon to ride to a location under Time Trail conditions, with bonus time given to time trail winners. At this point we choose the route that we would take to as many check points (up to 10+1bouns) as we wanted, returning to camp 12 hours later. Day 2 we began at 6 am with the same challenge, time trail, 10+ c.p.’s.
My first challenge of Double Dare was getting my stuff together, around 10 pm after leading another flat land bike tour all week, on the outer banks of NC. Finding my map and compass was enough of a struggle as I am still unpacking from my move to Pisgah Works Central and the most badass Bike House in the world. With gear in order, and about 6 to 7 hrs of rest, Jut, Bruce, Ivory and Ian Baldwin and I descended upon Pisgah around 10 am ready to get ready. With the most amazing fall color and weather anyone could ask for, everyone was rockin and ready to roll at 12 noon.
Time Trail to Gauging Station near Pink Beds.
Based on my 6 am experience last year, and poor planning taking the gravel climb to Yellow Gap versus 276, it was my suggestion to climb 276 to 1206, which was generally the popular vote from my view. We set a nice easy climbing pace, and we were on our way to two long days in the woods. It was my worry that Ian would want to go out a lot harder and not pace himself enough. But our start was perfect, we began to realize how lucky we were for having the opportunity be in these amazingly beautiful woods for a ridiculously long time on our bikes. Yippppeee! Yelps and other sounds reflecting our happy states became common place at this time.
We pass SSrs Jut and Bruce as Jut sheds a wig and seat heights are adjusted. The untouchable Brad Kee and Matt Fusco catch us on 1206 and we ride on their tails to where we would hear the fate of our day.
The challenge of Passport 1: Mandatory Bradley Fields, Top of Cantrell, Bent Creek Gap, Cantrell Creek Lodge, Hendersonville Reservoir, Middle Fork, Saddle Gap, Turkey Spring Gap, Yellow Gap, Bonus CP: Hike to Top of Mt. Pisgah.
I marked them on the map and wanted to think for a bit. Ian was not so much in to waiting around so I plug the CPS in my brain and we make our first decision to go to Pink Beds first, less than 2 miles of flat twisty single track. The one rule we had been given was that we couldn’t leave the gauging station area via the road we came in on, 475 off 1206. Others in the area had them clarify the rule and it then seemed clear that once we left for pink beds, this road would then be ok to leave on, it was just outta there the first time you couldn’t ride it. This, turns out, was not really true, this road should been off limits the whole time, which would have changed a lot about our day, but considering our overall non-competitive performance, it probably didn’t really matter at all.
I wanted to have a preliminary route planned out but Ian was more into going point to point, reassessing our next move at each point. We kinda had to do a bit of both each days, without an initial overall plan, things could be dramatically different. Looking at the map on day one, 6 CPs seemed VERY doable to me, up to 7 and we would surely be pushing ourselves into that place where you wonder if you are going to be able to bounce back. It was Ian’s first adventure race, and it was third time Ian and I had ridden together and we had just a few important goals.
#1 Fun First
2nd -- Completion of Event
Saftey… Third.
All goals were met.
Day 1.
Climbing to Yellow Gap 1206. Again, it was F*N BEAUTIFUL! Honking (with my Honka’hoota) at hikers blocking the road, blazing down the road. Yellow Gap to Bradley Creek. Again...seriously, I can’t stress how often Ian and I were screaming to each other about taking in the insane beauty of the forest. Really. This decent is fast, clean, flowy, young tulip poplar groves littered a section with bright yellow leaves taking me to fall Aspen grove out west in my mind.
Mandatory Bradley Creek.
We arrive at the mandatory cp first. Special Test. Weapon: BB gun. Target: picture of the man behind the race-- Eric Weaver.
Or Shotgun 3 PBRs between the two racers. Ian wanted to shoot. Go for it dude. I knew I would NOT hit the targets. He tried and he failed. We shared a beer and watched the next two riders to arrive shot gun beers, very entertaining I tell ya! Refilled. Rewatered. Ready to ride.
My plan: Bradley Creek to the base of Cantrell (cp4), climb Cantrell to Squirrel Gap (cp5), Squirrel> South Mills > Buckhorn Gap > Clawhammer > Bennent to Saddle Gap (cp6) > back to Camp.
