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Saturday I met Zach and Dennis for a ride and the craziest thing happened: Zach proposed a route and we actually finished it. After 35 miles in 5 hours we were standing at Buckhorn Gap for the second time of the day and while Dennis had to head straight down the road due to a prior engagement Zach and I turned left and pushed over Clawhammer and Black Mountains and finished the ride in style.
Our route was:
276 > 477 > Club Gap > Avery Creek > Buckhorn Gap > Clawhammer > Buckhorn Gap > South Mills River > 479 > 5017 > Horse Cove Gap > Squirrel Gap > South Mills River > Buckhorn Gap > Black Mtn. > Thrift Cove > Sycamore Cove
Good for 40 miles and 10,000' climbing. With the Double Dare back and Dennis and Toby both unable to race it looks like the wndc will be bringing a new team to the podium. That's right, I'll be racing with the one and only Broussard. This ride served as a little warm up for what is bound to be a good early fall of big riding in these mountains.
I found another one of the mysterious blue notes. This time they gave me a little more info, I now know who they are but still not where, why or how. And I'm worried about Matt.
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Obligatory:
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When we got back to the parking lot, right on schedule, there was a nice cold surprise waiting for each of us in the bed of my truck. Thanks Dennis!
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Sunday I had to go to Pisgah Forest for work and just happened to take the dog and running shoes with me so I headed into Pisgah to do my little Art Loeb > Connector > North Slope loop but when I got to the turn it had only been 45 minutes and I wasn't ready to stop climbing yet so we kept on running. At first I was just going to go as far as Horse Cove Rd. but that came too easy and fast so I ran across and kept going up the Art Loeb. There are less than five miles of trail in Pisgah I am yet to do and the Art Loeb from Horse Cove Rd. to Cat Gap is one of them so we were running on virgin ground. I wasn't planning going that far so I didn't bother to glance at a map before I left the house and I couldn't quite remember how far it was and more importantly where we could get water but we kept going up anyway. After a full hour and a quarter of running uphill the trail just kept getting steeper and steeper and I was reduced to walking with the top of Chestnut Knob in sight. We were so close but I just didn't have it in me. It was 2pm and we had been running on an exposed ridge line in 90 degree heat and needed to find water fast. Without a map to locate water pushing on to Cat Gap seemed like a risk so we turned around and high pawed it back down to the North Slope Connector where I knew there would be water. I now see that we could have gotten water just down Horse Cove Rd. a little ways or at King Creek near Cat Gap. Water, so basic yet so vital. The life blood of the forest.
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Less than 10 miles but more than 3200' climbing! Duma is starting to be an impressive running dog. This was a hard run with a big climb to start and he didn't start to slow until I did. He cracked on the downhill but was able to recover and run through it just as soon as the trail leveled out a little. That's my boy!
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