That one sounds good. I'll be on 1206 camped out by Slate Rock trailhead. Probably will be able to ride w/ you guys Saturday. Sunday and Monday going to be xc.
let me know
Planning a Pisgah/Ashville Trip
- Thread starter MTB_Rob_NC
- Start date
let me know
I have no idea where 1206 Slate Rock Trailhead is
These are all XC rides, we are just properly planning so we spend more time going down then up. Here is the make up of our group
3 guys on Hecklers ( I was the FIRST to get 1 just FYI)
1 guy on a Big Hit - but he rides the most road at home, and is the youngest
1 Specialized Enduro
1 older Jamis Dakar
1 Blurr
I am not sure what the last guy rides.
It is Forest Service Rd 1206. The same road that cuts through Pisgah from North Mills River Campground to other side of Pisgah on US276.
If you don't know where it is you can find it on one of the topo maps in the park.
I'll probably just bring my blur too, and not the big bike. Makes it a lot easier on the climbs.
But if you don't know where. I can just meet you somewhere.
If you don't know where it is you can find it on one of the topo maps in the park.
I'll probably just bring my blur too, and not the big bike. Makes it a lot easier on the climbs.
But if you don't know where. I can just meet you somewhere.
You guys aren't bringing a sand-bagger named Ralph up here are you? I sure hope you're not going to invade Bent Creek again either. Geeze, we're still finding Thunderbird bottles in the bushes!
Regarding Laurel Mountain suggestion:
Because you might have acouple of slowpokes, leave a vehicle at the Mills River parking lot. Don't be cheap - pay the $3. Be sure to take a good map. Haul yourselves up to the Laurel Mtn trail head. Warm the legs going up the ridge line. At Good Enough Gap (you might have to study your map for the location. If you hit a steep hike-a-bike, you missed it. GEG is the last "rest area" before the Pilot Rock hike) go right down to the Big Creek connector. Enjoy the scenery to the reservoir. Wade and eat something. Those who have had enough can go out by way of the Trace Ridge parking lot and either take a gravel road ride or take a bonus trail back down to the Mills River parking lot. While theyre sucking down all the liquid refreshments, those folks who want to travel more can look at the great map they remembered to bring and do the Middle Fork/Fletcher Creek loop and end with the same two options.
Someone will have to go get the shuttle vehicle. It's only three miles up the road. Be sure to save those guys a beer.
All in all, you get in 20+ miles, technical x-country and a lot of beautiful scenery. But, you may have done this before and found it boring.
Asheville - with an "e"
8)
Regarding Laurel Mountain suggestion:
Because you might have acouple of slowpokes, leave a vehicle at the Mills River parking lot. Don't be cheap - pay the $3. Be sure to take a good map. Haul yourselves up to the Laurel Mtn trail head. Warm the legs going up the ridge line. At Good Enough Gap (you might have to study your map for the location. If you hit a steep hike-a-bike, you missed it. GEG is the last "rest area" before the Pilot Rock hike) go right down to the Big Creek connector. Enjoy the scenery to the reservoir. Wade and eat something. Those who have had enough can go out by way of the Trace Ridge parking lot and either take a gravel road ride or take a bonus trail back down to the Mills River parking lot. While theyre sucking down all the liquid refreshments, those folks who want to travel more can look at the great map they remembered to bring and do the Middle Fork/Fletcher Creek loop and end with the same two options.
Someone will have to go get the shuttle vehicle. It's only three miles up the road. Be sure to save those guys a beer.
All in all, you get in 20+ miles, technical x-country and a lot of beautiful scenery. But, you may have done this before and found it boring.
Asheville - with an "e"
8)
Rob,
This is Bill...I'm friends with Mark and live up in Orlando and will be joining you guys on the trip. I think I might have met you the last time there was a big group up from south FL up at Alafia/TOE.
All of the rides mentioned sound great - I just can't wait to get out of Florida and ride something new! I was supposed to get the remaining parts for my Blur today to get it built up for the trip, but they didn't come, so I may end up having to bring my old Ellsworth (which really isn't all that bad).
Anyway, looking forward to the trip.
Bill
This is Bill...I'm friends with Mark and live up in Orlando and will be joining you guys on the trip. I think I might have met you the last time there was a big group up from south FL up at Alafia/TOE.
All of the rides mentioned sound great - I just can't wait to get out of Florida and ride something new! I was supposed to get the remaining parts for my Blur today to get it built up for the trip, but they didn't come, so I may end up having to bring my old Ellsworth (which really isn't all that bad).
