Did not 111

...but I did help mark the course, which turned out to be a 30'ish-mile ride on a Friday afternoon/evening, and a lot of fun.



As you can see, I wasn't given a ton of tape, but I did what I could with what I had.  I was happy to hear that Clay and Chris rode ahead of the racers the next morning and marked the intersections a little better.  From what I've heard, it was a great race, and only a couple of people missed a turn.

I got out for a short ride the day after the race, and just played around a bit.  Below is a pic of a creek crossing on Buckhorn Gap Trail.



That evening, my old college roommate and his wife rolled through town on their way home from Charleston.  We headed out for some good food and dessert, and had a nice time catching up.  The next day, we headed into Pisgah after a big breakfast at Gatekeeper's.  I decided to take them up to Looking Glass Rock, for one of the best views in the Forest.



While up there, I was able to catch a decent photo of one of our local, blue-tailed Skinks, which you may
recognize from Cane Creek's logo.

PMBAR 2012

Team "weregoingtofinishthisyear" did not finish this year. Last year we got 3 CPs over a 63-mile route, and DNF'd. This year we got 0 CPs over a 6.3-mile route, and DNF'd. There wasn't much we could do about it though.

There was nothing silly or adventurous about the start this year; no wooden nickels. It was a bit different, however, in that Eric announced that we would not be getting our passports until we hit Pressley Gap. This meant one giant clusterfuckingly slow climb up Black. Once we got up there, we decided to hit the most western, mandatory CP at the gate on 225, so we headed down Maxwell and Clawhammer. Upon hitting the stables, Mike somehow crashed while going around the gate and banged his knees up pretty bad. He popped right up, thankfully, but quickly realized that his front wheel had somehow taco'd, and our race was over.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed, but this stuff happens. We slowly made our way down 477 to 276, and decided to make a stop in the river for Mike to "ice" his knees a bit in the cold water. We got back to the start/finish at Smoker's Cove, and concluded after little debate that 10am was as good a time as any to start drinking. After a beer there, we headed up to Stephen Janes' grilled cheese and Coke oasis to take him a beer and hang out a bit. After being entertained by the riders for a while, we headed to the Hub to see if they could save Mike's wheel, and have a couple more beers and our first Daggie's burgers, which were pretty damn good.

 So, definitely not a good PMBAR, but Mike wasn't hurt too badly, the wheel is fairly fixed, and it was still a fun day. I doubt I'll be able to do next year's PMBAR because of my pending knee surgery and long recovery time, but I'll be back for 2014, and team "weregoingtogetatleastonecheckpointthisyear" will get at least one CP, for real.