Eric’s Ride Log

Clawhammer->Maxwell->Black Mountain->Buckwheat Knob->Bennett Gap with Mike R. and Sophiedog.

Mike on Black Mountain. Yes, we saw snow, and 60*, and high winds, and calm clear skies…. Spring in the mountains:

Sophie:

Flowers are on the way:

Here’s some raw video from Devil’s Staircase. I can’t emphasize enough: Think Faster and STEEPER than it looks. I cleaned both the ‘S’ drop and the ‘thread the needle’ at the ‘Clint Huck/Nathan Rock’. Funk Yeah!

We are so lucky. We get to ride some of the best trails anywhere. period. My beautiful wife and I decided to go on a quick hour or so ride this afternoon and what were our choices… Bent Creek ? mmmm, too crowded. Laurel?… no, we didn’t have 4 hours to drive/ride/drive…. TRACE RIDGE? Perfect. Choices choices choices… It’s great to have them!

 

Here’s some raw footage from my new helmet camera. This was sidemounted to my helmet. I think next time I’ll try mounting it on top to see if it gets rid of any of the wiggle. Oh, who out there knows of good (read:easy,free) software to edit .avi files on a pc?

 

OK, a break from my all-ride-all-the-time blog format. Watch this video:

Awareness Test - Watch more free videos

Let the video load first….. don’t spoil it!

I got out and rode Heartbreak Ridge on Sunday with Mike B, Wes M., Mike R. and Eric C.

Never found my groove.

That’s all I have to say ’bout that.

Here’s a shot of Eric C. at the start:

I got out there yesterday for a fun solo ride, Laurel/Pilot from Yellow Gap. Erinna had competed in a 30 hour adventure race this weekend ( They got 2nd place!!!)so I was in a hurry to get on and off the trail…. I wanted to be home when she arrived. Anyway, I started around 12:30 and after very little fuss I was on Laurel. The abundance of rain, plus the freezes, has left the trails in thick and soupy shape. I immediately found the first evidence of the SORBA trailday, a new rock armor section before the first creek. Great work guys! New TTF’s (technical trail feature) actually popped up quite a few times and they are all quality. I was surprised by only seeing a few groups out on such a beautiful day: 1 rider, 2 groups of hikers, and 1 bunch of hispanic galax poachers. I wish I knew Spanish well enough to say ‘Hey! Dummy! Don’t do that’. Anyway, I speed hiked the $2000 climb and moved right on to the Pilot Connector. I took a breather at the top of Pilot but didn’t rest long. The descent was fast fast fast until spill #1 just before the big triple switchback. I think I need to send my fork in for repairs because shortly after the 1st spill my hands were hurting BAD and I went down again:

oooof! By the straight-aways at the bottom my hands were definately cooked. I decided to head down to the road rather than take the connector over to Slate. 1206 back to the ‘roo, done in just under 2.5 hours. Sweet!

I got out yesterday for a fine couple of hours of riding with Mike R. We met up at Hardtimes trailhead at about 2PM on a beautiful late winter day. It was sunny and in the 60’s, we were riding in shorts and short sleeves! The route: Homestead->Little Creek->Deerfield Conn.->S. Boundary(?)->Chestnut->Explorer->wrong way to the top of the gravel->Explorer->Pine Tree->BC Road->Lower Sidehill.

The pace was nice and easy as my ribs are still recovering from the crash on Farlow last week and Mike was recovering from ‘the sickness’ that has been going around. The pace was right there where we were labored to talk, but not so fast that we didn’t talk at all. The boundary road climbed and climbed and climbed and Chestnut was as fast and flowey of a descent as one could imagine. Mike mentioned that the trail crews have turned that area into a hotwheels track and that it would be a shame if all of Pisgah was redone like that. That type of trail has it’s place, like at the local afterwork public recreation area, but it does lack any resemblence to ‘backwoods’. The climb to Lower sidehill put the hurting on both of us but the descent was well worth it. On the way back to the trucks Mike nailed the big log ride for the first time on a hardtail and just like that, we were done. We got back to his place in time for a bit of Jeep maintainence and I was home by sundown. Now that’s what I’d call a great afternoon!