Monday, December 19, 2011

Discovering the Forest

Saturday's ride was good but it had a lot of hiking. Normally I'm fine with walking next to my bike but with a bad foot it did me in. It isn't often I get to ride Graveyard Ridge, Ivestor Gap, Flat Laurel Creek and Summey Cove though so I'm not complaining in the least.

We had a group of five show up at the Fish Hatchery and took off for Black Balsam. The route quite simply kicked ass. Everyone who missed this ride missed one of the best rides of the year. It was almost as much of a hike as a mountain bike ride but the weather was unusually warm for this time of the year and we took in some amazing scenery on trails that mountain bikers normally do not get to enjoy.

At the start here was a 12 mile climb which was punctuated by two mandatory hike-a-bikes but accented by wide open views from above 5000'. Somewhere along the way I managed to flat while carrying my bike. No clue how that happened. Once we could finally ride again we were treated with the always wet, and rarely used by mountain bikers, Graveyard Ridge.

The whole stretch of Graveyard Ridge > Ivestor Gap > Flat Laurel Creek was pure gravy. Then we had a 5 mile 45mph roadie downhill on highway 215 that ended by slamming right into a hike-a-bike up Summey Cove. Wash it all down with a nice dose of Longbranch > Cat Gap and everyone was happy.

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After doing so much hiking on Saturday I could hardly walk on Sunday so I took the dog out to a few of the last little pieces of Pisgah I have left to explore. Starting from the Pink Beds we hobbled our way around Forest Discovery trail and Biltmore Campus trail.

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Forest Discovery was surprisingly long and hard (thanks to the foot) but still fun. We took it slow and read all the signs and enjoyed having this ribbon of asphalt all to ourselves.

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I've heard rumors of abandoned train engines in the forest before and finally found one!

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The history was great and I learned quite a bit. It was fun imagining what it was like a hundred years ago and marveling at how the forest has changed.

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Biltmore Campus was thankfully much shorter and had all the old buildings to look at. I'll have to go back when it is open so I can see inside the buildings!

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