Wet and Wild

Got out to Wakefield with moderately high hopes of riding single track. The first section I did of Rusted Truck was okay, and then I hit lower phase 1, not good, then creek trails, not good, phase 4 lower half, under water. The bowl, upper area's were dry, but by halfway down things went from moist to very wet. Terrible, walked back out. CCT around WF was a mess honestly also.

No one out for a ride, everyone apparently saw Neil's late post but me :( Fail me. Ended up doing CCT North and getting very wet and dirty. Ugh. Saw a few random riders around, tried to talk 2 late arrivals out of riding but they weren't listening. I hope they enjoyed sliding down hills in the mud.

Probably late today or Saturday before WF is actually good to ride.

This weekend I've got a lot of options for stuff to do on Sunday. Lake Fairfax trail work, Pump Track Grand Opening at Rockburn, a couple ride options. So much to do, so little time!

And I get to wash my bike again, in just recon WF last night it got muddier than in 20 miles of riding the week before.

Primus, Beer, and Tech

Saw Primus at the nearly brand new Filmore in Silver Spring, sooo much nicer than the one on Geary in SF, but doesn't have the history. Nice facilities and food. Drinks were pricey of course with draft Sam Adams running $10 and same for a shot of Tequilla.

Primus put on amazing show, 3 hours long counting a 30 minute intermission. Les and co played amazing music, just rocked it out. Great stage setup and lights, sound was very good, could have used a bit more on the vocals but whatever.

The pit went crazy a couple times for sure. During the intermission, they showed old B/W popeye cartoons. It was great.

Before hand I met up with Joel and Sharron at The Firehouse. Tried 3 beers, the IPA, Red and Stout. The stout was probably my favorite. The Cuban sandwich was excellent. My companions found the calamari appatizer un-inspiring, but the fish sandwich was good.

After wards we met up with Frank and Lynn and hit Quarry House, but I crapped out after 1 more beer, 5 hours sleep, then an 18 hour rocking day with a fair amount of beer did me in.

Slept in on Sunday and didn't end up riding, had a brunch to go to that didn't finish till near 1, then it was time to get a new phone. I've moved into the future with a Droid Bionic. Nice. Gotta setup the wifi here at work now.

Had carne asada from Trader Joe's, rice, grilled Veg, and a nice Monmart from Savannah Chanelle Winery, went really well with the spicy flavor of the beef.

In the Dark, sometimes it's easier to fall.

In a fit of coordination not to be exceeded by a blind drunk monkey I fell into the bushes of doom on the Berm Ascent Hill of Wakefield, not a bad fall but a very dumb one after a hurried restart attempt. UGH. Talk about lame. Well actually lets all forget about it and hope that gets my Falls in Fall out of my system.

It was still a good ride, 18 miles logged on the GPS, so probably about 20 miles in 2:22. Wakefield was a bit damp, the soil occasionally hiding some nasty slick spots, the creek trail was a sandy mess. The washouts are still amazing, the entrance to the bowl via the tunnel is unbelievable. Really. Water is an amazing force, I really hope we don't get the amount of rain they are predicting for today.

Next week we might slip in some trails by Thursday if the rain on Tuesday isn't bad, but otherwise if I'm gonna ride on Tuesday it's going to not be Single Track.

It's really amazing to me still how much it helps to get out and ride in lowering my stress levels. I feel much calmer today. Versus Wednesday I was starting to crack out.

Primus concert tomorrow. I'm stoked over that, haven't seen Primus before, but I've always been a fan. Time to look for Winona's BBB.

RCST Last Bash, but not The End?!?!?!

Good news that I saw on RCST Blog that while they are done with the RCST Bash, that another group, VMB another bike group is going to take over the event hopefully for next year. Right now I could see myself alternating years between their and the MORE Douthat trip.

The Last Bash, was a blast. Got in friday afternoon, setup camp and rolled out with Double G for a short ride, ended up meeting most of Camp Monkey up on the ridge and rode with them on Matter, ended up with 9 miles.

