Woke early, maybe sleep saturated. Fixed scratch pancakes. Noticed a tent setup on the ground & not gravel pad its supposed to be on. Nobody there, didn’t notice it in the dark last night. Not an issue for me, my spot 2 was fine.

Drove to FS visitor center for morning growler. Fred is on duty today. Stopped to visit for awhile. He made a Christmas trip to visit his kids & his 93 yo mother still living by herself.

Nice that turbo is working on the van meaning that there is something underneath the pedal when pushed down.

Left for Coal Mills Shoals TH around 10:30. Was cold last night & ride @ DuPont is elevation higher than Brevard & I was counting on any ice melting before I had a chance to slip on it. Not completely successful as there were a few streaks of h2o ice on climb up Cedar rock, chose to walk them. Beautiful blue sky. Catch the trail:

This is start up or down on Burnt Mtn that I just couldn’t nail either direction. Going up it is steep w/ steps to go up & over. Going down I just couldn’t let the bike roll over.

I crammed a pair of wool socks in my pack to wear crossing Little River to get to the other side. At the crossing there was a small patch of water ice on rock. Took off booties, boots, socks, & rolled up my tights. The pulled on dry wool socks. My first step in the h2o was tenuous to learn if the wool really grabbed the slippery rock like Zysk said they would. Hooray! Of course they worked, Tom. Cold feet & shins. On far side I sat on sun warmed rock & removed wet socks, squeegeed what I could w/ my hands & put back on socks & boots. Stowed the booties & wet socks & continued ride. Back @ river crossing again I pulled on wet socks & crossed successfully again. I even tested the spot where I slipped the last time. Cold feet conclusion to ride back to van.

Paid $1.19 for ride recovery Snickers candy bar @ convenience store.

Shower @ laundromat. Visited @ The Hub and listened to wild downhill crash stories being told there. Young people w/ bodies that haven’t turner brittle.

DuPont has mostly machine cut trails. I liken them to drinking Macro Beer like Bud & Millers. Gets the job done but not much taste character. Now, hand built trails are like the hand crafted beers: Lots of character and taste better. While life is too short to drink cheap beer, sometimes a guy has to ride machine cut trails. Another aspect is IMBA designed trails can be bland as in predictable, few white knuckles.

Have date to ride FATS this Sat, will ride / hang here for a few more days & then move South to SC & FATS, an IMBA epic machine cut trails.

Cost $20 for a shower and a close in place to camp last night. XG had cell phone coverage.

Called dealership just after 8AM. Mike told me to come on in and they would help. Drank quick cup of coffee and headed over to Hendersonville using GPS to find dealer. Processed service paper work. Wlaked into waiting room expecting an all day wait. Picked up local paper to start reading when a man asked me about bad weather I drove thru to get here, him thinking that I had just driven from WA. This sparked a conversation w/ another guy who had been to WA and we learned that we each had been on forest fighting crews, his from Missoula and mine from Toketee, OR. His experiences were more telling than mine. Never got to the paper about the drought the area has been experiencing like 11 to 13″ rain short for last 2 years. Then the service rep walked in w/ papers and said I was ready to go. I scanned to the bottom line and just saw 0’s w/ no number ahead of them. He said a censor burned out that told the turbocharger how to power and my van is still under warranty. In and out in less than an hour for free. BUT, the part should not have failed. This is the 2nd issue w/ the engine control system.

Beautiful day, a bit chilly but clear. Drove by DuPont each way but decided to be a rest day.

Picked up mail @ Brevard PO & did wash @ shower laundromat.

Chris Youman called me. he learned of me from a SORBA guy I rode w/ Xmas eve. He has a web site and wants to interview me and put results on web.

Chris Lesser from Bike Mag told David Turner about my adventure.

Plan is to ride here maybe 2 rides and then head down to FATS and then into GA.

Riding these machine cut trails is getting boring: no excitement mixed in w/ twisty turns. Hand built trails any day like Raccoon and Rick’s Spokane trails.

Off to creek campsite in Pisgah. Forecast is for colder temps.

Parked in a different parking lot today that was in the sun during late PM. What a wonderful sunset I was treated to.

Slept soundly in parking lot. Leisurely Bfast as I am to hit bike shop @ 10:00 to learn about road wheel. Arrived @ shop @ 10:00. Saw Dave’s truck & store dark. Read sign: 2:00 to 4:00 on Sun. Couldn’t understand Dave’s answering message.

Headed out to Brevard.

Found Jackrabbit park, Forecast called for clearing & warming temps. Neither occurred but at least no rain.

Like 5 loops out on peninsulas, see map data. Machine made trails for 95%. Nothing technical or exciting. there are some twisty turny trails but they lack authenticity like Raccoon. All by myself & just 2 recent old tracks in mud before me.

Some of older trails had worn down their machine cut:

These are class bikes suited for these trails:

Continued back to Brevard. Somewhere during the drive up the high point I noticed that the engine control light came on and there was less power and then i saw smoke behind me. I pulled over @ top of hill like right then. Smoke was coming from me. I checked the fuel cap to see if I didn’t fasten it securely, no it was. Remembered when the gauge went out I learned that the engine will run but won’t be tuned to operate efficiently. I need to drive to Hendersonville Mon AM to seek repair. It was either drive and believing no harm to engine, or call AAA & have it towed.

I am debating how far to go out into the woods tonight. Maybe the XG & pay for a spot & shower.

Better see if rig starts from grocery store parking lot or I will be here tonight & towed tomorrow.

Van does a VW bus on me @ like 35,000 miles. Too early to get VW paranoia.

More tomorrow

Outta here