Lights of Huntsville blazing in the valley below my free campsite.
Set my time pieces ahead to daylight. Woke in the dark. Meeting Gracie @ 9:30 so i had a schedule to meet. Nobody up in XG. Drove to bike parking TH. Got to thinking that I might have moved a time zone West. Checked the rand Mcnally and learned AL is central time. Putzed around @ Gracie arrived @ real 9:30.
We headed out on Monte Santo trails, Gracie is a skilled & strong rider: 11 years younger, great shape, and living successfully w/ MS. Trails are a bit technical but nowhere near so as Snake Gap. Good riding, picking better lines over tech stuff. Learned @ Pisgah to let the 5.5″ of suspension help me out more than I let it previously. Hip whipping the turns. 14.76 miles & 1510′ vert.
No leaves on trees. Spring woods flowers coming up to bloom. A bit overcast & humid. Sunburned my arms
Followed Gracie down the mtn, she showed me Jamie & Morgan’s house where I will stay out front tonight. I offered to show pictures of my trip and Gracie is working on that.
Gracie let me mow her yard.
Humid day, temp almost 80.
Monte Santo is on top of a short mountain several hundred feet above Huntsville. Bike trails are hand made twisting around trees & dealing w/ rocks like PA rocks. I was concerned on how technical it would be, I was envisioning trails rougher than Snake gap but rode everything.
The reference to ‘PA rocks’… I’ve seen it before on prior posts, it seems that PA and/or WV must set the benchmark for rocky trails?
So, are you interested in tool planning? ;’) There’s an opening.
Saw this headline, thought of you…The bicycle diaries: From England to India on two wheels – preparation begins
Douglas Whitehead prepares to leave the economic doom and gloom of Britain behind for nine months in an attempt to cycle all the way to Delhi, India.
Hi, Noah,
Are you the hiring manager?
Still have your Civil War cds. I have viewed them once and should once more before I return them. South history.
jhl99,
WV sets the mark for rocky trails.
Every state or locale has different kind of rock unless the rides are real close to one another. PA has small tips of rocks making their break for the sky; they ride differently than rocks that are axle height. NE has big rocks that are slabs.
But I will say that the rocks I rode today on another monte sano ride were brutal.
Glad you’re enjoying the Ken Burns DVD’s. I watched as much as I could while I worked my month on swing shift. I’m moving to floor panels so my seat is open. We have been intrigued by the peach branchwater, too bad it’s not available locally!
She let you mow her yard? Careful. Whitewashing fences really isn’t that fun.