Congrats to Clara Ann for her commitment to eating better, walking, and drinking lots of water! She has lost over 30 pounds. Lookin' good Baby!I started and ended the ride today about 25 minutes from home. I parked the Green Subaroo Machine at the first pull-out after the pavement ends on Brown Mountain Beach Rd. This parking spot is also the one I use for a lower Wilson Creek takeout when the water table allows me to paddle this exquisite section of creek. I consider it the "high water takeout" below the last rapid, Screaming Right Turn. Yes Rasta Man, there is a rapid below the normal takeout and believe me it is a doosey in a Perception Amp at 3' (yes, I know first hand). At between 6" and 9" the lower wave is in my humble opinion, the best bow surf wave on Wilson Creek. The creek necks down so much here and is so fast when the wave is in, that the water will peel you eye lids back if it splashes in your face during a dynamic surf! You'll be sqeezing the water out frm behind you eye lids post ride!
The elevation at the start of my ride was about 1157'. I maxed out at 2853'. I love this place!
Stats:Distance: 35.9 miles
Elevation gain: 8793 feet
Total time: 7 hors 21 minutes
Moving time: 5 hours 18 minutes
Stopped time: 2 hours 3 minutes
Avg Speed: 6.8 mph
Nice trail work! hmm, I wonder if the forest service did this - if so they are really cool to put so much work into keeping the mtb population happy. Or maybe the work was done by some horse people. Whoever did it put some serious time and effort into this & it's some sweet section of trail. I cant wait to see Wesley and/or Chris huck it. That would be some serious photo ops. 
Sinkhole was in great shape. I'm glad I decided to start the day with it. I had not ridden it since 12/12/07. I didnt know what to expect in terms of deadfall but it was "good to go". The last couple of times I had ridden it, I ended sliding out in the leaves at the steepest down hill section but today I was able to roll all the way down it. 
My first real break of the day at Birthday Knob, mile 9ish. 
The view of Grandfather Mountain above is from the connector trail between Raider Camp and Upper Harper Creek Falls. The sky was clear and the temperatures were perfect all day.
Upper Harper Creek Falls
In the pic above I'm pointing at the site in the next 2 pics.
I hit some of my favorite spots today!
There was some new downfall on some of the stuff between Upper Harper Creek falls and Yellow buck but only one big tree that I couldnt move off of the trail. All of the usual trees / logs were still down between UHC Falls and Kawana - I wish some horse folks would bring in a chainsaw and clear it out. 
This is a fun downhill section on Yellow Buck. The hike-a-bike on Long Ridge and the connector ridge was well worth it.
Harper Creek Falls. 15 footer into a 30+ footer!
The only pavement I rode in the entire 35.9 miles was the bridge over Wilson Creek shown above and the short section of pavement right past it.
Shout outs to some friends:
This is a fun downhill section on Yellow Buck. The hike-a-bike on Long Ridge and the connector ridge was well worth it.
Harper Creek Falls. 15 footer into a 30+ footer!
The only pavement I rode in the entire 35.9 miles was the bridge over Wilson Creek shown above and the short section of pavement right past it.
Shout outs to some friends:
Big shout-out to Gaston for doing another Brown Mountain Enduro - I think that was his 3rd consecutive BME. And he did the one in Virgina and one in New Jersey / New York in 2007. Dude, I hope you decide to do the GA one.
Congrats also go out to Steven and Keith and their posse on their "self supported" Grand Canyon trip - what a under taking! I'm lookin' forward to hearing about the trip details from these guys.
