Monday, November 17, 2014

...Coming in HOT!


Hey  folks,

Happy Monday to you'ns and a fair one it is. But not really cause its raining and supposed to be bone chillingly cold here in AVL for the next week or so. I guess it tis' the season and whatnot.

This past weekend here in Radville USA was pretty swell. Bike riding, beer drinking, and the usual mess. Nothing extraordinary other than I got to do two (count em') 2 bikecycle rides back to back. In yo' face! Boom!

Well Friday it was freezing cold outside. Literally. High 31, and if it got above 30 then I'm a monkey's uncle.

hard to tell but thats frost/frozen leaves up on the mountain...

Primate kinship aside it was pretty chilly. However after last weeks bikecyclefunkfest I needed to get out and have some fun in the woods, on my bike, with hopefully no problems. It was a bluebird day and so I bundled up and headed to the North Mills Rec. Area for some trail shreddage. Started at Trace Ridge, up Wash Creek Rd. up Spencer Gap/Branch, down Spencer up Never Ending Road(NER), down Fletcher Creek and back to the truck.




 It was only 10 miles but its a sweet 10 miles with a solid mix of chunky descending, fast and smooth singletrack, and punchy climbs. *On a side note the Spencer Branch/Gap descent was pretty much a gully full of leaves. It was really sketchy going down it knowing that there are massive holes full of cantaloupe sized rocks waiting to gobble your wheel and send you hurtling into Momma Earth with a quickness.

there is a trail under there somewhere...

The plus side was you couldn't see any of that due to the 4 1/2 feet of leaves covering the trail so F' it and ride. It felt great to have a successful mountain cycle ride and to get out to some place other than Bent Creek for a change.


Ride done I headed home and to "Date Night" with K.A.W.

Pizza and Beer at the Brew&View then Downtown to stir up some trouble.

Saturday I awoke to a text from Burton saying some Charlotte duders and himself were coming up to ride Dupont State Forest. I only live an hour from Dupont and almost never ride it. A chance to ride some new(ish) trails and see some OG's from my old stomping grounds and I was sold. Dupont is like Pisgah's better behaved little brother. Dupont makes straight A's and helps old ladies cross the street while volunteering at the local community shelter. Pisgah kicks your door in, gets you drunk at a strip club then throws you out on your parents lawn at 4am after doing donuts in the front yard.

Needless to say I like Pisgah...

They look alike but act way different. Dupont has mellow climbs and smooth, flowy descents. Pisgah is punch-you-in-the-balls gnar descending with kill-me-now-my-legs-are-going-to-explode climbing. Since both are so close, I almost never make the extra 10 minute drive to ride Dupont and, what are to me, less fun trails. However, the plan Saturday was Dupont so I was in.

The ride was planned to be an "Epic" which means equal to or greater than 30 miles of mountaincycle riding. I was cool with it and me and Charlene needed some long miles. I don't usually do that kind of mileage with her but I'm trying to get in shape, or something close to it.

I would like to tell you the trails we rode but I cant remember all the gravel, paved, singletrack, up, down, and all around that we did. I remember an air strip, a couple water falls, riding Ridgeline (which was sweet), crossing a creek in my socks, and a few surprisingly chunky descents...for Dupont standards. Burnt Mountain, Cedar Rock, and Big Rock to be precise.

While we came up short of our "Epic" goals we finished in "Stout" territory according to Burton. 22 miles and 3k feet of climbing. Fun.

The best part of the ride was hanging with some dudes that I haven't seen in quite a while.

photo courtesy of Mike Burton


We parted ways and I headed back to AVL.

Sunday K.A.W and I slept in late as is the custom of our People. Late start on a friendly hike with the dogs on the MST. The Goose and The Bear needed some TLC and there is no better way than to take them on a nice walk in the woods. They seemed to enjoy themselves and I just took pictures of random shit...




love notes on trail markers...

don't forget the V8...



The rest of the day was leaf patrol and helping K.A.W drop off her student's gingerbread house at the National Gingerbread House Competition. No...seriously. On the realz, I was really amazed at what people can do with gingerbread. I really wanted to eat all of them but Im sure I would have been promptly arrested and beaten by the Pastry Police. I would love to post pictures of what I saw but one of the judges seemed VERY perturbed at my photographing the entries and so for sake of future pastry related litigation I cant post them here. What I will do is post K.A.W's student's entry because it was badass and they deserve to have it seen.

Gingerbread 4 lyfe!


That was pretty much my weekend. Riding bikes and avoiding beatdowns from the gingerbread mafia.

Hope yours was splendid as well.

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