Temps were in the high 30's and we were riding in a cloud the entire day.
The ride really started while still in the Jeep headed to Turkey Pen trail. The road is in very bad shape right now. I was surprised that thee were even non-4x4 vehicles in the parking lot at all. We took the singletrack down and I just about busted my ass right out of the box. Even right there the trail was slicker than snot. The only real snow left over after the warmish days was at the bridge over S.Mills. Up Mullinax to Squirrel was a great warm-up and Squirrel was as technical as ever.
The wetness was unforgiving. Roots were slicker than usual. Rocks had a slime that would send you down in a heartbeat. Needless to say it was slow going all the way to Cantrell. The only breaks we took were at the gap and at Cantrell.
Oh, and I had a nice high-side-digger on the way to our turn around point. By the end of the day DjD went down a couple of times, too. On our way back we ran into a pair of hikers then my old friend Dennis H. and his crew...
on what was presumably a much much much faster ride than the one we were on. No rest at the gap, just ass hauling down to Pounding Mill, then down to Laurel Creek, Mullinax, and S.Mills, back to the bridge in record time since DjD had to get back to Asheville. Great ride Dennis. Thanks for coming out.
