Three rides, Three days, One gear...
Well well well... This single-speeding thing is making me feel kinda like a superhero. At one point today I even wanted a cape. The ride was only 90 minutes but it sure was painful and fun.
Erinna and I were the only ones riding on this beautiful summer day. Well on this ride at least. We started (after battling interstate traffic) at the Pink Beds. We took 276 to 477 to Club Gap. That was not an easy warm-up. I cleaned the steps at the bottom of Club and pushed really hard as far as I could. I got to the first big switchback before having to rest. Erinna took the lead at that point and we marched up the trail, um.. on the bikes all the way to Club Gap, the place. I had to stop a bunch of times to catch my breath, but really wanted to try to clean as much as possible. We had an awesome climb. There were hoots and hollers of encouragement, pain, surrender, and accomplishment. Cleaning any trail after that was nearly impossible. Black is painfully steep in a few spots, painfully tech in a few spots, and more or less painful until the down hill to the shelter. We zoomed past the shelter, I rode the steps to the top of Clawhammer, and we went down Buckhorn towards S. Mills River with very little rest. Buckhorn was tons of fun, easy going downhill wide open gentle grade singltrack all the way to the concrete bridge. Up to the gravel and we hammered all the way to 1206. Once on 1206 we raced a little bit, watched how fast I could spin my cranks if I really really really really really tried on te downhills and just like that, with smiles and fun all the way, we were at 276 and nearly back at the Jeep. After a cold beer and some peanuts we were directly off towards cheap Mexican food.
Yes. Awesome. Love it. Great day. Yes.