Anyway, looking forward to the trip.
Bill
Nope, no one named Ralph is going. However I do not know a few. Bent Creek is great, but I am not that familiar with the trails there. Last time I climbed all the way up the the Heinous drop-ins did that trail, but then missed most of the other stuff going down ad the rest of it seemed like just fire-road descending. I had a good time, but these guys will kill me if I make them climb all the way up past 5 points for 10 minutes of tech Dhill and then Fireroad the rest of the way.
I cant wait
I am reminding you
I'll make a couple calls.
Anything anything? We are leaving tomorrow. I CANT WAIT! I will PM you my cell phone # as we will have 10 hours of a drive. Even if you can't hook us up with that specific ride it is always good to party with the locals.
I wish I could show you guys around, but I will be at the US Open instead.
If you have that Laurel Mtn. ride figured out, and you hit up Kitsuma, then I'm sure to have a blast no matter what.
I ride up there all the time, and I still do not know all the stuff that the locals do. Have fun!
If you have that Laurel Mtn. ride figured out, and you hit up Kitsuma, then I'm sure to have a blast no matter what.
I ride up there all the time, and I still do not know all the stuff that the locals do. Have fun!
Good luck at the US Open. I am good to go with the Laurel/Spencer/Trace ride. I am working on the info for the Mt Mitchel to Kitzuma. Once I am at Kitzuma I am good, but its the shuttle part before it.Originally posted by Jeremy R
I wish I could show you guys around, but I will be at the US Open instead.
If you have that Laurel Mtn. ride figured out, and you hit up Kitsuma, then I'm sure to have a blast no matter what.
I ride up there all the time, and I still do not know all the stuff that the locals do. Have fun!
working on it now. Sunday right? You'll need a driver to drop everyone off up top....is anyone willing to or are you wanting to leave a vehicle at the top and send someone back up to get it?
I'm sure there may be a place to leave a vehicle up top on the parkway at one of the overlooks but didn't know if EVERYONE was gonna do the shuttle.
I'm sure there may be a place to leave a vehicle up top on the parkway at one of the overlooks but didn't know if EVERYONE was gonna do the shuttle.
Let me know i you want to meet up to ride Saturday. I am heading up Friday night.
Sunday is perfect, we will do the Laurel ride Saturday. We are definitly going to need a place to leave vehicle(s) up top. Not all of us will fit in 1 vehicle. So we would have to leave 1 car at the bottom and the rest at the top. When we are finished we will send some people to go get the cars at the top.
However we are also working on another option... A friend up there runs a "tour" service which he has a 15 passenger van and an open trailer, but that possibility is looking slim.
PMing you my info, we are staying at the Hampton Inn in Brevard right across from BackCountry Outdoors.Originally posted by SpaZwEll
Let me know i you want to meet up to ride Saturday. I am heading up Friday night.
Geez....if you're staying in Brevard, you got 10 days of riding at your back. Black Mountain, Clawhammer, Avery Creek, Bennetts Gap, Pink Beds, Farlow Gap, Daniel Ridge....and on and on and on and on and on............
Thanks to all the guys that offered up some info....
We arrived kinda early Friday morning even after taking a NOT SO SHORT, short cut through Greenville SC up 276 to Brevard. I told my buddy to stay on 26 until Asheville, but he wanted to try out the directions via his Laptop and GPS. 276 is a beautiful drive but NOT exactly what I wanted to see after being in the car for 12 hours.
We rode Dupont all day Friday and as always it is a great ride. I should have done a few more laps of Burnt Mountain.
Saturday got all f--cked up trying to coordinate a bunch of different stuff but we finally got it together around noon, headed up to the Parkway and went down Laurel to an "un-named" connector trail to Big Creek. Holy crap was the connector trail steep and switched back. I spent enough time behind my seat that I was actually worried my shorts would get caught in the rear wheel. From there we descended down the rest of Big Creek, which is a cool trail but I was over the creek crossing after the 3154254 one. Big Creek dumps out at a reservoir that is close to the Trace Ridge trail head. We climbed the short climb to the Trace ridge trail head and then descended the lower 1/2 of trace crossed the river and back to where one of our trucks was at N Mills river. We rested, ate lunch and then shuttled up to Spencer Branch, climbed Spencer Branch and headed down from the top of Trace. Trace really isnt anything difficult, but it is so fast and so much fun. Then we went down the lower 1/2 of Trace again. Then a few of us got shuttled back to the Trace Ridge trail head and did the lower 1/2 once again while the rest of the folks headed up to the Parkway to get the other vehicles.
