My ride

Rainy Day Boredem

Rained all day today. That's just as well though- went out for 5 1/2 hrs. yesterday but only got in 4 1/2. My knee was killing me from where I smacked the stem last Sat. I had good rides all week, did some Muscle Tension intervals on Thur. Maybe those irritated it again. Whatever it is, rain poured all day so I got to rest up.

Did get a new digital camera for my fast approaching birthday (31 on Mar 2). That should help me get some decent pictures up here soon.

Managed to get a ton of stuff up on E Bay too so hopefully I'll have enough scratch to get to some big races this year. Best wishes for a sunny warm week coming up. Later-DH

New Stuff

Got some new stuff for my ride this week. There has been a Maverick SC32 fork hanging out for awhile up here at the Creek. There were some plans to produce fork cartridges for Maverick but the plan got scrapped. Sooo.. after alot of harrassing and bugging people I got the OK to "requisition" it. Install, build a wheel, and put on the new Kenda Small Block 8 tire and I was ready to roll. Did 3 hrs. yesterday at Bent Creek and am really diggin the fork. It took me awhile to get it set up right but once I did it was ON. I really like long travel. I have a KHS FS frame that will be here soon I hope because the hardtail is not going to cut it anymore. I can go faster now with that fork than my old Reba, fast enough to surpass the capabilities of my hardtail. That Small Block 8 tire rips too... I was trying hard to break it loose but it is very sticky. Anyways- hoping for a new frame soon- got a sweet rear shock waiting for it too. Later- DH

Winter

I hate winter. Did 2 hrs today in the most insane wind that I have ever ridden in. I had a hard time staying in my lane. Not holding my line, but staying in my lane and on the road. The best part of the ride was doing intervals up Terry's gap. Normally that would be the most dreaded part for me but it was great today. At least while I was doing the intervals I was suppose to be hurting. The temp. kept dropping and the wind picking up, then it started snowing on me. Tough day- completely blew apart at the seams about a mile from the end. Had to sit on a bench in the locker room for 1/2 an hour before I could manage to make it into the shower. Yep- I'm about done with winter now, thinking warm thoughts of Florida. Later- DH

Getting it dialed in

It's been so cold here lately that riding has been really tough. My saddle sores have saddle sores because I've been on the rollers so much. Not today though- It was sunny, dry, and 40+ degrees out and I was jonesin for a good offroad ride. Loaded the KHS into the Megavan and blasted up to DuPont. I was not dissapointed. It was dry everywhere and slightly tacky in the turns. You could really rip out there today. Hit the turn hot-drift ,and the tires would hook up just in time to exit the turn without loosing speed. It was the most fun I've had out there in a long time. This time of year I have a pretty strict heartrate ceiling but I couldn't help myself today. It's been too long since I rode on hardpack and I had to keep ratcheting up the intensity. I think I am finally getting close to a good setup on the KHS. Made a few adjustments today and it feels pretty darn good now. I installed a Cane Creek Thudbuster seatpost and returned to XC weeny world with a low stem, flat bar, and bar ends. Forgot how fast you can crank uphill with this setup. Got in a couple of hrs. today and it felt good; gonna go out for 4-5 more hrs. tomorrow and see it my body csn handle the position. Feels really fast now but if it ain't fast all day it don't do me no good. Got some cool pics today DH out.

Laurel Mountain Escapades

Well, it's been awhile since I posted and I promise to post more regularly in the future. Got in a great ride today. It was finally a nice day out so I bounced out of work a few minutes early to go ride. I decided to ride Laurel Mtn./ Pilot Rock today. I figured I could get to the top in about an hour, then do the downhill in the dark, lights were charged so I was ready to roll. I'm really glad I rode that trail today as it was in almost perfect condition. I was able to clean all but 2 spots on the way up, made it up 2 rock sections I have never made before. There were some pretty cool ice sections over some of the rock sections making it a bit interesting. Made it up the bottom third of the hike a bike before I had to walk, then rode from the second switchback of the hike a bike until the left turn to descend Pilot Rock. I was really stoked about that, there is some tough climbing there. As I was climbing I saw some of the coolest light I have ever seen here in Pisgah. The sky was still crystal clear blue with furrows of hot pink clouds. All of the light, which was rapidly fading was bright orange and bathed the ridges and treetops with a warm glow. Everything looked orange except the pink clouds streaking the sky above my head. It was the closest thing to alpenglow that I have seen on the east coast and was over all too soon.
Time to go downhill now so I turned on the light as it got pretty dark all of a sudden and I thought the downhill would be fairly suicidal if I didn't use the light. I haad never ridden Pilot Rock at night before and it turned out to be as much fun as I hoped it would. I actually had better lines than in the day and had no problem blasting through every section. Well, almost no problems- on one of the wide open fast sections, I didn't see a fallen tree trunk sticking out from the bushes about 12" high. Caught that sucker right on top of my ankle, it almost cleaned me off the bike- it hurt so bad. Luckily, it was so cold out that it soon went numb. Finished up the downhill with the worst part of the ride- the forest road back to Yellow Gap where the Megavan was stashed. That road was horrible- it is mostly downhill and you can run 20-30 mph almost the whole way-that is torure when it is only 30 degrees out. Got back to the van just before the onset of Hypothermia and Rally carred it down the road to home. Great ride confiming that Laurel Mtn. is my favorite ride around.