Turrible Weekend....Just Turrible

The title is my best Charles Barkley impression.  It's pretty awesome in my head, and hopefully in yours, too.  Anyway, the weekend was actually the total opposite of turrible.  It was pretty perfect to be honest.  After soliciting for ideas on Facebook, I decided that Saturday was going to be a riding day, and that it would be a ride from my house, into and around Pisgah, and then back to my house.  I got ready, hopped on the Lazer Cat, and started pedaling into town on a sunny, 65 degree day.  I hit the bike path, took the new Estatoe Trail into the Forest, and then 477 to the horse stables.  I stopped there to stretch and looked at my Garmin, and to my surprise, it was just over 9 miles to that point.  Not a bad warmup. 

After doing my calisthenics, I removed my sweat bands and leotard, and started the long grunt up Clawhammer.  This was actually the first time I rode Clawhammer past the Maxwell Cove turnoff, and I was delightfully surprised to see that the rest of the climb is not quite so steep.  On my way up, I ran into three downhillers and finished the climb with them.  It was a nice change of pace to have some folks to pace with for a bit, making the climb less of an internal mental struggle.  At the top, they told me they were going to take Black, to Buckwheat Knob, and then come down Bennett.  I didn't really have a plan, but I had just ridden Bennett a few days prior, so I decided to follow them on Black to Club Gap, and then part ways with them and head down Avery Creek instead.  We pushed and pedaled our way up Black, and they bombed the downhill sections while I followed, doing my best impression of bombing, which wasn't nearly as good as my Charles Barkley impression.  They were a great group to ride with, having that mountain biker mentality that was one of the reasons I got into the sport in the first place.

This was my first time on Avery, and it was fun.  Pretty much all downhill, and all rideable.  I only wiped out once in a washout that was filled with at least a foot of leaves.  It was a soft landing, and there was no damage to me or the Lazer Cat.  After getting all of the leaves out of my shorts, I continued down off the mountain and back to the bike path.  The ride back home was pretty turrible for real, though.  A strong headwind and tired legs made every pedal stroke a struggle, but I eventually made it back to my front door to complete a great day on the bike. 

I only got one pic on the ride, and it's at the bottom of Avery Creek:


Heather needed some forest time, too, so on Sunday we crossed the border for some hiking at Caesar's Head State Park. We hiked a loop that we thought would be less crowded than the popular Raven Cliff Falls trail, and thankfully, we were right. It was a nice loop with a 10-foot waterfall, and plenty of elevation change and creek crossings. We took Kenda, and she did awesome. She was a little scared of the creek crossings at first, but by the end, she was boulder hopping across rushing water with us.











The Aftermath:

Short After-Work Ride - Bennett Gap

It wasn't long ago that my after-work/school rides were at Tower Park in Ft. Thomas, KY, or East Fork State Park in Batavia, OH. While I still felt pretty lucky to have decent places to ride within a short drive, now I can be in Pisgah in 10 minutes. It's still a little surreal to be honest. I got out of court a little early today, so I headed to the Forest and parked at the Ranger Station on 276. From there, I rode up 477 to the top of Bennett Gap, and bombed my way back down to 477 and back to the car. The weather was perfect and the trails were empty. I actually felt really good today, too, and now I'm drinking a Highlands Black Mocha Stout. Life is good.

15 Perfect Miles in DuPont

It was sunny, 60'ish, and dry.  I had had a stressful week due to house purchasing drama and a disappointing hearing on Friday, so I definitely needed some forest time.  I headed to the Fawn Lake parking area and figured I'd put together a loop from there.  The trails were absolutely perfect, and it wasn't quite as crowded as I thought it would be, but there were quite a few folks there nonetheless.  I started down Reasonover and, after the climb, decided to head down Turkey Knob Rd. and Poplar Hill Loop for the first time.  That was a good call.  I went out and back on those and then continued on Reasonover.  This is easily one of my favorite trails in the area.  I wish it was about 10 miles longer, though.  From Reasonover, I did the Lake View Loop real quick just to see what it was, then on to Lake Julia Gulia Rd.>Camp Summit>Airstrip>Airstrip Tr.> Shelter Rock>Barn Tr (Where I saw two older ladies riding llamas.  Not joking.)>Bridal Veil Falls>Corn Mill Shoals>Shoals>Laurel Ridge>Mine Mtn.  It was an excellent day on the bike.

Turkey Knob Rd.

Old Wagon on Poplar Hill

I bet this was sweet when it was new

Perfect Day

I love the Salsa bottle cages

Boathouse on Lake Julia Gulia

View from Airstrip

Bridal Veil

Short Spin in Pisgah

Heather and I are officially house hunting. It's a little sooner than we wanted, especially since we are only half way through our lease, but we just can't stand sharing a wall with a gaggle of heavily-hooved humans anymore. Thankfully, our landlord is going to let us out of our lease early. Apparently a lawyer complaining about his right to quiet enjoyment of his leased property is scary to a landlord, plus we're using him as our agent, sooooooo...

