Hush Hush the Pisgah99....

For me it was the Pisgah44 but...what was all the non-hoopla about? Clay figured out a route, about a dozen people tried to follow the route. That's it.



I left White Pines at 4:15 or so AM, about 15 minutes behind Broussard. I had slept in my riding gear so was ready to go the second time my alarm went off. The climb up Clawhammer was horrible for me. Hot, cold, hot, hungry, cold, nauseous,hot... and I stopped more than a couple times to adjust gear and get my head wrapped around what was ahead. On the way up clawhammer a beauiful 18-24" tall owl dove towards me then perched up in a tree, never taking its eyes off me. Right onto Black and up the switchbacks went by quickly. When I got to the second overlook I stopped and turned out my lights and well I'll be damned I could already see lights climbing Clawhammer behind me.

I stopped for a good long breather at Turkey Pen and fired off a text to Erinna : Moving slow. Feeling great. Then flew into the depths of Turkey. The sunrise on Turkey Pen made me come to a stop more than once just to soak in the beauty of it all.

I really was feeling great and felt like I was picking up the pace until a front flat caused an unscheduled dismount. Rob, Brad K, Fusco, and Dicky were all there before I was rolling again.
Fusco and I went to the campsite to filter water and the rest of the guys took off to Mullinax. I fired off another text to Erinna: On Mullinax. then started to get into a good climbing groove. Fusco passed me after fixing his own flat tire:
then I saw Clay behind on the trail a little further along. To my surprise Mike B got to me before Clay, passed me, then was waiting for me around the next corner. 'I'm going to ride with you' he said. Sweeeeeeeeeet. My pace picked up considerably with the company and we yo-yo'd with Clay, then Cissy and Clay all the way to the Pink Beds parking lot.


I got into the Pisgah Rangin' groove on Squirrel and we were at Laurel Creek, Pounding Mill, and Cantrell quickly. What happened next has been bothering me though, we passed through Horse Cove and don't recall it at all. When we were in the ups and downs heading to SMills I was confused.... this part of the trail is..... after? Horse? before? no... after....errrrr??

Then we ran into LeAnne and John! Thanks for the photo guys.
I decided to get water there rather than risking not being able to get any at the top and while refilling Rich sauntered into the parking lot, defeated... meh.... and was unable to be convinced to head back up 276 a second time. Cissy was an easy sell though and as soon as we hit the pavement Clay (on a SS), Mike, and Cissy left me in the dust. My legs were not having any part of it. I was tired. My legs were starting to cramp. I was in granny gear. I walked. on pavement. I had a motorcyclist stop next to me and ask if my equipment was in working order and all I could muster was a thumbs up. From that point on I would hop on whenever a car would approach, so they wouldn't stop, and made it to the Parkway about 10 minutes after Clay and Cissy had started towards Big Creek.
Mike was waiting for me and playing with his new GPS. He was entertaining himself well enough that I didn't even feel bad about making him wait.
Next was three miles of parkway climbing to Mount Pisgah then the turn to Big Creek. That trail descends something like 1800' in less than two miles and my brakes were boiling by the bottom. At the bottom I knew we were in the home stretch, four or five wet feet crossings and a gravel road climb later we were at the Trace parking lot, saw Caroline and Ben, then finished the ride passing a huge group of parents and 4-5-6-7-8-? year old kids, then Fisherman's, and to the Subaru which Erinna and I had planted in the woods the day before. Right after Mike and I said 'Cheers!' Ohio Rob, Matt F., and David C rode through the campground and were happy to take the tools and water we had to offer. That actually made me feel great about my overall performance because I was only Fletcher->Spencer->Trace (plus my morning head start) behind the FAST guys.
Anyway, even at half of the proposed route it was very very very tough day in the woods.
44 miles, 8800 feet of climbing, 4:15am to 2:50pm. ouch.



