A car of bikers snatched my camp spot last night. What was worse was the other spot was in an XM blind spot. Quiet w/o tunes.

Rained during night, again, under trees delivering the irregular pater / pounding of rain drops.

Fred from the USFS stopped by for a short visit on his rounds. I asked for him to show me DuPont and his wheels started turning.

Too wet to ride. Drove N and filled propane. Drove back to Brevard & grocery shopped. Drove into town and window shopped. Went into a chocolate shop & bought some chocolate goodies.

Back out at gravel parking lot. I walked across a major intersection with no pedestrian Xing to Sycamore Cycles. The owner was one of the riders that went by Rich and I on Sat. I queried him about tires. I splurged and bought a pair of Maxis Advantage 2.1 tires. Joined the current state of tire design and relegating the old Velociraptor tires to spares. Expect these tires to up my riding performance. After PUSH Industries tuning the shock & fork, & John in Exeter, VT lowering my seat, and now these new tires I am still looking for the reason for my riding miscues.

Scott made it back to Indy after the concerts and is making riding plans for this weekend. I asked him to put a plug in Nature’s sprinklers as the forecast this week is for rain.

White squirrels in Brevard: they are real and have an explanation. Short story: squirrels were relocated from Hawaii into FL where a traveling circus man gave them to a relative of a family in Brevard who after 1 escaped let the other 1 go and the rest is like rabbits. They are protected in the city. No leg hold traps but what do you do when they are nesting in the insulation in your attic?

Stopped @ Looking Glass Outfitters, a climbing technical backpacking shop, met Phil, the owner. Petted his dog. He invited me to a shop party this evening. Young people sorting out their dreams. I’m happy that I am older and still sorting out my dreams.

Visited library to occupy time waiting out rain. Noticed lots of older people there also. Library excitement & stimulation.

Gotta go party.

Zags beat Cougs last night, Thanks XM radio for the coverage. I stayed awake till half time. the west coast game times are beyond stay awake time.

Rained quite a bit last night, fortunately I only heard the patter of pure falling drops.

Stopped @ USFS RS information office to educate myself of forest things and received a wonderful exchange w/ Fred who works there as a volunteer. He is a biker and lived near White Clay and Fair Hill that we shared. He is retired. He said that he was busy the first year but needed something to keep him occupied which lead him to volunteer jobs w/ the USFS. last year he and his wife worked Grand Canyon. He was an engineer.

Just so much stuff to learn from when I make the time for exchanges. The rain kept the other visitors away so I pigged out on out sharing.

A full time FS woman entered the conversation and shared her dream of bike riding X the country and was looking for knowledge. She like other people, me still included, have real or imagined road blocks that prevent us from living our dream. May she chase her dream across the country on a bike with the wind at her back and all the hills be down.

Called Tom Z and enjoyed an hour of companionship. Spokane is about to plunge into freezer per forecast. Brevard is above freezing. 2nd day of using no heat.

Ironspoke is following me and adding my adventures to his web site.

Meeting Scott from Indianapolis for ride tomorrow. Paul from Canada picked me up with a coment and will be down here next weekend for a  ride. I might join. Hey, hang in the Pisgah and the world comes to you. I never tried this at say like Moab to learn if the same thing occurs.

As I have grown & expanded on this adventure I have learned that a bigger life exists outside my Sprinter walls. Perhaps I will make another trip around the country to learn more people. Hey, maybe try Mohican in Ohio to see how many people would venture there to join me. OK, Decorah, IA then.

Hey, I want to be a hippie but my hair won’t grow that long.

In Blue Highways Heat-Moon quotes an 83 year old woman on her lessons learned in life: ” Having gumption to live different and the sense to let everyone else live different.”

With that, say good night Ethyl and I am off to FS road 1206 camp for tomorrow’s ride.

West Virginia is mountainous, sparsly populated, no cell phone or internet, but a CXT outhouse in a XG.

Friday was another gorgeous day: blue sky, warm temps, & optimism to ride rock gardens at Dolly Sods. drove up windy single lane road to TH amid bird hunters. Took off for first challenge:

And I walked some of it. I am just a pretendre that i can ride rocks. Suffered thru this stuff to be greeted by this:

Les keeps asking me if I am still having fun, well if I keep riding rock gardens like these, no I am not. Or, if I continue to be snookered by overstated rides. More about that later.

So this turned out to be an out & back short ride: 7.36 in 90 mins.

Drove into XG for another shower & the ranger & I passed on my way in. Shoot, busted I thought. Took a shower & headed out of park to encounter the ranger on his way back in. Escaped, maybe him the wiser but me the cleaner.

Plan now is to drive to Slaty Fork to pick up mail & several days of riding in another mtn bike mecca. I miss picking the mail up by 3 mins. I go by Elk River which lists mtn biking on their marquee. Jump in. Find a closed bike shop & establishment but a TH & a map. I debate about camping @ TH but it appears to be in restaurant parking lot and nobody is around to square it away. I head furhter up the road & pass a USFS road named Mine Rd. I duck in and there is a parking lot right away and I score a legal flat place to crash. Lots of party litter around saying that either a whole lot of people are litter bugs or this place has some serious partying. I pick up trash just in the lot. I slept undisturbed.

