Parkway!

First, bike to work day, yesterday I was able to convince a fellow teacher to ride in with me, evidence below


The "comfort station" at Cumberland Knob in the fog.


Erich, Chancey, Sirena, Lori and I decided to do a nice climby-type ride on the Parkway this morning. We met up at the olde shoppe and made our way to Cumberland Konb. As we got closer to the mountains, the skies got darker, and a thick blanket of fog was draped over the landscape. The flora was brilliantly green after having received rain over the last day or so...amazing. On top of the green, the Laurel and some of the Rhododendron was blooming as well. At the beginning of the ride, things were a bit dicey as far as weather goes.

The paceline at the beginning.


Along the way, we spotted a Mitch in it's natural habitat. (insert Australian accent here, along with a "crikey")

I had gotten new brakes, which was great, but the braking surface on carbon rims, when wet is nearly worthless. On every descent I would hang off the back so as not to run my fat butt into the back of the other riders. Things broke up a bit when the big climbs started as we got closer to Doughton Park, and E and I found ourselves working together on the longest of the aforementioned climbs.

Erich egging me on




Working.

We arrived at the store and restaurant and hung out for a bit til we regrouped. We chatted it up about some other big ride possibilities on the Parkway, possibly riding north from Meadows of Dan. Boone to Asheville. And many others

The bike taking a break at the store.


On the way back we knew that there was going to be more descending than climbing because we were almost a thousand feet above Cumberland, so things were looking good. Things got blown apart again...and then again, and I found myself in no man's land trying to catch Erich. I swear I could hear his thoughts. We were seperated by about 150 or so meters and I couldn't do anything to really pull him back in. He kept looking back over his shoulder as if to say, "Dude, get your sorry butt up here." No dice, no closing power. Then, on top of that, Chancey came rushing up to me, and I anounced my inability to catch E, so he took off around me trying to catch him alone. E was the driving force of the day. As London would say, he was the, "dominant primordial beast." We all arrived back at Cumberland within just a few minutes of each other, everyone was riding extremely strong today!

Sirena finishing strong!