Anyway, we had a meeting scheduled with him this afternoon, so I had to cancel on my planned ride for the day, but the weather was too perfect to not get out for a short ride. It was sunny, 60, and hadn't precipitated in a while, so I headed into Pisgah for a short but fun loop. I parked on 477, rode up Clawhammer and Maxwell, and then descended Black. 477 was a little sloppy in parts, but Clawhammer and Maxwell were solid. Most of upper Black was perfect, but there were still a fair number of muddy spots toward the bottom, where they did all that great drainage work. No precip forecasted for the upcoming week, so the trails will have a chance to dry out a bit more for next weekend.

It was a nice ride on a perfect day. My cardio shape is still really lacking, but the 1x9 setup worked great. I have a Paul's Chainkeeper on it, and it worked flawlessly.  I think it'll give me just enough gearing options.

Pics:

The 1x9 Setup

Perfect Day in Pisgah

On Maxwell

Pressley Gap

Lower Black

It's Done

After much bitching and moaning about my inability to singlespeed my way up these mountains, I have converted the Lazer Cat to 1x9. Do I feel like a quitter? Yes. Will I be able to ride up hill better and not spin out in the flats? Hopefully.



Notice the nice new Park workstand that Heather got me for xmas. It really makes working on my bikes a lot easier. Also notice the psychotic tuxedo cat, all worn out from driving me crazy by attacking my shifter cable while I was setting it up.

I hope to be back to SS someday.

Cabin Fever

This has been a pretty rough winter for riding.  We have had a lot of snow for this area, and it has stuck around.  That means that I have not been riding much at all, and my fitness level shows it.  I got out to DuPont with some folks on Saturday, and it was the worst ride I've had in a long time.  The cold air, sore/tired legs from squats, chunky, icy snow, and my inhaler giving its final puff, all joined together like the perfect storm of excuses for my abysmal performance on the bike.  The people I was riding with are definitely faster than me, and I started too hard and just burned out early.  They had a training agenda, so I just told them all to go ahead and I would continue on a winter, Rick-paced ride.  Well that didn't work out all that well either.  I tried to hit a couple of my usual trails, but Joanna Rd. was either the aforementioned chunky, icy snow, or a solid sheet of ice.  I just cut my losses and turned around, riding a whopping 10 miles for the day.  No ride is a waste, though, and at least I did get out and pedal a bit.  I need to get out and ride more for sure, but unfortunately, more snow is on the way tonight.



I mentioned in a previous post that I had some new fitness plans, so I thought I'd just mention them here.  I know my core strength is lacking, so I thought I'd give some kettlebell workouts a try.  I'm on my third week, and I love them.  I just bought a 30lb and a 50lb off of Walmart.com, and they are plenty for me so far.  The workouts I found online have been fun.  You basically just do five-exercise circuits, and do as many circuits as you can in 30 minutes, so there is a pretty good cardio aspect to them.  I'm feeling stronger, and my pants are fitting looser, so I'm headed in the right direction.  I also got some Vibram FiveFinger KSOs, aka, "monkey feet."  These "shoes" are pretty cool.  I work out in them, and I have just started trying to run in them.  It will definitely take some time to get used to running in them, because you use different muscles and they can be a bit hard on your feet at first.  My first attempt was a short, 1-mile run, and my calves were sore for 2 days.  I think that's a good sign.

Hopefully I'll be able to start riding again soon, and this blog can get back to what I intended it to be.

A Hike Before the Storm

We apparently have a big winter storm heading our way tonight, so we made a point of getting out in the forest today. We had always wondered about that trailhead along the side of 276 by the bridge, aka Moore Cove, so that's where we went. It was a pretty easy little hike, and surprisingly busy considering the cold, but the falls at the end were cool. It was basically a tall, but low-flow, waterfall, falling over the front of an overhanging rock, or what I have always called an Indian Cave. The falls were much bigger than I expected, because they really don't look very big in pictures, unless there's a person for scale. We followed the trail a bit past the falls and came across a smaller version of them, but then turned around.

We had also heard that if you follow the trail that branches off of Moore Cove close to the trailhead, that it will take you to Jack's Cove falls. We decided to go for it. If you want to follow this trail, you want to take the left at the top of the wooden stairs from the trailhead. The marker will just say "Closed Road" on it, but it's open to hiking. We followed this for quite a ways, and made it to Jack's Cove, but turned around before we made it to the falls. It was getting late, the temps were dropping, blisters were forming, and I had Chicken 'n Dumplins to make, dammit.

Pics: