Lull in the Action

For the last couple of weeks, I haven't been very excited about riding for some reason, so I didn't ride at all between my last posted jaunt through Pisgah and Saturday. I'm certainly not suffering from any kind of burnout from over-training, because, well, I haven't been training for anything. Sometimes I just need a little break.

I was sorta feeling it again, so I headed to the hatchery early Saturday morning. It was a perfect morning; not a cloud in the sky, no humidity, and 62 degrees at 9:30. I knew I wasn't up for anything really long, so I settled on a Cove Creek + Daniel Ridge loop, at a leisurely pace. I made my way up 475B and 225, and there were a lot of campers, which meant the wonderful smell of campfires. Easily one of my favorite smells, right up there with flesh searing on a grill.

Cove Creek is not a difficult trail at all, but I really like it. It flows really well for a Pisgah trail, and it's in a beautiful section of the Forest. The group camp was full when I got to the bottom, and the creek crossing the road wasn't too high, so I skipped the bridge.

Cove Creek pics:







The parking lot at Daniel was totally full, which meant a lot more campers and more campfires. I had never ridden the loop counter-clockwise, so I stayed to the right at the split. I went a bit past the left turn to check out Tom's Spring Falls.







I really enjoyed Daniel in this direction. The hike-a-bike section wasn't bad, and coming down the rocky section along the creek was a lot of fun. Way better than trying to climb it. I stopped at the bottom to take some pics of the old bridge, and the gap jump that I can't wait to see someone hit.





Today, Heather and I headed to DuPont on another perfect morning. We added a bit to our usual forest road loop, and threw in an actual trail. She killed it, and would have ridden all of the techy sections had I not told her to stop and walk one of them. She made climbs she's never made before, and is obviously way more confident. She even bled her own blood from mtn biking for the first time. I was very proud.