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| On Clawhammer Rd on the way up to Black Mtn. Notice the Maxxis Ardent? Liking this tire. Still haven't dialed in the air pressure yet, but no issues with it. |
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| Black Mtn on the way up to Club Gap and Avery Creek descent. |
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| Fire Rd 477 on the way back up to Club Gap to bomb down Bennett Gap. |
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| Views from a look-off on Bennett. |
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| With no photos to show from Day IV (I didn't take any). I'll leave you with this. Curvy Butt managed to catch King and me coming back from taking a dump in the woods (not at the same time stupid!) before day five and made this memorabilia. Gasternal Intestinal issues rose from not eating regularly and different foods, the mix up in routine, late nights, early starts . . . but mostly from eating waaaaay too much Mexican. |
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| Day III we rode up Laurel Mtn. |
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| Laurel is a long climb, but the grades are at a nice sustained pitch that it doesn't hurt too much. |
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| A buff section of the trail. Others are rocky and technical. At times uber steep. Curvy Butt and King, once at the top, bombed down the technical Pilot Rock while I opted to do an out and back and took the 11 + mile single track descent back to the road. From the top back to the van it only took me about 38 minutes without trying. We were more than double that getting to the top. |
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| Three days in a row, heaps of climbing and lacking early Spring fitness put King in the hurt locker. That's him laying in the bushes off to the side of the trail 'recovering' about half way up the Laurel climb. |
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| Curvy Butt climbing the last little pitch up Ingles Field Gap and onto Greens Lick. |
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| King came unprepared physically but full of heart and spirit. Here he is worshiping the ground. . . that or puking from all the climbing. He don't look so good. |
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| Under the Blue Ridge Parkway back into Bent Creek. |
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| If the van is a rocking . . . . King's surveilance van was a blessing and a curse. It's a bloody pig on gas, get's blown all over the road and has a mind of it's own when it comes to steering. However, we were able to pack all of our gear and bikes in comfortably with still tonnes of room to lay down on the back seat. Small bumps on the road were magnified greatly in the back and often we'd find ourselves hitting the ceiling or rolling off the seat. It's would make sense that it's larger interior would assist in spreading out the smell of any unwanted odours (ie. farts), but that was not the case. The many windows did clear the frequent and foul stench from my traveling companions bums quite nicely though. |
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| Day One: we stopped at Harrisonburg, VA and the Shenandoah Bicycle Company to find directions to the Southern Traverse trail. With only one vehicle we had no other option than to ride the 30 or so mile loop. We had a good chance to warm the legs with a 28 km country road spin. |
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| In the middle of nowhere . . . only four or so cars passed us during our road spin. Rolling, steep hills and farm land surrounded us. |
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| 6.5 km fire road climb to the beginning of the trail with sustained grades made for easy'ish climbing. |
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| Trail Head to the Shenandoah Trail (a.k.a. The Southern Traverse). The trail follows a ridge line for about 11 miles, all single track, either on it or skirting around it. |
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| In most places it was nice bench cut trail, in others it seemed we'd be sliding off the side amongst piles of leaves. Some pretty views. The trail was mostly rolling: climbs followed by downs around ridges following the contour lines of the mountain. The last 3-4 kms were fast, tight single track that kept you on your toes as you were careful to make tight corners. |
