wouldn't you like to ride it one more time

The seasonal trails close at midnight tonight and with that in mind Dennis and I met to ride some of them one last time yesterday after work. It had already been a long week so when Yuri called on my drive down I wasn't overly thrilled about riding at perhaps a quick clip in the need to see who is the fastest*, but told him to meet us at The Hub if he wanted to ride but warned him we wouldn't be done by his 6:30 desired finish time.

I had thought of a good loop on the drive down:

Clawhammer > Buckhorn Gap > South Mills River > Pink Beds > 276 > 477 > Bennett Gap > 477

That way we would get the Pink Beds and Bennett wrapped up in a nice little loop. A few PBR's pdq thanks to the Hub and Dennis was game but I don' think Yuri believed me as he set off with a single water bottle. I used this as a real training ride (perhaps the first ever) and tried riding without a pack and tested my ever witty climbing banter (Have you ever noticed how all the climbs in Pisgah are really false climbs? Take something like Clawhammer Rd., for example, it starts off with a very brief uphill stretch but then quickly goes flat for a mile before turning downhill for another mile, then another flat stretch and then you are at the top. No climbing at all on that road - a false climb! I can go on forever and when you try and put a little jump on me I just pull right back up and start up a new tangent. Should work great!). My banter helped keep us all together but when we got up to the gap Yuri went left on Black while Dennis and I headed on for the Pink Beds.

It turned out to be a perfect ride. 21 miles, 9.2 mph avg (lightning fast for Pisgah. Seriously, as flat of a 21 miles as you can do!). Dennis and I thoroughly enjoyed each other's company on a fine Thursday evening in early April. How lucky are we to be living this life?











*One of the hard things about having a blog like this is everyone wants to know how they ride against to me. (Yuri, this is nothing against you, it is just my bitching about how bad it sucks to have this blog to maintain.) Honestly, I'm not very fast, fair to midland at best, but I can be determined at times. Anyone wanting to race me is welcome to do so at the following events: Big Frog, Wild 100, Trans Georgia, Double Dare. That's my season, if there is such a thing!