Sweet Carolina
I just got back from another kick a$$ trip to North Carolina. All I can say is that I'm jealous that Jamie's there for a few more days. The weather was fantastic the whole stay and what can I say about the riding, it ROCKS and KICKS A$$ and then ROCKS some more!!!
Craig and I were the first ones down there. We left friday night and drove in a blizzard through Ohio, Kentucky, and finally pooped out in Tennessee in the wee AM hours. We decided to call it a night and hope for a turn in the weather the next day. Well our wish came true as we woke up to dry ground and sun. Yeehaa!! We rolled into Pisgah under sunny 72 degree skies and immediately unloaded our bikes and hopped onto our mtbs. We bombed down the driveway of the pisgahmountainhouse. The driveway is no joke steep and is a great way to check that I had correctly set up my new hydro disc brakes. When describing this driveway we're talking hitting >30mph on the way down just coasting. Oh yeah, did I mention it's also really fun coming back up it as you stare at a wall of asphalt - literally.
Anyways, off we went to go up Black Mountain. At the top, we decided to try some variety and came down Buckhorn Gap and Avery Creek trying to minimize the amount of hike a bike needed to get across the ridge to Black Mtn. It was a pretty awesome descent too, a good alternate to Black Mtn. Good flow, drops, roots, rock gardens, all the goodies. Also, word of advice - check your bolts on your stem/bar clamp before bombing a rock garden - it makes for some interesting downhilling trying to squeeze your brakes as your levers are pointing straight up. Not recommended. At this point we were running a bit late and missed our rendevous with the remainder of the group at the North Slope trail. No biggie, guess we'll just have to have fun ourselves. The North Slope is a fun short loop with a little bit of everything thrown at you. Only one flat tire on that one, but a quick fix and we were golden. At that point the sun was starting to go down after 4.5 hours on the saddle so back to the house with huge grins on our faces.
Next day, Laurel Mountain and Pilot Rock descent. This is one of the most fun trails down there. Laurel Mountain has some sweet flowing singletrack and a bit of climbing, but it all sets you up for one of the most awesome downhills on some serious no joke steep as sheeeite off-camber switchbacks on Pilot Rock. Mucho fun man - yeehaa! For those that have ridden this trail you know what I'm talking about, for those not - you HAVE to ride this trail. After that totally awesome ride, the plan was to ride Trace Ridge, but unfortunately Terry blew his pedal axle coming down Pilot Rock so we had to skip that one as the poor bloke had to pedal one legged all the way back to the trail head - a decent chunk of which is uphill. Trace Ridge awaits next year. So, we decided to go back to the house, swap pedals, eat some grub and then headed back into Pisgah on our mtbs. Oh yeah, I cooked a corner coming down the driveway again - it's steep btw. For the afternoon ride, we rode up Black Mountain trail and across to Thrift Cove (awesome woops where you can catch some nice air) and down Sycamore Cove through some awesome singletrack. Smiles all around. Oh yeah, did I mention that it was sunny and in the high sixties today too. Big smiles.
Monday - Mount Mitchell on road bikes with flat toasty legs after >5hours in the saddle yesterday. The weather in Asheville was cold, see your breath cold, and we were going up thousands of feet so everyone was a bit nervous. We geared up and started pedalling and to our luck the weather gods smiled down at us and gave us blue skies. Even though it was a bit nippy out, the sun warmed things up nicely. Everyone made it up to the summit in good time and it was a race down the mountain. Attack after attack. My heart rate was almost as high going down as was going up. Fuzzy smiles on windburned faces again today.
Tuesday - Brrr. Chilly in the morning with fog laying in the valley, makes for a slow start to the day. We decided to try out Turkey Pen Gap. Cool never rode it, I'm up for something new. The sun finally peaked down at us and warmed us up. The ride started out pretty uneventful but super fun nonetheless. The midpoint of the trail is the best as you are riding along a ridgeline. Concentration is the word of the day here, don't fall to the wrong side or you're falling for a while. You are riding literally on the edge of the slope. Now was the portion of the ride that we connect back to the end of the trail. Unfortunately for us, there were a couple of hurricanes last fall that left their mark on the lower portions of the trail - i.e. some of those bridges used for crossing rivers did not quite function as bridges any longer. Did I also mention how cold spring runoff can be. Anyways, the last bit of the ride turned to be quite an adventure with just as much hiking as biking trying to navigate across numerous river crossings and washed out sections of trail. In any case it was good fun and errr exilerating - that's how you describe cold ass I can't feel my toes water right?
That pretty much ended the fun activities for Craig and I as we had to pack up at this point and jump in the car to drive north. Woohoo, I'm sooo excited (in very sarcastic tone). I'm jealous of you guys going down in a couple of weeks - you have a huge playground waiting for you. The riding is awesome and you'll have super fun on the Konas. The Kings ate up the trail down, the bikes handled flawlessly going both up and down hills, through singletrack trail, through steep rocky stuff, launching off woops, just about everything. No complaints just ear to ear grins.
Ride on.
Pete
Craig and I were the first ones down there. We left friday night and drove in a blizzard through Ohio, Kentucky, and finally pooped out in Tennessee in the wee AM hours. We decided to call it a night and hope for a turn in the weather the next day. Well our wish came true as we woke up to dry ground and sun. Yeehaa!! We rolled into Pisgah under sunny 72 degree skies and immediately unloaded our bikes and hopped onto our mtbs. We bombed down the driveway of the pisgahmountainhouse. The driveway is no joke steep and is a great way to check that I had correctly set up my new hydro disc brakes. When describing this driveway we're talking hitting >30mph on the way down just coasting. Oh yeah, did I mention it's also really fun coming back up it as you stare at a wall of asphalt - literally.
Anyways, off we went to go up Black Mountain. At the top, we decided to try some variety and came down Buckhorn Gap and Avery Creek trying to minimize the amount of hike a bike needed to get across the ridge to Black Mtn. It was a pretty awesome descent too, a good alternate to Black Mtn. Good flow, drops, roots, rock gardens, all the goodies. Also, word of advice - check your bolts on your stem/bar clamp before bombing a rock garden - it makes for some interesting downhilling trying to squeeze your brakes as your levers are pointing straight up. Not recommended. At this point we were running a bit late and missed our rendevous with the remainder of the group at the North Slope trail. No biggie, guess we'll just have to have fun ourselves. The North Slope is a fun short loop with a little bit of everything thrown at you. Only one flat tire on that one, but a quick fix and we were golden. At that point the sun was starting to go down after 4.5 hours on the saddle so back to the house with huge grins on our faces.
Next day, Laurel Mountain and Pilot Rock descent. This is one of the most fun trails down there. Laurel Mountain has some sweet flowing singletrack and a bit of climbing, but it all sets you up for one of the most awesome downhills on some serious no joke steep as sheeeite off-camber switchbacks on Pilot Rock. Mucho fun man - yeehaa! For those that have ridden this trail you know what I'm talking about, for those not - you HAVE to ride this trail. After that totally awesome ride, the plan was to ride Trace Ridge, but unfortunately Terry blew his pedal axle coming down Pilot Rock so we had to skip that one as the poor bloke had to pedal one legged all the way back to the trail head - a decent chunk of which is uphill. Trace Ridge awaits next year. So, we decided to go back to the house, swap pedals, eat some grub and then headed back into Pisgah on our mtbs. Oh yeah, I cooked a corner coming down the driveway again - it's steep btw. For the afternoon ride, we rode up Black Mountain trail and across to Thrift Cove (awesome woops where you can catch some nice air) and down Sycamore Cove through some awesome singletrack. Smiles all around. Oh yeah, did I mention that it was sunny and in the high sixties today too. Big smiles.
Monday - Mount Mitchell on road bikes with flat toasty legs after >5hours in the saddle yesterday. The weather in Asheville was cold, see your breath cold, and we were going up thousands of feet so everyone was a bit nervous. We geared up and started pedalling and to our luck the weather gods smiled down at us and gave us blue skies. Even though it was a bit nippy out, the sun warmed things up nicely. Everyone made it up to the summit in good time and it was a race down the mountain. Attack after attack. My heart rate was almost as high going down as was going up. Fuzzy smiles on windburned faces again today.
Tuesday - Brrr. Chilly in the morning with fog laying in the valley, makes for a slow start to the day. We decided to try out Turkey Pen Gap. Cool never rode it, I'm up for something new. The sun finally peaked down at us and warmed us up. The ride started out pretty uneventful but super fun nonetheless. The midpoint of the trail is the best as you are riding along a ridgeline. Concentration is the word of the day here, don't fall to the wrong side or you're falling for a while. You are riding literally on the edge of the slope. Now was the portion of the ride that we connect back to the end of the trail. Unfortunately for us, there were a couple of hurricanes last fall that left their mark on the lower portions of the trail - i.e. some of those bridges used for crossing rivers did not quite function as bridges any longer. Did I also mention how cold spring runoff can be. Anyways, the last bit of the ride turned to be quite an adventure with just as much hiking as biking trying to navigate across numerous river crossings and washed out sections of trail. In any case it was good fun and errr exilerating - that's how you describe cold ass I can't feel my toes water right?
That pretty much ended the fun activities for Craig and I as we had to pack up at this point and jump in the car to drive north. Woohoo, I'm sooo excited (in very sarcastic tone). I'm jealous of you guys going down in a couple of weeks - you have a huge playground waiting for you. The riding is awesome and you'll have super fun on the Konas. The Kings ate up the trail down, the bikes handled flawlessly going both up and down hills, through singletrack trail, through steep rocky stuff, launching off woops, just about everything. No complaints just ear to ear grins.
Ride on.
Pete
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