Mohican Fording

The uncertain weather had Ryan and I move our ride to later in the afternoon today, so it was probably 3pm before we made it to Mohican.  We rode through mile 15 before doing a time check and realizing we needed to be home for dinner KT had made us.

The new hike and wade section of the loop.

The trail was really dry in most areas, despite the rain of last night.  In particular, the downhill corners were dry and rutted.  But the biggest surprise of the ride was at the covered bridge.  It was closed for construction, which was not the biggest part of the suprise, but they left no way for mountain bikers to get from one side to the other, at least not without breaking through orange snow fence.  Oh well, a river crossing added to the excitement of our ride.

Croft State Natural Area

Today after work I headed the opposite direction as I did on Tuesday, east towards Spartanburg, SC.  I rode at Southside Park in Croft State Natural Area.  Croft is a former Army training base, last in use during the WWII era.  The local rumors say not to stray from the trails as there is unexploded ordinance throughout the park.  While this is sort of hard to believe, I stuck to the trails as usual.

A bridge crossing early in the ride.

I had a map of the trails but had never found a recommendation on a specific route.  There is a trail called the Southside Loop that encircles the entire Southside Park, I figured it would be a straight forward way to tour the park.  There were no other bikers in the parking area to talk to, so I headed off.

The route was all single track.  There was not much elevation change throughout the whole ride.  The trail wove through forested areas and was rooty, very much so in some places, with some rockiness..  Markers nailed to trails confirmed I was staying on the Southside Trail as opposed to riding one of the trails that cut through the center of the park.

Much of the trail was sandy.

The whole way around the 10 mile loop I only saw one other mountain biker.  Actually, he was the only other person I saw the whole time at the park.  It seemed pretty abandoned on a Thursday evening.  At an information kiosk I read the park contains ~7,500 acres.  So maybe there were other land users out there and we just didn't cross paths.

The sections by the river were interesting,

twisty trail through lush vegetation.

It was a good ride in the 94 degree heat.  Once again, I wouldn't come down from up north just to ride here, but it's a good stop if in the area.  I think if I had only one day to ride and had to choose between Croft and Paris Mountain, I would choose Paris.  It seemed more interesting due to the elevation changes and rockiness.

Plenty of fungus at Croft too.

Back in Germany... in Greenville

My plan was to go to downtown Greenville tonight.  Part of the attraction was to visit George Hincapie's store but when looking up directions I found it closes at 5pm.  With one less reason to fight traffic and decipher directions I decided not to go downtown.

When searching the web for restaurants near to my hotel I found a German restaurant, the Schwaben House (www.schwabenhouse.com).  It was less than 10 minutes down the road.

 The restaurant was in a plaza.

I ordered Sauerbraten (marinated roast beef) served with dumplings and a Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen.  Wow, the food was good.  It brought back memories of my week in Germany a couple years ago.  This makes sense because Schwaben is a district in Bavaria, Germany.  Part of my stay was also in Bavaria.

This is what followed a nice salad.

Tomorrow after work I'm planning to head over to Croft State Park to check out their mountain bike trails.  I think tonight's meal topped off my energy stores in prep for another ride.

Paris Mountain Trail

Promptly after work I jumped in the Jeep and drove to Paris Mountain State Park.  I changed into riding clothes and geared up in the parking lot.  Before hitting the trail I talked to another mountain biker, he suggested a slight modification to my intended route.  With a map and a plan I rolled out.

The trail intersections at Paris Mountain are

prominently marked and the map is good.

After some fun, flowing trail I came out to the only road section of the ride.  But it was a heck of a road section, it was a looong climb.  I was breathing hard pedaling up what must have been Paris Mountain and the uphilll corners just kept coming.  At the top I did a map check and was back on singletrack.

A long, twisty downhill brought me to a lake.

The trail around the lake was flat but entertaining, then it was time to climb.  The climb was sort of long, there were a couple switchback but it was mostly just a meandering, uphill trail.  Rocks and roots made things interesting.

