Wednesday, May 30, 2007

One And A Half Rides

Memorial Day weekend was comprised mostly of friends and family. I did however get a couple rides in.

Friday morning I took off at 6:30AM headed for the single track. As I was pulling into the parking lot I got a call from Cass informing me that she had a townie for me to buy.

I was so excited about the new bike that I jumped out of my car, changed my flat in the front tire and took off down the trail. About twenty minutes later I got into the front brake real hard and felt a little squish in the front tire. Crap, I thought I had pinch flatted the front but I pulled the tire off and realized I had another thorn in my front tire. I pulled out my last tube and aired it back up and hoped for the best.

I felt decent on the trail but I don’t know how people can drive all day and try and race the next. The eight hours in the car before combined with five hours of sleep wasn’t helping my climbing legs.

The Canal Trail in LBL is something else. It is super fast single track for 11 miles. Nice and rolling in the beginning and then some grunting climbs in the end. If you do the loop counter clockwise that is.

The loop runs next to the lake about 80% of the time, so you can hear the fishermen chatting and the ski boats whizzing out on the water.

I wanted to get two laps in but time just wouldn’t allow it.

Later in the weekend I found some fun gravel roads around the house. I scared a little fawn up and over part of the road and then two turkeys hiding in the long grass almost gave me a heart attack when they went squabbling out of the grass.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Long time reader, first time poster... The canal loop always reminds me of a "mini-Tsali" counter clockwise, fun and flowy with good carving turns.

Try the North/South out and back 64 miler when you get the chance. I find it best to start on the South side (golden pond) and ride to the North welcome center to refill water). Great epic. Totally different vibe than the canal loop.

Being in Nashville, LBL is the closest drive to some Pisgah-esque epics for us. Monteagle TN has some nice rocky trails as well.

ExtrmTao said...

Thad,

I feel as though my LBL experience isn't quite complete since I have never completed the North/South trail. I don't normally have that much "biking" time while I am there.

I am going to try and pound it out sometime this summer hopefully. Maybe you and your crew can join me.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely. The only thing I have planned this summer so far is ORAMM, so pretty much any weekend is open.

J5Marsupial at gmail dot com

Asheville Soda Works said...

Yo, you flat more than anyone I know. Two things to consider, stop aiming for glass, thorns or other sharp objects. 2, tubeless, a little juice to fill these small leaks. Or you can consider just running rims to save on rolling resistance and tubes. stick