Plume's ride and race blog

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.

Sorry it's been so long since my last update, pretty lame of me. I have been sick for the better part of 2 weeks so riding has taken an unfortunate back seat. I raced the Knobscorcher a couple weekends ago with poor results. It's to be expected when you don't feel well I suppose. The singlespeed class has proven to be very competitive. I ended up in 11th place out of 17 riders, not at all what I had hoped for. I think if I was feeling 100% I could have gotten 5th or 6th. No matter.

The extra wet race conditions at Tsali left all our bikes in need of dire repair. My HeadShok especially was feeling really crappy and it was apparent that I needed to rebuild it. This was a learning experience for me but it went surprisingly well and now it feels pretty OK. I had ordered some nice new wheels from Mavic - the CrossMax STs, a new wheel for the '07 line they're a little burlier than the SLs or SLRs. They're wonderful. This is my first really nice wheel set and it's the first time I've been able to run a UST set up, what a difference! Here's the newly rebuilt 1FG, there's not much stock on it anymore...

Optimo 1FG frame

DLR HeadShok

WTB Laser Saddle

Oury Lock on grips

FSA Riser Bar (wide)

Avid Speed Dial SL Levers

Avid BB7 brake set

Thompson offset seat post

Cannondale stem

XT Cranks with a 33t generic ring

Sram 9 spd chain

20t Endless Kick Ass Cog for silent drive train

Mavic CrossMax ST wheel set

Scott Stroke 2.3 UST tire - front

Continental Survival 2.1 Kevlar - rear

I have to say I'm very impressed with all the new stuff on the bike. The Mavics truly shine and it's such a night and day difference compared to the old Cannondale Hub wheels I had. I'm not thrilled with the Avid brake levers, for what they retail for, nearly 70 dollars they really aren't any better than the stock Cannondale levers I had. I need to find a quality mechancial brake lever, I may even switch to a Shimano hydraulic system eventually. This is a pretty racey single speed now. I'm looking forward to doing some long rides and endurance racing on it.  It's not ultra light by any means at just over 23 lbs, but for the riding we do here I'm not sure I want something ultra light weight.  Plus, I've lost a lot of rotational weight which is key.

I also have some good reviews on some accesories I picked up recently as well. I've been struggling with a choice for eyewear when traveling off road. I need Rx glasses and I've been using some very expensive Rudy Projects with Rx inserts, the problem is that they fog up very easily when ever I would stop, or even when I was doing some harder climbing, not good. I needed to go with a direct fit type of lens system and I finally got them. I opted for a Tifosi product and spent a fraction of what I paid for my Rudys, so far they're great and don't hold fog like the Rudy's. They're also slightly more fashionable plus they're lighter and don't slide off my nose like my heavier Rudy's did. The Rudys are now my full time sun glasses and they're fine for road riding. I've been needing an "all day" camel bak for awhile now and I finally got the HAWG, (holds a lot of water and gear), it's great. It's actually even more comfortable than my old smaller camel bak. Other little things include finally switching to lock on grips and a new Halo sweat band for keeping sweat out of the eyes - they both work great. Ok... so not so long til my next entry, I promise.