Plan Fri was to ride N Mills river on Spencer’s Ridge that Todd laid out for me. However, the skies darkened, illuminated w/ lightning flashes, and peals of thunder up where the ride was to be. Area receives lots of T-storms. Two years ago Todd and I were up near MT Pisgah in a T-storm that was right over us: crack of lightning, crash of thunder, and hail. I decided to be safe and took another day off. I had another beer in Brevard Brew pub.
I drove to Joey’s carpet cleaning service in Brevard for him to perform his wonders on my dirty carpet. He speaks w/ a country drawl. I called him on cell asking for directions. I struggled to comprehend his directions while I was driving w/ the window down. He cleaned the carpet.
Sat AM I drove to Bracken mtn TH to help on a trail project that Todd is building. Effort today is to cut out roots exposed by blade of ditch witch. Todd made almost an engineering marvel swinging the trail back and forth on the steep slope in a narrow right of way corridor. The resulting trail is not something you want to start right on as it is a gut buster. We walked over a mile to where we started work. The trail is 6 miles long. Todd is a professional trail builder, he is partner w/ Bill Victor in Long Cane Trail Construction. Another hot and humid day. Shrimper is a friend of Todd’s and a trail builder using a small excavator. Wes, owner of Sycamore Cycles, and Chris, running for Pisgah SORBA chairman, Mike, and me cut roots for 3 hours.
Todd was going to lead me on the unopened trail. The tread is freshly cut and still greasey. While we hung in the parking lot a micro T-storm dumped rain making the trail even slipperier. We changed plans to go ride the ride I wanted to do yesterday. DuPont was getting dumped on to the East.
I drove putting Todd’s clean bike inside. We rode off on typical Pisgah trails. We climbed up an abandoned logging road to Spencer Ridge trail. We dropped down another eroded fall line trail swinging across a small creek. Horses had muddied the trail. We were pretty muddy. I rode across the main creek at our trail junction to wash off some mud. Skillful pedaling and balance kept me upright w/ only wet feet from the bottom of the pedal stroke. Trail became an old railroad bed w/ some rotting cross ties complete w/ rail spikes sticking up. We dropped down a reconstructed piece of trail complete w/ machine cut dirt features. We finished our ride after 7 muddy and content. I put Todd’s dirty bike inside on my clean carpet.
We drove into Asheville to this new modern shopping and residence center, REI is a business here. I shopped REI 2 weeks prior but did not venture further into the project. This time we went in further to a wild pedestrian mall. We ate at a cool build your own burrito place and watched people.
Back @ Todd’s a last shower and visit. Sunday I planned on heading N. I bid a fond farewell to Todd.
Sunday I headed N to Boone and Rocky Knob trail. Shrimper worked on part of it. I miscomprehended the location. After not finding the TH where I drove to I drove back and found it right off the main highway, not .7 miles down Bamboo rd. A rider drove in and spotted my van. Paul had read about me. He was a main spark plug in making the trails happen here. He rode off to do trail work. I made my way up later. Trails are almost all machine cut switchbacking across the treed mountainside. The tread is over small rock that could not be bladed out making the tread fun to ride.
Several places on the trail required wooden bridges to go over wet spots:
I then headed N to town of Jefferson. I saw New River state park; research revealed showers were near by. After another sweating hot humid ride I wanted clean. I found a XG in the park but it was for river runners. A female ranger on crutches gave me directions to a car camp. On the way I saw a sign for Airport which are great places to free camp. I drove to a mid sized airport w/ no tower. I parked on gravel out of the way. I saw purple flowers: Knapweed. The airport was closed. A car was parked in front of the building. I pulled down my bike to work on it. A guy walked over, he works @ the place. I asked if there would be a problem, he said no.
I was parked in full sun. Another spot was further west off the gravel partially shaded by short black locust trees. I moved over to that spot. I was inside on the floor fixing a drawer slide when I heared a greeting. Another guy saw my van and was curious. I shared van details w/ him. Both of these guys go to the airport to walk or run around the runway. I fixed my solar shower and hung it in the sun. After dinner I had a tepid shower in the heat.
Hot and humid, temp 66 @ bedtime. I didn’t sleep well. Before sunrise I heard traffic in the paved parking lot. Soon voices. I discretely got out of bed and dressed @ 6:15. I finally got out and walked over to a group of men. They were working on extending the runway. They left @ 7:00 and I fixed B-fast.
Today’s plan is to drive N to VA and Douthat SP above Clifton Forge. The park name seemed familiar but I couldn’t place it. I researched my ride log and found that I rode it back in 2010. None the less I drove N on twisting hilly rt 221. No shoulder w/ lots of driver input. 88 degrees.
I drove to road leading into park and parked under a tree to create this. I slept in a parking lot a few feet away rather than camp in State Park. SPs are non drinker friendly, meaning beer is discretely consumed. And cost $ that my Forever Federal pass won’t apply meaning full price. At least VA SP allow drinking inside a residence or rv. I am debating where to stay tonight then get an early start on the ride. I will repeat last ride on the race course: 17 miles and 3277′ climbing.