I knew we didn’t want to do S mills 13 creek crossings, and if we left Bradley via Laurel Creek, we would have to do some serious pushing and climbing to Squirrel, do an out and back on Cantrell, back to Squirrel and on over to S Mills to Buckhorn, only to avoid the cold wetness. But we were going to have to get our feet wet, because that is just what happens. I was ready for it, for my DD partner, not so much. Our options: climbing or wet feet. That is really the toss up question for all rides in the Turkey Pen area. I figured we would do both. Get feet wet, but not too wet and climb but not too much. Cantrell was a great climb. A lot of it was quite ridable and I was ready for a little hike-a-bike to mix up the day. We got to Squirrel and felt great. We had a great freekin’ ride screaming down Squirrel. I had only ridden this part of Squirrel once before, during PMBAR earlier this year and I had loved it, esp since it’s the much more doable fast part of the trail. We skipped the part at the top that stomped/injured me last week when Bruce and I rode Squirrel to Cantrell. The sun was on us through all of squirrel gap and I stayed up right the entire time… pretty much.
The climb up to Buckhorn Gap from South Mills River is one of my favorite climbs in Pisgah. It always seems to end up closer to the end of a long day, after South Mills and Black Mountain/Turkey Pen, or Squirrel Gap. You gain elevation but you move. Lights came on once we closed in on Buckhorn Gap. I had seriously considered going over to Club Gap and ride Buckwheat to Bennett but at this point. It was a lot of technical single track, in the dark, and tired. The easier route: take claw hammer down, climb back up the road to Bennnett to Saddle Gap and on down. We decide against Club gap and I lead out down claw hammer, ripping it, trying not to get my eyes poked out with no lenses on, crying tears of wind and joy. Ian flats and after determining that the Stans wasn’t going to set in on his tubeless, he tried a tube. At this point I was just happy to be sitting back taking it all in. The stars were out and the temperature was not too cold. Some clouds had moved in enough to maintain a bit of the warmth from the day. And we had been moving and really limited our stop time. Yet it was this stop time, I was got to enjoy at the moment. Ian then figures out that he was carrying with him two flat tires. oh. hum. And of course I had two 29r tires. Good thing we had a patch kit. We continued to hammer down Clawhammer and once we passed the stables and started to approach cp 6-Sadldle Gap, Ian got another, seemingly expected, flat. The fuckin’ patch didn’t hold. With White Pines, less than a few miles away, I took off to grab him a tube. I passed the party via the road and snuck in the back way to get to my gear, as I didn’t want to waste anytime explaining to people what was happening. All downhill to White Pines I wondered.. could we still do Bennnet?… Hell yeah we could. Not too long into climbing back to him, did I understand the idea of just not worrying about it. Getting back to camp by 9ish. Chillin’ Drinkin’ Eatin’ hummmmm… I found Ian much closer to me down the road than I expected him, and we changed the tire. Time to head in.
Huge thanks to Michelle who made chili that many people enjoyed immensely. Wow! Thanks so much! Organic Pisgah Beer and Chili. Damn. By 12 pm, all but Team Dicky and partner had rolled in. Matt and Brad were killed it as expected.
From around 1 or 2? to 5:20ish, I rested.. off and on. The chilly weather and 6 am start time that I knew I couldn’t push, had me changing fast, shoving fig newtons down the ole food hole and drinking Brad and Matt’s secret special doped up coffee. Oh hell yeah, warm coffee on a morning like that, mmmmm.
I knew the TT was going to hurt. And I guess I was ready. TT to “Farlow” but not really.. only the top of the road to Farlow. Ok. Been there, done that, knew we were going to have to do this at some point. Go! Compared to others it seemed like I did pretty well generating enough body heat, only my toes were quite questionably heading towards frostbitten. Before heading up 477 to Gloucester Gap, at the unfortunately locked up fish hatchery (2300ish ft, 5 miles in), we took a break with Tomato and the Smoke Bikes crew, and suddenly my feet warmed up.
