Ramblin' On...

Sitting Bear and Devils Hole, Linville Gorge

He likes to look over the edge:

Onto the Brown Mountain Overlook on 181

Amos' Epics

Scouting out the Mountains to Sea Trail and Overmountain Victory Trail on the west side of the Kistler Memorial Hwy

Views from the Kistler Memorial Highway

The trail drops off of KMH with one switchback at the top then stays very straight for a good ways. It is probably the straightest trail around. Felix enjoyed it:

The creek at the bottom. There is a very nice camp site just past this point.

This section of the MTS trail was nice and clear but there was a small creek running through the middle of the trail in a few sections.

The single track T's into the road designated 106 on my map. The sign above is straight across the road (106) from where the MTS takes a left and follows 106. Click on the sign to enlarge, it is an interesting story and map.

The MTS takes a left up 106 - see the white dot in the pic below - the Over Mountain Victory Trail continues straight. At first I followed the road...

I followed 106 for over a mile to the pic below and decided to turn around. It just kept climbing at this point and it was getting late. The bear hunters were burnning up this road and the Kistler Memorial Hwy.

The view below was from a wildlife viewing area right off of the road:

Back at the cross roads I took a left and headed down the OVTrail for about a mile. The OVT was exceptional; nice and clear with an incredibly hard base. I was rewarded with another nice field similar to one of the wildlife viewing areas and some nice twilight views.

Back to the creek crossing. I hiked out in the dark. A very good scouting hike. Now I've got some ideas of how to link some trails...

Amos' Epics

Moe rocks the house in Boone Thursday night then three shuttle rides that add up to about 20 miles on vacation day Friday.

The Moe show was at Legends on the campus in Boone. We had a positive show report from Brotha Man Bob High who had seen them in Raleighwood the previous night. They did not disappoint in Boone either. The crowd was not very big but the people that showed were totally getting into the music. I think I even saw the cop dancing. It was my first Moe show but I hope it wont be my last.
Friday morning Obie helped me take some parts off my NRS and out of my used parts bin to get the SupaLite back on the trail. We were riding Yellow Buck before noon. Thanks for the tics, pics, and good times OB!
Obie droppin' Yellow Buck for the first time:

We rode Yellow Buck first then onto Visitors Center and lastly we worked our way up 181 to Ginger Cake Acres and rode Raspberry out to 181 then down the hwy to Hedley's. We did a 5.1 mile ride, a 5.6 mile ride and a 9.2 mile ride for a total of 19.9 miles. Lots of down hill and good times.Our ride stats were pretty good. There was a fair share of hike a bike due mostly to Yellow Buck Total elevation gain was 3,703' while the total elevation loss was 7,338'! Total ride time was 3 hours 30 minutes. Shuttles were not bad at all. Amos' Epics

Two runs on the Watagua at a great level. A fall day in the high country. It was 42 degrees when I got to the river and 42 degrees when I left.

I headed up to the Watagua early and dropped the boat at the put in hoping to find someone at the takeout to hook up with for a couple of runs. Luckily I met up with Adam and his crew from Charlotte and they got me back to the put in and were ok with me joining their group. A very nice group of guys. They had a few more guys waiting at the put in for a total group of 7. I paddled down with them to Hydro. Alex and crew started passing the Charlotte crew at Hydro. Adams group was pretty big so I jumped in with Alex. We picked up Will and Michael for the second run. I think Alex was the only one of us that ended up with three runs at the end of the day. What a great level!