Eric’s Ride Log

uuugh… too tired to write…. I got in a little while ago from a 2 hour ride out at the Fish hatchery area. I started at the Daniel Ridge parking area->Daniel Ridge Loop counter-clockwise back to the Jeep->Davidson River->475->475B->225->Cove Creek->475 back to the Jeep a second time.
14.9 miles, 2250′ climbing, 8mph average,1:58 riding, 2:06 out.

Here’s a shot of the silver Waltworks at the new bridge heading to Daniel Ridge:

If you make it to this waterfall (one of many in the area) you just missed the trail to do Daniel’s counter-clockwise. It’s worth missing the trail and taking a look…..

Cove Creek trail:

I got in a quick 40ish minute run around the neighborhood with Floyd today. It had been quite a while since I was on my feet and my legs rebelled for the first mile but were feeling good right about the time fatboy Floyd was feeling tuckered-out. I had to go back into work at 5:00 so I decided to ride the Raleigh in. The Nexus hubs look and work great. I’m able to drop into harder gears and crank on the downhills and flats…. and ease it up for the ups. There was a weird vibration in the front end that concerns me though…. I need to figure that one out. I’ll post a full review of the generator powered Supernova E3 light soon. Anyway, the run got my heart rate up, the commute got my heart rate up, I hope to get out into the woods tomorrow. Anyone up for Daniel Ridge in the A.M.?

Here’s the commuter (a 1969-70? Raleigh Sport) dressed up with new gears and wheels:

Alfine shifter and Supernova E3 dynamo hub powered supertorch….er… light

The Alfine shifter is mated to…… A Nexus redband 8 speed hub. This bike is officially bad-ass.

Oh one more thing…. something special is in the works. A little fire + A lot of smoke + a touch of soul =

YYYYYEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhahahaha! WOOOOOooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Yes, this evening I had a great ride. I started at Bradley Creek on FS1206, turned onto Laurel Mountain trail to Pilot Rock connector to Pilot Rock to FS1206 back to the Jeep and I rocked it out in less than 2 hours. There were only a few moments when it didn’t feel like I was hauling ass. Great solo ride, first ride with the GPS (more on that later), first ride with the Hayes Stroker brakes. Saw a bear, managed to ride the whole loop without a single real breather or food. Hardly stopped at all, actually.

Holy crap that was AWESOME.

The Laurel Mountain trailhead:

Tech on Laurel:

At the top of Pilot Rock:

and finally, the view from the overlook, 7:40 p.m. Aug 20, 2008.

big pic here.

check out the GPS stats here

I just got in from a fun 90ish minutes at Bent Creek. I was supposed to meet Mike B but he had to work later than expected so I started at about 6:30pm at Hard Times with just Sophiedog. We went over to Homestead (saw Ben B on the way) then Little Creek ->Pine Tree to the campground. I9 Clint S. was out riding with his kids so I stopped and talked briefly about the things you talk about when you haven’t seen them in 6 months or so… then continued on… Anyway, when Sophie and I got over to the campground Sophie wasn’t on a leash and a lady had words with me about that. I decided to backtrack and I headed back in Pine Tree to Explorer. We went this way, we went that way, the dog and I were having a great time exploring the Explorer side. I started out hard, so Sophie was getting tired, and was actually headed back towards the Jeep and ran into Mike B! Sweet! ‘You got more in ya dog?’ I asked. She said ’sure!’ and Mike and I continued around and around playing on that side of Bent Creek for another 45 minutes. We stopped when we came across Shanna P. and friend having mechanical issues. tried our best to help, then headed on. We wrapped it up a little after 8pm. It’s easy to forget how awesome Bent Creek is. It’s right there, it’s fast, it’s (more or less) dog friendly, you can run into all sorts of people, it’s awesome!

Oh, no camera, no idea of the route really so… no visuals this time ’round.

One more thing, I hit a pretty huge jump completely by accident at the bottom of the rhodo tunnel on Explorer. It was big enough and completely unexpected enough that I was able to yell out ‘Oh SHIT!’ while in the air. It was exciting to say the least. I guess that’s what happens sometimes when you reach warp speeds on a full rigid SS…..

From Yellow Gap->Laurel Mountain->Pilot Rock->FS1206->NC276->FS477->Club Gap->Black Mountain->Turkey Pen Gap->Bradley/Pea/Bradley->FS5015. 32 miles, 7900′ climbing:

There were great views:

Surprises:

Excellent Trails:

Unreal timing:

Big Smiles; part 1:

Big Smiles; part 2:

Primal behaviors:

Did I mention the views?

There were also bell-ringing crashes:

look at the new dent on the side of Josh’s helmet!

Mechanical issues:

and more kick-ass moments than I could possibly list:

Mountain Biking in Pisgah is good for the soul.

Well I haven’t been on the mountain or road bikes in quite some time. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been riding though. A couple of weeks ago I put a wire basket and a white light on the front and a rack and a red light on the rear of my trusty 1969 Raleigh. It’s usefulness was increased 100% and I started riding it every time the trip wasn’t far or heavy.

Last weekend I didn’t get a ride in so I decided to ride to work every day this week. Now that it’s Friday I can say I succeeded. The commute is just over 6 miles with about 300′ of climbing each way. So multiply that by 10 trips and that’s over 60 miles and 3000′ of climbing on a 50 pound singlespeed. Add to that daily trips to the store, the post office, wherever….

I’ve got a new Nexus wheelset on the way, that should increase the usefulness of the Raleigh even more. It’ll be 8 speed and the front hub is also a generator that will power lights front and rear. Sweet!

Oh, and beyond saving gas, feeling great when I get to work, and being able to enjoy the scenery, I’ve seen a fair amount of wildlife in the past week: Many many deer, 2 Blue Heron, rabbits, possum, groundhogs, an owl, and a coyote!