The flat lands:
Good ride Saturday morning. Johnny Calhoun and I met up with MH and Buddy for a few laps.
MH hurt her shoulder and had to finish up early. I'm sorry and I'm really not a jinx. I hope it is healed up and we can try it again up in the Wilson Creek Wilderness area soon!
Buddy got lost or something. He was right behind me one minute and no where to be found the next. Buddy, where are you dude? It was good to finally ride together, sorry it ended early. Dude, you always have a place to stay in Glen Alpine! I hope Mattie is doing well.
Bob and Sarah showed up and we all rode together for a while. Ash and I got in about 20 miles. The Beaver Dam trails are a lot of fun.
As I drove closer to
Havelock and familiar sites, old memories started surfacing. I reminised how good the fishing used to be down there. I miss the times 20+ years ago, when me and the boys used to paddle and fish all those creeks (Tucker, Clubfoot, Slocum, Hancock, Cahoogue, and Mitchell creeks), that feed the
Neuse River. Good times.
Strapping the canoe on top of the Datsun B210, stocking up on some worms, minnows or just lures then burnin' up the roads to the creeks. Those were some good times and more often than not after one of these paddlin' trips, I ate fish for supper.
Pine Cliffs is very worth a day visit even if there isnt a keg party. It is where hwy 306 meets the Neuse River. The trail head is on the shores of the Neuse River and very close to the Cherry Branch to Minnesott ferry. Last time I visited my parents I trail ran part of the Mountains to Sea trail
that starts at the
Pine Cliffs camping/picnic area (if you look hard enough you can see it on the map). I ended my run where the MTS trail, (down here this section is also called the Neusiok trail) crosses hwy 101. Thankfully Clare Ann set shuttle for me on that trip.
The start of the trail where is parallels the Neuse River.
This was one of the board walks that carried the trail through parts of the more swampy sections. As you can see it has a slope in sections. I was glad that I had not attempted to bike it as it was far too wet. I ended up jogging through water that was up past my ankles before I made it to the rendezvous with Clare Ann at Hwy 101.
Plenty of these guys down there.
I couldnt help but add this picture of fungi. I played with the color a little bit...
It was a good Gauley weekend. Summersville Lake had plenty of water in it.
Get some Pillow:
Nick entering Pillow.
Keith stylin it:
Volkswagon Rock.
Lost Paddle:
Iron Ring:
River Boarders on the Upper Gauley are bad ass:
As Southern Culture on the Skids says: "Hey, Whats that buzzin' up around my head." 
He was giving me the crazy eye:
The zoo called Sweets Falls:
Til next time...
The top: Gingercake Acres / Gingercake Mtn. By this point I had paid for some gradient.
Finally the "pay off", some exceptional single track: the trail head for Raspberry Ridge. Time to get a little back! Actually I got a lot back and I loved every single foot. All of the trails were in excellent condition; smooth, fast, dry, and primo. After Raspberry I pedaled back up to 181, on up to Barkhouse, dropped it, again pedaled back up to 181,
crossed over and did Ripshin Ridge. I love this view from Ripshin. It looked like there might be some smoke just to the right of Grandfather Mtn. I got to see a nice size deer on Ripshin today. 
Next up was Hedleys. I finally took a sitdown break to eat my only bar and let it sink in that I was about to ride some of the best trail anywhere. Up til this one, I was riding pretty hard and only stopping briefly for photos and to move some rocks out of the runout of the Raspberry berms (hopefully that will prevent another fractured Scapula). This next shot has a blur just to the right of my bike, it was a motorcycle. 
After the climb up out of "lower" Upper Creek on this newly grated road,
this is the view I got to enjoy.
I obviously ended up with good genetics so the rest is up to me.
At first I thought all the caution signs were a little bit of overkill but after my little "mishap" I paid closer attention to all signage. 
I did about 10 miles and had a blast. I'll be back for some more, as it is pretty convienient if I'm heading east.
Ozomatli was on first and got really funky. I read they have won a Grammy?
