Well, first off Id like to say THANKS to Bob from South Carolina, who took time from his own ride to show around some lost-in-the-sauce tourists on bikes from Nashville.
Me, and some other Nashville guys headed down to Pisgah on Friday for a long weekend of riding and beer. We rented an awesome cabin outside of Brevard called "The Hubbard House" which was a bit out of the way, but it was cheap and really nice. Id recommend it to anyone who is heading to Western NC to ride.
We left from Nashville around 8 (two hours later than planned) and arrived sometime in the afternoon at the cabin. We had planned on riding friday afternoon, but it was raining cats and mammoths outside, so we decided just to chill out and relax. Headed to sycamore cycles, and got riding recommendations based on the weather, etc..
This was the front porch of our cabin. NICE view, great place to relax.
...and we ate some meat and drank some BEER.
..we also turned the cabin's living room into a bikeshop, as we all did our last-minute tweaks to get ready for the day ahead:
...anyway, the next morning came EARLY, and for some reason, I woke up feeling like a 90lb Rabbit with a cement wiener had been raping my knee all night while I slept. We were told that Dupont state forest tends to drain the best because its very sandy, so that's where we decided to go.
We got out there and of course headed up the trail people call "Slickrock east" and of course, posed for the obligatory group shot near the summit.
...this was a pretty badass climb. At least for me anyway. The guys I was riding with were pretty good riders, and riding that bullit all over the place was a chore...Id like to say the downhills made up for it, but I believe we climbed about 250% more than we descended...NO, I dont know how that's possible:mumble:
However, the downhills were FUN, and the one place that I could pull away from the guys I was riding with to snap a picture of actual riding..
After that trail...I wouldnt say we were lost, but we did somehow manage to ride around on fireroads FOREVER, that is, until we met BOB. This guy was a MACHINE and led us all over the forest to some crazy trails. Alot of it was really hard...much much climbing. I cant really remember the order of things we did, because we rode for so long, and I began hallucinating and wishing I were dead, as we climbed one massive hill after another. This guy was on a 5-spot and never broke a sweat, by the way...
Here are some pics of the trails we rode:
...and I know you all arent big fans of poser group shots, but we did stop by this amazing waterfall, and this shot does it NO justice....
We ended up riding for 4 and a half hours at dupont, and it was seriously one of the hardest things I have ever done. At the end...we all were spent...
We loaded up and headed back into town to get some lunch..we ate at Hawg Wild BBQ or something, which was ok, and then headed on in to Pisgah forest for some more riding. I dont know who had the idea of riding the Black Mountain trail, but wow, after the death march earlier in the day, this was brutal.
We got there, and there was some huge race going on, they said the trail wasnt closed, so as we started this massive ascent, racers were blazing down the hill past us. We all just ended up pushing our bikes for like 2 hours up stuff like this:
and we pushed, and pushed, and rode a little, and pushed some more...
We got pretty damned far, but we started losing daylight really quickly, so we decided to abandon the hike-a-bike session, and bomb back down the mountain at mach-jesus. This was the BEST ride of the weekend. Unfortunately, it was much too exciting for me to want to stop and take pics.
We got home exhausted, drank some beers and crashed out. The next morning we awoke to more pissing rain...we had decided to ride the Bent Creek area the night before, but instead, we hit up some shorter trail in pisgah so we could get back to the cabin and clean up before we drove the 5 hours home. We, and our bikes got completely soaked and covered in mud. I spent all day today overhauling my bike, and it was full of sand mud and leaves. Quite the mess.
...anyway, the trip was great. I cant wait to do it again!
Me, and some other Nashville guys headed down to Pisgah on Friday for a long weekend of riding and beer. We rented an awesome cabin outside of Brevard called "The Hubbard House" which was a bit out of the way, but it was cheap and really nice. Id recommend it to anyone who is heading to Western NC to ride.
We left from Nashville around 8 (two hours later than planned) and arrived sometime in the afternoon at the cabin. We had planned on riding friday afternoon, but it was raining cats and mammoths outside, so we decided just to chill out and relax. Headed to sycamore cycles, and got riding recommendations based on the weather, etc..
This was the front porch of our cabin. NICE view, great place to relax.
...and we ate some meat and drank some BEER.
..we also turned the cabin's living room into a bikeshop, as we all did our last-minute tweaks to get ready for the day ahead:
...anyway, the next morning came EARLY, and for some reason, I woke up feeling like a 90lb Rabbit with a cement wiener had been raping my knee all night while I slept. We were told that Dupont state forest tends to drain the best because its very sandy, so that's where we decided to go.
We got out there and of course headed up the trail people call "Slickrock east" and of course, posed for the obligatory group shot near the summit.
...this was a pretty badass climb. At least for me anyway. The guys I was riding with were pretty good riders, and riding that bullit all over the place was a chore...Id like to say the downhills made up for it, but I believe we climbed about 250% more than we descended...NO, I dont know how that's possible:mumble:
However, the downhills were FUN, and the one place that I could pull away from the guys I was riding with to snap a picture of actual riding..
After that trail...I wouldnt say we were lost, but we did somehow manage to ride around on fireroads FOREVER, that is, until we met BOB. This guy was a MACHINE and led us all over the forest to some crazy trails. Alot of it was really hard...much much climbing. I cant really remember the order of things we did, because we rode for so long, and I began hallucinating and wishing I were dead, as we climbed one massive hill after another. This guy was on a 5-spot and never broke a sweat, by the way...
Here are some pics of the trails we rode:
...and I know you all arent big fans of poser group shots, but we did stop by this amazing waterfall, and this shot does it NO justice....
We ended up riding for 4 and a half hours at dupont, and it was seriously one of the hardest things I have ever done. At the end...we all were spent...
We loaded up and headed back into town to get some lunch..we ate at Hawg Wild BBQ or something, which was ok, and then headed on in to Pisgah forest for some more riding. I dont know who had the idea of riding the Black Mountain trail, but wow, after the death march earlier in the day, this was brutal.
We got there, and there was some huge race going on, they said the trail wasnt closed, so as we started this massive ascent, racers were blazing down the hill past us. We all just ended up pushing our bikes for like 2 hours up stuff like this:
and we pushed, and pushed, and rode a little, and pushed some more...
We got pretty damned far, but we started losing daylight really quickly, so we decided to abandon the hike-a-bike session, and bomb back down the mountain at mach-jesus. This was the BEST ride of the weekend. Unfortunately, it was much too exciting for me to want to stop and take pics.
We got home exhausted, drank some beers and crashed out. The next morning we awoke to more pissing rain...we had decided to ride the Bent Creek area the night before, but instead, we hit up some shorter trail in pisgah so we could get back to the cabin and clean up before we drove the 5 hours home. We, and our bikes got completely soaked and covered in mud. I spent all day today overhauling my bike, and it was full of sand mud and leaves. Quite the mess.
...anyway, the trip was great. I cant wait to do it again!
