Adventures in Pisgah: going down the road feeling bad

I have a brand new mountain bike that I haven't touched in a month and the few rides that I do have on it have been more mountain bike pushing than riding. This has been a strange winter. It seems like I haven't done much but at the same time feels like I've done a lot. Throughout December and January I was completely focused on the p36 and it consumed my days and invaded my dreams. Then it was indefinitely postponed and everything went upside down. Then we got the new date - a six week delay. So I kind of forgot about it and stopped worrying about it. I was prepared for it both physically and mentally and shifting that focus to April has been tough. Now instead of just the p36 I'm also already thinking about pmbar as well as my date with the Art Loeb.

As much fun as pushing a mountain bike through the snow is I need time actually riding a bike so I've been turning to my road bike several times a week. A new house means new road routes and the stuff around here is great. I have a little after work flat route that takes me around Mills River or I can head East and tackle any number of mountains.

Saturday I headed out from the house with Pisgah on my mind. The weather was great and if I wasn't going to be riding my mountain bike in the woods I still wanted to be on a bike in Pisgah so I wandered around Mills River, Etowah, Penrose and Brevard gazing up at the snow covered Pisgah range:

I made the turn onto 276 and headed for Wagon Road Gap. I was already over 30 miles into the ride and out and back to the top would be another 30 and then I still had 30 more to get home and that math didn't sound good and had me looking for any excuse possible to bail. I tried to use every speck of ice on the road as a reason to turn around but stuck it out and made it up to the Parkway:

I turned around and came right back down:

Right at 60 miles I was right back at the forest gate and stopped at a gas station for some food and then headed for home. I got turned around and made some wrong turns and ended up riding all the way up 280. By the time I made it home it had been a big day but I felt great.

Sunday it was right back to the same spot except this time I did it right and took the truck, the dog and the girl. There is a lot of snow up there still. Easily a two foot snow pack with drifts of four to eight feet.