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North Carolina road trip

I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,440
9,529
MTB New England
MtnBikerChk's cousin moved to Gastonia, NC a few years ago and had been begging us to come visit. We decided to drive down and make an MTB trip out of it. Since the NC monkey contingent is strong, we knew there'd be no shortage of tour guides and ride spots.

We decided to head down Friday after work and drive through the night, arriving early Saturday. We stopped a bunch of times and made in 15 hours...just a hair under turtle pace. Having been up all night, we were pretty much useless Saturday. We went ouf for dinner and were in bed early. The fun would begin Sunday...
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,440
9,529
MTB New England
Ride #1: Country Park. Our first monkey hook up would come Sunday. We met up with our old monkey friend psycle-on, and were soon joined by manimal and 'lil manimal (the legend himself!).

On the way to the park. Yeah, we were in NASCAR country! :D


Country Park has some fast, dry trails and a cool dirt jump track. Lots of good opportunites to hurt myself there! One guy we saw there crashed on a jump and hurt himself pretty badly. Here's a shot of psycle-on hitting one of the jumps.


and MBC as well.


lil manimal! Such a cool kid. :D



Maninal and son played on the jumps while me, MBC and psycle-on rode the trails. We were probably there for 2.5 hours or so. Group shot courtesy of manimal.


followed by wings, burgers and beer.
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,440
9,529
MTB New England
Ride #2: Catawba River trails

We met up with DRB, MTB_Rob_NC and JeremyR at the Catawba River trails near Charlotte late Monday afternoon. Due to lack of rain down south, the trails were very dry and fast. MBC and I are not used to riding such fast, smooth trails. DRB said he typically does the 10 mile loop in an hour or so. 10 miles 'round here is usually a 3-4 hour ride.

Trailhead:


MBC, DRB, Jeremy. One of the few times I was actually in front to take a pic. These NC monkeys are fast. I didn't take too many ride pics here.


The trails are at the site of a whitewater rafting training center. Cool stuff. The water looked real inviting after a hot ride.


Me and teh wife.


Oh yeah, this place has the best trailhead EVER....restaurant and bar across the parking lot at the rafting center! :banana: DRB treated us all to dinner and beer. Much appreciated, DRB! We owe you. :)

This was a fun ride. We're really not used to fast rides like that. Different is good.

MBC and I stopped at a local ice cream place on the way back to Gastonia. DRB said this was good stuff, and you've got to listen to the locals. He was right!
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,440
9,529
MTB New England
Ride #3: Wilson's

Tuesday we rode a place called Wilson's in Pisgah National Forest. MTB_Rob showed us the goods. We shutted this trail...it's probably the first point-to-point MTB ride I've done. Usually I do loops. The two cars were parked 30 minutes apart.

This ride was an absolute BLAST. Four miles of downhill right off the bat. Overall the ride was 10 miles...six miles of down with four miles of up thrown in to keep you honest. The downhills were technical, flowy, bumpy, fast, with lots of little drops and jumps thrown in.

MBC on a berm.


More MBC


After the first of two climbs (this one a mile), you come to the next long downhill.


Various MtnBikerChk pics on the 2nd downhill.




At the end of this downhill is a river crossing. Not much of river though in this drought. Here's Rob crossing it.


and MBC


Right after the crossing in the three mile climb. Here's Rob on one of the flat sections of the climb.


You get rewarded though with a real steep, long downhill. Next to Northstar, this is probably the most technical downhilling I've done. Here's two of MBC on that downhill.



Rob says there was more we could have done, but we were running into time constraints and had to head back (we were making dinner for MBC's family). This was a real fun ride and will be doing it again when we head back to NC.
 
drkenan

drkenan

anti-dentite
Oct 1, 2006
3,441
1
west asheville
Those Wilson's trails are definitely top notch NC riding. I did the same ride on Saturday...too bad you missed the last trail in the series b/c it's a GREAT one!
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,440
9,529
MTB New England
Wednesday was a travel day, as we made the 5.5 hour drive from Gastonia to the coast. MBC's mom has a friend near Topsail Island, which is just south of the Outer Banks. We stayed there until Friday. We didn't do any MTB'ing while there. We basically shopped, ate and played on the beach for the three days.