Partied pretty good that night but crashed out early around 12:30. Woke up at 6:30 moderately hung over as hell. Oy. A long slow breakfast helped. I opted to skip the big group ride and rode out with Joe C and Sarah R.

We went back up Iron Mine, Schaeffler Rd, Rattling Creek Trail, Fawn Kill, Preserve Line, and back down Iron Mine. Zoom, solid 15 miles, though I was bonking at the end, the last stream crossing on Preserve Line really sucked the last of my energy.

Was feeling pretty mellow/tired already before festivities cranked up, probably was dehydrated already more than I thought. Something about the chicken dinner put me off, other people also complained the cajun was kinda dry. Had a big beer and went to watch the metal cover band. Pretty good first set. A bit of moshing and headbanging. Went back to camp, hung out with Sarah and Joe and Big Dave. Was mellow, after a bit I felt a bit sick/headaching and layed down to try a powernap. Napped in and out but due to noise changed over to ipod on a book on tape, ended up getting sucked in and not going to sleep till 4. Mr.Sun came out full force Sunday morning and I couldn't sleep past 8:30'ish.

Got up with all the other slobs and ate breakfast, started breaking camp, rolled out a bit after 11. Ended up taking another way home and missed riding Schaeffer, which was fine as my shoulder was partially dead and my knee was a bit sore.

Back I think is now 95% recovered. GPS Tracks are up. Did take 1 cool vid of Sarah R riding rocks on Fawn Kill that I'll try and post this week. We will see.

Cabin John - Goya to Tuckerman

Finally spent a bit of time up on CJ between the Goya Drive terminus and the Tuckerman Ln Area. Did a LOT of trimming on the trail, opening up some tight area's and overhanging annoyances, clearing a fair amount of FOD also off the trail. Cut out some small down limbs that were in unfortunate area's. 2 small sets of trees in the first half mile need to come out. Ugh, but it may be a while.

The middle crossing needs to be fixed permanently, I cleaned it up a bit as it was not stable with a bunch of shit/rocks debris piled up.

Also there are 2 or 3 sections that are probably within 6 months of being fully eroded out where re-routes need to be under taken. 2 are easy rake/grub and rides, 1 is going to require a fairly major set of work to cut away growth in and out.

I'm sure the other area's need work also, hope to make inspections/ride and clips on them maybe next week.

Debating trying wake-o-tink tonight or a short ride in the hood, probably the hood ride as I have a MORE BOD meeting/concall tonight. JOY!

So it was a little wet last night?

So people always ask hey Rob, why did you cancel last nights ride? It was only lightly raining at Wakefield last night. Well it was a bit more than a little rainy at Wakefield last night. Larry C aka MOBL on the more-mtb.org forums posted these pictures up. Take a look, they are crazy. Wakefield was more like WakeRiver last night.

Wakefield Sept 8 Storm Pictures

Had to drop the ride off at the Datsun err Nissan dealership today for it's current maintenance. Watched Top Gear UK and they tend to still call Nissan's Datsuns. My mom and dad both had datsun's when I was a kid and my mom's station wagon we had for 125K miles, my dad traded his pickup for a Isuzu that got better mileage. Later of course I had the Altima that I ended up with 150K miles I put on it in 10 years for 180K total.

Hoping to get out onto the WO&D saturday after work, and maybe some CCT or something sunday, if it's dried out a bit. Not holding my breath though.

Go AWAY RAIN!

Ugh the rain seems never ending already, and it's only been a bit over a day. Rain actually woke me up at one point last night, after I had only been asleep an hour. Now its just a very light/gentle rain, but boy are the trails taking a soaking.

So for now I must limit myself to bike entertainment via the WEB:
Danny MacAskill is back at it with some friends.

GPS should be in Thursday but I dunno if I'm going to be riding. Grrrr.

