Recharged

Since the 8 hour Grind on the Greenway about 3 weeks ago my and the bikes have not been on speaking terms.  No, there wasn't a big fight or anything traumatic, we just decided to take a break, it was probably best for the both of us.

I was doing so much "training" ( I use that term loosely because if you look at my results you will wonder what I was doing with my time), but basically I was riding so much, just to ride that it took all of the fun out of it for me.  I had problems finding people to ride with, and you can only do so much by yourself without getting bored.

I have been riding my bikes for a little over 4 years now and have never been to the mountains until yesterday.  I got an offer from one of the wife's co-worker's husbands to meet up with a few of his friends and do what he was told  a "hike a bike" marathon.  He warned me that his friend means business and I could back out for another day of a little more single track friendly.  By now you should know that I don't have better judgement and wanted to go with.

I opted to take the Culprit with me, as it is my only full suspension bike, and I was warned that I needed one.  I do not regret that decision as I got everything I needed ready the night before and the alarm set for 5:45 am.

It was a little over 2 hour drive to the entrance of Pisgah National Forest.  Even stopping for breakfast, we were early and luckily took a wrong turn and found this little gem right off the road.

This was a sign of things to come with all of the rain the southeast has been having.  We turned around and headed down the gravel road in which we were supposed to meet at.  About 10 minutes later my new friends came, warned me one last time, loaded up all of our gear, water bottles, gel packs, and cambelbacks and started our journey.  I was warned that the climb to the top of the trail was a 6 mile fire road climb.  It started out social for about 2 miles of it, everyone talking, having fun, and then we took a turn to another fire road and the pain really started.  One of the guys broke off the front and turned back and asked "anybody coming?"  There were no takers so he went off the front.  I kept with the group for a few minutes but when everyone switched to their granny gear, I still stayed in my middle ring and "took off".  I finally ended up catching the guy who broke off the front somewhere up the road and we were together talking for a little bit until he looked at his watch/altimiter, about a mile left to go, and he took off.

I let him go as I knew it was going to be a long day and ended up about 5 minutes after he did at the peak.
About 10 minutes later the other 3 guys showed up.  Everyone grabbed some food and drink, and then hit the trail.  The one we hit was called "Laural Gap".

I cant put into words the trail as it was rocky, slick (it had been raining for the past week), rooty and dangerous drops, I have have never had more fun on a bike.  I had the helmet cam on for the first trail we hit but it doesn't do the trail justice as how steep and technical the descents were, plus when I fell off the side of the trail it somehow ended up pointing to the sky.   Although the Culprit is a full suspension bike, it was not designed to handle these drops, even when I had my ass touching the back wheel and the trail was that steep, it still rattled my body.

An hour gravel grind uphill and an hour and a half downill/hike a bike through 6 feet drops, washed out trail, multiple creek crossings in which almost swept you off your feet and we finished the first loop.  I can't put into words the experiance as I needed the change of pace from normal riding.  I will have the go-pro video up in a few days I am guessing after I review the footage and see what is good and what the camera was pointed at the trees for. 

The bikes weren't happy with all the mud bogs, a few of them went went over half way of the wheel into them, good thing the creeks washed everything off.