this time things going to be alright

So, this weekend I'll be racing the Wild100 for the third time in three years. The first year I got too drunk the night before, then made a series of laughable navigational errors before ultimately breaking my frame and walking 20 miles to the finish. Last year I was much more prepared and was doing well but in my haste dropped my precious map and then made a big navigational error that once again cost me. This year I would like to do well. There is no reason why I shouldn't. I'm fit and ready, my biggest challenge is nailing the navigation without losing time to the locals. If I can figure out where to go and how to get there the fastest there is no reason why any of those guys should beat me. Did I really just say that? When I fail and get back home I'll be sure and skim Dickie's blog for excuses why I didn't beat them. Did I really just say that?

So, anyway tonight I decided things were best left to just the bottle and me and skipped the wndc and stopped in Pisgah for a little pre race bike shakedown. I started from Fisherman's because I'm lazy and rode a whole lot of gravel before doing a little bit of single track. It stormed as I was driving in which cooled things down nicely and gave me a good chance to check out the bike. It worked great and on the long spin back I was having so much fun I really didn't want to be done so fast so when I saw a gated road on the left I made the turn. It is on the map and bike legal. I'd been there before on foot with Terri but the bike gave me a chance to push a little further but I still found myself somewhere in Pisgah.



An apparent dead end. So I backtracked without looking too hard through the fields and then saw a right turn and figured that had to be the road so I took it. After a climb it appeared to die out but I poked through and found the other side. A screeching downhill and I was right back where I started.



I thought I'd found the loop but after checking my new 780 map realized I messed up and should have gone the other way through the fields. The entire loop is clearly shown on the map as an unimproved road. I'll be back to check it out as a novelty sometime. If you want to find it I'm not giving any hints other than to check your map!