Plume's ride and race blog

Sweet day! I've been battling a cold for the last week and I wasn't sure if I'd really get a great ride on the mountain bike today. I woke up and felt a lot better and started the phone tree and mtbr posting to see who would brave the "early" morning cold with me. Nate and Kris K (my coworkers) got on the horn and decided that Bent Creek would be the best bet. I don't think that any one really wanted to be in a car for very long today, myself included. After I got off the phone with those guys I checked MTBR and saw that Dave (Maida7) would be there as well and possibly a few others. Right after that Matt Johnson called me and informed me that himself and Jay Clinton would be there as well, this was shaping up for a BIG old group ride. I was psyched, I haven't done a big group ride like that in forever.

So let's see, in total we had 11 riders take off from Rice Pinnacle: Me, Nate, Kris, Tom, Liz, Matt, Jay, Dave, Gabe, Chris, and Dave 2, I think. Someone please correct me if I've gotten names wrong. I'm not so good at that.

Took off right down Wolf Branch where I ate it pretty hard on that small little log bridge. I usually nail it but I was going too slow and did the classic, "look where you DON'T want to go" lol. I hate crashing but I guess I'm ok at since the bike and myself was fine. Caught up to the hammer head who of course would string the group out a bit. All single track to the intersection on Inglels Field. Great place to take some pics of the great group we had.

Kris on his brand new Jamis XCR expert. He loves his new bike!

Roll Models crew representin'... Tom (on the left) came out to Pisgah this weekend from Raleigh, Nate's on the right with the BioWheels' super cool demo bike, the Cannondale Rush 3. Nate would later be jumping this bad boy on Green's Lick with style.

Dave, MJ, Chris, Tom and Kris K, waitin' 'n' restin... felt good to chill out a bit!

Just a beautiful day to be in Bent Creek!

This was most of the group, getting ready for the next climb up Ingles.

Matt let me go ahead of him and grind up the steep section on Ingles Field right before 5 points. Well, when you ride a singlespeed it's grind, sit, or get off and walk. ;) but, that's how I roll. We re-grouped at 5 points very briefly. It was windier and colder up there so we needed to keep crankin away. About half way up North Boundary Jay's brakes seized up a bit. Another well received excuse for stopping. Nate and Jay quickly fixed the problem and we made it to the top of Green's Lick in no time flat.

Another quick stop at the top. I borrowed a granola bar from Liz (thanks!) and slammed a bit of gel. I was feeling surprisingly good in the lungs but my legs weren't up to snuff for some reason (week off the bike will do that I guess). We all went down Green's Lick nicely. That trail has really grown on me and I especially like the top section with all the burms it's so fast and flowy there's little need for brakes if you hit all the burms right. I stopped at the last little kicker jump at the end and took some pictures of everyone coming off from it. Matt and Nate decided to do a quick session. I got a few nice shots of them both.

Gabe and Dave... Gabe likes to ride not only a single speed but a fixed single speed at that! He's insane. I had to give him props though, he rocked it down that gnarly downhill trail much faster than what was expected! Can you imagine riding GL without coasting? I can't! Smoke bikes was in the house today!

Liz spends most of her time on her road bike but she rocked it out today, nice job!

Matt gets some air on the kicker!

Nate's got a strong background in BMX, motocross, and dirt and urban riding... it shows! Blastin' off the kicker with the Cannodale Rush 3. Single pivots were meant to be jumped.

After Green's Lick we did the Explorer Alt loop back to Deerfield and eventually back to the cars.  I don't know the trail names there as well as I should, but they're all really fast and flowy, just what the good doctor ordered. The group split off at Deerfield because Jay's dog was MIA for a bit. Luckily he found her, and we all said our good byes at the parking lot. It was a great ride, I don't have a computer on my bike now but I'd guess it was right around 12 - 15 miles. But as you know it's not the mileage, it's saddle time that's important. Thanks to everyone who came out. I had a great time!