Pilot...mmm.

Much fun was had on the CLM ride on Saturday. The route snaked from my place up to Pilot with a extra climby route on the way back. Mitch, Scott, Brad, Erich, and Chris all joined powers in a Captain Planet-esque venture. It was Chris' first time to take on the monster that is Pilot, and he fared well, made it to the stop without any obligatory first time stops. After we made it to the top the group split up a bit with Scott and Brad taking off with Jay from Mock Orange to tear it up on the way back. The rest of us mere mortals stayed behind for a different route. We opted to go Pinnacle Hotel, Shoals, Stony Ridge on the way back. The extra suffering on these roads was a new experience for the guys. Aside from Stony Ridge, the guys had never been on any of this part of the route. The total route was about 42 miles, with probably about 4k feet of climbing 1300 of which came all at once over about 2 miles up Pilot. This was a good warm up for a few of the CLM as we will be heading to Tennessee for the Roan Groan in June. The race ends with a pack shattering 8 mile climb with an average grade of 7%. Sounds fun!

Beast in Sight


Entrance


suffering


Cloudy at the top

Pose off

Chris summiting

Mitch and E "warming the tires"

Mitch Refueling

Bottle matched the bike

Heading home