I started out up the highway and when I got to my first turn there were these signs showing me the way:
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3422.jpg)
But I hadn't really looked at the map and didn't know the names of the trails or roads I was headed for. My gps was telling me that both right and left were wrong and that I was supposed to go straight. So I poked around for a second and found an old gated road that headed straight up the mountain and looked a lot more like a trail than a road. This was a big climbed and quickly turned into a hike a bike.
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3423.jpg)
After a few thousand vertical feet the road spit me out close to Hurricane Gap and my gps told me to go left down FR422. This road was a big question to me on the map. It was one of those broken lines that means unimproved road and could be much more like a trail than a road but as it turned out it was very much a road, one that is heavily used by 4x4's at that. Lots of big, deep mud puddles that made riding it all impossible.
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3425.jpg)
At one point a bobcat ran in front of me for a few hundred yards and there were signs of other wildlife.
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3424.jpg)
When it finally ended I wasn't sorry to be done with it and headed right back for Hurricane Gap.
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3427.jpg)
A quick detour up to the top of Rich Mtn. to take in the view:
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3436.jpg)
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3428.jpg)
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3434.jpg)
And then back down the road for a little lollipop section across Golden Ridge.
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3437.jpg)
It started out as a grassy road and on the map looks like a road so down the road I went. I followed the gps the best I could but as I was trying to make my way to the next waypoint the road dead ended. Hmmn, that can't be right. So I backtrack and find another old road off to the left. Okay, this has to be it! But no, it dead ended as well. So, I said screw it and decided to hightail it back down the mountain to the party. But on my way back out I found a trail sign tucked just off the road and a little piece of sweet looking single track turning up the hill 180 degrees from the road. This must be it!
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3438.jpg)
It started out as a really nice bit of single track. It was tight and climbed steadily with some fun switchbacks and I was feeling really good about riding this Golden Ridge.
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3439.jpg)
But as I got to the top it became very overgrown very fast. Riding was impossible and getting a bicycle through it was downright difficult. I've done some hard bushwhacks before but not in the summer and not through this much thorny growth. After a half hour or so of trying to push my way through it I turned around and went back the way I came, completely defeated.
There is a bike in there somewhere:
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3441.jpg)
I finished by going down the same gated road I had come up at the start of the day which was a really fast and fun downhill. The ride came in at 40 miles with 10k of climbing and was one of the best I have had in awhile.
Back at camp it was just one more Saturday night, wndc style!
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3443.jpg)
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3449.jpg)
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3455.jpg)
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3458.jpg)
7am comes early when the nights run late but nothing is better than getting up before anyone else and getting on a bike, even if everything is still a little hazy from the night before.
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3477.jpg)
Back up the Rich Mtn. tower via a ten mile gravel climb. It's okay, Jonathon I was walking the same stretch the day before.
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3483.jpg)
Carolina in the morning!
![Photobucket](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y130/sandbead/DSCF3486.jpg)
Too much fun, all weekend long! I can't wait to do it again!
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