So Long, NC

Fantastic Pisgah trip! The camping worked out great, and was cheap. We stayed at Davidson River, right in the middle of the park. We had some tent issues (puddles, and a door that wouldn't close), but all-in-all it was cool. There weren't really any bugs!.. weird.

The team seems to have some very good comraderie, and we have a lot of diversity. It makes for some interesting conversations, and I learned a lot from riding with everyone. We did a team ride on Saturday to Daniel's Ridge, Butter Gap, Cemetary Loop, and Longbranch. There were some really punchy climbs up rooty and rocky stuff, some fun single track, and some reasonably technical donwhill sections. We had some major bike tuning issues as our stuff was breaking in which slowed us down, but it was a fun first day.

Amanda and I were trailing the group and we heard a huge crash through the trees. We knew what happened. Brent was riding a section cut into a steep (almost vertical) ledge and slipped off the trail. He was caught by a big Laurel bush and a fallen tree about 10 ft or so down. Although he was ok I think it gave everyone (especially him!) a good scare. Apparently that happens to everyone (I took about a 12 ft drop off the "gnome trail" my first time in Pisgah.)

On Sunday we did the Laurel Mt. loop. I think Randy, Brent, and Adam as first timers were very impressed by their first glimpse of the really tough terrain that Pisgah offers. About an hour into the ride we were in a down pour which made everything really tough and slick.

After Amanda, Brent, and Randy left on Monday (they were definitely sad to go) after a Black Mt. team ride, we had an eventful rest of the week, I would have said awesome, but Adam seperated his shoulder on the Laurel Mt. trail on Tuesday, and I probably ended up with a broken ankle from Pilot's Cove ride on Sunday.

I crashed about an hour after some hard rain, I washed the front on a super fast downhill section. I don't really know what happened, but the front tire was forced out from under me by a slick root or rock probably because I was on the front brake pretty hard and it locked up when it lost traction. I threw out my foot on instinct (stupid), but at about 20 mph it gripped hard and instantly rolled over. I ended up in a bundle on the side of the trail for a few minutes before managing to limp down the rest of the run. Wet, slick, fast downhill on a new bike, with an old front tire.. there were contributing factors.

Adam crashed after washing the front on leaves during a fast left hander on a Laurel Mt. downhill run with Crispy. He hit the ground hard with his head and shoulder and probably ended up with a type II/III shoulder seperation. It was just bad luck on one of the easy parts of the trail... very unfortunate, but he should be back in a couple weeks. Both of us were totally bummed at the prospect of being stuck at the campsite all week (and missing our chance to get out on some of the best trail in the country).

Well now onto the post-tuesday good news: On monday evening, I was so bummed about not being able to ride with the team I headed out even though I could barely walk. (The rest of the crew headed out for some sliding rock freezing cold river fun.) I was motivated from the team's morning tracks so I followed them all the way up to the top of Black Mt. but I just came back down the fire road descent. My ankle was very scary looking on tuesday, and I spent some time letting it soak in the very cold river because the ice packs weren't enough. It was swollen to 3-4 times normal size from my foot to upper mid calve. There were 2 nurses on site at the campground that helped me with it (Thanks Karen and Jess!).

Tuesday I was out of commission so I just shuttled Adam and Crispy for the Laurel Mt. run. On Wednesday, Chris and I did the Black Mt. climb again with some good competitiveness, and I ventured back onto the single track with him on Thrift Cove, and Sycamore Cove in the evening. Both are fun easy trails with some fast downhill sections with awesome (very fun)jumps.

On Thursday, with Adam injured, it Chris and me. We really wanted to ride as much as possible as it was our last full day. I bought a heavy duty ankle brace that gave me some protection. We headed out for an epic day to Buckhorn Gap, Black Mountain, Buckwheat knob, and Bennett's Gap (The 4 B's). That is the coolest trail I've ever ridden. It was roughly a 2500 ft. climb that was mostly tough rooty, rocky, single track. There must have been a dozen water crossings as well. The descent was very technical, but the Satan's Staircase section of Bennett's Gap was insane. Most of it was just steep rough rocky stuff... really steep. Chris was enticed to go for it. He hit almost everything, and on the XC bike (impressive!), although there was a re-do or two.

There was one section that is worth going into detail about. It was a triple rock drop into a switchback. 6-7 feet from the turn, the vertical distance between the upper and lower trail was easily 10-12 feet. There is only a 2-3 inch margin for error during the entire switchback... it really was insane to see something like that. It looked unrideable, but Chris nailed it twice without error, although the second time almost got out of hand. For the rest of the ride, my ankle held up, and I did a fair portion of the steep stuff. I was just super pumped I could still get out there.

We had so much fun on those trails that after coming back to camp we headed out again. We did North Slope. It was an easy fun trail, but we were approaching 6 hours of riding for the day so just keeping with it was challenging.

This morning, Friday, was freezing. It was 32 when I got up. It was our last day and I still wanted to ride, but I was seriously beat from all the power climbing we did the day before. Chris and I cobbled together a quick breakfast and headed out to do the full Black Mt. loop with the sycamore cove section because I've never done the complete loop before.

We were frozen within 10 minutes and as we wound our way up it just kept getting colder. When we got to the cave on the top of Black Mountain or Clawhammer Mountain there were 2-3 ft icicles hanging from it, and there was ice on parts of the trail. My feet were still numb an hour and a half into the ride.. and probably just getting colder. I figured it was probably 10 degrees colder up there. The descent was pretty tough because we were worn out. There was a new tree that blocked the trail on the fast downhill which was a good scare also. But it was fun to end the trip totally worn out and exhausted. I'm looking forward to cleaning and rebuilding my bike when the rest of the new parts get in.. and also resting for a few days.

I definitely learned a lot. The terrain there really forces you to learn good riding technique. There are plenty of 'ride or die' moments that push you to new levels. All the fast paced, tough riding, is an awesome compliment to just climbing your bike to the top of a mountain, getting a breath of fresh air, and checking out an amazing wilderness. Very cool... I'm already looking forward to next year. See you there..