When the day starts with Bill high-fiving a cowboy...

It's a good bet that it's going to be a stellar day in the woods.
photo by Bill Fehr


This morning I met Rich D., Bill F., and Dave B. at Davidson River campground to watch the start of the Pisgah Stage Race then head out via bike to spectate. Walking around at the start/finish I saw all sorts of people, sorba people, racer people, and friends and family people. It sure is fun being a part of this community. Anyway, they were off for their big day in the woods right at 8am then we headed off for our own. The temps were in the low 40's with gray skies and on and off rain.

We drove over to the horsestables and impatiently waited for the rest of the Charlotte crew to arrive. Rich was doing a map dance in his head. If they left at... and we don't leave until... then we won't meet them until... and then the whole day is ruined. RUINED! The others arrived and Bill and I headed up clawhammer. Me on the redbike, Bill on the desert storm fixed.

It was nice catching up with Bill and we had a great climb. I have to look into his claims about moon mining and the like, never a dull cognitive moment when Bill has something to say.

Dicky, Tim?, and Skadophally-trophy-brophy


joined Bill and I for the advance march up clawhammer with Rob C. and Blair taking their sweet ass time following behind. The decision was made that the best place to see racers was on 1206 or Pilot if we could make it there on time so we pushed past the intersections without pause for the slowfolks. A quick stop at the Liberty CP then up Pilot was next.


I was on and off he bike, feeling good about getting a solid night's rest rather than going out, and suddenly the first racer flew by JeriBishop.Com! 4 minutes later a pissed looking Sam K was in the number 2 spot. Our group climbed to the HumVee section where we found a photographer and the perfect place to chill/heckle/spectate.

Being that the temps were in the low 40's and we were standing around the decision was made to start a fire and open a beer or two.


The plan originally was to meet Mike B. at his CP up on Laurel but... with the reports of snow... and the perfect vantage point... we decided to stay put and watched about 35-50 more racers come through before the sweep. LEFTY!!!

We then climbed a bit more with the intent of finding the legendary snow but turned around at the quad-switchback. We turned around,


Bill on the fixie was the only one to clean the HumVee, and took 1206 back to smillsrd with a vague plan. Blair was starting to feel it and Dave wasn't far behind so we altered the return route to include pinkbeds


to club


and in the end, it seemed that Avery was in the best interest of the group.

Oh, and by the way, Rob C. has grown a fine set of downhill skills in the last couple of years....

Dicky on the otherhand... is still learning how to use one of those new fangled 'movie forks'

I was feeling great and hit a little here-to-there jump on the Avery descent and broke my left pedal. I mean, really broke it!


That made me drop back for the final descent but I was able to wedge the toe end of the cleat into the front bar so I did have a minimal amount of 'clipped in' feeling for the rest of the day.

Great ride everybody! Sorry for the quick write-up, I need to go get some food!

counter-clockwise:
25.26 miles, 3875' climbing