South Mills River 4-22-07
I decided for an easier loop today. Easy pace. Solo, no racin', just cruisin', really great day for that...
Parked at Yellow Gap
Headed west on Yellow Gap Rd, aka 1206
1206 to 476
476 turns into South Mills River
South Mills to Squirell Gap
Squirell Gap to Laurel Creek
Laurel Creek to Bradley Creek
Bradley Creek to 5015
5015 back to Yellow Gap
Right in at 25 miles, a great half day ride and one I plan on doing often (with variation of course).
My bike @ the junction.
Squirrel Gap... This ride is great because you get to ride one of the best trails in Pisgah from start to finish. This is classic Pisgah single track here...
The sunshine was making me giddy... :)
I ran into a ton of bikers out today, easily the most I've ever seen in Pisgah in one time outside a race or BC. Pretty cool, most folks were friendly and I exchanged quick trail condition reports as all the riders were heading in the opposite direction.
The ride starts out with a fair amount of dirt road, it's an ok warm up and once you get on single track you're ready for it. This section of S. Mills is fun, it's pretty fast and flowy but there's a share of rocks to keep you on your toes. I made a wrong turn right before Buckhorn Gap that had me following a goat trail pretty quick... opps. Got back on track and headed towards Squirrel. I met quite a few hikers and equestrians on S. Mills. Once I got to the junction of Squirell and S. Mills I stopped for lunch. Took my time with it and soaked in the sun. Made some use of my camera, this is one of my favorite places to hang out, that bridge is so cool.
Got headed up Squirrel and at this point I wasn't sure if I had made a good decision with my route or not. I had been [i]down[/i] this part before but it had been since October and I knew there was a fair amount of climbing. Luckily there was basically no need to get off the bike except for the occaisonal downed tree, ok there was more than the occaisonal downed tree, there's a lot right now. Squirel kinda kicked my butt. I don't know what it was, the crazy amount of leaves hiding all the logs/roots/rocks/deathtraps or the fact that I wasn't totally focused (haha) but I managed to crash about 3 times on this trail. That's more than I usually like to crash in a month. I took a nasty digger right towards the end where some rock armoring has occurred (PAS, I presume... great job I might add) unfortunately leaves were covering a loamy section followed immediately by a big ole rock.. I found the softer ground and rock pretty quickly as I managed to go flying OTB! lol, I was fine but decided it best to slow it down. No sense in breaking a leg while solo.
Finally got to Laurel Creek trail. I had remembered this trail from my first attempts at conquering the Turkey Pen area, the thing is that I got to go DOWN it this time, what fun! Laurel cuts into some pretty nifty tight and twisty single track, it's get really narrow in some spots. Found my way to the Bradley Creek trail and after getting my feet wet in the creek crossing I quickly found the beginning of 5015 that would teleport me back to the car. I thought of the riders I had just met talking about going UP Pilot Rock and DOWN Laurel - I told them it didn't sound like much fun, but they seemed to think otherwise. Hey to each his own! Luckily I can say I've climbed up Pilot before and I flashed back to a really cool ride back in October with Pisgah Productions and Tomatoe... ah the memories.
