Ramblin' On...

35.8 Miles in Wilson Creek Wilderness - first 14 on the Big O with Mike Huggins, then Soul-O

Mike Huggins and I hatched a plan to do a sweet ride and it really panned out!

The first time through Birthday Knob today.

Mike with his new Giant Trance. Very sweet bike.

His inaugral MTB ride was exceptional.

The Big O was in great shape. We ran into Nick that used to work at Carolina Bike Works. He was looking good after some surgery. Back on his hard tail and flying down the trail.

Mikes' new Trance above. Very nice indeed!

Interesting fugi. It wasnt there last week! That stuff pops up fast. Reminds me of an old X-File.

Second time through Birthday Knob.

I love these falls. It was good to be back on such a clear and beautiful day.

I got to visit Grandpa. It has been too long.

Onto one of my favorite there and backs, The Spike. Today I climbed to the point above. It was screaming fun downhill back down to the Creek.

I had to stop for a shot of the creek on my way back to the car.

Ride Stats:

Distance: 35.8 miles

Total time: 7:59 moving time: 4:59 stopped time: 3 hours

Elevation gain: 8,702'

Avg moving speed: 7.2 mph

Start time: 9:59 a.m. Finish time: 5:59 p.m.

Amos' Epics

Great Spring Evening Kitsuma & then some Ride (awesome bear sighting)

I had planned a big solo ride for today but after mowing the yard this morning, the post man dropped off the mail and I had a rude awakening when I opened up Noel's phone bill. A word of advice to the dads out there with little girls, when you finally breakdown to the pressure that your teenage daughter will assuradly apply until you buy her a cell phone (Noel's X-mas present), keep an eye on the first few monthly bills (your wife may pay the bill and not inform you of the texting abuse of your teen age girl). Needless to say I waited for the Table Rock Middle School bus to drop our precious daughter off and we had one of those father daughter talks - that was right after I had called Verison to cancel the texting option for awhile - at least a few months.

Anyway Johnny Calhoun called right as I was ready to bust out of the house and head to the trails. We decided to meet up at the Old Fort picnic area at 5:00 and proceed to climb ole 70. What an awesone bear sighting we had on the ride up. We followed him up the concrete for what seemed like 5 or more seconds until he decided to bust to the right and climb up the embankment - thank goodness he didnt slip back down. What a rush!

You gotta love these Old hwy 70 views.

At the top of old hwy 70 we decided to explore a little bit instead of heading straight to Kitsuma. We came across this sign on an amazing there and back climb / descent. This sign provided some excellent advice that we often take for granted. Elevation at this point: approx 3,000'

A little further up the trail (300 vertical feet) was this beautiful overlook - out in the middle of nowhere. Elevation: approx. 3,300'

That is hwy 40 way down there.

We kept climbing and made it up to a max elevation of 3,762'. A nice climb considering we started at 1,600'. We then turned around and blasted back down then started the up-hill, swith-back boogie called Kitsuma. All that made for a pretty cool elevation chart - if you're into that sorta thing the charts are at the bottom of this post.

Still some climbing...

Johnny had to bolt after the blast down Kitsuma to check out some real estate but I decided to pedal down to the geyser and back to add a couple of more miles and enjoy the evening a little more. Deuce!

I love this stone chair at the getser.

Ride stats:

Distance: 20.38 miles - shorter than my original plan but a blast.

Total time: 3:28 moving time: 2:33 stopped time: 55 minutes

Total elevation gain: 5,350'

Average moving speed: 8.0 mph

Ride start time: 5:17 p.m. end time: 8:45 p.m.

Amos' Epics

Johnny Calhoun back from Nepal and shows me some Pisgah trails I had not ridden yet

Welcome back to NC, Johnny Calhoun and Crankee. Sounds like the Nepal kayaking trip was a true epic / lifetime experience. Hopefully the guys will e-mail me some pictures that I can post here. The stories were great and now I cant wait to get some visuals.

Johnny turned me onto some trail that I cant wait to get back to and do some more of and tie some other stuff into. We parked at North Mills, and proceeded to do a 11 mile climb up to the parkway. My first time climbing Laurel Mountain but it wont be my last time. As soon as we hiked our bikes onto the parkway, we ran into Obie and Polk who were about to huck down on their big rigs. Obie gave us some good advice that reaffirmed the route JC had planned for us. We dropped down on Big Creek, made a bunch of creek crossings, checked out the reservoir and linked in the bottom section of Trace Ridge (cant get enough of that one), crossed one more creek and dropped down to the cars where we ran into Obie and Polk again.

Yes, even Johnny Calhoun pushes sometimes:

Some amazing views from up there, we were very close to Mt. Pisgah.

The downhills were off the hook!
That is JC through the trees below:

Plenty of "wet foot" creek crossings.

Ride stats:

Total mileage: 22.2 miles

Elevation gain: 6,663'

Maximum elevation: 4,988'

Total time: 5:06 moving time: 3:47 stopped time: 1:19

Avg moving speed: 5.9 mph

Amos' Epics

Wednesday Evening Leisure Ride

The spring bloomage was very nice this evening. The temperature was about perfect for a mountain bike ride. I had one flat. My second since July. It is time to retreat my tubes since I've now replaced both the front and back in the last month.

Bloomage on Birthday Knob.

I had planned on riding bigger today but I decided to spend some time with Clara Ann & the girls and wait for Dan to get off work and do a loop with him. I'm glad I did, it was a good time. What this ride lacked in distance it made up for in fun and near perfect conditions.