Campers sleeping outside @ spot #1 w/ no tent. Warm night, low heat inside.
Met Scott @ fish hatchery. Technical ride. Beautiful day; got to almost 70 degs which started driving out the winter frost as it is. Some trail pieces were downright slippery: Steer the front wheel & body English the rear to follow. I forgot how technical the ride on Daniel’s Ridge is and the climb was a lung hurler. Great 16.14 mile ride for 2471′ vert.
Hung in the fish hatchery parking lot after Scott left. I walked along a pen about 5 feet across and 100 feet long that was stuffed w/ brook trout about 6″ long. A feed lot for fish. Lots of fly fisher people in Davidson River just downstream from hatchery.
I was wearing my Pisgah jersey when a younger rider asked about it. He said that he is a friend of Bruce’s & raced w/ him at the time trial on Sat in GA where I will be riding someday after Brevard.
Made good recipe dinner @ camp spot and made a good meal but a bit of a mess to clean up.
Yesterday’s ride left me w/ the feeling that something was “wrong” w/ my bike but couldn’t pin it down. The wheels wanted to track differently and felt squirrely. Yesterday Scott thought I had too much air in my tires but per my pump gage I was at 37psi. Yesterday we let air out and made the tires even softer. Today Scott used his better pressure gauge and learned that my pump reads 5 psi soft which explains the squishy ride because the tire sidewalls were flexing. Today I pumped to the “real” 37 psi and discovered that the bike literally flew. All this time I have been riding soft tires w/ greater rolling resistance. part of the trail was like a FATS section going uphill and I just jumped on it. I flew. The traction & control in the technical was even better. Pump gages are suspect. Harder tires (more air) have lower rolling resistance but bounce the rider more making for harder control.
We both forgot our cameras for today’s ride.
Zags got blown out against Memphis last night.