May have to pull out the rain jacket and take a walk or something tonight. Or maybe I'll go the mall and walk around for an hour or so.

Back to Michaux!

Got up a bit late and a few wrong turns and I missed the group ride for the 25 miler Pre-ride for Terror of Teaberry at Michaux. I ended up doing about 3 hours of exploring on my own, good times, rode some tuff stuff, had to push a few things also that I'm not proud of. This chest congestion is making a mess of me a bit still.

Good week of riding though I figure around 6 hours or more of riding, feel the best mentally I think I have in a while.

Crap week for riding I suspect I'll be doing some paved trail crap if anything looks like a rainy week this week in punishment for really nice weather last week.

New More Jersey

The new jersey looks super sharp. Green ain't my best color, but I'm not too disappointed. I just have to remember to suck in my gut and pull the thing down a bit in any future photo's. Guess that means no racing in it!

I guess the lesson is here is pactimo is 1 to 2 sizes smaller in race cut then most others including sugoi and twin 6. I can wear a sugoi large fine. twin 6 I usually order xl. Maybe next time I'll go century cut instead or maybe I'll go dirtbag and order a BMX jersey. Still I'm stoked to ride in the thing, especially when traveling. No knock on the wooly, it's usually either too warm or cold enough I need another layer or a vest.

Ride last night was good, did a solid pre-ride with Tony. His bike survived that easily. Then I had a pretty casual group with a crazy dude (Cough ranger Cough) who was on a hybrid but made solid efforts. Dude's gonna be a monster once he gets the right MTB.

Still dunno what I'm doing this weekend, thinking about doing the Terror at Teaberry pre-ride sunday though being up in Ghetto'sburg by 9 may suck ass.

Also need to clean the cranks again sounds like I have some dirt in the bearing area.

WTF is wrong with TN?

Besides being a state that appears to have an Orange disorder, after reading this article I can only go WTF?!?!?!

I biked to school thru half of 5th, all of 6th and 8th grade. Also occasionally biked in 11th. My ride in 5th and 6th was a 1.1 mile ride each way in the burbs on Scottsdale AZ. I started off with only a few friends riding, but by the time I moved away, we often had 10 kids riding out from my house, with another 2 or 3 passengers. Usually girls :). Ahhh those were the days, being a paper boy, flush with my own cash. Damn. We crossed 1 major road where there was a light and usually a crossing guard. Depending on how far away it was 10 might be a bit young, but hell kids within a half mile I think had to walk or ride, as they didn't provide bus service.

My question is if it was against the law/neglect full to let her ride to school, what would have happened if it was after school and the girl was going over to a friends? I ranged long and far in those days, often 3 or 4 miles or more. Hell several times we skated home from Paradise Valley Mall. A bit longer haul of I think 5 miles. Crazy. People need to calm the hell down.

Rode Lake Fairfax yesterday and it was a damn good workout the first half. Took a half hour phone call after an hour and never got back into a good grind. Legs felt better than Monday for sure. Cleared some minor debris piles but it appeared everything else had been cleared. Lots of fun playing on the rocky sections too.

Had to pick up new brake pads for my front as they were very weak/soft and visual inspection showed barely any pad left.

Might go up and police CJ today after work, depends on how I'm feeling.

Irene is a bad bad girl

Power stayed on for me and mine mostly in the face of hurricane Irene, only the inlaws in Bethesda lost power.

Got out for a short mixed surface ride I wanna say about 45-50 minutes. Didn't feel awesome either as I noticed some throbbing indicating some minor sinus crud and in general my fitness is way off. Though the only way to fix that is get out and do stuff, so that's the plan. I'm going to either go up to Cabin John today or maybe Lk FFX.

I've also come to the sad conclusion that during the last great gear bag clean out I accidentally dropped my Edge 500 into the recycle bin. Alas 2 weeks ago that recycle bin went out after I had forgotten to retrieve said GPS. UGH. I think I'm going to pony down on a Edge 800 on payday.