What ended up happening with the route? Brad Kee finished the entire thing in 22 hours. He was the only one to finish but..... David Cook was out there a long time, too. Surprise surprise.
Thanks Clay for renting the camp and proposing a route that was impossible for everyone except for Brad to finish. That made for a fun weekend.
Oh, when Mike and I got back to White Pines we were hanging out with the Saturday-night-camping crew and we saw a WHITE SQUIRREL in the woods just above the campsite. Awesome
I'm finishing this writeup on Monday night just after Wode drove me back out to Brevard to retrieve the Subaru. Floyd came along for the ride.
Thanks for the ride Wode!

fun fast fixed bent creek ride with Gabe

I met up with Gabe at the Smokehouse this afternoon for a solid 90+ minutes of Bent Creek.
Neighborhood->Rice Pinnacle-> Ingles Field->Sidehill->Hickory Top->Ingles Field->Rice Pinnacle->Neighborhood.
We climbed fast. I descended at the very knifes edge of control. We talked equipment and building a new stem for the silver WW (dropbar 29er here I come...) and got back to the Smokehouse with minutes to spare, the schoolbus rounded the corner before my bike was even in the back of the Jeep.
Oh, of note, I'm really happy with the way the fixe is setup right now. Thudbuster is key. high pressure/low knob tire in the rear is key. Super fattyfat squishy tire in the front.... key. Oh, and a rediculous 32x22 on a 29" tire makes for fast climbing, easy rear 'braking', and silly silly SILLY fast downhill spinning....

plans made, changed, cxl'd, and remade

Today I drove out to the Coontree trailhead and rode the Original Big Nasty. Marty at Pro-Bikes told me to try this route about two or three months after I moved to Asheville. I said to her 'I've done Laurel/Pilot 15 times and Laurel/Big Creek 5 times in the last xx number of days. What should I do next?' and she said from Coontree parking lot->Coontree->Bennett->477->Clawhammer->Maxwell->Black->Buckwheat->Bennett->Coontree.

Trace Ridge with....

the Pony.





What else is there to say?

Well, that was fun. Rich came up to Pisgah this AM with a new group and Mike & Kassi B., and I (plus Avery and Maximiliandogs) met them out at the Fish Hatchery at 11:00. The route for the day ended up being an excellent tour of the best known fish hatchery area trails: Davidson River->Cove Creek->Yellow Connector->225->Daniel Ridge counterclockwise->475->5095?->Long Branch->475->471-> 471D->Butter->Long Branch->Cat Gap.

The ride started with a warm-up pace to Cove Creek then Mike, Rich, and I picked it up. Rich didn't sweat a drop though and talked about a million things in a row that I cannot recall right now. That made for quick-bike-ride to the connector and up to 225. MB broke his chain just before the top and I realized that one of the new guys had decided to ride the whole day in big/big. Ummm.... good chance you'll be the next one with a broken chain if you keep that up fella.... The climb to Daniel went by quickly, we ran into Youngblood and Amy along the way, and Mike, Dicky, and I dove in and railed all the way to the bottom of Farlow with aplomb. A quick regroup and the train continued to the bottom of Daniel. Mike was in the lead and took great lines all the way, I was on his wheel with Dicky less than 5 seconds behind. Badass Dicky. The movie-fork seems to be working out for you.
The group moved quickly too, and up, the gravel road to Long Branch. Kassi then took off down the hill with the dogs and the rest of us went up towards Gloucester Gap.

What happened next? Stay tuned! Will I continue or not? Talk about running into 'tiny shoes' Jody F.? An old male stripper and his 'little dog'? new guys with downhill skillz? Flat tires? An IF with a 97 Marzocchi? Waterfalls? Tutus? Lightsaber fights???? Tune in.... Maybe I will.... Probably... I won't...







Oh, one thing non-ride related, my old old old OLD school friend Mark M. and I got to hang out this past Wednesday and eat a sushi lunch at Wasabi, drink some evening beers at ABC, and talk about current life and the like the entire day... Then Ian L., Erinna, and I watched in awe as he rocked the Orange Peel. Here he his on guitar later in the evening.... You're a f'ing badass Mark..... badass.

More than your 'average' after-work ride

Mike R., Eric C., and I got out last evening for an outstanding bike ride. We started a bit before 7pm on the parkway just before Bent Creek Gap. Our route: BRP->Big Creek->Fletcher->Spencer->Trace->BRP. more later. for now, photos:

Sunset over Mount Pisgah:

Mike trying to ride the guardrail:Eric C on the parkway

Mike R on the parkway
At the top of Big Creek trail:Please don't bite me!

oops, sorry for cutting off your head Mike!
Night Lizard!Night riding: A different perspective.

Eric C at the top of Spencer:counterclockwise:

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