Taking Care of Business

When David Cook was over a few weeks ago helping me finalize the 99 route he pointed at Farlow Gap and said:

"This. Can't we just get rid of this?"

Of course we couldn't. How Farlow Gap not be part of a 99 mile ride that was encompassing all the other big trails? We had to do Farlow and when better than 80 miles in? Both Cook and myself knew that averaging 5mph in Pisgah would be ambitious and would put us at Farlow 16 hours in. It would be dark and we would be alone, cold, hungry and very tired. We both wanted to finish the 99 and knew that Farlow at that stage in the game would make it challenging but we agreed that Farlow was a must.

I had bailed out of the 99 at the bottom of Cove Creek and I set off on Saturday morning to finish what I started. I just had to do 475 > 5003 > 140A > 140 > 5031 > Farlow > Daniel > 475 > 475B > 476 > 477 > Club Gap > Buckwheat Knob > Bennett Gap > 477 and the 99 was done. Easy enough, right?

So I parked at the Fish Hatchery and started from there. It was a cold morning and 475 provided the perfect warm up. By the time I made the turn onto 5003 I was nice and warm and was looking to be another perfect warm fall day in the mountains. I was sort of day dreaming and lost in my own world when suddenly a pick up appeared full of bear hunters. That woke me up a little bit and all day I would hear their dogs and trucks but not see them again. 140A and 140 came all too easy but by the time I got to right turn near the bottom of Kissee Creek Rd. I decided to say screw the 99 route and went off exploring instead. I intentionally took a wrong turn and went to the end of a road and had lunch on a nice little old bridge. I then went back the way I came and stopped at a waterfall I knew was there but never investigated. Down a steep trail and then you get to this nice little campsite:



and then this wonderful waterfall:





as I continued up Kissee Creek Rd. I stopped again to check out this big rock that has always intrigued me:



behind that one you can see another rock:




this one is really big with a nice overhang providing good shelter:





Farlow came easy enough and my new fancy suspension fork had me riding more of it than I ever have before:



some big bike guys got to the gap just as I did. We went back and forth a few times with me trying to take pictures:



they pulled ahead and I didn't see them again until Shuck Creek:



I then pulled ahead on the uphill and didn't see them again. I went left on Daniel for a change and took a peak at the waterfall:


Davidson River Trail back to my truck and I was done. A nice little ride.