A road ride with Mike B.? No way!

Yes indeed, I just got in from a road ride with Mike B. The weather in Asheville has been anything but conducive to riding bikes in the woods for the last few weeks and it finally got to our resident trail steward. Mike belled me up yesterday talking about a bit of pavement. The route was interesting enough for me because I had read about the alternate ride back from the Ox Creek plunge but had never done it. A new road loop? Sounds great.
Well, in the end, the pace was excellent. The route was excellent.... and yes, the company was excellent (something that I've not been looking for in my rides lately).

(even with MB on a 26" mustached fat tire bike)

and as road biking can be, there were some interesting highlights: 1. On river road a pickup truck was coming towards us, started flashing it's headlights and honking it's horn, slowed down, and the driver looked right in my eyes and yelled 'FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUU'. Ah yes, turn the other cheek, smile, move on. He's in a big ass truck and probably has a gun.

chicken hill, west asheville.

2. Using my new bell to say hello to every other rider that we saw on river road. Most were not expecting such a cheery greeting. BTW we must have seen 25 other road riders out today. We even saw a perfect specimen pair of 2010/11 hipsters: vintage 10 speeds, skinny pants, no helmets or gloves, hoodies and aviator glasses.... out on a road ride. 3. We saw a huge hawk land on it's perch atop a cliff next to the old women's prison. Mike was talking about the Richmond Hill trails that we could see off to our left and I had to stop him and say, dude, look at that thing to the right....

the French Broad River was also to our left

4. There was a german shepard hunting small creatures under the snow on the return trip. It was standing perfectly still except for it's head, moving back and forth with eyes fixated on the snow. The rodent was likely going to die.

mike b. on that return trip

5. As we approached the new pub at the turn where MB and I met and parted ways Mike asked 'Can I buy you a beer?'. Hmm... A beer next to the river after 23 miles of fast moving and only 2 miles of easy riding to get back to my house? Sure. Sounds great.
Great ride Mike. The Droid says: 25.1 miles, 1337' , 1:27, 15.9 mph average (!!!), 45.1 mph max (!!!)