And in a bit of bawdy humor:
20 Worst Tramp Stamps

Also have a full PM of the bike due this weekend. Apparently I never quite correctly reinstall the cranks and I quickly end up with a creaky bottom bracket.

Another week, another Quake

Survived DC-Quake-Armageddon 2011, no issues, all is well.

Had a damn interesting ride last Thursday at Wake-o-tink. Arrived nice and early and got a quick start on riding, by 4:30. But within 10 minutes the storm started to roll in. I rode another 20 minutes and headed back, thunder was picking up as was lightning in the distance.

Jason M was in the lot and we bullshitted for a bit then it started to rain. We dodged to our respective cars. It rained lightly for a bit then hard for about 15 before slowing and stopping around 6:05.

Dan Hudson from IMBA arrived to ride with us and some trail builders in from out of town. We talked for a bit, and the storm line was slowly creeping south but still pretty clear over accotink. Larry arrived and reported at his house only minimal sprinkling of rain for 5 mins. A check of trails at wakefield showed minimal dampness, maybe just slightly tacky. So in a light shower a moderate pace group rolled over to Accotink.

I did okay for the first half of chasing the intermediates but after that I popped badly due to blowing 1 climb and missing a turn. Ugh, after that I was hosed. Blew up on one of the final climbs on the way back and had to push. That sucked. Finished out finally catching up doing all of boyscout in reverse. Not terrible.

Ended up riding with XXL at WF for another 20 minutes before we finished around 8:20. Probably a nice 13-14 miles total riding for the day.

Slow week otherwise, still run down from the last few weeks, hoping to get back into the swing in the next week or two.

And Hurricane Irene is on it's way! Hoooray hurricane!

Rockburn Branch Fundraiser

I just need to say WOW! What an amazing job the Rockburn Branch Skills Park team has done in building a top notch grassroots team to get this project rolling.

Yesterdays picnic/fundraiser turned out very well even without the big/adult rides. I ended up staying the whole time from 2 till 7 and helping a bit with clean-up. I was a bit concerned on the way there as the weather looked crap-tacular and with the main rides canceled I was a bit worried about turn out. Ends up people really care about this park getting done, I think almost 200 people came through during the main event.

The main part of the fund-raiser was the raffle of 2 bikes and a trip to Moab. They only offered 300 tickets for the chance, but sold them for $25. That kicked them off to a start of $7500. Pat Miller then rustled up a ton of bike gear for a $4 ticket raffle. I bought 5 and I think a LOT of people did. I'm gonna guess another $1000 raised there, though it might be a bit more. Meals were $5 and tons of waters were sold also they had a snow cone machine running constantly at $2 a pop. Say another $1000 bucks raised there. Then Jay brought a donated Keg of Clipper City beer and I think that raised about $250 bucks in donations for cups of beer. 2 Corney Kegs were acquired of Troegs Beer and I bet that was another $250. I'd say the picnic itself there raised an additional 2500 bucks or so. Putting them at 10k. Then Pat announced a local family has donated $10K in support. Amazing. There almost at the half-way mark. They also have now 2 more bikes there going to be able to raffle in the near future that were donated in the last day or two. Tshirt sales were rocking also. An excellent event.

I know they also have some grants out that could push them into the 30K range with a bit of luck.

On the down side I've ridden my bike 1 time in the last 2.5 weeks. UGh. Blows. Anyways I'm out. First short day of work in a week. Yah!

Face of the World. It's where I fall off!

I fell of the face of the world I think with how crazy July has been at work. My work schedule has been bouncing around every other week and my schedule changes during the week with mid-day shift on Mon-Wed, mornings on Thursday, afternoons on Friday, and morning on Saturday. Last week was 57 hours, this week will be near the same. Ugh.

I have been riding a bit but really only once a week between other stuff going on also, exlcuding last Sunday when I led a ride up at Gambrill then snuck in a solo ride at the new pump track in Germantown. Fun! Ran into DKEG afterwards at G-town Cycles.

