This morning I woke up at a hotel in Greeneville, SC and after stuffing myself with the Hampton complimentary breakfast, I drove north towards Asheville. Last night I studied the maps and decided Bent Creek, SW corner of Asheville, would be my destination.
Map work before turning in for the night.
I left the hotel before 8am and was on the road for Asheville. My hydration pack was full of energy drink, I had a banana in the pack as well, and I knew exactly where I was headed thanks to map work the night before.
Hydrapak fill mixin' and fillin'.
It was about 9:15 when I pulled into the Rice Pinnacle parking lot at Bent Creek. I found it funny how many sights I recognized from the times Ryan and traveled to and camped in the Bent Creek area.
For whatever reason it took me a little while to change clothes and get my gear ready to go. I kept debating whether or not to try to find some other guys to ride with. There were plenty of cars in the parking lot and every 10 minutes a group was hitting the trail. I wasn't liking the idea of crashing someone's party, so I reviewed a route I had printed from the Pisgah Area Sorba web site and head out on my own.
There were a good number of intersections and I was stopping to check the map at each one. After what must have been 45 minutes of riding, including some good climbing to get up on a ridge, I came to an intersection and met up with another solo rider. Greg and I decided to ride together. He is from Birmingham and was also playing the frequent map check game. We both had a similar route planned for the day and figured two clueless mountain bikers checking each other on directions would have a better chance of staying on track.
We were both headed for the Green's Lick trail, a notorious downhill reputed to have a huge fun factor. The trail is 2 miles long, almost all downhill, with a bunch of bumps and banks. Google it, check out the YouTube videos.
Greg checking the map before we drop down Green's Lick.
From everything I read Green's Lick was supposed to be "doable" for the average cross country mountain biker, provided you keep your speed in check. I called for Greg to go first, as his descending skills were certainly better than mine, and we got to it.
The next couple miles were a blur, a ridiculously fun, grin while you ride blur. I've never spent so much time in the air while riding a bike. I was really getting into pushing off the bumps to get the bike off the ground. My brakes were my friends as I scrubbed off speed as needed. There were some rocky, bumpy stretches that sort of beat on me but it was an enjoyable trail and I kept it within my limits.
As Greg and I laughed and smiled at the bottom of the trial we meet some other rides. One of the othe riders offered to show us through some more trails. Brent, a local to Asheville, directed us around for the next couple hours. It turns out, before getting a "real" job, Brent was a mountain bike guide. He took us on some great trails. Uphill, downhill, curvy but nothing too technical. I guess I'd say there were no trails too technical for my current ability at Bent Creek. Mohican has been good training for me.
Getting ready to climb.
I'd say we made for a good complimentary group of three. Greg could light up the downhills, I often lead the way on climbs, and Brent knew where we were without looking at a map. It was really great to meet up with these guys.
It was sometime after 1pm when Greg and I returned to our vehicles. Brent had headed back to his car, which was parked at a different trail head. After some food and map studying, Greg and I headed out for some more fun. I was glad he was going back out as my legs still felt pretty good.
Of course it was different without Brent's guidance. We were checking the map at most intersections and thought we had a good plan to climb back atop the ridge we had been on in the morning to come down a trail we had gone up. Unfortunately one of the forest service roads on the map didn't so much exist. We tried, I've got brier scrapes on my arms and legs to prove it. Oh well, we modified course and were still able to get up the ridge an fly back down.
By the time we were back to parking lot it was pushing 4pm. It was a good time to be back as I think my legs would've started a protest had I made them work too much longer.
Back to the Jeep for the second and final time today.
Wow, what a great day out in the woods! The trails were great and I'm thankful for the company I met up with. This will definitely be a place to come back to in the future.
The next stop for me was a shower at Lake Powhatan campground, where Ryan and I have camped in our trips to Asheville, and dinner. Being that I didn't really eat lunch, I ate a big steak dinner and enjoyed every single bite.
What trails did we ride today?
Tomorrow I plan to head down to Dupont State Forest and check out the trails there. I hope to have as good a day there as I did at Bent Creek today!
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