Next AM dally a bit because PO is open from 10 to 12. I stop @Elk River and now the front door is unlocked but nobody home. Finally Mary, the head woman ( I guess), arrives and I quiz her on rides and buy a local map. Beware of the person giving ride ideas. I decide on Propps which is right at the lodge.

I drive to PO to pick up license tabs that are due on on Sunday and my jury summons for Spokane Cty.

Back @ TH. Chilly, threat of rain, great weather is now gone along with all the leaves. Ride turns out to be a boggy ST on a long abondoned logging road. It was described as ST and Challenging. The challenges were the hidden bogs & thorn vines. The fallen leaves hid the wet spots as no tracks since snow melt from last week. Stopping meant long slides as the leaves slid along the wet earth. The thorn gashes added to the healing wounds on my calves. 1 hr 41 mins of solid pedalling to turn around and then 1 hour downhill for 17 miles & 2100′ vert climbing. Sort of felt good to get into a climbing pace. But miffed that the trail was a bust.

At the TH I washed my bike of the WV mud, changed out my midchain ring as it suffered tooth destruction that a dentist could not restore, and swapped out an eggbeater pedal as the wing which holds the shoe cleat to the pedal was looser than a 6 year old’s loose front tooth. Darn dentists.

Chilly working outside.

Drove into Slaty Fork looking for the 2 bars that Tom said would probably be there. Well, Slaty Fork is not even a wide spot on the highway. Back in  the resource extraction days it was hardwoods & coal. Slaty Fork is now a wood products company town again harvesting local hardwoods.

Mary told me a blight of some kind killed the local beech trees.

I visited an antique store just down road from logging. Great looking at stuff I could remember and stuff that was older than me. I bought a qt of WV maple syrup. I opened the jug and compared it to the VT I have left. The WV is an amber color that signifies it is the first syrup of the season. A lady who works in the store said she liked the VT better.

Drove up out of valley and down other side to Marlinton in hopes of internet access as the size of the name print on the map indicates it is a larger burg. Still no access. Bought some groceries. No cash back as they said they do not keep enough $ in the tills.

Drove back towards Slaty and turned off on mtn road towards tomorrow’s ride. I planned on TH crashing. A sign at the intersection warned of dire consequences if it snowed and I saw snow flakes and the road kept climbing. I chickened out & retreated to last night’s spot.

Plan is to ride Sunday on the other side of the mountain, a mecca of ST. The hard road climbed to 4380′ before dropping 1200′ to a TH. The road was cut along the mtn side offering views to the mountainous skyline. Still no cell phone connection. But I did see snow flurries. I drove into XG hoping to see some bikers to ride with. 1 campsite had 2 men standing around a campfire but no bikes. And I was seeing snow flurries. It is now legitimate cold: Full leg warmers, long underwear top and long fingered gloves.

I reread for the umteen time the fork set up instructions and tuned the fork. Shit, somewhere along the line I turned the travel adjustment down to 4 inches giving up 1.5″ to match the rear end. What a difference 1.5″ make. Now front & rear have same travel.

I found the TH for a ST per the map. It turned out to be another ST on the abandoned logging road. Another bust. And I was still seeing snow flurries. My bike computer battery charge failed so I had no ride info. I rode up a ways all the while contemplating the snow flurries as I did not want to ride in snow and neither did I want to drive these mountain roads snow tires or not. Back at TH I rode up a bit of the Tea Creek Mtn trail. This was legitimate tough ST: narrow,  side hill, rooty, and steep. The ride is to ride the 4 miles & 13”vert on road & descend this trail. I decided against it as I did not want the weather exposure of the road ride and the trail was too nasty to ride out & back.

Back @ TH I checked out a familiar looking outhouse and it was a CXT from Spokane.

I drove up and back down to Marlinton looking for a laundromat and a shower. Laundry was in a combination video rental / laundromat. No shower.

XG guide I have said that Seneca SF just up the road had showers. I drove to it but the book lied.

I am now on my way to Virginia giving up on Slaty Fork.

I trusted the GPS to find the shortest way to Harrisonburg. It selected a narrow back road that ended up in a driveway. Maybe at one time the road went thru. I learned that in the mountains maybe the GPS shortest way is the long way.

Up the highway i saw a XG & restaurant and putting on a smile of optimism of buying a shower I entered. Yes, for $2.00. Clean again. Hot h2o but an unheated restroom.

More driving on windy up & down national road 250. Up a mountain, twist down the back side and climb out, repeat multiple times.

Trusted gps to find fuel. Picked  a station in the toolies. Diesel for $3.00 a gallon! cheapest so far.

Trusted gps to find a Target in Harrisonburg and it nailed it. No more stopping & asking for directions.

Sitting here in a shopping center parking lot, Kroger grocery store. Forecast is for below freezing the next 2 nights warming up during the day. Debating on where to crash. City selection process again.

Rain later this week. I should take a rest day