Heartbreak

Excellent day in the saddle, 29 miles, 7800ft of climbing (sounds high). Curtis and I met up at the now defunct shop and headed towards the mountains. We had been planning/wanting to do this ride now for a while. This would be two firsts for Curtis, first ride of Heartbreak and first ride on the new bike.

The whole ride out to Old Fort was rainy, cold, and foggy. I think both of us were kind of dreading starting in the rain, especially since it was probably in the mid thirties. Once we got to Curtis Creek, we got changed, and after shivering frantically started up Curtis Creek Road. Once we gained about 1000 feet of elevation we were above the fog and were greeted with some spectacular views.

After the nine mile sufferfest that is Curtis Creek we were greeted with an unexpected misery. Wind. Crazy wind. The Blue Ridge Parkway was apparently closed off to cars. The winds up there were unbeleiveable. There were a handful of times where we had to get off the bike to keep ourselves upright. I was actually pushed off the road at one point by a crosswind. Normally the ride on the parkway between CC and Heartbreak is a quick and (relatively) painless five miles. That five miles, though, probably took us nearly 45 minutes. We stopped off at a couple of the overlooks for the obligatory pose off and snack break.



After the hike-a-bike up to the top of Heartbreak Ridge, it was time for the pay off for all of the climbing. DESCENT. Down Heartbreak all the way to Star Gap, down Star Gap to Jarrets Creek Road. This ride has the ability to lull you into thinking that all the work is done once at the top of Heartbreak. There is still quite a bit of climbing to be had on JCR after star gap. This is one of those rides though that has you jonesing for more instantly afterwards.
Post ride poses

Tanglewood Cross Races

Myself along with some of the other Mafia members made our way to Tanglewood this afternoon to watch CLM members Chancey and Sirena race. Both did very well, Sirena was doing extremely well until a crash and dropped chain had her fall back a couple of spots.


Chancey looked like he was having a ton of fun while he was out there, at the end though, I snapped this photo


The pro race was excellent, Travis Livermon was able to pull off a victory by about 30 seconds...he was tearing it up. Alex did well too, especially considering he had two flats. A few of Travis and the field:




In the CX4 Race, CLM friend Kristin was racing and having a blast. He was rocking some beer in his jersey. He tried to do a hand off to Sirena, but ended up paying for it...



Dude is awesome, he handed off a beer to one of the other racers, but the dude handed it back. I wonder what the other guy thought?

Wilderness Experience?

So I knew that snow was coming, maybe. When I woke up here in the foothills it was raining, and didn't look like it was going to let up. Hmm, pack up the truck with Arwen and head to Mount Rogers for a hike in the cold? Um, yes!



12 degrees...ouch. Plus with the wind, that you can hear in the video below, made for a frigid hike.

Mount Rogers from Barry Stevenson on Vimeo.

We started off up the AT towards Mount Rogers, but the wind was howling. If you've never been to this area, for the most part, above 4500 feet near Mt. Rogers, there are very little unexposed places. Most of the area is kept in check by the grazing ponies. It gets crazy windy up here because of the exposure. I felt bad for Arwen because she kept leaning into the wind and shaking her head. I think it may have been burning her eyes. So we turned around and headed down into the woods (respite from the wind) and decided on the Elk Garden trail.

Down the Elk Garden trail for a while, double back and onto the AT again, just in the opposite direction. After hiking here for a little while, we turned back towards the truck. I dropped her off at the truck because I wanted to go up in elevation some more. The wind was crazy, some parts of the trail were nearly bare of snow, but some were knee deep from the drifts. I only saw one other out today, he was much like myself...well bundled. I figured that I wouldn't see a soul, so that was pretty cool!
I snapped this picture of the only other hiker I saw today.


Self-Portrait, enjoying the snow.





I'll have some more photos to upload, I may even make a slideshow, but for now, I'm gonna go get a shower and some coffee, hooray!

Update

Well, sorry for the slow blogging as of late. I was in Ohio for the holiday weekend relaxing with the in-laws. We had a bit of the white stuff while I was there. It was kind of nice as a change of pace to get to see some snow. I wasn't able to take the bike along, so I made do with a run around the neighborhood with Lisa one morning.


Tonight, while shaving, I made a rookie mistake...too fast around the ankles, gotta watch the bony parts!

Great Vid

Reminds me of some people I've ridden with

City Loop Night Ride

Chancey and Sirena met me to do an old school city loop through Winston tonight. We had some closer than what is normally comfortable encounters with cars on Peace Haven. Once we got to the West End, however, things chilled out a bit, and there were significantly less cars. We climbed Summit street (me likie) and headed down Fourth to Runnymeade. Back onto Country Club and we were spotted by another CLM member. We rocked it on CC, back to the elementary. We had a little pose off...


After hanging out at my truck for a couple minutes, Rob, the aforementioned CLM member, pulled in and hung out for a few. Plans were made for another ride on Turkey Day...too bad I'll be enjoying the (possibility) snow in Ohio!

Thanks Chancey and Sirena for riding tonight, much fun!

Hanging Rock

CLM members Mitch, Rob, Duane, Curtis, Erich and myself all wanted to do a nice longer ride yesterday to one of the local mountains. We opted for Hanging Rock since last week we (myself and Mitch unincluded) hit Sauratown. The round trip is about 50 or so miles from my place with about 3500 or so feet of climbing. The day was a little chilly, but it was beautiful! It's amazing to me that it is the week before thanksgiving and its still in the 60's and we have Petunias still blooming. It's a far cry from Ohio! Anyways, onto the pictures...

The crew with a couple of tag-a-longs on the back on Moore's Springs Road


Curtis and I coming upon a little fawn. We were hoping it wouldn't come out in front of us on our way back down going 40+ mph.


Curtis cheesing at the top of the climb

The lake at the top of the road



Regrouping before route 66. The ride back was foreboding after climbing Hanging Rock then Moore's Springs