We began to climb and climb and climb (to 3300ish ft, 10 miles in) to the trail head to Farlow. At this point I thought about what I might be writing at this time. I was so moved by the beauty of the color in the forest and the light as the sun was rising and how it almost felt like it would not be as beautiful any other way. Something about the manner in which I was out there made everything that much more beautiful. I was having a great time. At Gloucester we ran in to a large crowd, didn’t stick around long, and kept climbing, and climbing and climbing to Farlow where we were instructed that we were not getting our passports yet. We had to go one way to Ivestor Gap (20 miles in at 5700ft). This suddenly became oddly familiar. Last year Clay Faine and I did this exact ride at the start of day one Double Dare. I was psyched! Good times ahead, finally a bit of hike-a-bike. For as painful as this could be, I knew it could be done and that I would be fine and when else would I do something like this? If we were lucky we would get to ride down to Laurel Creek again as well. These days, it’s hard to feel ok about driving up there. Ya might as well go by bike.
The push up to Ivestor was again, not so bad, and once there we learned that we were all in luck. This was the mandatory checkpoint, and all we had to do to “finish” the race was go home. But we were so far out, why go home just yet?
CPS to get: Black Mountain/Turkey Pen intersection, Butter Gap, Coontree Gap, Courthouse Falls, Daniel Ridge, Farlow Gap, Flat Laurel Creek, Presley Cap, Summey Cove, bonus- hike to Johns Rock.
I first looked for what we might be able to accomplish. Basically the same route from last year: Ivestor cp1>Flat Laurel Creek cp2> 215 to base of Summey cp3> climb road to Courthouse cp4> Kissie Creek to Farlow cp5> Drop to Daniels Ridge cp6 and back in. This was a high hopes kind of route, I really wanted to ride Farlow only because I never do and we might as well get some Swank training while we are out and about. Had I really done the math I would have figured that I didn’t have enough food to do all of this anyway. Putting my bag together in the middle of the night, in the cold and after a ride like that, I was not thinking clearly and just grabbed a handful of gu’s when I needed about 2 handfuls of gu’s. Ian didn’t have enough either and we began our ride to Flat Laural Creek falls with the plan of deciding as we go. I knew of a few bail outs and multiple options for extra cps here and there if we had it in us.
Descending 215 is so much fun! It’s a hill that you can’t really pedal that much on and there are few reasons to brake on it as well. Keeping leaf-looking traffic at bay we covered the ground fast and zipped in to Summey Cove, quick photo shoot and the easy way around to Courthouse Falls. Props to anyone who decided to go up Summey for the love of single track (Jut + Bruce)… I have pushed my bike up and down much of this trail once before with Clay on a DD training ride a year ago and again, figured it just wasn’t really the time. We make our way up the gravel road. Time to regroup. Ian was not confident in his food quantities and after showing him our options (5003 vs 5031), climbing over to Gloucester from here was really not too bad. I had done it a few times before, I knew it was just a short climb and once we got to the top of this little hill it was really all downhill from there. This was where we could have benefited from having completed a few more hard rides together. Our goals were to have fun and complete the race. This was going to happen at this point for sure, taking 5003. I knew we could grab courthouse and Farlow but it wasn’t going to be easy. It would have pushed us into those places you go in an event like this. But we played it safe and had a great time the entire time. We were riding fast all day considering the length of time we could have stayed out, and this might have impacted how far we ended up going. It’s good to know what you and your partner can really handle out there. I could have pushed Ian farther and we could have had less fun, who knows. I do know that afterward my body was sore top to bottom. Once we got back my vision blurred up and moving around became limited. We were the first to pull on Sunday, some time shortly after 3pm. Dry clothes, food, beer, napping, recovery drink, quality time with my good friend Ivory, and cheering in the rest of the riders made for a stellar afternoon. Dinner with Knoxvillians and the Pisgah Brew Crew hit the spot and another night around the camp fire sharing stories of the trail, was the perfect way to transition out of the experience of the weekend.
Thanks Eric! Thanks Pisgah Brewing Company! Thanks Michelle! Thanks to Shanna for being with me in spirit reminding me to smile and enjoy myself way more than most people would and special thanks to my partner, Ian who kept us moving and had a great time riding bikes for 18+ hrs, climbing 15,000 ft, riding over 100 miles.
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