wind and rain and falling rain

So Saturday I headed out to do Stage 2 of the pmbsr with Cook, Yuri, Cissy and Yuri's friend David. Since I was on a silly single speed and we would be riding through Brevard to get to Cathy's Creek Rd. I started a half hour ahead of them figuring they were bound to catch me with their fancy gears sooner rather than later. So through town to Cathy's Creek I went.



The long spin out wasn't as long or as flat as I thought and I was on the gravel in no time at all. I thought about stopping at the bottom for awhile to wait but went on up to Cathy Creek Falls to clear my head instead.



After a few triangle poses the rest of the crew hadn't showed up and not knowing exactly when they started I decided to keep heading for Farlow Gap slowly. I had never climbed Cathy's Creek Rd. before and was surprised just how mellow of a grade it is. It never gets steep and has enough rollers you could really fly up it. Along the way I stopped to leave a note for the others just in case they were wondering where I was.



I stopped at Farlow Gap to work on a poem I had in my head and Yuri came up behind me. By the time we hit Shuck Ridge Creek we had all regrouped and headed down the rest of Farlow together. A short while later on Daniel Ridge Cook tore a sidewall and it took a little while to fix with some hilarity thrown into the mix. We went down Cove Creek which I knew was part of the route but didn't realize that we would be taking the connector over to 5046 at the bottom. That seemed like a silly and unnecessary turn that added little mileage or elevation and immediately bored me and turned me off to the route. I've been up 475B way too many times this year and after that turn made the call to bail on the race route. Instead I opted to take 276 to 477 and then head up Clawhammer to Maxwell Cove for the Black Mtn. Light Finish.

Shortly after I started up Clawhammer I realized a storm was imminent. The air pressure was plummeting and a storm was blowing in fast. I could have just turned around and probably out ran it but kept heading up anyway. A short while later on Maxwell Cove the heavens opened up with a furry. The wind was blowing very hard up from the Avery Creek valley and the rain was coming at me sideways. I could hear tree branches breaking all around me and started to get a wee bit worried about lightning. When I hit the top of Hickory Knob it was so bad I couldn't visually tell if that was indeed the top. I went down Black as fast as you can go in a raging storm but by the time I got to the bottom the storm was gone. Out on 276 there was a long line of cars backed up past the Ranger Station as all the river users were making a mass exodus from the forest. I was very glad to have parked at the Hub!



Sunday there was a group who was planning on doing Turkey Pen Gap the wrong way and never having been the type who likes to do things the right way I decided to join them. Yuri came as well but this time had the sense to bring a single speed so the two of us started out 276 slightly ahead of the others. A short ways up 477 there were reminders of the storm we had both ridden through on Saturday. This tree wasn't here when I went up this road the day before.



Near the top of Clawhammer it started raining and we decided to head to the Buckhorn Gap Shelter. Both of us had enough of riding in a storm the day before and walking across Turkey Pen Gap in one didn't sound like fun at all. Yuri headed on to the shelter and I waited for Patrick and Chris at the gap to tell them what we had decided. They headed to the shelter with me and we all just sat around and waited for the rain to blow through.



After it did we all made the call to bail on the proposed route and just did Black > Thrift Cove > Grass Rd. > Sycamore Cove instead. A nice little 20 mile ride!