At the top of the climb I was back to the downhill section I had done prior to the lake.  I road the downhill again, faster this time knowing what was ahead, and turned away from the lake at the end.

The guy in the parking lot, some guys in a bike shop and people online had warned not to do a certain trail back to the parking lot unless you are on a downhill bike.  I decided I'd hike a bike down it and hopefully there would be some rideable sections for me.  It was steep, dropping parallel to the road I had ridden up, and I only road about a fourth of it, but I thought this was more entertaining than riding down a road.

Too steep for me.

The final section back to the parking lot, the same section I road on the way out, was really fun.  Twisty and flowing with the occasional rocky or rooty section.  It actually felt somewhat similar to Mohican only the trail was a little sandy.

I was really happy with the riding at Paris Mountain.  What is missing in quantity is made up for in quality.  This would be a great place to ride after work.  However, I wouldn't make the drive down from the Asheville area just to ride here.  But if in the area already, it's a worthwhile destination.

There were many interesting fungus
growing along the trail.  I ate none.

Hotel Maintenance

In preparing for this trip I tried to think of everything I would need for multiple days of riding.  The past two days in North Carolina I've had everything I needed.  Today, however, I realized I needed to wash two days of trail residue off my bike and I didn't bring anything for such a task.

After work today I went to Walmart to buy a roll of heavy, shop paper towels.  The bike went in the bath tub and I used about a dozen paper towels, soaked in water from the sink, to wipe down the bike.

Can't say I've ever washed a bike in a bath tub before.

The next challenge was lubricating the chain.  If I had brought my seatpost and saddle in with me it would have been easy to turn the bike upside down.  To put the bike in the back of the Jeep I removed the saddle and I didn't want to go back out and get it.  So, I found the ol' hotel ice bucket worked well to prop up the bike.  I could pedal by hand and apply lube.

Ice bucket work stand.

Now the bike is ready to go again for tomorrow.  After work I'm going to head 30 minutes north to Paris Mounctain State Park.  It's supposed to be a pretty good network of about 20 miles of single track and is very close to Greenville.

Dupont Riding

After a decent, but not spectacular, night of sleep in the back of the Jeep I headed south.  It was probably about an hour and a half drive from Asheville to Dupont State Forest.  The drive was pretty straight forward but upon reaching the northern end of the forest I wasn't sure where I would ride.  The Guion Farm trail head was the first one I came to so I pulled in to park there.

My morning view straight ahead...

... and to my side.

A pretty good arrangement for flying solo.

There was one guy getting ready to head out for a ride and I asked if he minded some company.  He invited me along and said his two sons were already out riding around.  We headed out, met Doug's sons, and hit the trails.

Unfortunately I really have no idea where we rode.  I never got out the map and the frequent trail intersections, all with signage, were somewhat of a blur.  Gravel roads were frequent and allowed us to connect together some long climbs that were followed by long, flowing descents.  

Doug and his sons were flying along and my legs, tired from yesterday I suppose, were challenged to keep up.  They were very considerate and sat up a couple times to make sure I didn't get off track.  I'll have to try to get in touch with Doug to find out what loops we made, they were great fun.

At an abandoned runway, from back in the day when Dupont execs would fly in and out of the formerly private land, the guys were at the end of their ride and headed back.  Doug left me with directions for another good loop.

I found my way to the start of the loop and met up with Matt and Ellen.  There were making the same loop and welcomed me along.  Wow, what a cool loop.  Climbing, some descending, more climbing, and a stream crossing or two.  This one loop seemed to have it all.

Matt coming through a switchback, Ellen just behind.

The loop brought us back to the runway and peeled off from Matt and Ellen, once again thankful to have found such friendly people to ride with.  I refilled my hydration pack at a spigot on what must have been a former small plane hanger and Matt gave me some advice on how to get back to where I parked.

