Pisgah Productions is proud to announce:

The Pisgah 100K Mountain Bike Race. 
On May 19, 2012 (permit pending) racers will have the opportunity to compete on the very best trails Pisgah has to offer. This race was conceived by the late Jeff Papenfus with my guidance in the areas of permits, route selection, etc.  We have decided to run the race, in his honor, with all proceeds going to his widow. This race is going to kick ass. There will be CASH prizes, arrows to follow, stocked support stations, and a big meal at the end. Everything you have come to expect in a world-class set-course MTB race.
Entry will be $120 per racer. Registration opens the day we get the permit from the U.S. Forest Service.

 In other news, it must be the slow season at my real job, I actually got out for three hours of Pisgah this morning. Zoe was at childcare until 11:30 (and that was a strict curfew) so I started at the first gate on 5000, a great place to start because of the different loops that are possible out there.

I started with 5000->Spencer and once I shed all the unneeded layers I was rolling pretty good. I had to walk the steep pitch but I was OK with that. With my mind on the Pisgah 100 I rolled right through the gap and was headed down the other side of Spencer. I wasn't really 'feeling it' and I got a little paranoid about being by myself on a weekday on a seldom traveled trail and took it easy all the way to NER.

 Mike B had told me about a great ride he had done the other day so I tried to follow that route but made a navigational error along the way. I had just been thinking how beautiful the trail was when I suddenly realized I hadn't gone the right way at all. I decided to really mix things up a bit at that point by climbing Big Creek to Big Ridge to Upper Middle Fork.

I had no idea how long it would take and with the strict curfew I had to keep the pace high. I was surprised by how quickly I was on Middle Fork->NER though. I looked at the Droid for the time and it was dead so I didn't really know how long it had taken to get there. Turn on Fletcher? The short-but-annoying climb, plus the Res Rd. climb would be after. I decided to stay on the Never Ending Road and it lived up to it's name.

It took what felt like forever  to get back to the Trace parking lot and the climb to 5000. When I got to 5000 I was ready for it and hammered the last few miles back to the Jeep. When I got there it was 11:00 on the dot. It takes 30 minutes to get from the first gate on 5000 to Zoe care so.... perfect. Total time out: 2:50. All other stats? unknown.