Mon. May 15th Clawhammer-> Black Mountain
Did a great ride with Wode last Monday afternoon. We started at the Black Mountain Trailhead, took the road to the ranger station, dropped off PMBAR related stuff to Wade, then proceded to FS477 and Clawhammer road.
Clawhammer is never easy. We did have a pretty fast climb though. I was feeling good and kept the pace up the entire way.
Here's the profile:
Here's a pic of Wode H A M M E R I N G clawhammer road:
Here's another shot from the top of the hill. Yes, I staged this photo but Wode had no idea
We then took a right onto Black Mountain trail. Going that direction we had two mountains, Clawhammer and Black to climb over. There are a bunch of really steep switchbacks heading to Clawhammer mountain. My shifting had been acting up all day and I finally figured out why:
The Pivot pin was working it's way out. After some time I figured out a fix: An old cheapo key chain streatched out, inserted into the pin hole, wrapped around the derailleur body. It worked like a charm and we were able to continue
The climb was hellish but I still had time for fun photos. Here I am crushing Wode like a little bug:
It was a beautiful day and a rare Monday afternoon non-Bent-Creek ride. The overlook was beautiful:
The descent down Black Mountain was super fast. I was on my rigid fork witht the PC cracks so I didn't hit any of the jumps or anything. Still lots of fast fast fast descending. We really pushed the light and ended the ride at 8:40 p.m.
Two more quick photos, one of the fork with the powder coat (I hope) cracks:
And pretty flowers at the start:
