After a lot of slap jawing about making a trip to Asheville, NC with some friends, over years, we finally made it happen. We all managed to get a few days off of work, and pull plans together for a long weekend of riding in Pisgah Forest. For those who are unfamiliar, Pisgah is a major mtb destination because of its sheer beauty and Mountainous terrain. I just got a new Specialized Enduro 29 early in the winter but had only ridden it locally where its not quite being used to nearly its potential, but I'll get to that later. As you can imagine, when three guys with bicycles do a road trip there will always be two stories, one being the road trip and the other being the riding.
I'll keep the road trip story as brief as possible, as its really bicycles and shooting dirt with them that makes us tick. The plan was to leave around 6pm on thursday, rotate drivers all night and arrive in time to get a good breakfast and have all day to ride before we went back to the hotel and binged on sleep. Of course that is just wishfull thinking isn't it. The van we were driving had a belt pully seize sometime shortly after we left, which led to the belt braking. When we got the low batter indication, it was 8pm and we were in the heart of Pa, meaning there was nothing around. We were able to get to an auto parts store within minutes of closing, but of course the parts we needed were special order only. We got savvy with google searching on our phones and were able to get a belt and pully that were almost the right size which we had remained optimistic that we could make work to salvage everything and get through the night. One thing leads to another and we dont have the right tools, were risking being the background of a "people of wal-mart" photo post while were doing a roadside repair in their parking lot....and of course without John Deere or Cummins clothing on we were obviously not from around there.
By the time we were back on the road and headed south again, we had gotten a hotel, and spent the morning driving around trying to find a mechanic that could do it that morning, which we were lucky to have even found. We were wheels up again at around 1 pm and after a quick internet search of riding areas along our route we found a place called Michaux state forest which was ideal as it was only about 10 minutes from the interstate. Michaux was clearly an old Dirt bike riding area, with alot of trails that while were covering all the nicest features, were not made with the best use of elevation in mind. When all was said and done we had seen a few absolutely beautiful trails in a great place but our minds were still on Asheville.
Next we arrived at our hotel in Asheville around 1:15 am and couldn't sleep till the white dotted line had finished blazing by in our minds. We met up with someone in Pisgah forest who was a friend and had offered to be our guide, and it just so happened that he was the national DH champion from a few years ago! Right off the bat we had a 40 minute climb, it was on a dirt road which weaved around each hill and canyon until we were nearly at the top of one of the peaks. At this point I was thinking that we would have a two hour descent ahead of us but as it turned out the route back was almost all the way on the top of a ridgeline, or ridgeback depending on where you live. Needless to say, this made for yet even more climbing, mostly power climbs, but on the bright side this meant that the downhills were much more exciting....err, exhilarating! Now I was getting into the nitty gritty and seeing what the Enduro 29 was capable of!
12 miles and 3500 feet later we were done, for the moment. We wanted more though as there was still a few hours of daylight left and we knew we were staring down the tunnel at a blustery cold NY winter in a few days. We loaded up in a blink and hit the road for a place called DuPont. DuPont is a place that is very likely what you will see photos of when you google image search for mtn biking in Asheville, with lots of trail that ride on top of rock slab....
Later that night we were all thoroughly exhausted but managed to stay awake long enough to catch the Supercross races on tv which were live from California, so unfortunately it was another late night, but certainly a great way to cap a great day.
The next morning we were wheels up bright and early on the road back north, with a stop to ride at a place called Carvins Cove, in Roanoke Virginia. This particular destination came shockingly well recommended. Of course we though that NC would be the best riding we did on a weekend trip to NC we thought. As it turns out, it really was but mostly because of the majestic views and sense of adventure you can get from a ride out in the mountains like that. Carvins Cove was again, alot of climbing, we started with a 35 minute climb that started casually, and quickly turned into a dig headed straight up the mountain, at about the time when I was really ready for it to let up, it did just that by turning into a switch back trail that went about a quarter of a mile at a time and then hairpin turning back in the other direction. This was quite necessary as at the level of the mountain, it was too steep to go up any other way. As soon as we were all regrouped at the top we went straight into one of the go to trails, "the Gauntlet"! It was 6 minutes of awesome, hands down, no questions asked..we lost 1000 feet in 1.9 miles and averaged 18.5 mph, and it was all awesome singletrack. Before we were done at Carvins, we did two more laps up the mountain and got two other similar descents to the gauntlet in, which was an awesome way to cap off a great weekend of riding and get the ball rolling on 2014.
Thanks for reading, I'm looking forward to meeting and working with you all this year!
Get on your bikes!
Nate
No comments:
Post a Comment