Bike needed some emergency work also this week. Realized when I had changed out the bottom bracket a few weeks ago I forgot a spacer on the drive side, no wonder I was having "Shifting Issues" D'OH! So cleaned it up and put it back in correctly, and shifting on the stand seems much better.

Also replaced the pads in my rear elixir's! DAMN EASY! Not sure how long I'll stay on the metal pads probably until next payday when I'll order a couple more sets of organic compound ones. Unless they are horribly noisy then who knows.

Final week and change of this left at work before my boss is back, but then other stuff will change too.

Big stuff coming up bike wise, we have the MORE summer picnic on July 30 at Rosaryville State Park, and then in mid August we have the first Rockburn Branch Skills park fundraiser!

Also registered for RCST Bash in September.

At whole foods last night enjoyed a very nice aged Old Curmudgeon from 09 on draft. Yum.

I Shall Prevail!

I shall prevail and eventually finish my posts of my trip and finish posting my pictures. Today I will upgrade to Flickr(HO) status with a paid account. And I will find time at somepoint this weekend to finish posting up.

Had a damn good night up till the last 20 minutes or so at Wake-O-Tink. Jason M and I did a solid 8 mile'ish preride then I led a fairly large casual group to accotink, we did the gas plant, went along the railroad tracks for a ways, dropped back out on the cinder trail went up to the last entrance before the road and worked our way back. Ricky and Jo split off then, but we met up with Delmar and Sarah who arrived late. Just as we start the new section we put in last fall I hear the dreaded call - FLAT!

Turns out our singlespeed rider had punctured his tire during the emergency stop on the previous climb where I blew the climb and nearly crashed. Poor Neil did crash. After several attempts to fix I sent the others on, we ended up trying 2 tubes, tehe 2nd a road tube that got us another half mile back out before it snake bit and flatted also. So I pushed on with him. Near the Accotink exist I phoned Neil for a pickup for the guy, Neil called back 5 minutes later and the pickup was set. I hauled ass back to the car. They pulled into the lot as I finished changing.

I then got to share the Awesome Awesome Green Man porter from Asheville, NC. Damn good, smooth, and simple. No complex flavors. Damn tasty, I managed 2 cups myself. Also have and Anderson Valley Brewing Summer beer, weird and malty and good. Kinda different.

Day 3 - Slate Rock Creek Trail to Pilots Cove

Monday was supposed to be another day of big riding, planned on doing 2 rides of about 7 miles. I woke up a bit later than originally intended, but as a vacation, an extended lie-in in my comfy cot was approved by me.

Good breakfast later I gathered my gear loaded the car up and headed up the mountain. The ride down FS 1206 was a bit longer than I realized but after going to far I found a suitable parking spot and headed out back down the road.

Making the right I started the next 4 miles ascending, most of it very ridable except for down trees. Even made several tricky climbs that I was pleasantly surprised about. Crossed 2 amazing waterfalls. And then I went North. Missing a left turn, up some VERY steep trails. Pushing again. Lovely. Eventually after 2 miles of pushing on and off I got back on rideable trails heading south. Taking some cool photo's. Descending some wicked stuff. Stop to take more pictures, huh. No camera. Camera bag is upside down and unzipped. Back up the trail I go on foot so as to not miss the damn thing. 1/2 a mile back I find it laying sadly on the trail. Descending a bit further I hit Slate Rock.

Slate Rock and the views descending from there are truly impressive and the switchbacks scary. The first few have cliffs on the outside. Rolled a REALLY nice granite outcrop that you hit by skipping 1 switchback. Then down and down I go. 14 Switchbacks. Somehow ended up off the trail again after that adding another mile back west. After a slight misroute going the wrong way up the forest road I was super happy to see my car. A slow drive back out and I was cooked. Was going to hit Sliding Rock on 276 heading back down but my arms were scratched up and I was tired. Back to camp, change into my suite and I rode up to the river. Cold water and anti-poison ivy soap and a beer. Ahhh. Relaxation.