Ellen passing by.

On the way back to the start of my ride I made a detour to see some waterfalls Doug had told me about.  I dropped down some gravel roads and was quite impressed to see a really large waterfall.  A couple hikers, Mike and Cheryl, told me how to get down to the falls, so I stashed my bike in the woods and walked down to the pools at the bottom of the falls.

 Above the falls.

Back on the gravel road I caught up with Mike and Cheryl.  By this time it was probably 2:30pm and the only thing provided to my stomach since breakfast, besides water, was two Gu packs.  I was hungry and starting to feel weak.  It must have showed because Cheryl offered me an extra PB&J sandwich they had packed.  I didn't even consider turning the offer down and was thankful for their generosity.

The falls from the pools below.  Lots of water!

It was 3pm when I made it back to the Jeep.  Yet another nice couple gave me directions to Brevard where I hit a Mexican restaurant to fill up.  It was good food and I definitely filled up.  From there it was less than a couple hours down to the Greenville, SC area.  I'll be here, at a training class for work this next week.  There are two nearby state parks with some trail, hopefully I can check them out later this week.

I met this fella while filling my hydration pack.

As good as the trails I've ridden these past couple days were the people I have met.  Everyone has been so friendly and helpful.  It has really made the experience memorable.

Back in Asheville... but with wider tires!

The short story is I'm on a business trip in South Carolina.  I need to be here over the weekend as I had business last week and all next week.  So... I brought my mountain bike with me!

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!

To Holmes County and Back

This morning I pulled in the drive at Ryan's house a little after 8am.  KT and Daniel were out of town for the day so a longer road ride was on the schedule.  We picked another route into Holmes County, similar to the one we rode last Sunday but today's route took us south and then east instead of west.

Take the time to ask the questions.

From Apple Creek we rode down to Winesburg.  An early start was a good idea because the cooler temperature and slightly overcast skies were quite enjoyable.  We continued on through Trail and ended up in Charm.  By this time it was feeling warmer and we had both drained our two water bottles.  Ryan took our bottles into Keim lumber for refills from their drinking fountain.

The windows are clean at Keim Lumber.

From Charm we rode north through Mount Hope and on back to Apple Creek.  This part of the ride was hot, the clouds broke and the sun beat down.  For the past couple months it's hardly worth looking at the weather forecast.  It's always the same, hot with a chance of scattered thunderstorms.

Glad to have tinted glasses for the second half of the ride.

DD's Triway Ride

This morning Daniel, or "DD" as he refers to himself, and I went over to Triway HS so he could ride his new bike.  Daniel had fun riding the sidewalks around the junior high.  Stopping near the bus garage to see all the school buses was a point of enjoyment too.

Unloading Daniels new bike from

the back of the truck.

Remount after stopping to watch a

skid steer drive by.

Towards the end of the ride Daniel was starting

to stride along with the bike, especially

on a slight downhill grade.

Post ride refuel in the back of the truck.

Daniel likes fruit snacks!

Riding Past Sunset

Last night I went out for a ride of unplanned direction and length.  I didn't leave until about 7pm and I knew sunset was about 8:50.  With the camera in my jersey pocket I road west and enjoyed views of the setting sun. 

 Riding westward in the evening made for nice views.

Several times I came to a route decision and opted to not begin the route back home.  Eventually I realized the sun was plummeting and I needed to aim for home.  My blinky light was flashing as I road home in the last bits of light.  It was a nice ride.

The sun dropped out of the sky as I turned for home.

Broken Brain

First thing in the morning I went down to Mohican thinking I would ride the whole loop but might opt out sooner than the full 25 miles depending on how I felt.  During the first 8 miles or so I felt okay but not terribly energetic.  Still, it was a nice morning in the woods and I figured I'd ride it out even if I ended up riding slow.

I always enjoy this valley scene, 

I think it's just after mile 5.

