Eric's Ride Log

Erinna and I met up with Mike and Jamie R. this afternoon for one of the most fun rides I've been on in a while. Our route for the day: From the PMBAR start/finish->276->477->Clawhammer->Maxwell->Black Mountain->Thrift Cove->Grassy Road->Sycamore Cove. 13+ miles, 2ish hours. Fun Fun FUN!

I'll try to post more later... but here's a shot from the old homestead site on Maxwell:

Our ride started a little after 5pm on a beautiful, sunny, warm but not hot, final day of Spring 2007. The route started with a short pavement section then a couple of miles of flat gravel road. We turned onto Clawhammer though and the road was no longer resembling 'flat' at all. I gave a hard effort up the first bit, where it's really steep, but was caught by Mike in no time. We kept the pace pretty high and made it to the Maxwell intersection quickly. The girls arrived only moments later (way to push it!) and we took a nice relaxing breather. Maxwell was next. That road was rutted out worse than I had ever seen and Mike told me that during PMBAR the road was so saturated with water that it looked like a river was flowing down it. Mike held the pace very high for the entire climb up Maxwell. There was even one point where I just gave up and stopped chasing for a minute or two. Way to go Mike! You don't seem 'out of shape' to me! Anyway, we regrouped at Pressley Gap then turned right onto Black Mountain trail. Mike took off again and with his geared enhanced bike he was able to climb climb climb up through the stee stuff and almost cleaned the trail all the way to the peak. Once again we regrouped and Mike let me lead out for the first real descent of the day. I was feeling great and was hauling some serious ass. I was right on the edge of control a few times being anly inches away from a high speed death. Mike was hanging on to my pace and followed every line and move until one big tree that was down across the trail. I saw a line a little to the left, off the trail, and bunnyhopped the tree. I got a 'whoop' and 'brave move' shout-out from Mike for that one. More high speed descending through the tech stuff then even higher speed descending followed for the smoother section. I railed across the creek crossing with wreckless abandon and luckily didn't pinch-flat. Another big move happened at the slimy-rooty-rocky drop thing right near Thrift Cove. I had lost track of where exactly we were on the trail and hopped down the set of shallow steps preceding it, scrubbed off *a little* speed, and found myself dropping in faster than since I got rid of my old Ellsworth Joker. Mike followed right behind me and big eyes and big smiles were the order of the moment. One more super high speed descent later we were at Thrift Cove and waiting for the girls to regroup. Thift Cove is also known as 'the hotwheels track' because it's super smooth, super fast, wide, with sweeping turns, berms, and straight aways that let you get going 30mph easily. Mike led that descent until he had to pull over to let his brain catch up with his body. I took the lead then and moments later we ere at the Grassy Road intersection. We waited for a few moment and jsut about the time we were starting to worry Erinna and Jamie showed up with a scary story: Erinna was hauling, catching air over the swooping turn mound things and heard a rattle rattle rattle... as an experienced mountain biker she knew to stop and check things out and sure enough something was awefully wrong... her front wheel quick release had come undone. Only the lawyer tabs were holding her front wheel onto the fork. Yikes! I sure am glad my sweetie still has all her teeth! Next was grassy road, which went by fairly quick. We were waiting to regroup at Sycamore when some guy, not the girls, came rolling up and said 'Yup, those two pretty girls turned into one ugly guy!' We were still chuckling when Erinna and Jamie did arrive. Sycamore was next and after a short and annoying climb we started the final descent of the day. Nice and tech, fast as hell, and beautiful as all get out is how I would describe that section of trail. At one point there were so many rhodo and laurel flowers littering the trail that my front wheel was creating a rooster-tail of flower petals. If only I could have captured that sight with the camera. I got a front flat smashing through another creek crossing and pulled off another huge move just before the end of the trail (I must have been in the air for 10-15 feet) and stopped just before 276 for the final regroup of the day.

Here's Mike Jamie and Erinna right then:

A slow spin on pavement back to the cars made for a great cool-down and when we made it to the trucks Mike had a six pack on ice for the four of us to share. Way to think ahead Mike!

Great day, great people, great ride.