Finished the day with not so great bagged dinner, just add water. Points for easy, but A LOT of salt and not so great flavor. Oh well. Live and learn. Enjoyed some more beer, the Old Leghumper Porter was still under impressive. The Old Speakeasy IPA was still my favorite.

Photo's for Day 3 thru 5 now up

Photo's from Day's 3, 4 and 5 are now up on flickr.

HERE!

Day 3 - Slate Rock Creek-Pilot Cove Trails in Pisgah
Day 4 - Dupont State Forest Self Epic
Day 5 - Dupont SF - Return for the rock and new trail.

Day Blog to come.

Pisgah 2011 - Day 1 and 2

Day 1 was as previously noted driving from the DC area down towards lovely Asheville, NC. A late start and rain on I-66 and too much soda kept me from making it fully to Asheville this night. I blame the cornucopia of crap available at Sheetz. I'm a sucker for make your own shakes. And coffee drinks. Almost got some great sunset pics just was a bit late and they didn't turn out, but I did get a fewhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif good ones at various stopping points and a few while driving. Not a terrible drive at all. The hotel (my high school job alma matter, Days Inn) kinda blew but at that point I didn't care. I was run down.

Day 1 Photo's HERE!.

Day 2 - Get up, eat a minimal craptacular free breakfast of cereal and head back out. With minimal fuss and muss I make it safely and sane around Asheville around 9 AM and head south to Pisgah Forest and follow my GPS directly to the Davidson Recreation Area/Campground. My home base till Friday. A quick check in and I'm rolling to my new home, spot #103 on Poplar Loop. No generators on this loop! Good thing I left mine at home, oh well no compressor then either to air up mattresses and tyres.

Open the back of the truck up and start unloading. A quick dance of weirdness and I manage to setup the tent again by myself, thanks to El Hefe (Stoner) for warning me that it takes practice. It's technically a 2 person job to setup and is much easier with 4 hands for sure. Get everything snugged down and time to haul in gear.

New camp bed is awesome but takes up ton of room! Wow! Gear does fit nicely underneath though! +1 Setup cooler and cooking area and it's time to be off. A quick change into gear, water in camelback, tires checked, book packed (Off the Beaten Path, Western NC, Pisgah!) and I'm off. Decide to roll from the campground as I'm planning on doing shorter/easier loop of Pressley Gap, 9.3 Miles total from campground entrance.

I blast away and start the climb up 477 towards the Horse Stables towards Clawhammer Rd. At the horse stables I miss that the turn off it hidden in the back of the parking lot and continue about a mile to far up 477. WHOOPS! Book confirms I've done something wrong, back down I go to the horse stables! Wheee, that was fast as hell!

A quick look shows my error and I'm off to grinding again. 1.1 Miles now till the turn off for Maxwell Cove Rd. 3 Miles later I realize, oops another mistake, guess I'll stick with it and end up doing Clawhammer, a 10 miler from the Horse Stables! Jeez this 5-6 mile climb BLOWS! I BLOW! BIKING BLOWS! Argh. Level out and meet a rider that passed me a while back, he's smartly resting. We chat a bit and he points out a few neat areas to check out and says the trail ahead is pretty good but technical.

By technical he must have meant everyone pushes it with it's repetitive foot to two foot high water bars and hairpin turns along with some down trees. UGH. PUSHING BLOWS! And to make things perfect, thats thunder I now hear in the distance. PUSH FASTER DAMN IT!
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Eventually I reach the first summit and I've a beautiful view to the north and see the storm is off at the next range. Probably 10-20 miles away. I've got some time, but not a ton. Start riding again, challenging but not impossible. ARGH who put this rock here a nice scramble up about 8 feet of rock face and I finally make the final peak! YAH! Awesome view to south but storm is coming in/getting louder now damn it and I'm on the wrong side of the mountain. Didn't even stop there for pictures, honeshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftly it was a super HAZY day as you can see from the photo's I'll link to below.

