Road Trip

Our 17-hour drive to Asheville, North Carolina was filled with fun, food and farts. Greg, Mark and I convoyed down with Gilles and Stef in tow. Long drive down, rained the first half but once out of Pennsylvania things cleared up.

We arrived at Liberty Bikes around 10am. Before we went in to pick up the keys to the house we rented, we sat outside Starbucks sipping coffee in balmy plus 24 degree weather - haven't felt the rays of the sun that warm since September. Felt so good after the long drive that it was hard to pull ourselves up off the chairs. Headed to the shop and met with the owners of both Liberty and the house that we were renting, Claudia and Mike, both super fine & friendly folks. Got the keys and made the short drive over to Bent Creek. The rental was in the heart of Bent Creek - actually the only house in the entire Bent Creek forest area.
Didn't take us long once we arrived to get the bikes off the cars, get dressed and loosen the legs on our first ride.

I struggled to find my legs on Friday - I don't know if it was the long ride down, being tired, or not properly fueled, but I suffered up the climbs. A little demoralizing after so much training and anticipation, however, I was rewarded with a super fun, fast and flowy downhill trail called Greens Lick. Whoot! Whoot! What a return on all that suffering! Can't remember getting as much air and going so fast on a trail before. Check this link out - it's only about 1/3 or so of the actual trail.

After our first ride, we had to head back to the house and refuel, get cleaned up and head over to the Asheville Airport to pick up James who had flown in from British Columbia. He made the trek last year with us, and it was so much fun, he didn't want to miss it again! Once he got straightened out with the airline (they must have gorillas working unloading bags, cause his suitcase was mangled badly!) we headed to Liberty to get his rental bike for the weekend - a '07 Specialized Stumpjumper Pro.

By the time we ate at Asheville Brewing and Pizza Company it was quite late, needless to say many pizzas were sacrificed in the name of hunger. Did me good because the next day I was feeling better.

I had hooked up over on MTBR.com with Jeremy, a local who runs WNC Mtn Goat Epics. Super nice guy who offered to take us on a ride. We were a little hesitant about riding with a guide as we weren't sure what/who to expect. All I can say is that he made our trip and it was the best decision the group made, hooking up with him. Jeremy is a super knowledgeable guy - not just trails, but history of the land, how the trails came to be and advocated for. He is also a contributing member of a club or two and advocacy group in the Dupont area. Above all this, he was an awesome rider and guide.

On Saturday, Jeremy swung by the house around 8:15am to get us to go ride Heartbreak Ridge and Kitsuma. Took the boys a little while to get their make-up on and shite together, but we managed to make the start of the ride at 9:30am. Met up with 4 or 5 other local friends of Jeremy riding single speed rigids, some on 29'ers. These guys are fit!

Our warm up consisted of a 4km climb (seemed vertical at times). We hit the intersection of where an old toll road began and had to make a decision to divide the group up. One would finish Heartbreak Ridge, the other would head back down the mountain and go ride Kitsuma. (I was disappointed that I didn't get to do Heartbreak Ridege, but will definitely do it when I go back next year) We descended on a trail called Rattlesnake – wasn’t long, but was fun, and then headed back to the where the cars were parked at the trailhead of Kitsuma.

NC Mountains - on the way up Heartbreak Ridge

We climbed a slightly technical; switchback climb up to the top of Kitsuma. Kitsuma was approximately 10 miles long, with about 6 miles of climbing – it didn’t seem that long. There were a lot of little ups & downs before we hit the long downhill that took us to the end. We’re not use to such long downs up this way, so by the time we hit the bottom our forearms were pumped and weak.

There was lots of great action on the way down with Mark and Fitzski almost biting it and washing off the side of the narrow trail and Stef corked his head off a tree (he was okay, just dented his lid). We had a four-mile climb back to the cars on an old paved toll road that hadn’t seen motorists on it for a very long time – glad to have had it, as it made easier climbing. We broke up into groups as Jeremy and I lead the way back setting a good pace. The ride back gave me more confidence in my fitness and training as I was able to sustain a tempo pace all the way back after two days of riding.

I don’t want to make this too long to read, so I will report on Sunday and Monday tomorrow.
Lots more pictures to post too.
Cheers.