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What a weekend in Pisgah, maybe one of the biggest in recent times. The weather was in the high 70's with an afternoon shower pretty much everyday. All it did was cool us down and wet down the trails, soon after it was sunny again and dried out.
Sunday we were going for the both sides of the the road(1206) ride. Riding a loop on one side of the road is a typical epic, we were tying together 2 rides. Started out on the Yellow Gap decent about a 4 mile downhill, into Laurel Creek climbing on up to Squirrel Gap. This is probably some of the best singletrack in the Pisgah Forest if not the entire eastern U.S. Hooked up on the S.Mills climb up to Buckhorn Gap and on down to the Gauging Station. Crossed the 1206 FSR on up Pilot Rock to the connector and over to Pilot Cove.Up the mountain and out to the most scenic views in the Pisgah to Slate Rock. Climbed up to the top and did the bobsled run on the Pilot Cove and returned to Yellow Gap via the 1206 FSR. We had been in the woods for 8 hours and had covered some serious miles and around 6000' of elevation. One down and 2 to go, Veggie Lasagna and Foccacia bread compliments of the Ole Lady, we were lovin life.
Day 2 Harv joins in with Scott"the scalded monkey"Irons and me for another Epic. We start at the Gauging Station on up a 4 mile climb to Buckhorn Gap. Here starts the real climb up Clawhammer and Black Mtn. We all were cleaning some super Mtn goat type stuff. Reached the top and we were reaping the benefits of all the hard work, rippin down the baddest downhill around. Oh ya, I forgot to mention the rain started up about half way down, not like it's not already technical, but the wet made it extra crazy. All the tourist were kinda looking at us strange at the Davidson River Ranger Station all muddy and wet, little did they know we were having the time of our life, just like a little kid playing in the mud after a rain storm. We were only half way done for this ride, some newbies from Florida hooked up with us on the way up 477 FSR, we pointed them in the right direction up Clawhammer and on to Black Mtn. We headed on up Buckhorn to the Gap,we ran into some local Liberty Bike shop peeps, one had fixed Harv's fork on Friday and the other was Steve Sickel(of infamous BySickels)he used to live down in Columbus, In. It's crazy how you can run into people in the middle of a National Forest. We rocked on down the 4 mile decent and it was another 7 hour epic in the books.
Tuesday we decided to climb Trace Ridge, the local downhill. Most people climb the gravel road to the top and then decend Trace, we climbed it, and then continued on up past Fletcher Creek to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had never rode the other side of the BRP, so this was a first, the local hardcores had recommended a poach on the Mountain to Sea trail so we went for it. It was huge, big climb and some hike a bike, but the rocky downhill seemed to be worth all the effort to the top. This dumped us down into the Bent Creek area, we flew down Bent Creek road to the Lower Sidehill trail and took that to the main parking lot. We were close to water so we re-upped on H2O, we were into about 4 hours and had a good 4 to go. On up the FSR we go only to get hit with a severe thunderstorm, freezing and out of juice some local MTBer comes along in a Toyota and picks us up and hauls us to the top of the Blue Ridge Parkway. He had made my day as we were looking at, at least a 4-5 mile gravel road climb in the hard rain. Karma be with him, we now only had the techy, wet, rocky downhill of 4 miles to go back to camp. It was huge fun although I would have much rather been rippin some dusty downhill. It's amazing how crazy it can be riding some wet stuff that's already nutty technical. It definitely made for another epic adventure, 7 hours in the woods, so much for a short ride on the last day, we still had the 8 hour drive ahead of us back to Indy. Thank God for the Starbucks, I must have spent 20.00 on Mocha's on the way home. What a great holiday it was in the Big woods.
Sunday we were going for the both sides of the the road(1206) ride. Riding a loop on one side of the road is a typical epic, we were tying together 2 rides. Started out on the Yellow Gap decent about a 4 mile downhill, into Laurel Creek climbing on up to Squirrel Gap. This is probably some of the best singletrack in the Pisgah Forest if not the entire eastern U.S. Hooked up on the S.Mills climb up to Buckhorn Gap and on down to the Gauging Station. Crossed the 1206 FSR on up Pilot Rock to the connector and over to Pilot Cove.Up the mountain and out to the most scenic views in the Pisgah to Slate Rock. Climbed up to the top and did the bobsled run on the Pilot Cove and returned to Yellow Gap via the 1206 FSR. We had been in the woods for 8 hours and had covered some serious miles and around 6000' of elevation. One down and 2 to go, Veggie Lasagna and Foccacia bread compliments of the Ole Lady, we were lovin life.
Day 2 Harv joins in with Scott"the scalded monkey"Irons and me for another Epic. We start at the Gauging Station on up a 4 mile climb to Buckhorn Gap. Here starts the real climb up Clawhammer and Black Mtn. We all were cleaning some super Mtn goat type stuff. Reached the top and we were reaping the benefits of all the hard work, rippin down the baddest downhill around. Oh ya, I forgot to mention the rain started up about half way down, not like it's not already technical, but the wet made it extra crazy. All the tourist were kinda looking at us strange at the Davidson River Ranger Station all muddy and wet, little did they know we were having the time of our life, just like a little kid playing in the mud after a rain storm. We were only half way done for this ride, some newbies from Florida hooked up with us on the way up 477 FSR, we pointed them in the right direction up Clawhammer and on to Black Mtn. We headed on up Buckhorn to the Gap,we ran into some local Liberty Bike shop peeps, one had fixed Harv's fork on Friday and the other was Steve Sickel(of infamous BySickels)he used to live down in Columbus, In. It's crazy how you can run into people in the middle of a National Forest. We rocked on down the 4 mile decent and it was another 7 hour epic in the books.
Tuesday we decided to climb Trace Ridge, the local downhill. Most people climb the gravel road to the top and then decend Trace, we climbed it, and then continued on up past Fletcher Creek to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had never rode the other side of the BRP, so this was a first, the local hardcores had recommended a poach on the Mountain to Sea trail so we went for it. It was huge, big climb and some hike a bike, but the rocky downhill seemed to be worth all the effort to the top. This dumped us down into the Bent Creek area, we flew down Bent Creek road to the Lower Sidehill trail and took that to the main parking lot. We were close to water so we re-upped on H2O, we were into about 4 hours and had a good 4 to go. On up the FSR we go only to get hit with a severe thunderstorm, freezing and out of juice some local MTBer comes along in a Toyota and picks us up and hauls us to the top of the Blue Ridge Parkway. He had made my day as we were looking at, at least a 4-5 mile gravel road climb in the hard rain. Karma be with him, we now only had the techy, wet, rocky downhill of 4 miles to go back to camp. It was huge fun although I would have much rather been rippin some dusty downhill. It's amazing how crazy it can be riding some wet stuff that's already nutty technical. It definitely made for another epic adventure, 7 hours in the woods, so much for a short ride on the last day, we still had the 8 hour drive ahead of us back to Indy. Thank God for the Starbucks, I must have spent 20.00 on Mocha's on the way home. What a great holiday it was in the Big woods.