Start rolling DOWN. Some serious downs. Time to drop the saddle downs. No QR on the seatpost clamp blows. Tools out, seat lowered. Rumbles in the background - DOWN We GO! Wheee! OH SHIT!!!! Wheee! Maybe FS makes sense here, the other guy had a nice Santa Cruz! Whee! And I'm back on the REAL south side of the mountain heading south, some burly descents thru some very eroded trails. Lots of growth too, my legs are already itchy/stinging. Ugh. Hit a crazy intersection. Book time! AHHH this is Maxwell Cove RD! More Rd/Trail down, WHEE!!!! Gotta really watch your speed. Left on Clawhammer and continue on! Wheee! Just Over 2 hours back to the Horse Pen! That makes me an advanced Pusher! WOW!

And back on down and back to camp. 17 Miles, 2:05 Moving, 3:13 Total Time. 2600 FT estimated climbing. Garmin Connect Link HERE!

And to the creek to rinse of itchy bad stuff, ahh the joys of 55 degree water after crazy hard riding. For me thats epic, 1000 ft in a day is a big days, sometimes in 3 hours at Wake-o-Tink I end with 800 feet. In 20 miles.

An awesome dinner, a couple good beers (Bells Porter and Old Speakeasy IPA!) and I'm sacked out at 9:30 or 10PM. Tomorrow's gonna be another great day!

Day 2 Photo's HERE!

The Trip-Timeline - Who needs a TARDIS?

So more almost for my own notes, I present my timeline for my trip in rough outline form so when I write each days worth of notes, my beer dulled memory can fill in the gaps with most excellent made up tales! Hooray BEER!

Saturday 11th - Late start almost 4pm by the time the truck was loaded, beer was iced, and gas was filled. Horrendous rainstorm as I drove thru Man-ass-ass. Due to hunger and pitstops I ended up stopping just before midnight near Mars Hill, NC, north of Asheville.

Sunday 12th - Drove the rest of the way and setup Camp at the Davidson River Campground, rolled out a bit after noon for the first ride, intending to do an easier one ended up doing Clawhammer. 17 miles total.

Monday 13th - Pilot Cove and Slate Rock - Ended up with 10 miles. Not sure how on a 7 mile loop.

Tuesday 14th - Dupont Epic - 22+ Miles of fun and waterfalls.

Wednesday 15th - Dupont Part Duex - Rerode Cedar Rock and New Trail plus a few others - 10 Miles.

Thursday 16th - Asheville and Biltmore - Very cool town, friendly people, good beer at the Wedge!

Friday 17th - Blue Ridge Parkway Drive - Camp Breakdown - Green Lantern - Back to Mars Hill in prep for Big Ivy/Coleman Boundary Ride

Saturday - Big Ivy Ride - Mainly Fireroad as I had no map :( GPS also finally had battery death - Near 10 miles.

Will be adding to the Flickr stream tonight a few good ones up for now that should be visible in the side bar.

Asheville is Good, Pisgah is Awesome, DSF is Awesome

Title says it all. The area is in general really cool, with damn friendly people and some AMAZING Riding. Those are some mountains there. 10K climbing in 1 week. 3X my previous best week. Accounting for GPS distance loss probably 75 miles of riding.

Pisgah is challenging as hell, dupont has some amazing trails and the length of ride you can put together makes it challenging as hell! Next time I am gonna hit Tsali which is supposed to be like Dupont but less service/fireroad.

A Full Suspension bike might be advisable. Even with 4-5 inches of travel. Of the few riders I saw out I only saw 1 other hardtail and no single speeds.

More on the trails/etc as I decompress and process photo's.

A LOT of pushing for me also, less next time is a major goal.

Asheville is a great town with awesome people and amazing Beer Culture.