save the trails

Save the trails moved a day - to the tune of MUCH DISCUSSION - and we were all the better for it. Dupont can take a good rain, but a solid week of rain is pushing the limit. Pisgah Area Sorba hosted the event and had marked three courses @ 15, 25, and 45 miles. I took the 45 mile option with Randy, Randy, Patrick, and Wes to use as a long ride for PMBAR training.

These pics show why it's good to have a single speed on a wet day in the woods. No mechanicals related to the mud...

PMBAR Attitude II

And now, a part of the continuing saga of getting a PMBAR attitude.



Somehow the group ride ended up KING SIZED. Big fun though as there was a whole crowd from the Atlanta area up in Pisgah and some locals I didn't know as well to make a group of 12 or so. Started from the Hatchery, debated the route after we started and decided on: up Cove Creek, 229, Daniel Ridge (CCW), 477, 5095, Long Branch, Cemetery, Gloucester. There the main body of the group went 471 to Butter and back to the Hatchery via Cat Gap.

The hard core fools took me up on my plan to ride 5003 (Panther Branch), 140A, 5031 (Kissee), 140. The original plan was to hit Summey Cove but a rash of flats on Kissee ended that, and a massive hunger outbreak took the group home via 140A and from Gloucester straight down 477 to the Hatchery. Still managed 35 miles and 4.5k of climb.

I love Kissee, here's a bog Theo and I found back in December while riding together. Upland bogs are actually rather rare. This one is from a spring coming up out of the ground in a small depression. It makes numerous pools before going underground and emerging on the other side of the old roadbed. There's a cool rock outcropping here too.

Land of Bikes

A recent business trip took me to Germany and the Netherlands. Germany during the week and to a friends family home for the weekend in Enschede, Netherlands. The bike is a huge part of their culture, you see every age riding in any/every condition. The weekend market fills the square, and there are thousands and thousands of bikes.... this is just some of the above ground parking, there is a whole underground bike garage which has even more bikes than you see on the street.


Netherlands Bikes from Zeb Ridn29s on Vimeo.

The markets are great too, so much variety and plenty of cheese!


And of course, plenty of flowers...

TMHTE @ Farlow

The MoonPie rises! Long live the MoonPie! Not just any MoonPie will suffice to be the official snack food @ Farlow Gap on night one of The Most Horrible Thing Ever (TMHTE) only the ones with Stardust Sprinkles will do. So I volunteered to mind the gap, this one not this one , and provide a small bit of civilized contact for the racers after they finished a post-midnight push UP Farlow Gap - which happens to be one of the steepest trails in Pisgah and is usually ridden DOWN in the daylight.

Theo and I headed out to Farlow early in the day to get everything setup. Here's Theo sampling the snacks (quality control you know) before the sunset.

We had a great time hanging out at the fire and chatting up the racers as they passed. A few stopped and partook of the snacks while many opted for the to go option and we stuffed a few pies in their packs for the ride down Kissee Creek to Courthouse Falls. All in all it was worth the effort to get everything packed in and packed out. We were really lucky with the weather, just a few days earlier this is what it looked like on the trail @ Farlow.
It was about 25F when this picture was taken, during our night out it stayed above freezing the whole night.