I have been staying out @ Todd’s @ Cedar mtn and out of internet access and then I spend access time visiting & not posting. Today i am in my van in a parking lot near the Biltmore estate in Asheville staying out of rain. Have an evening meeting w/ Bruce to experience an Asheville street scene.
2 days ago I drove out to where Todd is building new trail on Falling Creek ranch. I saw the trail from pin flag to ready to ride, and I rode the finished trail. Machine cut trails when done well as in this case are charms to ride. These trails are made for mtn bikers. Much emphasis is on “flow”, just how you pedal and ride a trail. Are the turns natural, can you go from turn to turn naturally? How steep are the climbs? Of course everything is about getting the h2o off the trail which eliminates erosion damage. Todd uses a Ditchwitch walk behind tracked machine. He is an artist w/ it. The lve land here is thick w/ rhody thickets and last winter’s ice damage. Creating the trail is very difficult because of said vegetation. He flags the proposed trail keeping around a 5% grade. Next is to clear a corridor using a chain saw. Next is to clear the ground of debris using a power blower. Then the machine moves the dirt. Finish work cuts out roots by hand. last is to blow the leaf litter back onto trail hiding the scars, and a single pass down trail to establish a line. Trail was fun to ride, again, focusing on line and not worrying about what’s on the ground.
Plan was to watch trail building then drive west to meet Shrimper for a ride @ Panthertown @ 3:00, do his ride, then drive back to Todd’s for dinner. I finally hooked up w/ Shrimper as his directions were lacking. He drove thru Lake Toxaway’s posh neighborhoods to TH. Roads were quite steep: 1st gear in his Outback. Our route was from the east and missed the high alpine forests a little further west. We encountered ice storm damage that tested our bush bashing tolerance and time. Shrimper called our effort off after about 25 mins as he felt that the rest of our ride was going to be like this and that we might not finish before dark. Worked for me. We each left a bit of blood. Ice storm damage was common to certain exposure and we were in it. I suffered a cut on my left arm and the blood ran down towards my hand a stopped @ my handcrafted bracelet and created a dried blood bracelet. Looked like a bad cut but the small one just bled a bit. I accused Shrimper of checking me out for possible dinner up in the mountains.
Made it back to Todd’s for late dinner.
Yesterday was a date w/ Sycamore Cycles to replace my Maxxis Ardent tires w/ Specialized Purgatory 2.2 2bliss tires to match local conditions. Wes said he had Ardents but they didn’t sell, he gave last one away to get it out of shop. Tires on I headed to DuPont forest on Corn mill Shoals trail to test tires and wired on grips. Tires roll much easier. I tested the traction and learned that these are better tires for these conditions. I agressively carved turns and rode steep cross sections of granite slick rock w/ complete confidence. I checked out the nasty section on Burnt mtn. I hike -a- bike up it checking out the downhill. My bike rolled the drops so i should be able to ride it, it is a question of nerves. I looped back on Burnt mtn so i could ride the downhill. I rode to the steep roll overs and chickened out. I can ride it.
Last night I fixed my waldorf salad for Todd & Heather. Todd is organizing a ride on Sunday w/ his buds and I am invited. Cool. Enjoying my visit w/ Todd & Heather.
Today is Ashville and return to Brevard on Sat.
Cudos: PricePoint is giving me a bike stand. Squirt is giving me chain lube.
