DuPont State Forest!
I got in a ride today out at DuPont State Forest with Jonothan and Andrew and Chuck from Greenville. 20 ish miles of Up->Down->Up-Down->Up->Down. Great ride.
We started at about 10:30 at Fawn Lake and were out for a solid three hours. I don't know my way around DuPont at all so a complete ride description is eluding me. (hey tomato?, uuuuhhhh what was the route?) I basically held (or tried my best to hold) Jonothan's or Andrew's back wheel all day. DuPont is so different than Pisgah it's hard to imagine the two places are so close together. DuPont is full of short steep ups and downs that twist every-which-way-and-back. There is no time for rest at any point. Each uphill is just long enough to get your heartrate going through the roof but short enough that the slowest guy is always there in no time. Let's see, some highlights: Jonothan and Andrew riding across the river crossing of death (10-12 inches of fast flowing current over a solid, continuous, rock bottom with just enough algae that it feels like you're on wet ice), New work by Woody and Valorie, including a super bad-ass BMX style wall ride and double jumps. Watching Jonothan and following close behind on the rock wall made me laugh out loud. Plus, I cleaned the first double with style (i.e. my front wheel was a little high). It must have been a 8-10' jump. At some point we hit Burnt Mountain trail (I did have an idea of where we were then) and I launched off the two drops like I was on a freeride bike. The first one went super smooth, I set up for the second, went off the highest point launch rock thing, and felt that weightlessness/weight of the world feeling... My bars twisted from left to right, right to left, my trailing foot came unclicked (by the grace of God it stayed on the pedal), and I felt myself *gasp* for air.... In case I didn't say it enough that day, or in case I haven't said it enough here.... I absolutely love Mountain Biking!!!! I've not been able to replicate that feeling anywhere else in my life. I pulled the drop and rocketed into the gravel road. Jonothan was right behind me and when Andrew and Chuck arrived they commented on our perma-grins. We went over to the quarry and rode a few miles of singletrack that was totally new to me. When we got to our furthest-out point I was starting to feel fatigued. We turned around and Jonothan joked that now all we had to do was retrace our steps (pedalstrokes) all the way bak to the car. Whaaaa? As I was still processing if he was kidding or not I had one of those slow speed crashes that will either wake you up, or knock you out of the game. Front wheel washed out in deep leaves and *BAM* I was sliding on my arm and face. Uuugh. Lucky for me Chuck was feeling even more fatigued than me... I was able to take a breather at the top of hill #3452 of the day and regain focus.... If we were only at the half way point... I needed to get it together. Well, we were actually at the 3/4 point (ha ha tomoto. ha ha. you must have seen me hurting). I wrapped my mind around how far we really had to go and I actually started to have a second wind. Two guys (one from Cuba, one from Greece) hopped on with us in the last few miles and brought the pace back up to... where it was when we started. We bid-adeau to them at the turn back to the parking lot. When we got back in Kristin (Tomato's misses) was waiting for us after her own long day in the woods, reading a book. She let us know Wode had shown up around 1PM and was also enjoying the day. Chris came out of the woods as if on cue, and we all popped open beers and said 'Cheers!' to a great day in the woods.
We started at about 10:30 at Fawn Lake and were out for a solid three hours. I don't know my way around DuPont at all so a complete ride description is eluding me. (hey tomato?, uuuuhhhh what was the route?) I basically held (or tried my best to hold) Jonothan's or Andrew's back wheel all day. DuPont is so different than Pisgah it's hard to imagine the two places are so close together. DuPont is full of short steep ups and downs that twist every-which-way-and-back. There is no time for rest at any point. Each uphill is just long enough to get your heartrate going through the roof but short enough that the slowest guy is always there in no time. Let's see, some highlights: Jonothan and Andrew riding across the river crossing of death (10-12 inches of fast flowing current over a solid, continuous, rock bottom with just enough algae that it feels like you're on wet ice), New work by Woody and Valorie, including a super bad-ass BMX style wall ride and double jumps. Watching Jonothan and following close behind on the rock wall made me laugh out loud. Plus, I cleaned the first double with style (i.e. my front wheel was a little high). It must have been a 8-10' jump. At some point we hit Burnt Mountain trail (I did have an idea of where we were then) and I launched off the two drops like I was on a freeride bike. The first one went super smooth, I set up for the second, went off the highest point launch rock thing, and felt that weightlessness/weight of the world feeling... My bars twisted from left to right, right to left, my trailing foot came unclicked (by the grace of God it stayed on the pedal), and I felt myself *gasp* for air.... In case I didn't say it enough that day, or in case I haven't said it enough here.... I absolutely love Mountain Biking!!!! I've not been able to replicate that feeling anywhere else in my life. I pulled the drop and rocketed into the gravel road. Jonothan was right behind me and when Andrew and Chuck arrived they commented on our perma-grins. We went over to the quarry and rode a few miles of singletrack that was totally new to me. When we got to our furthest-out point I was starting to feel fatigued. We turned around and Jonothan joked that now all we had to do was retrace our steps (pedalstrokes) all the way bak to the car. Whaaaa? As I was still processing if he was kidding or not I had one of those slow speed crashes that will either wake you up, or knock you out of the game. Front wheel washed out in deep leaves and *BAM* I was sliding on my arm and face. Uuugh. Lucky for me Chuck was feeling even more fatigued than me... I was able to take a breather at the top of hill #3452 of the day and regain focus.... If we were only at the half way point... I needed to get it together. Well, we were actually at the 3/4 point (ha ha tomoto. ha ha. you must have seen me hurting). I wrapped my mind around how far we really had to go and I actually started to have a second wind. Two guys (one from Cuba, one from Greece) hopped on with us in the last few miles and brought the pace back up to... where it was when we started. We bid-adeau to them at the turn back to the parking lot. When we got back in Kristin (Tomato's misses) was waiting for us after her own long day in the woods, reading a book. She let us know Wode had shown up around 1PM and was also enjoying the day. Chris came out of the woods as if on cue, and we all popped open beers and said 'Cheers!' to a great day in the woods.
