Catching Up

Haven't posted in a while, so now it's catch-up time. I've actually been riding quite a bit lately. Two weekends ago, I headed out to Pisgah, and put in some decent miles. My route was 477>Buckhorn>Clawhammer>Buckhorn>S.Mills>476>Funneltop Mtn Rd.>Horse Cove>Squirrel>S.Mills>Buckhorn>Clawhammer>477. I think it was around 30 miles. It was a beautiful day, and the trails were in great shape. At the end of Horse Cove, I ran into a group being led by someone I know, so I tagged along for the ride. That was my first time on Squirrel since the re-work, and I'm not sure what I think. The creek crossings are much better now, but other parts of the trail are racetrack'ish. I'm sure it'll grow on me, though.

A couple iPhone pics from Funneltop Mtn Rd.:





The next day, I headed back into the forest and rode from the Hatchery. The route was 475>Davidson River>475>Cove Creek>225>Daniel Connector>Daniel>5046?>Connector>Cove Creek>475>Davidson River>475>Hatchery. Another great ride on a great day, even with dead legs. On the way out I stopped along Cove Creek and took some pics of a small waterfall.





The Pisgah Stage Race started on Tuesday. Wednesday's stage had a remote start, so I shuttled Stephen Janes and Andy Johnston to the start, and hung out to see the racers off.

This past weekend, a group of Hoosiers, including my Double Dare partner, came down to ride Pisgah, so I tagged along. On Saturday, we parked at Pilot Cove, and rode 1206>Laurel>Pilot>Connector>Pilot Cove/Slate Rock. When we hit the start of Laurel, the stage race leaders had already gone by, but we caught a few of the fast guys heading in, and saw a bunch more racers along the trail.









We took our time heading up Laurel, as it was most of the Hoosiers' first exposure to Pisgah. My chain snapped somewhere along the way. It wasn't where this pic was taken, though.



We finally made it up to Pilot, and worked our way down to the Rock without incident.





After not-so-gracefully (I endo'd twice) bombing our way down Pilot, we took a left on the connector with the intention of heading up to Slate Rock. During one of my crashes, I bent my cassette, and my chain was skipping pretty bad, so I headed back down to the cars once we hit Pilot Cove, and started drinking out of the growlers with Nick, who bailed before the connector.

That night we headed down to the after party for the stage race and listened to the band for a bit, and then up to my house for a couple of beers, where it was decided we'd meet to ride again at 8:30 the next morning. We met at the Ranger Station and rode 276>477>Clawhammer>Maxwell>Black>Grassy>Sycamore>276. It was a great ride, and a good way for the Hoosiers to end their trip.

Today I got a little bored, so I hacked up some old clothes and made a couple of cycling caps. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I got the pattern and instructions here.



That's all I think. No wait, somewhere in there I put a front derailleur and a granny gear on the Lazer Cat. I feel dirty.