Adventures in Pisgah: Blog Worthy

Tuesday I headed out to Jone's Gap to walk the dogs with Jonathon. We headed up to the overlook and for some moronic reason we decided to run the last two thirds of the loop. I don't run and it hurt. We headed up in a thick steamy fog and by the time we made it to the overlook it was raining below us.

All that running meant that I was hurting all day Wednesday and was looking for any excuse to skip the wndc ride and the rain seemed like the perfect scapegoat. It rained all day and then around 4:30 the clouds opened slightly and I grabbed the bike instead of the dog and headed for Dupont. For the last Wednesday of Summer we decided it was time to do an actual night ride so we all came armed with lights.

As if that wasn't special enough this was to be Broussard's first ride since graduating up to Big Boy Wheels:

He'd built it up the night before and did an amazing job. This reminds me I need to check my fork's seals:

He'd built the wheels up himself as well so that meant we had no choice but to go down Joanna. The larger wheels made him so fast I was barely able to get him on film:

After putzing around on Joanna for awhile it was decided that we should cross the river so off we went for Pine Tree. Climbing up Sheep mtn. I was giving it all I had and was reminded of the foolish trail run the night before and Laurel > Pilot on Monday. It felt like my thighs were bleeding. Too much fun.

We turned on our lights at the top of Pine Tree ('safety first') and set off on a B double E double R U N. I was immediatly spun out and everyone else took off ahead of me. Oh, well. My legs were toast and though I saw there lights always one switchback in front of me on the way up Pine Tree I was never able to reel them in. I made the turn onto Longside and then stopped seeing lights in front of me. I figured they had headed back and just ekpt going. When I crossed the river I noticed that there weren't any tracks across the rocks and realized they had probably headed over towards the quarry. I headed out Corn Mill to Laurel Ridge and was thinking it was just me and the salamanders: