Drove back up Avery Creek and spot number 2 was open. Homecoming. I have lived there longer than any place since July 9 when my house closed. Abandoned camp was cleared up except for townie bike that is locked to a tree. Fred told me that these campsites are the most popular because they are about 3 miles from town.

Plan is to ride a Bruce suggestion: Ride up to horse stables, climb to Buckhorn gap (52 mins from van), down to S Mills River trail to Squirrel Gap and turn around @ Horse Cove. Cold clear blue skies started the ride about 10:45. I CAMP IN A CREEK Bottom with high hills that block sun till maybe 8:30. The ground froze last night. My bike cover had ice blocks where the rain froze. Big grind up logging road to Buckhorn. There were several downhills on the road that had to be reclimbed on way to Gap. Tread frozen. Buckhorn is where Black Mtn crosses ( see previous blogs). Buckhornt & S Mills are old logging road beds w/ a ST down it. Shallow elevation change; just old road riding. Crossed river & picked up Squirrel Gap which is old ST hiking trail. Way more interesting & challenging. Skies have now darkened & snow flurries are falling. Its around freezing. I am wearing a wool long underwear top under my Pisgah Works wool jersey under a windbreaker. My heavy gloves, shorts, tights, insulated booties, & helmet cap. Nobody else out.

The ride was uphill about 5 miles. Sort of got warm. from Buckhorn back to van was mostly downhill with those short uphills that were down on way up for warmth generation. I still got deep cold.

Checked out beaver activity on creek @ horse stables. Saw Sam’s rig near Bennett’s Gap.

Back into laundromat for shower & wash. deep cold that hot shower water would chase away, but the hot water quit before I rinsed off. Clean but still deep cold. Snow flakes are now falling intermittently. Running late today.

Parked @ Dolly’s. Getting colder also. Snow flurries. During dinner sister Lynn engages me in telephone story telling for an enjoyable time.

Forecast wants less than 1″ snow. Road to & from XG is mostly flat. I hope no problem w/ snow. Got heater on high.

Sitting in my van in Dollie’s Ice Cream gravel parking lot on rt 276 to interior of Pisgah NF having cleaned up the kitchen & dining room of a simple skillet dinner of sweet potato, chicken breast, broccoli steamed in olive oil, curry, & cinnamon. Make this dish frequently as it is easy,  quick to fix, & is healthy. Back in the house day I might take an hour to fix dinner; on the road I have cut that time in half & eat more simply. I could still fix most gourmand meals I want if I invest the resources.

Kitchen cleanup is heating a small revere ware sauce pan full of water for wash & rinse. The gravel is the perfect sink water wash station.

I push the computer to create a place to put the skillet down & chow down engaging the manners I remember. I get no practice of talking with food in my mouth.

Back to history.

Fix Bfast & clean up. Bill invites me up for pancakes and the 3 kid active show. I believe they are a pair of 3 yo twins boy, girl & a 2 yo girl. Little kids. The house also has 3 dogs, Sadie the oldest has the kids figured out. One of them takes a plate of pancakes to the front room. Their hands are just about dog mouth height. They put their plate down & Sadie cleans up. Kids always have a clean plate for seconds.

Bill drives us way out into South Carolina countryside to pick up the TH for one of the 40 yo hand built hiking trails that have had bike trail work on them. Great riding on trails that had rocks & roots. The gulleys we crossed had not been smoothed out by machines and were quite abrupt. Sections of ST were connected by some good distance road ride. The last piece was 9 miles back to car. I drank all my 70 oz less what spilled out the unsealed top early in the ride. I started cramping really hard if I pushed overly hard going uphill. Made it w/o body crumpling leg cramps.

What we rode was just regular hand built trails, almost like all trails in the same geographical area. FATS is an experience in riding that is unique. There is no question that you are riding something different when you ride FATS.

Bill drove by FATS to pull down the trail closed signs because of the wet trails. We passed the parking lot, there might have been 80 cars in there, the most Bill has ever seen. It was a beautiful warm sunny Sunday afternoon.

On Sat there might have been 50 cars but we hardly saw a rider on our 19.89 mile ride.

Sunday’s ride finished @ 27.97 miles, the longest so far this year & 1911′ vert.

I went with Bill on an scoping trip for a trail building proposal on the Greenway in N. Augusta. I rode an old hardtail steel frame, no clipless pedals bike with funky brake lever shifters, and no helmet during our tour.

I was invited to dinner. I did watch the SuperBowl and enjoyed Springsteen’s halftime show. A Springsteen concert at the SuperBowl. You all got treated to Bruce. I left the game early 3rd quarter and missed out on the close game.

Said goodbye to Bill as he headed to work. I visited w/ Liz and the kids for awhile. Liz can understand what the twins say, I can’t. Their activity is like herding cats.

Drove slow roads back to Brevard. Started raining near the SC / NC border on into Brevard. Settled back into routine of grocery shopping, hanging @ Dollies for internet access, and shortly the drive back to my camp spot. Forecats here is for cold temps & snow @ night.

Wed is PT appointment for another go @ my knee. Bruce, of Pisgah Works wool jersey fame, is inviting me on a ride. Young people, I like them but I can’t keep up with them.

Sunny chilly beautiful morning.

Breakfast & short drive to Bill’s house. Meet Liz, Bill’s wife. 3 kids are whirlwind of activity.

Drive over to FATS TH to meet other riders who are joining us. Bill’s plan is to complete the FATS dance card for me & complete all the trails in the system. He & his friend Trey take off & are gone almost immediately. Sometimes the trail twists in on itself & I can hear them talking. Man I can’t stay that close anymore. They would stop along the way to let me catch up. You Spokane riding buddies that taught me the 29 30 rule was applied to me. I pushed real hard to keep close.

These trails are so fun to ride, it’s like a constant spin either in a big gear w/ low rpm or lower gear but high rpm. I haven’t figured out the gearing. The ups & downs thru the old creek beds. Tread is 99% dirt, hardly anything on the tread. Turns are nicely radiused and never usually by suprise. Some of the dips are body swallowers in depth & distance. Access this website & open Utube window for ride video:

http://www.longcanetrails.com/4.html Trail Portfolio tab.

Its a different ride: high speed, dips & rollers coming out of them. Hard ride keeping up sort of. These trails are perhaps like Moab that you need to ride once in your life. I will say that you could spend more hours riding these trails than just Slickrock @ Moab. This is single track for mountain bikes only, no sharing. the expression trails built by mountain bikers for mountain bikers is shopworn. Dust it off, restore it to its naive charm and ride FATS and the old phrase is apt truly again.

Lot of cars in parking lot but hardly encountered any on trails. Its a social ride: we hammered for a bunch of minutes & would stop briefly for a conversation. Its like skiing with us providing the lift.

Saw Palmetto this far north:

Tomorrow are some of the old trails that are hand built & hardly ridden.

My mail did arrive @ Thomson on time but was rejected for insufficient address. Got to chase it down Monday. The tracking seems to send it to Atlanta. Lost in the USPS system.