China Creek

Distance (mi )25.39
Moving Speed (mph)8.7 avg. 35.1 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)+3,597 / -3,370

Curtis, Alex, and I had all been trying to plan a longish ride for like a month now and were finally able to make it out. On the way to Boone, it dumped rain the entire time. We made one pit stop along the way to get some coffee and cookies at Stick Boy Bread Company (Magic Cookies are magical). Alex exhibited his ADD combined with cookies and caffiene and uttered these three things within about 3 seconds, "I've gotta take a dump, wow, I think I have a cavity, that's a nice car." No pauses for breath, nothing.... Anyways, once we got to Alex's apartment, we hemmed and hawed around trying to decide what to do. Finally we got changed, took, off and were drenched within about half a millisecond....so we stopped in at Boone Bike and Touring. We licked our proverbial wounds, hung out, and decided to just man up and go ride. A short climb out of town led us to the top of China Creek. The trail basically follows along its namesake for its entirety. Much beauty abound! The day was incredibly foggy, slick, and colder than we had anticipated...but proved to make it more fun.

First shot of the day, Alex in a Rhodo tunnel

Evidence of the foggy, humid conditions

After taking a couple more overexposed shots, we headed further on the trail. After stating, "This trail is a blast, it's rocky," Alex responded, "Just wait." Within a few minutes Curtis had a flat. He pressed into service a road bike tube he had, instead of using my tube. It lasted about 30 seconds, we pulled the tube from the tire, and it looked like sausage links. Apparently we received a batch of unruly tubes, so we replaced it with my tube, and headed out.We crossed China Creek quite a few times on the upper portion of the trail. Alex got another opportunity to interject, "Just wait," when Curtis or I commented on the creek crossings. Once we got to the lower portion of the trail, the creek crossings grew in depth and width each time. At the top, they were only about 4 feet wide and maybe ankle deep. By the bottom, they were knee deep and about 25 feet across, with some gnarly current.

Alex having some fun at one of the big blowdowns

Once we popped out at the bottom of the trail onto Globe road, it was time for a nice ascent in the gravel, through the clouds. The climb went by pretty quickly, and soon enough we were back to civilization in Blowing Rock. We rode through Blowing Rock, around App Ski Mountain, back to our original route, and back to Alex's apartment. A quick change and a meal at Black Cat, and we were on our way back to the shop...a great trail, great company, and a great day!

A few more photos

I'm doing my best to not look like a complete incompetent fool here, but alas, this is what the photo captures....