Eric's Ride Log

I just got in from a borderline epic ride with a bunch of folks I usually don't ride with on trails that I usually don't ride in the direction that we rode them. Excellent! Change is great! The list of players: Mike Brown, Jeremy Arnold, Jared Weeks, and Jonathan, Jay, and David from Greenville, and myself. Jonathan (The Extreme Tomato) got everybody together for this, O.k., I'll call it an epic ride, through the magic of the NC forum. Mike and I ride pretty often together, Jeremy and I havn't ridden together in about a year, and the rest, it was my first ride with them. Mike and I were a good 15 minutes late and caught the guys right as they were leaving. Mike and I got ready very quickly and started very very quickly chasing after the rest. Once we caught up everyone started to make a plan. Up 5000 and over to Bent Creek? Noooo... Up Trace to Spencer? Noooo..... Spencer Spencer Laurel Pilot? Maybe.... Oooh! Oooooh! I know, let's torture ourselves as best we can! Let's get all our masochistic tendencies taken care of for the weekend and do 5000->Bear Branch->5000->Spencer->Spencer-> then go *cough* UP Big Creek to the parkway->Pisgah Inn->walk Mtn's to Sea to->Pilot->Pilot connector->then Lauel Mountain all the way down to->1206 and back to the cars at 1206/5000? O.K! was the group concensus. My evil sadistic mind forgot all about the fact that I had to do it all, too. Oh well, I was up for it, even on the FULLY RIGID SINGLE-SPEED. Fine. 30+ miles? Fine. How hard could it be?

Oh.

The ride started out chilly after the first frost hit Asheville the night before. Mike and I were ready quickly and hammered to catch everyone else at the intersection of 5000/Trace Ridge Rd. They complimented us on our speed, I looked like the tomato, and we headed up to do Bear Branch. Up the road, through the pine forest and the resulting soft trail and up up up further than expected, just like every time. We all made it to the trail head and bombed down Bear. We had two flats and a slight mechanical but after the regroup we finished Bear rather quickly. Next was 5000 to Spencer and everyone made acquaintances and after the one steep, it was a left on Spencer. I took lead because I was n’t really feeling warmed up yet and wanted to take care of that. We made it to the field climb quickly and my goal was achieved, I was warm, so I took off a layer and settled in for the long haul. I’ve mentioned before, Spencer Gap up is a ton of fun, rolling single-track all the way to Trace Ridge. We made our final route decision there (are we really going to CLIMB Big Creek?!?) and with everyone aboard, we headed down Spencer Branch. Spencer is awesome. Mike mentioned that it’s one of the few trails that is as steep as it is that has maintained itself rather well over the years. No maintenance, little traffic, remote feeling. The downhill is covered in nasty wheel eating rocks and eventually starts to run with the creek and crossing little tributaries that makes for tricky decendin, despite the lack of elevation loss. Cross the never ending road and continue on Spencer. I was surprised by the horsy mud-pits that preceded every waterbar and even more by the sheer clif down to what sounded like a waterfall (Death to the Left!!! I didn’t look to find out) that accompanied the bottom of Spencer heading to the reservoir. I usually take a left there and head to the short but annoying climb and the bobcat downhill so Spencer all the way was a nice change. We made our way around the reservoir and started up Big Creek to Little Pisgah Ridge next. This was a brand new experience for me and boy ‘o boy, it sure wasn’t easy. Big Creek trail is an old logging railbed, we actually found some light gauge rail today, and is 8 to 10 feet wide, covered in babyhead sized rocks, log corduroy, mud pits, and creek crossings for what seems like forever. When we got to any of the landmarks I recognized from going DOWN the trail, I would think, 'Oh dear God… 'The best part of Big Creek going up was the new stepping stones across the creek crossings. Big Creek has been a guaranteed wet feet ride since the hurricanes but someone has placed HUGE stepping stones. Mike tried to explain some sort of mechanical device that one can put in a backpack and then move 3 man rocks by oneself, but I was confused and was really thinking about the next part of the ride Big Creek up to Little Pisgah Ridge, and on to the Blue Ridge Parkway. That section of trail changes 2000 feet in 2 miles. It’s just climbing up a wall of merciless Pisgah single-track. Hey Suess! Jeremy and Mike were always within earshot and they were trying hard with their fancy geared machines. I saw Jared a few times just a few yards behind me but everytime I would get on and spin that single gear I wouldn’t see him again for 5 minutes of so. Mike, Jeremy and I arrived at the top, with Jared only moments behind, and we all sat in the sun and remarked on the difference between the leaf color there, (PEAK LEAF SEASON ALERT!!! Go up the parkway tomorrow! It’s beautiful!) compared to at the bottom where the peak is a week or two away still. We sat in the sun and sure enough, everyone else was there quicker than I could have hoped. We walked out to the parkway and pacelined up the hill, through the tunnel, and to the Pisgah Inn. The group split in two as we headed towards the Inn but again, they were they very quickly. We then walked up the mountains to sea trail and on to Pilot Rock.