MBC in front of one of those cheeseball beach shops. :D (we love those stores)


We did manage a short road ride to this outdoor store. Topsail Island was surprisingly empty. Very few cars and people on the roads. Clearly tourist season is coming to an end.


Some beach "summer homes."


I had fun picking up shells. There were shells everywhere. Connecticut beaches don't have that kind of quantity. I got a whole bag of them. Beach pic:
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,440
9,529
MTB New England
Friday afternoon we started to work our way back north. We drove to Greenville to meet up with binary_visions, antimony, psycle-on, and tammy for dinner and beer. BV was nice enough to pick up MBC and I at our hotel and chauffeur us to the restaurant. I can't remember the name of the place, but it was some good eatin'. An excellent restaurant choice, BV! It was nice to meet BV's better half, antimony, and to see tammy again. :)

We went out for beer after dinner. Mmmmmm.....beeeeer....kind of dark for an IPA, but it was so good I had two.


Group shot: l-r, courtesy of binary_visions: MBC, psycle-on, tammy, BV, antimony, IAB. BV and I spent most of the time figuring out the easiest way to mass ban all the monkeys that piss us off.


MBC and I brought our bikes into the hotel through the side entrance. :D
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,440
9,529
MTB New England
Ride #4: Beaverdam

Saturday morning we drove to Raleigh to ride with psycle-on and tammy. We rode their "home trails", Beaverdam.


Really cool trail system there at Beaverdam. Not as fast as the Catawba trails...a little more technical but just as flowy. Lots of quick ups and downs with just enough climbing to keep your legs working.

Hi Steve!


Tammy coming 'round a bend.


Some done left a car door in the woods, y'all.


MBC...


and Steve.


Steve going up and over. The log pils and little stunts were very well put together. No wobble at all on the log piles.


MBC coming down a ridge.


We rode here for two hours and covered 10 miles. Tammy and Steve took us to a local Mexican food place after the ride. I knew it was going to be good when we walked in and all the patrons looked Mexican. :D Awesome, awesome food. Not the kind of place you'd go to if someone didn't tell you about it, either. It's hidden in a small building it shares with a gas station. Mmmmmm...burrito...
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,440
9,529
MTB New England
After that awesome lunch, we said our goodbyes to Tammy and Steve and headed to Arlington, VA for a night. It took us four hours with traffic.

I am two for two in getting lost driving around DC. I didn't mind...I got this nice pic (Lincoln Memorial???).


and another.


After checking into the hotel, we made it to RFK Stadium for the Nationals/Giants game. We missed the first inning. On well.


BOOOOOOOOOOO!


I liked the pierogi race at PNC Park better.


We were tired as hell and ended up bailing from the game early. I'm glad we did though because we got back to our hotel room just in time to see the end of Clay Buchholz's no-hitter. :banana: GO SOX!

We got up early Sunday morning and headed home. :( It was a fun road trip and we'll definitely do it again.

8 days
4 rides
6 new monkeys met
2 old monkeys friends seen again
2650 miles driven
1 digital camera sent to digital camera heaven

:banana:

We can't thank the NC monkeys enough for showing us trails and good food. Manimal, DRB, Rob, BV, antimony, JeremyR, Tammy, psycle-on, we appreciate all the hospitality!!
 
frznnomad

frznnomad

Turbo Monkey
Jun 20, 2005
2,226
0
a-town biatches
excellent right up man. glad to see that you had fun down here in nc. sorry you didnt get blessed with our normal mud and wet roots, but its just as fun dry. the ironic part is that i just got off the wilsons trails not 4 or 5 hrs before i read this. so glad you guys had fun, and nice to finally see some pics.
 
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