We got rained out Sunday and headed home. Despite the shortened stay I still had a great time. Thanks to Jeff "SpaZwell" for being so patient Saturday. Unfortunately someone from S Florida (not in our group, but one of our friends) got hurt descending a trail from the Parkway and was being rescued out by the Mountain Patrol. We had to use our Shuttle truck to help out the other group getting their cars and stuff, which cut down on our riding.
Biggins, I got your message on our way out of town, the whole Mountains thing really messes with Cell phone reception. We never really made it into Asheville, although we kept planning on it. By the time we were done riding each evening, showered up it was already 9pm or so and we didn't want to make a late late night of anything, so we just ate in Brevard.
I didn't take any riding pictures, if I get any from my friends I will post them up.
We arrived kinda early Friday morning even after taking a NOT SO SHORT, short cut through Greenville SC up 276 to Brevard. I told my buddy to stay on 26 until Asheville, but he wanted to try out the directions via his Laptop and GPS. 276 is a beautiful drive but NOT exactly what I wanted to see after being in the car for 12 hours.
We rode Dupont all day Friday and as always it is a great ride. I should have done a few more laps of Burnt Mountain.
Saturday got all f--cked up trying to coordinate a bunch of different stuff but we finally got it together around noon, headed up to the Parkway and went down Laurel to an "un-named" connector trail to Big Creek. Holy crap was the connector trail steep and switched back. I spent enough time behind my seat that I was actually worried my shorts would get caught in the rear wheel. From there we descended down the rest of Big Creek, which is a cool trail but I was over the creek crossing after the 3154254 one. Big Creek dumps out at a reservoir that is close to the Trace Ridge trail head. We climbed the short climb to the Trace ridge trail head and then descended the lower 1/2 of trace crossed the river and back to where one of our trucks was at N Mills river. We rested, ate lunch and then shuttled up to Spencer Branch, climbed Spencer Branch and headed down from the top of Trace. Trace really isnt anything difficult, but it is so fast and so much fun. Then we went down the lower 1/2 of Trace again. Then a few of us got shuttled back to the Trace Ridge trail head and did the lower 1/2 once again while the rest of the folks headed up to the Parkway to get the other vehicles.
We got rained out Sunday and headed home. Despite the shortened stay I still had a great time. Thanks to Jeff "SpaZwell" for being so patient Saturday. Unfortunately someone from S Florida (not in our group, but one of our friends) got hurt descending a trail from the Parkway and was being rescued out by the Mountain Patrol. We had to use our Shuttle truck to help out the other group getting their cars and stuff, which cut down on our riding.
Biggins, I got your message on our way out of town, the whole Mountains thing really messes with Cell phone reception. We never really made it into Asheville, although we kept planning on it. By the time we were done riding each evening, showered up it was already 9pm or so and we didn't want to make a late late night of anything, so we just ate in Brevard.
I didn't take any riding pictures, if I get any from my friends I will post them up.
It was a pretty fun trip. I too would have liked to have done Burnt mountain at least 1 more time (if not 2 or 3 more times). I think I could have totally trashed my Truth with a couple more hard runs down that trail. Saturday was a bit of screw up - my personal feeling is that we should not have waited as long as we did. Taking away the initial hike-a-bike and the 15 million stream crossings, the ride from up top was pretty fun. The second run was a blast as well after that initial climb (man, do I dislike climbing - give me a ski lift any day!). It was unfortunate that Sunday got rained out, but what can you do. I am looking forward to next year when I'll be able to do a week or so out west (Mammoth or maybe Whistler).
Yep if we didn't wait we could of gone up to Spencer Gap again and descended the Spencer Branch instead of Trace as well.
Oh well, we live and learn.
Oh well, we live and learn.
That would have been fun. I really enjoyed all the descending and the trails were in great shape. Unfortunately, the larger the group is, the harder it is to get it moving. Maybe next year we can all go to Mammoth and enjoy the trails out there - you'd love going down Bullet (very long with a very fast upper section and more technical, but still fast middle and lower sections) and Velocity (short, very steep DH race course with a cool bridge over another trail) as well as all the other trails there.
I am not exactly sure where it was, but it was a She. We tried to wait for the second group forever so they did not go with us. Our local left a note to go down a different trail (with directions), so I am not exactly sure what it was. However they were coordinating extraction efforts from the Trace Ridge Trail head.