Well my plans changed somewhere between miles 10 and 11 as I recall.  There's a dirty drop off you can opt for on this section of trail and, as I've done before, I opted for it.  I rolled to the edge of the drop and scrubbed off some speed with my brakes as I rolled over the edge.  

All I can figure is that I held too much brake as I dropped down onto the trail below.  I remember skidding towards the edge of the trail trying to will my bike to stay left, away from the ravine-like drop off.  Quickly realizing I was going to crash off the edge, I thought "here comes a crash, at least this side hill looks open."

Next thing I realized I was headed over the bars.  "Great, this is an endo.  I wonder how far I'm going to go down this open hill side" I thought.  Midway through the air I was abruptly clobbered up side the head.  I instantly knew it was a tree and I instantly felt like I'd been hit with baseball bat.

I bounced down the hill side before landing on my butt, facing down the hill.  OUCH.  OUCH. OUCH!  I was hurting and mad as I took of my helmet, glasses and hydration pack before laying back and thinking about how much my head hurt.  The initial pain spike began to recede and I put my gear back on, said a few prayers, and stood up.

My bike was 15 feet uphill from me and the trail another 15 or 20 feet uphill from my bike.  I was thankful to feel coherent as I drug me and my bike back to the trail.  I walked a little with the bike before getting back on, wondering if I was in a well enough mental state to ride.  I continued to ride but slow.

At the covered bridge I sat down to drink and eat.  My right ear was throbbing but I couldn't find any blood.  I looked at my pupils in the rear view mirror of a car parked there and found them to be normal.  Ride the road back, hitch a ride, or... I decided to climb Mount Doom at a very reserved pace.  It was okay and took my mind off, well, my mind.

At the second road crossing after the climb I took the road back to my truck.  I wasted no time throwing in the bike and my gear and heading for home.  On the way home I really started to feel not well, nauseous and a pounding head ache.

KT got a very short version of the story and I headed for a shower and bed as she Googled "concussion".  An ice bag and Tylenol accompanied me to bed.  KT reported, "your brain has been injured!"  Oh what a great thought to fall asleep too, but with a few more prayers I dozed off.

After sleeping for several hours I feel much better, thankful for answered prayer.  I will be taking it easy for the next week, I've got an injured brain you know.

Two years old & a new bike!

Photographer Daniel

Mr. Daniel helped himself to the digital camera, turned it on, and took his first picture.  I think it might need a little Photoshop help. :-)

Daniel's first picture.

MTB with the KTs

KT, our friend Katie and I went down to Mohican for a ride.  We considered it a nice activity at the tail end of our vacation week.  The truck was loaded up with my bike in the bed and the girl's bikes on the rack.  I drove to the second mountain bike trail head, dropped them off, and drove to the primary trail head.  While Katie and KT were starting their ride into the fern forest I was chugging up SR97 on the road.

Eventually I caught up to the ladies between mile marker 19 and 20.  We rode to the main trail head where the truck was waiting.  It was nice day for a ride.

Katie truckin' down the trail.

Vacation at the Beach!

We packed up the car for a week of vacation and drove to our first stop, Toledo, for a trip to the zoo with Poppy.  Despite temperatures in the mid 90's, Daniel enjoyed seeing all the animals.

Seals and a sea turtle on display.

Daniel likes the fish, probably because

they are always on the move... just like Daniel.

This Meerkat knew it was hot out.

Poppy, Daniel, Daddy.

We headed north from Toledo to South Haven, Michigan for a several days at the beach on Lake Michigan.  Thanks to some friends of ours, Daniel had a DVD player to use in the car.  He found it very amusing to be watching Elmo in the car.

 "Elmo in car, Elmo in car!"

 Flying a kite with mommy.

The beach was nice, complete with a light house.

At the hotel Daniel went swimming for the first time

ever and enjoyed the water.  He also liked his swim suit.

 We dug lots of holes on the beach.

 It was a nice vacation at the beach!