Got cold last night, couldn’t;t get temp right either too much blanket or not enough heat w/ less blanket.
Camp is still next door & abandoned. Fred says that sometimes homeless people camp out in the forest and then leave leaving most everything behind.
Clear cold morn. decided to ride the same as my first ride here: Up the logging road past the horse stable to Black Mtn over to Buckwheat gap over to Bennett & down. Got into riding up road working on a good spin. On the rough hand made ST I focused on pedaling over the stuff on the trail vs speeding up & hitting them to go over. Rode more things spinning. Trail tread covered w/ leaves leaving me guessing what might be underneath. Almost all of the trails are firm lacking loose rock. But the firm objects needed to be reckoned with. No falls. Getting better at taking bigger drops.
11.12 miles, 2 hours ride time, 2477′ vert. Almost an hour road climb.
Steve from the Dupont ride was parked @ the stables after completing the same ride I was doing. He gave me some more ride ideas further N & E.
A refreshing shower @ laundromat.
Called Pisgah Works in Asheville who had an ad in Dirtrag for Merino wool long sleeve bike jersey. A wool long sleeve jersey will be so comfortable, will put a great smile on my face. Spoke w/ Bruce, the owner, and swapped ride tails. He has taken road trips over the years and rode some of the same trails I have ridden in OR & WA. Big ones: McKenzie River , Lewis River, part of the Umpqua, & Phil’s @ Bend. He invited me up tomorrow for a night experience in Asheville and I will take him up. Said there is some good locally brewed beer to taste. Like I said, “Beer & Bikes.” He gave me a ride for tomorrow: Turkey Pen to Squirrel Gap trail. New ride here in the Pisgah.
Bill from FATS scheduled me for a ride on Sat. He said that there are some old non FATS trails to be ridden hopefully Sunday.
Spent part of AM locating future rides. No matter how I do it I have a long drive to north central FL and then back North. I am thinking of getting it over with right after FATS. The forecast down here is for almost zero temps for this weekend and then warming next week. Catch FL after the deep freeze, might even ride in shorts but no new jersey.
Price of diesel starting back up. In TN I bought for $2.05 / gal. Spent $2,200 so far that was to last for 2 years.
Much effort is expended in building new machine cut trails as well as hand built ones. The machine built ones start to take on the feel of driving an interstate: they are designed to be “flowey” so much that they start to feel the same everywhere. An old hiking trail might be a bitch to ride but it is not boring. The machines remove almost all the roots and rocks, stuff that make a trail challenging. They are also wider and way more room between the trees. They might ride faster. Hand built are very labor intensive taking more time per mile of trail.