Eric’s Ride Log

Erinna and I just got in from an almost 60 mile mountainbike ride. We started at Turkey Pen at 4:30AM->66 Jumps->Bradley Creek->5015->Laurel Mountain->Pilot Rock Connector->Pilot Rock->Breakfast at the Pisgah Inn->BRP->NC276->FS475B->FS225->Cove Creek->FS475->FS475B->NC276->FS477->Club Gap->Black Mountain to the shelter->Buckhorn Gap trail->South Mills River->Squirrel Gap->Cantrell Creek->South Mills River->66 Jumps back up to the Jeep.

58 miles, 10680′ of climbing, about 10 hours in the saddle.

Here’s Erinna after a crash first thing this morning. It was spectacular! She fell down the hill, bike fell on top of her, she was a good 6′ down off the trail! Big smile for not getting hurt!

First light arrived near the top of FS5015. We continued onto Laurel Mountain and up near the meeting log I got a shot of some of the flowers that were *everywhere*

Here’s Erinna right then. They are kinda hard to see but notice all the flowers in the understory behind her:

climbclimbclimbclimbclimbclimbclimbclimbclimbdescenddescendescenddescenddescenddescend… Erinna on Pilot Rock

A short hike after this photo later we were sitting at the Pisgah Inn waiting for food to arrive. My meal: Three big pancakes with WAY too much butter and syrup and a side of bacon. Erinna: Two scrambed eggs, home fries, and a biscuit. Yum Yum! Next was the Blue Ridge Parkway, then NC276. We made a route choice and went over to Caney Bottom, I mean, Cove Creek then to the Fish Hatchery for a water refill. The camera didn’t come out again until then. Here are our Waltworks’s’s… with John Rock in the background:

We made our way back up FS475B and on over to Club Gap. Once we were on the ridge we realized there had been a major ‘wind-event’ in the last week or so. There were a number of BIG trees down:

Here’s a shot of Erinna coming down the steps at Buckhorn Gap:

and a number of miles later, crossing the swinging bridge at Wolf Ford:

Squirrel to Cantrell was next and not so easy at all…. A group of riders including Endless Adam caught up with us while taking a break at the top of Cantrell. They were ALL on fully rigid singlespeed 29ers. Come on guys, fully rigid SS 29er is SOOOOOOO 2006… J/K

and finally, I kept telling Erinna that when we got to the Cantrell Creek Lodge ruins we were home-free. A BIG smile for being almost done!

Great day. Sunny, low humidity, in the 70’s. Oh, I had the BEST company possible, too.

From Yellow Gap at 4:15ish A.M.-> Laurel Mountain->Pilot Rock connector->Pilot Rock UP->(hike) Mtn.s to Sea->Pisgah Inn->BRP->NC276->FS477->Club Gap->Buckwheat->Bennett->FS477->Clawhammer->Maxwell->Black Mountain->Turkey Pen->66 Jumps->Bradley Creek->5015-> back to Yellow Gap. 41 miles, 12400+ climbing, 8 hours 45 minutes.

Laurel Mountain trailhead 4:15AM. The Princeton Tec Switchback 2 lights kick-ass!

Pre-Dawn flowers on Laurel Mountain. Some of these things were 5-6′ tall!

Sunrise and breakfast at the Pisgah Inn:

The Green Machine with Looking Glass Rock in the background:

Looking Glass Rock:

Rattlesnake on Turkey Pen Gap trail:

South Mills River running low:

The Green Machine, Laurel in full bloom, and Bradley Creek in the rain. Beautiful.

Flowers on FS5015: 

The 2007 DOUBLE DARE!

Who? Every finishing PMBAR racer (up to 25 teams of two) is invited.
What? Teams of two racers will race to reach up to 10 checkpoints per day, two days in a row. The team with the most checkpoints wins. Race starts at noon on Saturday with a cutoff of midnight. Race resumes at 6AM Sunday with all new checkpoints, final cutoff will be 6PM.
When? September 29-30 2007
Where? White Pines North and South Group Campgrounds.
How? No entry fee. No prizes. No bullsh!t. Registration begins September 1st. Email pisgahproductions@hotmail.com with your names, addresses, and emergency contact info to register. Registrations received before September 1 will be ignored.
New this year: Really funking hard special tests.
Spread the word.

Eric and Erinna

Here’s a ummm. ‘Blog’ entry in this otherwise all-ride-all-the-time Ride Log. If you know me and my line of work you know the summer is my busiest time and I hardly ever find time to ride. I get all fit and strong in the winter, the slow time, and I rely on my base to slog through rides in the summer. No riding for me this past weekend, all work. strangely  enough, I’m planning on doing the ORAMM in a couple of weeks. I plan on having an excellent ride… Tomato, Dicky, Goat…. save a beer for me at the  finish. My plan is to take it easy, be very very safe, and to finish.

I do have one photo from this weekend that’s more bike related: My neighbor Michael has a new ride… It’s 12 feet tall. He uses the lower cranks to get going, climbs the thing like a ladder, and has thusfar done a few laps around the Asheville mall parking lot. Oh, one more thing, he plans on adding another 12 more feet, a few feet at a time, over the coming weeks. Hopefully I’ll be able to get photos of the progress

Mike R. and I got a good one in today. It was the first time I’ve riden with Mike on the road, he just picked up his first road bike, a 90’s Steel Fuji with full Campy. Lucky!

We met up at the parkway since he was coming in from the South, I was coming from the West side of A’ville. My route up to that point: Michigan->State->Amboy->?->Biltmore->and up to the parkway through Biltmore Forest. Once on the parkway we headed North all the way to Bull Gap. We took Ox Creek to Reams Creek->Hamburg Mtn->Weaverville Highway->Monticello->River Road back to Asheville->Waynesville up to my house. Crazy Ass Mike continued on the 15 or so miles back to Arden from West Asheville. Awesome ride.

Here’s the profile (of my ride) 44.5 miles with about 5920′ of climbing:

and a shot of Mike at one of the parkway overlooks:

Oh, here’s a fun video from another ride. I usually don’t mention our hooptie rides but this one was fun. Erinna, Ian L., and I got tickets to see the Smashing Pumpkins last night at the Orange Peel. Here’s Erinna cruising through downtown Asheville on her 1970 Columbia Sports III on the way to the show:

Here’s a vid I found from inside the show: