She had to run an errand into town so we ate at DT's cafe, which has about the best sausage egg and cheese bagel in the history of mankind. I also partook of a shot in the dark (double espresso shot in a cup of dark coffee) and had the jitters, which would help with the ride that I was planning. After breakfast, I got changed into the riding attire (read: hot pants and muscle shirt (muscle, really?)). The planned route had me on gravel for about the first 8 or so miles. The first three or four were relatively tame following the Toe River, but miles 5-8 pitched up pretty decently towards the Parkway. Gravel grinding
A stream dumping into the Toe
Parkway in sight.
Once on the parkway, the climbing continued, and continued...and continued. I ran into a guy on a touring bike that had started with a friend at mile 0 in Virginia on Sunday. They were rocking days of 50-80 miles and were shooting to be at the terminus on Sunday, 7 days of riding and camping sounds pretty excellent. While he and I were chatting, two other cyclists came up on us, so I hopped in with them.
The remainder of the climb would be spent with these two guys. They had started early in the morning and were riding from Boone to Asheville today, then back tomorrow. I think I found my next adventurous road ride....mafia members, anyone....Bueller? The climb tops out at nearly the summit of Mt. Mitchell almost 6600 feet above sea level.
My ride started at 2400 feet. Once the climb started it was 13 miles and 4200 feet, the parkway and 128 (the road up to the summit) were relatively tame, but the gravel at the beginning was pretty taxing.
After refilling the bottles (thanks Victor) we took off back down to the parkway. Four miles straight of 40+ mph descending was exhilirating. Once back to the parkway, we said our goodbyes; them continuing on south, myself back towards the gravel road. Now, continuing my descent on the gravel, this was probably the sketchiest/hardest part of the ride. Everytime I started to feel comfortable enough to let off the brakes and break the 20-25mph barrier I would hit a section of loose gravel and feel like I was doing some Dukes of Hazzard moves, but I didn't want to take forever on the downhill so I kept scaring myself. It was a reeeediculous amount of fun though. I made it back into the valley and then back to the truck to load back up and meet up with Lisa after she got out of work. A celebratory pizza and cake for her birthday (early birthday, it's Friday). Man, I love being in the mountains. Ride stats, about 40-42 miles and 5500 to 6000 feet of climbing.
Dusty, abused bike
No comments:
Post a Comment