hurronnicane

What a great day!

A long-running annual gathering of mountain biking friends at Hill Country State Natural Area. Yes, that place is too rocky. You would hate it….

On my way to Hill Country State Natural Area, I stopped at Flat Rock Ranch in Comfort, Tx. Friday morning’s rain had it damp, but it was a beautiful day out there.

After losing my CO2 tire inflator I dug through a metric shit ton of old bike stuff and in the process came up with a bunch of bike related parts, clothing and accessories that I donated to Yellow Bike. It felt good to pass it on. And I eventually found the CO2 inflator!

I rode at Reimer’s on Wednesday afternoon. As I went to put on my bike clothes I realized that I had forgotten the padded bike shorts! 🙁 I was surprised how little that actually bothered me on the ride, or afterwards.

Rode my personal trail network (PTN) a couple of mornings ago. I only rode for an hour and a half or so and it was 60 degrees when I finished. I like it!

Yes. That was me. I fell off a ledge, fractured the C2 vertebrae but I healed up nicely. I have no lingering physical effects from that. I am certainly more wary, and less comfortable riding next to drop offs. When I approach any of those pour offs/dry waterfalls I swing wide away from the edge. And I like to think I am generally more careful. Also, as I get older I try to be more deliberate and intentional about the amount of risk I take. That seems to be the ongoing search for balance for me: I want/need challenges, but I need to make it home in one piece; I crave a certain amount of exhilaration but don’t want to let it rule me. The short answer though is I do in fact feel nervous riding the trail where I fell.

Currently reading this and enjoying it. It was a random find in the new arrivals at the local library.

Nice ride at Pedernales Falls today. I recently got a new waist hydration pack that doesn’t have room for a pump, so my pump was in my wife’s pack and she wasn’t with me. My back tire was at 8 psi at the beginning of the ride and I just told myself I would be careful and borrow someone’s pump if I ran into another rider. I only encountered one rider and he didn’t have a pump either. The ride was 14 miles long and included some of the Juniper Ridge trail and my low tire did just fine.

I didn’t see the chimney. I rode here once back in the mid-90s. I was on a work related trip in Kentucky and after it ended drove my rental car to Bryson City and rented a bike. One aspect that I find interesting is that the four trails here alternate between horses and mountain bikes. Two trails each day are open to bikes and two are open to horses. The next day they flip. And horseback users and bike riders have separate trailheads/parking lots. The trails were in great shape, fairly minimal horse poop, and they have a really nice bike washing station so you don’t have to take your bike in the bathrooms to shower them off!

The obvious question is how big a problem did that become to make a sign prohibiting it.

After a lengthy hiatus from riding and camping (visiting friends and family) we ended up camping on Fontana Lake near Bryson City. The Tsali Campground has four fun trails that depart from the campground. The riding was fun, the trails fantastic, and the temperatures great. I did one ride with Sharell and it ended up being 10.5 miles and 2600 feet of elevation gain, well beyond her comfort range, though it did include a mid ride swim. The next day I rode solo and rode 14.7 miles with 3,866 feet of elevation gain. Not much gnar to report but the temperatures, the swoopy descents, and long climbs were perfect for this quasi senior citizen.

Grassy Creek Falls.

Our meandering survey of the area had us in Brevard a few days ago. I had a fun ride at DuPont riding with Sharell for awhile before she rolled down to the van, then continued on my loop. Really fun riding! Then a little live music and called it a night.

Finally we have found really fun purpose-built mountain bike trails! We are camping at Jackrabbit Mountain Campground near Hayesville, North Carolina and there are some really fun trails right out of our campsite. Rode with Sharell yesterday for 8 miles that included a mid ride swim. Then she peeled off and I did another four or five mile loop that had crazy steep and long climbs rewarded with great fun downs!

Devil’s Den? They have some new trails I haven’t seen yet but that look very cool!

Well it is demonstrably cooler than Central Texas and it has been comfortable enough to sleep in the van at night without air conditioning, so that has been a successful move on our part. We have seen a ton of rain, and the humidity continues to amaze me. From talking to the locals, Fall is the time of the year to be here. But it is beautiful, lush and quite mountainous. Riding has taken a backseat to hiking though I hope to find more riding opportunities in the next few weeks.

We left Central Texas a little over a week ago hoping to escape the heat. We are heading for North Carolina ultimately via New Orleans and Pensacola Beach. The first few nights we stayed in my sisters house followed by a couple of B&Bs. Our van only has AC when we are driving so it was critical that we get some elevation so we could sleep in the van at night and play without suffering too much during the days. We made it as far as Fort Mountain State Park in Georgia (elevation 2850) where a couple of day stay has turned into four as we sort out some van issues (worn tire, ball joint replacement, alignment). We have seen bears in the campground but yesterday evening while bombing down a trail, a bear exploded out of the thick underbrush right beside me going the opposite direction. It took a few minutes to relax after that and I found myself hollering out periodically to warn the bears that I was coming. In two fairly short rides distance-wise yesterday I climbed just under three thousand feet.

Fort Mountain State Park, in northwest Georgia.

Dawn Patrol! Early morning family ride this morning…

My daughter and her boyfriend are training for a 6-day Teluride to Moab hut-to-hut bike tour in August. After not riding much this year, they returned from a trip out West determined to get in shape. Unfortunately it is hotter than sin so they have to balance acclimatizing to the heat and humidity while also ramping up their mileage. I have accompanied them on a couple of their rides and I think they will probably be fine, though some suffering is probably in order. But what a beautiful place to suffer. I’m hoping to do the ride next Summer. Any thoughts as to whether there is any carryover fitness from training in heat and humidity to riding multiple long days at elevation?

I was getting dressed to ride yesterday evening and checked the weather on my phone. It said the air quality was crappy and I’ve been having a lot of headaches lately that I thought were caused by heat but may be allergies, or dust, or a combination of all three. So instead of riding I took the dog to the Personal Trail Network for a hike and some trail work. He was all about it.