One Weekend/Two Rides

I considered myself lucky to be on the early train in BSC(backseat class) out of the Jar for Pisgah on Saturday morning. Dicky, Jerry and I were headed up to the Turkey Pen Trail parking area to meet Eric W., Sophie Dog(the strongest Enduro Dog in the East), Drew, the other Eric W., Bill Nye, Lance, Eric C., Mike, Mark and The Original Big Ring himself. Mark and the OBR were all the way here from Canada eh!

We rode down S. Mills out of the parking lot and across the bridge for Mullinax up to Squirrel Gap Trail. The air was prefect and the trail was dry. Eric pointed out to me the little pass that we went over where Squirrel changed from a wide long straight trail to a more narrow twisty mountain trail. I had no problems staying upright until in a fast inside left turn I was pulled down and to the left causing me to bail before I wound up broken in the bottoms. When I hit the dirt covered planet with a plump thud I felt like I had made contact with the molten center of our earth. Although I usually bounce when I crash, this one left my center body rung.

The rest of the ride was good and without any more scary crashes. On the way back across Squirrel we descended to the left on Laurel Creek which I do not ever remember riding. It was a fun downhill that led us to Bradley Creek. Eric was right, our feet got wet and so did our bodies all the way up to upper thigh high on us short guys. Bradley felt clear, clean and cold as it washed the dried dark dirt off of my legs from the mud pits up on Squirrel.

Something happened on this ride that was unusual for me. I did not take the little big Sony out of my pack and make a bunch of pictures. Sometimes there is just not a lot of time on the ride to be able to photographically convey the transfer. This was one of those occasions. However, I managed to pull it out on Bradley Creek and take a few snaps.

Jerry provided me with this digital re-representation of our Mountain Bike Ride on Saturday. Looks like 21 miles covered with over 3,000 feet of ascent or roughly the height of 4 Bank of America Corporate Centers stacked on top of each other.
Dicky leads us across Bradley on one of the many creek crossings that took us to the Squirrel up connector.

Looking good fellas....

What's left of the group outside the lunch place. Apparently Mustachios stick together and look out for each other in public situations. I witnessed a senior rather thick Mustachio without provocation pick up the lunch tab of the only other Mustachio(albeit a thin junior one) in the room. The Mustachio High Sign, it works, they take care of each other.

On Sunday Ms. Arcen and I rode from behind Bicycle Sport down Brandywine for the Greenway that took us to Freedom Park and on to its present end at Moorehead. It was interesting to watch her work in a bit of a crowd the closer we got to and in the park. She never missed a dirt side trail on the cruiser. We were out for a few hours before we made our way back to the car.

It was a great ride with my kid whose 11th Birthday is today. Here she is close to the CMC end of the Little Sugar Creek. Passing by someone was not a problem.

In the little neighborhood connector by Freedom.

Here she is about to cross a bridge.

On that bridge she looks small.

Ms. Arcen took the following set of me traversing an undulating rock nodule.

Setting up the line.

Perfectly up and on.

Across the gap from the little rock to the main one.

All torque from a complete dork.

Now for the transition off of the rock burble to the grass.

Look at my arms, do I need a license to be carrying those guns??

Ms. Arcen on the classic Charlotte climb: The Col de la Brandywine.

She handled it in fine form as we ended our Sunday ride up there on Selwyn.