We went down starting from the Pisgah recreation area on the Parkway. Walked the first 1/2 mile of the Laurel Mtn trail and then rode what was REALLY REALLY rooty rocky mostly hike a bike stuff at the top and then it opened up a little. Then we came to where a trail veered to the left (UN-named connector trail to Big Creek.) This part was FREAKING AWSOME, but steep and switched back 235432 times.
I hope your band thing went well. Sorry we couldn't make it. We were trying to make the most of the "White Squirrel Festival" in Brevard
This is good info, when we shuttled Trace, we actually just took that Forest Road that starts at N Mills River(I forget the # right now) to the Spencer Gap Single track and climbed that. I guess we could of taken that road all the way to the top dropped down Beaverdam gap.
Going ALL the way down Trace is so much fun.
Many props to all you guys that take Riding Pictures. My camera never made it out onto the trails. Here are some that I did take
Loading up. Santa Cruz should love us. That is 3 Hecklers with a Big Hit yet to be loaded. Who wants a crappy specialized ruining the picture anyway
Cool Picture I took when I got bored 45 minutes into the 121444444444 hour drive. My big ass knocked the PathFinder in Nuetral... oops
Finally we are unloading at Dupont
What you DON'T want to see when you wake up and look out your hotel window on your MTB Trip
All of us trying not to cry after cutting our trip short 1 day (thats me in the visor sitting shot-gun)
Loading up. Santa Cruz should love us. That is 3 Hecklers with a Big Hit yet to be loaded. Who wants a crappy specialized ruining the picture anyway
Cool Picture I took when I got bored 45 minutes into the 121444444444 hour drive. My big ass knocked the PathFinder in Nuetral... oops
Finally we are unloading at Dupont
What you DON'T want to see when you wake up and look out your hotel window on your MTB Trip
All of us trying not to cry after cutting our trip short 1 day (thats me in the visor sitting shot-gun)
I never got a phone call from you about Sunday....there was a group doing the Mitchell DH shuttle that day....it poured until 11am, then stopped. They were riding about 12-1pm . You could have done it with them with no problems...they had agreed to show you the route.
But you were in Brevard...which always gets dumped on.....how you didn't call me?
But you were in Brevard...which always gets dumped on.....how you didn't call me?
Sorry man.... After our organizational nightmare that was Saturday we had decided just to ride with our group on Sunday, we were going to do Clawhammer or the rest of Dupont. I also ran into another friend of mine from Atlanta on Saturday who had done the Heartbreak ride without the shuttle. When he described the ride to our group a few of the guys looked at me with some dismay, and they were not thrilled about the hour drive (however they are more than happy to f--k around for WAY more than an hour doing useless crap). In order to try to make everyone happy the plans changed. Oh well, I do not forsee myself planning for such a group again.
Thanks though
it's cool. why do you think I got those other guys to lead you down....so I didn't have to babysit the stragglers. I'm sure you and your buds were fine with the ride but the select few who can break themselves on Trace Ridge would have ruined it for everyone.
If you come back up, I'll hook you up on an epic shuttle that's way better. Bring a fullface and some knee pads.
If you come back up, I'll hook you up on an epic shuttle that's way better. Bring a fullface and some knee pads.
I hear ya. There was a bit of waiting on the Laurel/Big Creek downhill. Its all in good fun though, I rather wait and have everyone make it down in one piece with a smile (or at least a muddy grin) then have to wait for EMS or something. This group is a good bunch of people so I am happy (even though my mood at any one particular moment may not seem to agree with this) to sacrifice a little riding skill/fitness whatever for the good company.Originally posted by bizutch
it's cool. why do you think I got those other guys to lead you down....so I didn't have to babysit the stragglers. I'm sure you and your buds were fine with the ride but the select few who can break themselves on Trace Ridge would have ruined it for everyone.
If you come back up, I'll hook you up on an epic shuttle that's way better. Bring a fullface and some knee pads.
I do not own a full face or Knee Pads... I do every thing on my Heckler, clipped in and holding on.
Occassionally I will even lower the seatI know Trace isn't hard, but damn it is SO much fun, one of these days I will man up and hit the big double leading into the trail head. I was a little disappointed that the big log going across a section on the lower section was cut away, I came so close to clearing that sucker on my Sugar last year, I know I was going over it on the Heckler.
Thanks again for everyone's input though.