Day 1 - Asheville NC annual road trip #4

The OBR and I headed off south this past weekend for our fourth annual trip to ride Bent Creek, Pisgah, Dupont and whatever else we could jam in.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll let the photos tell the bulk of the story with captions for context.


Last Wednesday we departed a bright sunny Ottawa for a brighter and sunnier Asheville.   Spriits, expectations and anticipations were high.   It's easy to be cheerful and energetic when yer still only 1hr into a 16hr drive..

Several hours later, it's still fun. Playing with the camera to kill time.









Upon arriving, little time was wasted chucking gear into the hotel room and off we went to Bent Creek with the mandatory stop at Liberty Bikes to say hey to the guys there and of course a stop via Starbucks.  (driving through the night and riding on ~1hr seatbelt-dance-sleep requires heavy artillery on the amphetimine front)

Craig climbing out of Inglesfield gap towards Greens lick.  The climb up to Inglesfield gap from the lower lot was a hard warm up.  real hard.  Like banging the needle off puking hard.    The link from Inglesfields gap to Greens lick was a tamer grade thankfully and provided this setting.

 

Greens lick was the first destination 'down'.  We took it pretty easy on the descent with having brought very xc oriented equipment this time around.  Rollers were pumped, berms were railed, but for the most the wheels stayed on the ground. Still lots of fun though.  Greens lick is one of those great trail sections where a novice could have a great time and the big bike guys can pop 10ft of air under their wheels.  ..just add speed and intent.

 At the bottom we dropped down a bit further then climbed back up a bit to jump onto Lower Sidehill for some moderately fast sweeping benchcut riding.

That was about all we had in us for day one.  Next stop Salsas' on Patton Ave. for some mexi-caribbean fusion.  My very favouritest restaurant in Asheville. Yum!!